Journey honors their paths

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground boasts nine presidential homes along its 180-mile route, with 13 national parks and enough Civil War sites to keep even the biggest history buffs occupied for weeks.

But the road from Monticello through Culpeper up into Gettysburg, Pa., is also rich in African-American contributions, a lesser-known history recounted in the new book “Honoring Their Paths” by Deborah A. Lee.

Released this summer by the Waterford-based JTHG Partnership, the 248-page volume is a guide to more than 100 notable people and places in Black American history in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.

Chock full of archival photos and maps, the book shines a light on slave life, freemen, nationally acclaimed artists and civil rights leaders, uncovering 300 years of U.S. history.

“Generation after generation, the people of this amazing region have been called upon to define what it means to be an American,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, JTHG Partnership president. “Yet we found many of these extraordinary stories were untold.”

Gathering information for “Honoring Their Paths” spanned three years and included input from 34 historians, including Lee Langston-Harrison from the Museum of Culpeper History and Rebecca Gilmore Coleman with the Orange County African American Historical Association.

It was certainly a worthy undertaking, remarked Robert K. Sutton, chief historian for the National Park Service.

“This remarkable book,” he said, “brings to the public a rich and complex component of our American narrative by looking beyond the bricks and mortar of historic sites to the people who — through courage, creativity and conviction — helped shape our nation.”

Lee, the author, said understanding the African American experience lends new dimension to the phrase “hallowed ground.”

“We owe gratitude to the many African Americans, famous and anonymous, who have enriched our world in so many ways,” she said. “Through their lives and work, their struggles and achievements, they hallowed this ground.”

Easy to use and read, the manual devotes entire chapters to black history in Culpeper, Fauquier, Orange, Madison and Rappahannock counties.

In the Culpeper chapter, there’s a section about one Dangerfield Newby (1820-59), the child of a white father and black mother who lived as husband and wife in Culpeper County. Newby later married a slave woman, who was never freed, and he was the first of John Brown’s raiders to die at Harpers Ferry.

Antioch Baptist Church on West Street is pictured in “Honoring Their Paths” — the historic African-American congregation celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. There’s also information about the George Washington Carver School on U.S. 15 — a regional school for black students during segregation that operated from 1948 until the late 1960s.

Culpeper’s black history wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the Madden family and Madden’s Tavern, and this book has it on pages 188-90.

The village of Norman also gets a mention for its story of slaveholder Joseph William Bowen fathering 10 children with his slave Harriet Jackson — apparently with the blessing of his wife, who was bound to a wheelchair. (The Star-Exponent delved deep into that history in 2007’s “Fabric of America” series.)

George Gilmore, Paul Jennings and Gordonsville’s fried chicken vendors of yore pepper the chapter on Orange County, while in Rappahannock there’s Caroline Terry (1833-1941) and James Arthur Engham (1858-1935) who deserve remembering.

Madison County’s Clinton Greaves (1855-1906) earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, the book says, for his service with the Buffalo Soldiers.

While “Honoring Their Paths” is not an all-encompassing guide to African-American history along the Journey, it is nonetheless a laudable beginning.

“It is our hope that this work will encourage the preservation and conscientious stewardship of these often fragile cultural resources,” Wyatt writes in the introduction.

The JTHG, named a national scenic byway just last week, generally follows the Old Carolina Road (U.S. 15, Va. 20 and Va. 231). The nonprofit group celebrates the designation with a bus tour of the route today.

The JTHG Partnership formally organized in 2005 under the leadership of Wyatt.

Honoring Their Paths” sells for $20 online at hallowedground.org

Whistle-stop tour comes to Culpeper
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground celebrates its new designation as a national scenic byway with a whistle-stop tour today along the 180-mile route, which runs from Gettysburg, Pa., to Charlottesville. The bus stops at the Museum of Culpeper History, 803 S. Main St., at 1:50 p.m. with a presentation at 2. The tour continues on to Orange County’s Montpelier for a 3:30 presentation before ending at Monticello for a presentation at 5 p.m.