Author and local historian Lois Crane Williams recently announced the release of her new book, “Two Centuries of Slavery in Lancaster County, Virginia.”
Williams published the work independently in December 2021 and has selected the Lancaster Virginia Historical Society, where she is a board member and volunteer, as exclusive seller of the book. All proceeds will benefit the organization’s mission to preserve, understand, and share the history of Lancaster and its families.
The book compiles a variety of primary records and secondary research about enslaved labor in Lancaster County from the mid-1600s to mid-1800s and presents statistics and patterns drawn from the study of these sources. Her previous research on Lancaster’s tobacco economy led to the Slave Schedules of the 1860 Census, which helped inspire her new work.
“Slavery is a difficult subject to confront, but it’s so important, and here were these documents that I wanted to know more about and wanted to tell other people about,” Williams said. “So, I had to write more, even if it wasn’t easy.”
She closely examines the 1860 Census listing Lancaster County’s 2,809 enslaved persons without names, in contrast with the 1870 Census showing free Blacks in their own households with individual names, occupations, and other details. According to Williams, other chapters of the 149-page book describe the intertwined expansion of tobacco culture and slaveholding in the county through the colonial era; explore local enslaved and free Blacks during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War; and discuss slavery practices as revealed in records like wills, deeds and inventories.
Although the book does not follow a genealogical approach, the types of sources and research methods can offer a model to others looking for information about specific families or other locations.
“Two Centuries of Slavery” can be purchased online at www.LancasterVaHistory.org, by calling 804-462-7280, or at author book signing events on Saturday, Feb. 12, from 10 a.m. to noon and Thursday, Feb. 17, from 2-4 p.m. at the LVHS Museum Shop (8346 Mary Ball Road).
The price of the book is $15, discounted to $13.50 for LVHS members, plus sales tax and postage. Previous publications by L. Williams are also available for sale: “Tobacco-The Crop of Early Lancaster County”; “Tobacco Trader on the Corotoman” (with Ammon Dunton, Jr.); “The Lees of White Stone” (with Tom Kinney); and “The Lawsons of White Stone and Lawson Bay Farm” (with lead author Robby Robison).