Imagine a bustling southern city street in the 1860s. To your left and right you see blacks and whites busy working. To one side you see a young elite white girl. Trailing behind her is one of her slaves, an African American woman. You pass a barber’s shop and see a free black barber cutting a white man’s hair. In a factory not far from where you stand, are black slaves hard at work. In another part of the city, there is a slave market where slaves are chained together and several young African American mothers are crying as they are separated from their children. You are in antebellum Richmond.
Fast forward to the 1870s. The Civil War has ended. More and more African Americans are moving to the city of Richmond, while many whites are moving to the suburbs. Racial tensions are still high, but for the first time African Americans can marry, choose their own jobs, and have families without fear, thanks to emancipation. This is an era in which Richmond gave birth to many famous African Americans like Maggie Walker. Emancipation freed the slaves and Richmond entered the era of reconstruction.
This website will examine some of the living conditions, jobs, economics, and social situations, health, and family of African Americans during the decade before and decade after the Civil War.