James Robinson House

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 enslaved the marriage was not officially recognized as a legal marriage and all of Robinson’s children inherited the status of their mother: enslaved. Nonetheless, Robinson was able to get most of his family to reside with him at the house near his half-sister Judith Henry’s residence at Henry House Hill, site of severe fighting at the First Battle of Manassas. Today the James Robinson House site is located within the Manassas National Battlefield Park.