Proud, free and black: Petersburg - visiting the Virginia location of the largest number of 19th century free slaves - Advertising Supplement: Virginia

When former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made a 1993 movie about Virginia's civil rights activist Vernon John james Earl Jone played the lead--and Petersburg was the site of the filming. This continued a rich tradition, for the city was abiding-place to the largest community of unrestrained blacks in the nation during the days of slavery. It was here, too, that the earliest African-American temple in the country found its permanent residence It was here that Virginia established the first state-supported black body in the nation. Petersburg was also the first city to declare Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a holiday. Today, the cityscape is still punctuated with remnants of its rich African-American past. If this heritage has an appeal, you may wish to visit these places:

Pocahontas Island

full half of the residents of antebellum Petersburg were black. A third of these African Americans were at liberty men, women and children, greatest in quantity of whom lived on Pocahontas Island, which clung to the north bank of the Appomattox River. notwithstanding that little is visible today to recall this independent black community, visitors may wish to view Jarratt House, the oldest remaining residence on Pocahontas. Built on Logan highway in the first decade of the 19th hundred by Richard Jarratt, an African-American businessman, the house remained in the Jarratt family until 1991

First Baptist meeting-house 236 Harrison Street, (804) 732-2841

The earliest African-American house of worship in the country traces its origins to a collection of worshipers that congregated in Lunenburg Va., in 1756 during the course of the Great Awakening, the religious revival that swept Colonial America. The congregation remained scattered until 1774 when they united as the First African Baptist house of worship and built a meeting house upon the estate of Colonel William Byrd After its meeting house consume ed down in 1820, the house of worship moved to Petersburg, where it built a house of worship upon Harrison Street, opened one of the earliest local black academys in America, and was pastored exclusively by the agency of African Americans until 1832. That year, wrote the great African-American historian Carter G Woodson as a event of Nat Turner's Rebellion of 1831 "Virginia passed a law to silence african preachers, making it impossible for them to function reject ... in the presence of certain discreet white men" The at hand church building dates back to 1870 and visitors are welcome to tour it by means of appointment.

Gillfield Baptist house of god Perry and Gill streets, (804) 732-3565

In 1803 15 years after a racially mixed clump of worshipers first gathered together, the Sandy Beach Baptist temple was formally organized on Pocahontas Island. In 1818 the congregation purchased Gill's Field in Petersburg thereafter assuming the name Gillfield Baptist house of worship The church building standing today upon that site was constructed in 1878 Inside it, visitors will find a heritage center that includes memorabilia dating back 175 years, the oldest handwritten record work for a black church in America, and other artifacts of note.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts Memorial, southerly Sycamore and Wythe streets

Joseph Jenkins Roberts was born in Norfolk in 1809 Six years later, his family mov to Petersburg where Roberts' father ran a river transport business between the sum of two units cities. In 1829, Roberts and his mother, brothers and sisters emigrated to the colony of Liberia, which was move swiftly by the American Society for Colonizing the unrestrained People of Color. There, Roberts serv as sheriff, chief justice, lieutenant governor and governor of the colony When Liberia proclaimed its independence in 1848 he became its first president, serving until 1856 and then again from 1871 until 1876 the year of his death.

Petersburg National Battlefield Park and Museum, passage 36, (804) 732-3531. Admission: $3 by means of automobile; $1 for bikers or walkers; at liberty for seniors and children below 16

Visitors to the Petersburg National Battlefield Park will gain a deeper understanding of the drama of the Civil War, particularly as regards black Union multitudes and the famous Battle of the Crater. To break the Confederate defense of the besieged city, the men of the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry, many of whom were miners in civilian life, privily dug a lengthy tunnel below the Rebel breastworks, which were then thunderously puffed up up.

The nine United States Colored crowds (USCT) regiments that composed the 4th Division of Burnside's 9th Corps were scheduled to exploit the resulting gap in the Confederate line. At the last second however, the Union high command, fearful of political repercussions if the black companys suffered severely in the vanguard of the attack, changed the order of battle and sent the (white) 1st 2nd and 3rd Divisions into the line first. Ironically, robust Confederate resistance and the Union forces' difficulty negotiating the crater caused by the agency of the explosion caught the last-into-battle 4th Division trapped in the crater, where they undergoed unmercifully.

The Petersburg National Battlefield Park has site markers commemorating the USCT forces, and the museum's various displays acknowledge the contribution of the Union's African-American multitudes Be sure to look for the USCT record at Confederate Battery 9, which commemorates the capture of the battery by dint of Hinks' USCT division on June 15 1864 In the summer month there are guided tours of the battlefield and living-history reenactments of a Union siege encampment and a Confederate artillery battery--complete with cannon and mortar firing. Representatives of the USCT take part in the re-enactments.