Final Weeks: Visit our Witness to Revolution special exhibit before it closes Sunday, Jan. 5. Info & Tickets

Suggestions:

A watercolor depicts Deborah and Harry, with their backs to the viewer, aboard a ship setting sail for Nova Scotia. They look out on men and women in the streets fighting for their freedom, as the Americans won the war. Many people were fighting for a place on the ships that were evacuating Loyalists.

Finding Freedom

Explore the stories of African American men and women in war-torn Virginia.

About Finding Freedom

Finding Freedom, bronze-level winner of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM)'s 2021 Media & Technology MUSE Award in the category of online experiences, draws from a variety of historical sources and contemporary analysis to try to understand the lives and decisions of five real people of African descent living in Virginia in 1781, as the British and American armies battle across the state. Their stories are told through research-based first-person narratives.

Read More

A watercolor depicts Deborah, a person of African descent, bringing a bowl of hot food to a white British soldier in his tent while he's reading a piece of paper.

Related Resources

Teacher Resources

Teacher Resources

Modular activities, worksheets, and more, aligned to national history standards.

Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Muster rolls, pension records, letters, and more – these are a selection of the documents that informed our storytelling.

Big Ideas

Short essays to put the stories of Andrew, Deborah, Eve, Jack, and London into historical context.

Glossary

Useful definitions for understanding language in the stories, Big Ideas, and primary sources.

Finding Freedom is made possible with generous support from The Albert M. Greenfield Foundation.