“As a former journalist, Stinnett’s groundbreaking research into Virginian emigrants to West Africa reads like a detective novel, interrogating the determination and motivations of dozens of Black families who chose to leave the South after the end of the Civil War. His research sheds light on an important chapter in American and Liberian history that is too often overlooked. Stinnett reveals the tension between the mostly white-led American Colonization Society, which hoped to send thousands of African Americans to Liberia, and the many Black Americans from Lynchburg and the surrounding counties that chose emigration over the racism they experienced in the post-bellum South.”
Lynn Rainville, author of Invisible Founders: How Two Centuries of African American Families Transformed a Plantation into a College
Virginia history: What happened to its Black citizens immediately after the Civil War? He tells a fascinating tale that still resonates today. I'm adding this to my collection of 'things they didn't teach us in school.’ ”
Dwayne Yancey, founding editor, Cardinal News
Coming in March 2026