Week 2: Pages 27-48

Churches and Schools

Churches began to be established, and one of the first in the area was Ballenger Church. In 1835, the church membership was almost 60% Black, and by 1855 that rose to nearly 82%. It is presumed that many of the Black members were enslaved. Other churches in the area include Mount Zion Methodist, Sharon Baptist, New Hope Baptist, Chestnut Grove Baptist, Mount Alto Baptist, Sand Road Baptist, New Green Mountain Baptist, and Saint Stephen’s Episcopal.

The Esmont area has had multiple local schools serving it. The first in the area opened in 1878 when the Black community in Porter’s Precinct built a log cabin school. Later schools include Mount Alto School, Hilltop School, Loving Charity Lodge, Chestnut Grove School, Esmont Colored School (later Esmont High School), Esmont School, and B.F. Yancey Elementary School.

Benjamin Franklin Yancey (1870-1915) was one of the first black educators in Central Virginia. Born in Howardsville, Virginia, he was educated at the Hampton Institute and returned to Esmont. Yancey helped join together the African-American men of the community and organized a school league, dedicated to establishing a school in Esmont. Along with a women’s league, they purchased the land that would become Esmont Colored School/Esmont High School. Both Yancey and his wife Harriet taught at the school.

Did you know?

Oral history interviews of Esmont residents are available online through the Race & Place project, which is an archive about the racial segregation laws, or the 'Jim Crow' laws from the late 1880s until the mid-twentieth century.

Also through the Race & Place project, transcriptions of letters from the Benjamin Franklin Yancey Family are available online. The full collection includes a wide range of letters, a diary, photographs, and other materials from the personal papers of the Yancey family from approximately 1895 to the early 1950s.

More information about Esmont-area schools and Esmont-area churches is available on the Scottsville Museum website.

Reading Questions
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