Norfolk has been a center of African-American life since this country's humble beginnings, when indentured African servants arrived in 1619 to the Tidewater region. Since that time, the African-American population has endured the atrocities of slavery, poverty, and inequality, and has emerged, through a remarkable combination of hard work, perseverance, and faith, as a vibrant community and an integral component to the identity and success of Norfolk and surrounding areas.

This is a history of Norfolk from the time of the first contact between a Spanish sailor and a native American Chiskiack in 1561, to the city's late 20th-century concerns, including pollution of Chesapeake Bay, urban development, traffic in illegal guns, and racial tensions.

Very few studies of free blacks have attempted to interpret the actions and events affecting them from their own perspectives. At the same time. the search for understanding the antebellum black experience in the South usually has centered on slaves. In Free Blacks in Norfolk, Virginia, 1790-1860, Tommy L. Bogger portrays lives somewhere between slavery and freedom. A free black community of skilled artisans and semi-skilled laborers emerged in Norfolk around 1800. Some free blacks earned the respect of leading white businessmen, and many enjoyed easy access to credit and steady employment. They showed no hesitation in suing recalcitrant debtors -- black or white -- and until 1805 they could count on the cooperation of court officials in helping them to collect. But from then on. free blacks experienced a steady decline in status that continued throughout the antebellum period. Legal restraints were placed on them at the same time that Norfolk's economy stagnated. and white immigrants arriving in the 1830s entered fields once monopolized by blacks. By the 1850s the free black community was sunk in hopelessness and despair. Free Blacks in Norfolk, Virginia, 1790-1860 discusses the active roles that blacks played in creating their community, contradicting prevalent images of free blacks at the mercy of whites. While previous studies of Virginia's free blacks have focused on Richmond or Petersburg, developments in Norfolk's free black community also merit analysis. Norfolk also offers the advantage of a population large enough to provide a reliable data base yet small enough to preserve the stories of individual lives. Those interested in African-American history, Virginia history, orthe South in general will find this book a valuable new resource.

A detailed history of one week during the Civil War in which the American president assumed control of the nation’s military. One rainy evening in May, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln boarded the revenue cutter Miami and sailed to Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There, for the first and only time in our country’s history, a sitting president assumed direct control of armed forces to launch a military campaign. In Lincoln Takes Command, author Steve Norderdetails this exciting, little-known week in Civil War history. Lincoln recognized the strategic possibilities offered by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s ongoing Peninsula Campaign and the importance of seizing Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the Gosport Navy Yard. For five days, the president spent time on sea and land, studied maps, spoke with military leaders, suggested actions, and issued direct orders to subordinate commanders. He helped set in motion many events, including the naval bombardment of a Confederate fort, the sailing of Union ships up the James River toward the enemy capital, an amphibious landing of Union soldiers followed by an overland march that expedited the capture of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the navy yard, and the destruction of the Rebel ironclad CSS Virginia. The president returned to Washington in triumph, with some urging him to assume direct command of the nation’s field armies. The week discussed in Lincoln Takes Command has never been as heavily researched or told in such fine detail. The successes that crowned Lincoln’s short time in Hampton Roads offered him a better understanding of, and more confidence in, his ability to see what needed to be accomplished. This insight helped sustain him through the rest of the war.

Showing in stunning detail the phenomenal evolution of one of America's most historic cities from its beginnings as a town to its current expanse, this "Every Square Inch of Norfolk" book presents an astonishing array of historic Norfolk-area maps spanning 200 years. Arranged side by side and scaled to identical sizes, the maps make it possible to pinpoint every major change in the city, almost decade by decade. The book utilizes the most important detailed maps ever drawn of the entire city, beginning with the little-known War of 1812 map, the first great map to cover all the areas that make up today's Norfolk. (And if you are reading other books in the Every Square Inch of Norfolk series, then this book is especially indispensible, as the maps in the book serve as the basemaps to which all the other books in the series refer.) Along with its extensive indexes and penetrating and meticulously researched textual background information, Evolution of A City In Maps is an ideal resource for the study of every facet of Norfolk history and geography, making it not only an invaluable reference but also a significant contribution to American geography.