Free State

Albemarle County · dedicated 2014 · Belvedere Blvd. near intersection with Free State Road

Free State, a community of free African Americans, stood here. Its nucleus was a 224-acre tract that Amy Farrow, a free black woman, purchased in 1788. Her son Zachariah Bowles lived here and married Critta Hemings of Monticello, an older sister of Sally Hemings. Free State residents farmed and practiced trades, accumulated personal property, and did business with local whites. The small community expanded after the Civil War and by early in the 20th century was home to the Free State Colored School and the Central Relief Association, a local benevolent society.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Example

under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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