African American History Trail

• 5049 Waterway Drive

Built in 1797, in Independent Hill, the Barnes house is typical of an average Prince William County residence at the turn of the 19th century. Moses and Nancy Copen purchased the home and surrounding property in 1834. The wealthy family owned seven enslaved Virginians in 1860. Part of the Copen's…

• 10321 Sudley Manor Drive

Enslaved people lived and worked here at Ben Lomond from the colonial era to the Civil War. Besides the main building, many of its original outbuildings survive and have been restored and open to the public. The original slave quarters, constructed of stone, a rare example in Northern Virginia. An…

• 15500 Benita Fitzgerald Drive

Fannie Fitzgerald and three other African-American teachers, known as the “Courageous Four,” were selected in 1965 to pioneer desegregation in Prince William. They were transferred from all-black schools to teach at white schools and thus helped accomplish the school system’s complete desegregation…

• King Street

This cemetery was established in the 19th century for the local African American community. In 2009, archaeology was conducted to delineated the cemetery, locating fieldstones (potential burial markers) and grave shafts indicating burials. Prince William County Public Schools gave the Prince William…

• 16622 Dumfries Road

Originally located in the Joplin area of Prince William County, First Mt. Zion Baptist Church was organized in 1867. From 1925-1928, one room in the church was transformed into the Mt. Zion School that taught students from both Prince William and Stafford counties. In 1947 the congregation moved and…

• 6511 Sudley Road

James Robinson was a prominent individual born to an African American mother and a white father (probably Landon Carter Jr., a wealthy and influential Virginia planter). Robinson carved out a modest life as a free Black Virginian living in the Antebellum period. Although married, since his wife was…

• 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Drive

A 508-acre tract of a 2,000-acre estate originally patented in 1658, this site is significant to the Underground Railroad because of fifteen runaways and is included in the National Park Services Network to Freedom. Cate and Sinah, the 18th-century runaway enslaved persons were advertised in Virginia…

• 15125 Blackburn Road

In May 1691 Benjamin Lewis filed a complaint against William Harris in Stafford County court (at the time the area containing PWC was part of Stafford). Lewis was a Black servant on Harris’ Prince William County plantation. Lewis claimed that he was free in England, and had been brought Virginia…

• 12745 Minnieville Road

Agnewville, also known as Smoketown or Chinntown, was created by the Chinn family, one of the earliest African-American families in Prince William County. After the Civil War the Chinn family bought several hundred acres of land near the intersection of Telegraph and Minnieville Road. At the height…

• 9248 Lee Avenue

The Old Manassas Courthouse located at the intersection of Grant Avenue and Lee Avenue in Old Town Manassas is the fifth County courthouse and County seat in Prince William County. The courthouse and County seat was moved to Manassas in 1897 and this building was used as the County courthouse until…