
Slave Labor on Virginia's Blue Ridge Railroad
Mary E. Lyons(Author)
History Press
Published on 30. March 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-4671-4490-2 (ISBN)
Description
Between 1849 and 1859, Virginia raced to pierce the Blue Ridge Mountains by rail and reach the Ohio River. At least 300 enslaved people labored involuntarily toward that goal, along with 1,500 Irish immigrants. The state leased the labor of enslaved Virginians from local slaveholders, including four connected with nearby University of Virginia. Blue Ridge Tunnel and Blue Ridge Railroad historian Mary E. Lyons explored hundreds of primary documents to write the first nonfiction book about slave labor on a specific antebellum railroad. She shares hundreds of enslaved people's names, traces where they toiled along the line and describes their backbreaking--and sometimes fatal--tasks.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
363 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4671-4490-2 (9781467144902)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Mary E. Lyons
Slave Labor on Virginia's Blue Ridge Railroad
E-Book
03/2020
The History Press
€15.99
Available for download
Person
Mary E. Lyons has written nineteen award-winning books for young readers about slavery, the Irish famine and the ancient American world. Most recently, she is the author of The Blue Ridge Tunnel: A Remarkable Engineering Feat in Antebellum Virginia and The Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad, both published by The History Press. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband, Paul.