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The papers of Anna Maria (Campbell Hickman) Otis Mead Chalmers (1809-1891) and her family offer a deep look into a 19th century American family with a sharp focus on enslaved and formerly enslaved persons. The collection documents the life of a young, widowed woman, Anna Maria Mead Chalmers, who was the granddaughter of General William Hull (1753-1825). She was a mother of four children and became a businesswoman in Richmond, Virginia. She was a writer, an editor of the Southern Churchmen, an educator and founder of Mrs. Mead's School for Young Ladies, and a director of The Southern Churchmen Cot ("Retreat for the Sick"), a hospital for children. Anna Maria's family enslaved people who are represented in the papers including Othello "Tillo" Freeman (1790's-1860's?). It includes a letter from William written in [1875], who was their carriage driver, and letters about Sam the fiddler, who settled on the farm after escaping harsher enslavement in Louisianna, and Jordan who was described as being hired out in a letter dated September 8, 1841 from Thomas R. Blair.

This collection contains audio files and transcripts created by students as part of ENWR 2520: Writing the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at UVA in the Fall of 2021. Students were broken into four groups and each created a podcast episode and supplied the transcriptions. Students researched and reflected upon the history of slavery at the University of Virginia—including its connections to present day racism and white supremacy in Charlottesville and beyond. In addition to the four episodes, students also created an audio collage of what they learned from the project.