The Long Roadto Freedom

African Americans have played a pivotal role in shaping the history and culture of the Shenandoah Valley and our nation. When the Civil War (1861-1865) came to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, generations of free and enslaved African Americans had already shaped the Valley story. In a war that touched everyone and everything in its path, the African American stories from Civil War to Civil Rights are rich and varied. Some escaped bondage and joined the Union effort. Others remained rooted in the Valley, where their struggle for full citizenship continued after the war and the constitutional end of slavery. They built prospering, vibrant communities of Black life and culture despite the harsh realities of segregation in Jim Crow Virginia, a system that was not dismantled until the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, a full century after the end of the Civil War.

The Long Road to Freedom Trail is a collaboration between the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program, and community groups. It is designed to highlight the amazing history and contributions of African Americans in the region. You are invited to visit the 11 markers of the Long Road to Freedom Trail that are located here at Montgomery Hall Park and encouraged to explore the dozens of other African American sites within the 8 counties of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District.