Fall Meeting and Program

Slavery In The Valley: Different Than Elsewhere?

Historian Nancy Sorrells presents a program on local slavery, the society that embraced it,and its aftermath

A Program of the Augusta County Historical Society, free and open to the public

A number of factors foster the idea that slavery in Shenandoah Valley before the Civil War was different or more benevolent than elsewhere in the South: the smaller slave population, the absence of plantations, the scarcity of artifacts or vernacular architecture. Not so, says local historian Nancy Sorrells. In a November 15 program at the Government Center, Sorrells will present the facts on “Slavery and its Aftermath in the Upper Valley.”

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, one in every five Augusta County residents was a slave, a demographic consistent with Augusta County’s economy and society. Sorrells will explain that, while there were some differences, slavery in the Valley was no less horrific or entwined in the culture than in any other slave society. Sorrells will also describe what happened when the war ended and freedom came to this part of the Valley.

“History is not always pretty, and the story of slavery and freedom is both painful and provocative. Yet it is very important to tell the slaves’ story honestly and to learn from it.” “Every day until the end of the Civil War meant waking up to the stark reality of being treated like chattel, that you could be separated from your family and sold,” Sorrels said, adding, “To not tell this story is to ignore people who, in the face of unimaginable hardship, were able to maintain a sense of dignity and self-respect while building a culture drawn from the strength of family.”

Slaves’ resistance to bondage and struggle for freedom was sometimes overt, many times subversive, but always powerful. Once freedom came at war’s end, freedmen and women struggled for equality in education, commerce, and under the law. The story of slavery and its aftermath is the definitive story that shaped the nation and with which the nation continues to struggle. Augusta County’s role in this great national story is one worth hearing.