4300 Captain Yancey Road
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Last updated on March 29, 2024
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Directions from Jonathan Peale House to to site 28:
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Thomas Lewis built the Riverbank estate along the Shenandoah River. The estate was under the ownership of Colonel William Burbridge Yancey, then Captain Charles Yancey. On this 36-arce property, enslaved African Americans worked and lived here until after the Civil War. According to the 1850s U.S. Census, fourteen enslaved persons were recorded. The Dallard twins, Ambrose and Reuben, were enslaved at Riverbank for 33 years and were trained carpenters. After emancipation, the two brothers left Riverbank and joined the Union Army in Maryland.
The Dallards returned to the valley. On September 9, 1869, William and Hannah Carpenter deeded Friendly Gap Road to John Watson, Henry Frazier, and Reuben Dallard, trustees of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, to build a church, burial ground, and a schoolhouse. The church became the focal point of the freedman settlement of Zenda.
In the same year, Reuben Ambrose and William Johnson moved to Harrisonburg and purchased property, which gave birth to Newtown's African American community. Another memorable individual is Jourdan Banks, who was formerly enslaved at Riverbank for some time. Banks escaped slavery and later wrote an autobiography entitled A Narrative of Events of the Life of J.H. Banks, an Escaped Slave, from Cotton State, Alabama, in America that can be read on Documenting the American South. In 2019, Brianna Madden Olivers wrote a play based on the narrative of Jourdan Banks titled “Not Made For This”. The video of this play can be found on valleyblackheritage.org.
In the same year, Reuben Ambrose and William Johnson moved to Harrisonburg and purchased property, which gave birth to Newtown's African American community. Another memorable individual is Jourdan Banks, who was formerly enslaved at Riverbank for some time. Banks escaped slavery and later wrote an autobiography entitled A Narrative of Events of the Life of J.H. Banks, an Escaped Slave, from Cotton State, Alabama, in America that can be read on Documenting the American South. In 2019, Brianna Madden Olivers wrote a play based on the narrative of Jourdan Banks titled “Not Made For This”. The video of this play can be found on valleyblackheritage.org.
