WELCOME TO SILENT WITNESSES
Silent Witnesses, Inc. is a collaborative public history project of the Legacy Museum of African American History and the Lynchburg Museum System established in 2021.
The mission of the project is to document the enslaved experience of people of African descent and related sites in Lynchburg, Virginia, and to educate citizens of all ages about this history.
ABOUT SILENT WITNESSES, INC.
Silent Witnesses, Inc., is an independent, non-profit organization established by the Legacy Museum of African American History and the Lynchburg Museum System in 2021.
Silent Witnesses received official 501(c)(3) non-profit status from the IRS in 2023.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David Neumeyer, President
Ramona Battle, Vice President
Vivian Miller, Treasurer
Ted Delaney, Secretary
Renee Flowers
Donald Preston
Gloria Simon
Joe Krakora
Lisa Culpepper-Beverley
Angelica Walker
Keita C. Rodgers
Carl Hutcherson
ABOUT SLAVERY IN LYNCHBURG
Silent Witnesses is the first comprehensive study of the history of enslavement in Lynchburg. The first documented enslaved people were brought to Central Virginia in the late 1730’s, and by the 1830’s enslaved African Americans came to define Lynchburg.
By the time of the Civil War (1861–1865), the Hill City was not only home to one of the largest concentrations of enslaved factory workers in Virginia, but it was also the largest market for buying and selling enslaved people in the state west of Richmond.
People of color made up close to half of Lynchburg’s population before the Civil War. The enslaved portion ranged from 31% to 43% between 1810 and 1860. There were more enslaved people in Lynchburg per capita than in any other large town or city in the Commonwealth in the late antebellum period (1840–1860).
