Virginia Museum Exhibition Spotlights Free Blacks In The State, 1619-1865

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s new exhibition, Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619–1865, sheds light on the untold stories of Black freedom, resilience, and community in Virginia’s early history.
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Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619-1865, a powerful new exhibition at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC), is a good reason to take a discovery trip to Richmond.

Through artifacts, first-person accounts, and more than 200 years of stories, visitors will discover how Blacks in Virginia achieved their freedom, established communities, and persevered within a legal system that recognized them as free but not equal.

On the eve of the American Civil War, around 60,000 Black men, women, and children lived free in the Commonwealth of Virginia, often alongside enslaved neighbors. Their lives were rich and full, although freedom did not mean equality. These Virginians were not enslaved, but they were by no means full citizens. Some stayed in Virginia, living, working, and thriving despite serious threats to their lives, some moved north or, further still, across the Atlantic to Liberia. However, their stories remain largely untold in the traditional rendering of Virginia’s history.

Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619-1865 tells the stories of these Blacks in Virginia from the arrival of the first captive Africans in 1619 to the abolition of slavery in 1865, and it is one of the first museum exhibitions to cover the subject in depth.

The exhibition which opened this summer and continues through 2027 highlights the rich histories of several Black local communities in the state, to include Hampton and Chesapeake’s Cuffeytown.

This exhibition was created by the VMHC in collaboration with subject matter experts and five institutions of higher education – Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, William & Mary, Longwood University and Richard Bland College – bringing together resources and knowledge to tell a compelling story of Virginia. The exhibition is on display alongside VMHC’s multiyear commemorative exhibitions and displays related to America’s 250th anniversary.

On Wednesday, August 20, 2025 at 6 p.m., a companion publication of the same name will be released with a panel discussion featuring the acclaimed historians who contributed essays to the book: Melvin Patrick Ely (The College of William & Mary), Cassandra L. Newby-Alexander (Norfolk State University), Stephen Rockenbach (Virginia State University), Sabrina G. Watson (Virginia State University), and Evanda S. Watts-Martinez (Richard Bland College of William & Mary).

It will be moderated by the VMHC’s Un/Bound curator Elizabeth Klaczynski, about their essay contributions to the book and the importance of the experiences of free people of color to Black and Virginia history. The panel discussion will be followed by a reception with light refreshments. (Reservations may be made at the VMHC website.)

The foreword to the publication was written by three former members of the Virginia Board of Education: former Virginia Secretary of Education, James W. Dyke Jr.; President Emeritus of William & Mary, Tim Sullivan; and former interim president of Norfolk State University, Alvin J. Schexnider.

For more information, visit the VMHC website. The museum is open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum admission is $10-$12. There is a charge for the book launch.