Slave Labor on Virginia's Blue Ridge Railroad Davis Berg/Barrick

Berg/Barrick

Every new season offers fresh opportunities to discover and this curious Black Bear named in honor of the Shenandoah National Park

The Shenandoah Harmony Publishing Company

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With Genealogical Notes of Many of the Allied Families

Slave Labor on Virginia's Blue Ridge Railroad Davis Berg/BarrickLyons, Mary E. Between 1849 and 1859, Virginia raced to pierce the Blue Ridge Mountains by rail and reach the Ohio River. At least 300 enslaved people labored involuntarily toward that goal, along with 1,500 Irish immigrants. The state leased the labor of enslaved Virginians from local slaveholders, including four connected with nearby University of Virginia. Blue Ridge Tunnel and Blue Ridge Railroad historian Mary E. Lyons explored hundreds of