The Eastern People Of Color History Initiative

The Gabriel Jacobs Eastern [Shore] People of Color Initiative is an annual program where two select ODU history majors will work as researchers and data compilers for a primary source database shared by Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, and other public history organizations. This database and website will reconnect the generations of families enslaved by the Custis family, which includes George Washington and Robert E. Lee, from the Eastern Shore of Virginia to Georgetown, D.C. The interns will handle documents for free people, such as census reports, birth records, deeds, tax lists, farm inventories, wills, and bills of sale to find people enslaved as property.