Anticipating Freedom

Two enslaved families lived in the structures behind the McLean House, across the field in front of this site. Mary Ann raised three children there: Maria, Rachael, and another unnamed daughter. The second family consisted of Bettie Love Stewart and her four children. In that house and yard, they conducted daily work, raised children, and built lives despite slavery's oppression. After four years of war, Federal victory at Appomattox Court House made emancipation a reality for all enslaved people in this region, including half of Appomattox County's population. As Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met to discuss Lee's surrender in Wilmer and Virginia McLean's parlor on April 9, 1865, these families waited, and the meeting's outcome changed their lives forever. Bettie Love Stewart performed domestic labor at the McLean House until emancipated with Grant's victory in 1865. Her husband, Henry Stewart, lived near Manassas, where Bettie had previously resided. After the war, the Stewarts reunited and moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, where Henry worked as a brakeman until he was killed in a railroad accident in 1874. The Stewart children later lived in Lynchburg, New York, and Boston.

Appomattox, Virginia · United States