Symposium: “Slavery in the German Settlement”
Sunday, July 9, at 2:00 p.m.
St. James United Church of Christ,
10 East Broad Way, Lovettsville, Va.
On Sunday, July 9, in lieu of our customary lecture, the Lovettsville Historical Society will present instead a Symposium with a speaker and a panel of local historians, on the topic of “Slavery in the German Settlement.”
Eirik Harteis, a history teacher from Taylorstown and a member of the Lovettsville Historical Society’s Advisory Board, has for some years been examining the history of the neighboring 1810 Stoutsenburger Farm. He became perplexed why a Revolutionary War veteran living in the German Settlement would own ten slaves by the time he died in 1837–in the heart of the Jacksonian Era.
Traditionally seen as opposed to slavery–and Unionist to boot–the section of Loudoun County in which the Stoutsenburger Farm was located, raised a Union cavalry unit, the Independent Loudoun Rangers, during the Civil War, and overwhelmingly voted for Virginia to remain in the Union.
Eirik’s subsequent research has looked at the County records to discover clues as to what extent slavery impacted the German-settled area of northern Loudoun. Does our traditional view hold up when the available statistical evidence is studied? What factors would come to play on the degree that slavery did or did not hold sway over economic, social, and political life in northern Loudoun in the years before the Civil War?
After Eirik presents, we have assembled a panel of local historians to respond to Eirik’s findings: Wynne Saffer, Donna Bohannon, John and/or Bronwen Souders, and Lori Kimball, with Rich Gillespie as moderator, will provide historical and regional context, raise some of their own questions, and lead our attendees in a discussion of the antebellum German Settlement on the eve of Civil War.
This should be an intriguing symposium, and we hope you will be able to participate. As always, no reservations are required. Admission is by voluntary donation—we simply “pass the hat.” This program will not be live-streamed on Zoom.
The presentation will be held at St. James United Church of Christ, at 10 East Broad Way, in Lovettsville.
For more information, visit www.LovettsvilleHistoricalSociety.org or email events@lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org.