Weyanoke, Virginia

Weyanoke in Charles City County, on the north side of the James River, stands on one of Virginia’s oldest continuously occupied riverfront sites, with evidence of human presence spanning 10,000 years. In 1619, the first Africans in Virginia arrived at the Weyanoke Peninsula and established what is described as North America’s first African community. Later developed as a tobacco plantation through enslaved labor, the estate passed from the Harwood family to the Lewis family and included a Georgian mansion built in the 1790s. Archaeological remains reflect Native American, African American, and European American activity, and in June 1864 Union forces crossed here on a pontoon bridge during the Civil War.

Charles City, Virginia · United States