VIRGINIA UNTOLD: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN NARRATIVE

The Library of Virginia’s collections are rich with records documenting the lives of African Americans in Virginia. However, access to those materials dating from before the American Civil War is limited at best.
These limitations are the result of period perspectives on the identities of enslaved and disenfranchised populations, as well as sheer volume. Due to this, the individual stories form a narrative of a people that has not been fully told.

The Library’s African American Narrative project aims to provide greater accessibility to pre-1865 African American history and genealogy found in the rich primary sources in its holdings. Traditional description, indexing, transcription, and digitization are major parts of this effort.

However, and perhaps more importantly, this project seeks to encourage conversation and engagement around the records, providing opportunities for a more grassroots and diverse narrative of the history of Virginia’s African American people.

The processing of local court records found in Virginia Untold was made possible through the innovative Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (CCRP), a cooperative program between the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Court Clerks Association (VCCA), which seeks to preserve the historic records found in Virginia's circuit courts.

The scanning, indexing and transcription of the records were made possible through the generosity of Dominion Energy and funding provided by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Unknown No Longer
The Virginia Museum of History & Culture launched Unknown No Longer in 2011 to make accessible biographical details of enslaved Virginians from unpublished historical records in its collections. The site provided researchers with the ability to discover information on ancestors not found in other sources.

Beginning in 2019 the unique content of Unknown No Longer is available through the Library of Virginia's Virginia Untold: African American Narrative, providing users with access to an expanded collection of resources for researching African American history in Virginia.

Source link to view the digitized history of Black Virginians.
Link: https://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/aan/...