This Week in Virginia History

It was a Sunday morning in late October. Families were walking to church services. University students were slowly rousing from their beds. One early-rising scholar ambled across the UVA Lawn and saw something peculiar. A wisp of smoke rose from the roof of the Rotunda Annex. Suddenly, flames shot from the roof.

After the Civil War, southern states were required to re-write their state constitutions before being admitted back to the union. Virginia counties held elections for representatives to send to the state constitutional convention. It was the first election in which African-American men in Virginia could vote, and Albemarle County voters chose an African-American man named James Taylor as one of its delegates.

It looked like a regular custard dish. Just a nice dessert to give to a friend. But it contained a compartment for secret messages -- a very nice feature for someone smuggling secret information from the heart of the Confederacy into the hands of Union military leaders. That dish belonged to Elizabeth Van Lew, born to a prominent family in Richmond. Her actions during the Civil War left her socially shunned, but later inducted into the U.S. Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

This week in 1903… The wreck of the Old 97 inspired a popular ballad. For nearly a century, country crooners from Woody Guthrie to Johnny Cash have sang about the wreck of the Old 97. But what was the Old 97? And what happened to it?

This week in 1890… the U.S. Congress seated John Mercer Langston, Virginia’s first African-American representative. A year and a half after the election was stolen from him, Langston won his appeal and began his short term in Congress. He was the first and last African-American Congressman from Virginia for more than 100 years.

This week in 1958… Virginia Governor J. Lindsay Almond ordered the closure of Lane High School and Venable Elementary in Charlottesville.

This week in 1732… Fourth U.S. President James Madison never wrote about his grandfather Ambrose. Which is surprising because Grandpa Ambrose was murdered by his slaves. Or so the court said.

This week in 1849... Charles Stearns and Henry Box Brown published a book with the rather long-winded title: "Narrative of Henry Box Brown, who escaped from slavery, enclosed in a box three feet long, two wide and two and a half high."