Community Corner

200 Years Of Black Entrepreneurship Makes Fredericksburg Unique

There's a storied history of Black entrepreneurs in the City of Fredericksburg, from wharf operators to barbers and restaurateurs.

Fredericksburg history is full of Black businesses and entrepreneurs. These homes were built by Henry Deane in the 1800s as part of his Liberty Town neighborhood. Seven of the buildings built by Deane are still standing.
Fredericksburg history is full of Black businesses and entrepreneurs. These homes were built by Henry Deane in the 1800s as part of his Liberty Town neighborhood. Seven of the buildings built by Deane are still standing. (Photo by Walker Evans, courtesy of the Library of Congress)

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — It isn't news to long-time residents, but Fredericksburg is full of history. Many residents may not be aware that the city has seen a long line of Black entrepreneurs and businesses as early as the 1700s.

This February, the Fredericksburg Area Museum is hosting a walking tour that will teach history-lovers more about the long line of Black businesses and entrepreneurs in the city. The tour will be hosted by Dr. Gaila Sims, who is the museum's Curator of African American History and Special Projects.

As she dove into the history of Fredericksburg, Sims chose to focus on what makes the city unique.

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"What I discovered is that Fredericksburg has a documented history of Black businesses and Black entrepreneurship since the 18th century, which I think is really special," Sims told Patch.

The first stop of the tour will focus on John DeBaptiste. He was a Black man who ran the Falmouth Ferry and French John's Wharf in the late 1700s. Despite his success as a free Black man and business owner, many of DeBaptiste's family members left the Fredericksburg area after the American Revolution.

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"After the war, the family prospered in local enterprises, but a series of harsh laws severely restricted the rights of free Black people," a historical marker on Caroline Street reads. "John's descendants moved away."

Sims said this was not an uncommon sight.

James Wilkens was a free Black barber who lived in Fredericksburg. In 1838, he presented a petition to the Virginia legislature requesting a school for Black children in Fredericksburg. The petition was signed by several other free Black people in the area, including John DeBaptiste's descendants.

Lawmakers refused their request. Wilkens would later move to Washington, D.C. DeBaptiste's family members would move to the Midwest. Sims believes they may have moved to escape Virginia's restrictive laws.

The tour will also include stops about Black hotels, bars, boarding houses, and communities.

The tour will end with a discussion of Henry Deane, a formerly enslaved person who developed the Liberty Town neighborhood.

"Deane and his wife accumulated 19 houses and two stables, which is just an enormous amount of property for a formerly enslaved person," Sims said.

Now, only a handful of Deane's 19 buildings are still standing.

Ruth Coder Fitzgerald was a historian who studied Fredericksburg's Black history. She noted that many of Fredericksburg's Black historical sites are gone. "So it is necessary to use the imagination to picture much of Fredericksburg’s Black history," Fitzgerald wrote.

Because the historical sites themselves are not always present, Sims works to find other ways to bring history to life. She says her work uses photographs, first-hand accounts, and work from other historians to present a more complete picture of history.

"It's a combination of using our imagination, focusing on individual stories, accumulating images and objects where we can, and acknowledging the sites that are still there," Sims said.

More information about the walking tour and other offerings from the Fredericksburg Area Museum is available online.


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