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Fredericksburg (VA) Free Lance-Star
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Aquia Landing marked
Stafford officials celebrate county's role in the Civil War and slaves' route to freedom
BY JONAS BEALS
Even casual Civil War enthusiasts know Fredericksburg as a battle scene of tremendous bloodshed and destruction.
Far fewer are aware that the city--and Stafford County--represented freedom to thousands of slaves during the war.
One Union construction engineer who worked on the railroad route between Fredericksburg and Aquia Landing in Stafford estimated that 10,000 self-emancipated slaves walked into Union Army lines and traveled north to Washington between May 1 and Sept. 1, 1862--months before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
In fact, Aquia Landing had been a point of departure for brave slaves seeking freedom for decades before the Civil War.
Some of those individual stories are illuminated by new markers that have been installed at Aquia Landing, now a county park at the confluence of Aquia Creek and the Potomac River. The markers were dedicated yesterday by National Park Service historian Noel Harrison.
The ceremony was originally scheduled to take place at Aquia Landing but was moved to the county Board of Supervisors' chambers because of the threat of bad weather.
"It is a remarkable set of signs for a remarkable place," Harrison said.
From 1842 to 1872, Aquia Landing was the key stop on the main route between Richmond and Washington, D.C. It was where travelers and goods made the transition from Potomac River steamship to train. The Union Army used it for the same purpose during the war.
Slaves used it to escape to the North, especially once the Union lines pushed far enough south that escape was as close as crossing the Rappahannock River.
Now Aquia Landing is recognized as the "Gateway to Freedom," the key junction on the Trail to Freedom, a regional project designed to focus attention on the area's role in the story of emancipation.
"For a long time, Civil War history didn't mean anything to me," said Frank White, a Stafford native and a member of the committee that designated the site. "A story like this would have never been mentioned 50 years ago."
Aquia Landing has only recently become a subject of intense research-- by professional and amateur historians--for its role in slavery and emancipation.
Harrison said the story has earned more attention as the military history of the war has become intertwined with the social and political history of the time. He noted that John Hennessy, chief historian of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, has decided to write a book on the subject of the slave exodus to Stafford during the summer of 1862.
New accounts have been added to incredible prewar stories that illustrate the lengths some people went to gain their freedom.
The most famous is probably Henry "Box" Brown, who mailed himself to Philadelphia from Richmond in a box in 1849. His route went through Aquia Landing.
William and Ellen Craft traveled from Georgia to Philadelphia in 1848. The mixed-race Ellen posed as a white man seeking medical treatment in the North, pretending William was her servant. They, too, traveled through Stafford and Aquia Landing.
There are more stories to tell--perhaps thousands--but many of them were lost in the frantic rush to freedom or have faded over time.
Jim Thomas, who served on the Stafford committee along with White, is pleased with the attention Stafford is bringing to the story of self-emancipation. He said it is a story that has been misunderstood by many since the war ended, and proves that slaves longed for freedom above all else.
"To begin putting a light on what really happened is important," he said. "It shows my ancestors as real, intelligent human beings."
Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036
Email: jbeals@freelancestar.com
Online at:
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Aquia Landing marked
Stafford officials celebrate county's role in the Civil War and slaves' route to freedom
BY JONAS BEALS
Even casual Civil War enthusiasts know Fredericksburg as a battle scene of tremendous bloodshed and destruction.
Far fewer are aware that the city--and Stafford County--represented freedom to thousands of slaves during the war.
One Union construction engineer who worked on the railroad route between Fredericksburg and Aquia Landing in Stafford estimated that 10,000 self-emancipated slaves walked into Union Army lines and traveled north to Washington between May 1 and Sept. 1, 1862--months before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
In fact, Aquia Landing had been a point of departure for brave slaves seeking freedom for decades before the Civil War.
Some of those individual stories are illuminated by new markers that have been installed at Aquia Landing, now a county park at the confluence of Aquia Creek and the Potomac River. The markers were dedicated yesterday by National Park Service historian Noel Harrison.
The ceremony was originally scheduled to take place at Aquia Landing but was moved to the county Board of Supervisors' chambers because of the threat of bad weather.
"It is a remarkable set of signs for a remarkable place," Harrison said.
From 1842 to 1872, Aquia Landing was the key stop on the main route between Richmond and Washington, D.C. It was where travelers and goods made the transition from Potomac River steamship to train. The Union Army used it for the same purpose during the war.
Slaves used it to escape to the North, especially once the Union lines pushed far enough south that escape was as close as crossing the Rappahannock River.
Now Aquia Landing is recognized as the "Gateway to Freedom," the key junction on the Trail to Freedom, a regional project designed to focus attention on the area's role in the story of emancipation.
"For a long time, Civil War history didn't mean anything to me," said Frank White, a Stafford native and a member of the committee that designated the site. "A story like this would have never been mentioned 50 years ago."
Aquia Landing has only recently become a subject of intense research-- by professional and amateur historians--for its role in slavery and emancipation.
Harrison said the story has earned more attention as the military history of the war has become intertwined with the social and political history of the time. He noted that John Hennessy, chief historian of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, has decided to write a book on the subject of the slave exodus to Stafford during the summer of 1862.
New accounts have been added to incredible prewar stories that illustrate the lengths some people went to gain their freedom.
The most famous is probably Henry "Box" Brown, who mailed himself to Philadelphia from Richmond in a box in 1849. His route went through Aquia Landing.
William and Ellen Craft traveled from Georgia to Philadelphia in 1848. The mixed-race Ellen posed as a white man seeking medical treatment in the North, pretending William was her servant. They, too, traveled through Stafford and Aquia Landing.
There are more stories to tell--perhaps thousands--but many of them were lost in the frantic rush to freedom or have faded over time.
Jim Thomas, who served on the Stafford committee along with White, is pleased with the attention Stafford is bringing to the story of self-emancipation. He said it is a story that has been misunderstood by many since the war ended, and proves that slaves longed for freedom above all else.
"To begin putting a light on what really happened is important," he said. "It shows my ancestors as real, intelligent human beings."
Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036
Email: jbeals@freelancestar.com
Online at:
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