On Nov. 9, an online audience will explore the everyday lives of enslaved and free African Americans on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula, guided by a historical lens on housing and community resilience. Historian Douglas W. Sanford will present “Interpreting the Evidence for African American History: Virginia’s Slave Quarters and Free Blacks on the Middle Peninsula in 1860,” hosted by the Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society at 11 a.m.

Sanford’s talk will examine two facets of antebellum African American life: the structures that housed enslaved people and the communities formed by free Blacks in the region.

His research with the Virginia Slave Housing Project has documented housing sites across Virginia, providing insight into the lives of enslaved individuals under the management practices of their enslavers, as well as conditions in both rural and urban settings.

He also will draw on data from the 1860 U.S. Census to explore the lives of free Black residents in the area, focusing on details such as age, gender, occupation, family names, and the formation of Black neighborhoods. Despite legal restrictions and widespread discrimination, free African Americans cultivated family bonds, communities and cultural resilience in the shadow of the Civil War.

Sanford, a professor emeritus of historic preservation at the University of Mary Washington, has more than 40 years of experience in historical archaeology and preservation, specializing in African American archaeology in the Chesapeake region and the architecture of sites associated with enslaved people in Virginia.

For details on how to attend or to learn more about MPAAGHS, email mpaaghs.va@gmail.com or call (804) 651-8753.