Slavery in Virginia

An out-of-the-way wildlife haven with a rich and storied past of harboring thousands of fugitive slaves, or "Maroons" during the mid 1800s.

This estate on the banks of the James River was home to a Founding Father, two presidents, a famous bugle melody, and what some say was the actual first Thanksgiving.

Remnants of a wall built to separate Black residents of Hall's Hill from a newly built subdivision are a grim reminder of segregation in 20th-century Virginia.

Once the largest trading firm of enslaved people in the U.S., this building is now a museum that preserves Alexandria's dark past.

This tree is a living witness to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

The largest cemetery for enslaved people in Loudoun County was almost lost to history, if not for the research of a minister.

Rowdy rebels fortified this home during the first popular uprising in United States history.

Hear, smell, see, taste, and touch history at this immersive Civil War hospital.

Born a slave on the Arlington estate, Parks dug the first graves at Arlington National Cemetery, and was buried there, too.

The graveyard holding the remains of George Washington's slaves was forgotten for nearly 200 years.

An overgrown garden stands as a grim marker of an unrealized dream.

An eight-sided home built during a brief octagon craze in the 1850s.

This once-palatial plantation may have been the site where a draft of the Declaration of Independence was written.

This campus chapel is Robert E. Lee's final resting place and a topic of debate about the legacy of the Civil War.

The final resting place of two (or three) presidents, one vampire, and 18,000 Confederate soldiers.

America's first public mental health facility.