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Black History Museum to screen ‘The Hail Storm: John Dabney in Virginia’ Wednesday

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From slavery to freedom through food and resistance, John Dabney’s story is one not often mentioned, but one that should be celebrated and honored not only for Black History Month, but for the mark he left on Richmond as well. And that story will be told at the Black History Museum this week with a screening of The Hail Storm: John Dabney in Virginia, a documentary on his life and legacy, which is produced by local filmmakers Lance Warren and Hannah Ayers from Field Studio.

Born into slavery in 1824 in Hanover County, and enslaved for the first 41 years of his life, Dabney went on to become a bartender, chef, and renowned Richmond caterer, known for making 19th century high society’s delicacies such as terrapin stew, canvasback duck, and his infamous “hail-storm” Mint Juleps. He served the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) on his trip to America in 1860 and was a prominent caterer in Richmond until his death in 1900.

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Dabney’s Mint Juleps were originally made with peach brandy, rum, and sometimes other Caribbean spirits, mixed with sugar and water. The name hail-storm for this drink came about because drinks were starting to be made with ice, and he made his drinks with a lot of crushed ice.

Before becoming the well-known bartender and respected man he came to be, Dabney was a horse jockey. “The woman who inherited Dabney didn’t really have a huge farm or anything, yet her brother who raced horses saw the potential Dabney had for being a jockey and had him jockey for a few years,” said Ayers.

Once he grew out of jockeying, however, was when the beginning of career would take off.

“When he grew out of jockeying he went into the kitchen where he showed an almost natural skill for cooking and that’s when he was brought to Gordonsville and eventually Richmond to further hone his skills and pursue his career in cooking,” said Ayers.

Dabney first started working at the Hanover Junction as the head waiter in Gordonsville, Virginia. He then later headed the bar at a Richmond hotel, which was owned by William Williamson, the brother of the woman who inherited Dabney. While there, Williamson had chefs and those around him teach him more about cooking and bartending. After gaining experience, he eventually worked at various hotels throughout Richmond such as the Columbian Hotel, a fine lodging located on East Cary Street and even running the kitchen and bar at the Ballard House & Exchange Hotel.

Dabney started growing his reputation around the 1850s according to Ayers. “He’d go to Western Virginia where a lot of hot springs were. There were these resorts where elite Richmonders would go when it got hot and the resorts would advertise that Dabney would be there because he was this famous bartender and he’d even manage the kitchen,” she said.

Around this time is when he started getting attention from the Richmond newspapers. His achievements alone and accolades from whites was unheard of at the time for an African American, and at that point, he was still only 27 years old.

“The ability he had to negotiate… he had to be a good dealmaker as well because he was doing things 99 percent of people in his situation were not able to do,” said Warren.

Before the beginning of the Civil War, Dabney married Elizabeth Foster, another enslaved African American from Virginia and had a son, Clarence.

With his savings from working in restaurants and hotels, Dabney was able to buy the freedom for his wife and son.

“It really changes your view of slavery for him because,  Dabney purchasing the freedom of them, who would’ve thought that was even possible in that time period,” said Warren. And even after the war ended and every slave being freed, Dabney still repaid the debt he owed to his former owner for his freedom.

“His former owner told him, ‘everyone’s free now you don’t have to pay me, you don’t owe me anything, but Dabney insisted on paying her the debt anyway,” said Ayers.

In the 1870s, Dabney opened a restaurant spreading his popular reputation even further, which he ran until 1890 when he retired, however he still continued to work up until his death.

Dabney and his wife eventually settled down and bought a house in Richmond. They went on to have five kids, but only three made it to adulthood. 

The Black History Museum will screen The Hail Storm: John Dabney in Virginia this Wednesday, Feb. 28. The 26-minute documentary will feature one of his great descendants Jennifer Jackson Hardy and in addition to the film, guests will enjoy Mint Juleps and hors d’oeuvres inspired by Dabney, as well as a post-screening discussion with Ayers and Warren; historian Elvatrice Belsches; and Shola Walker, the co-owner and head baker of Mahogany Sweets, a bakery in Jackson Ward. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here. 

 

The Black History Museum’s New Photography Exhibit Showcases Forgotten African American Stories

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This Friday, the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA) puts overlooked stories in the limelight with the opening of their photographic exhibition, “Yesterday’s Stories, Today’s Inspiration.” The exhibit—which will be presented in two phases—features more than 150 photographs, capturing a timeline of black history in Richmond and the surrounding regions from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. 

“Yesterday’s Stories, Today’s Inspiration” is a collaboration between the Black History Museum’s extensive archive and photographs contributed by the community. They not only invited photos scanned from family albums, but asked Richmond to share their stories and memories of the people and places that make up the Commonwealth’s extensive black history.

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“We have a collection of thousands of photographs…and some of them have not been displayed, so we thought what better way to show our appreciation of Richmond and Virginia than to cull through these photographs to do our own special collection,” said interim executive director Adele Johnson. “Then we took it a step further and…did an open invitation to the Richmond community to invite them to share their photographs with us, and many of them did.”

Johnson said that while most Richmonders are aware of the big names in black history, the full scope of the rich, multi-faceted narrative is often left behind.

“We want them to learn new stories,” said Johnson. “I read a statistic not too long ago, that one in every four African Americans has a tie back to Virginia. I think that’s because Virginia is so rich in history. There are so many successful people that have a Richmond connection, and we want people to learn about them and, just as importantly, we want them to be inspired by those people.”

The first phase emphasizes the work of James Conway Farley and George O. Brown. Brown was a Richmond photographer prominent in the 19th century, who spent a lifetime chronicling African American history.

“New York City had James Van Der Zee, Washington D.C. had the Scurlocks, and Richmond had the Browns,” said historian and curator Elvatrice Belsches in the exhibit’s press release. “Their remarkable talents, captured in this exhibit along with others, act as a unique prism through which to view the fullness of the history of the Black experience in Richmond and beyond.”

This phase also includes education and worship. Johnson said the series featuring the Richmond Normal School, now Armstrong High School, is one highlight of the exhibit. “To think that the school is still in existence after all of these years is really something.”

The second installation of the exhibition—scheduled to follow soon after the opening of the first phase—will include professionals and entrepreneurs, organizations, and the military. “It’s really a broad brush of African American life,” said Johnson.

“There are stories about struggle, and there are stories about success,” said Johnson.  “We want people to know more so they can be proud of our city and state. We want these stories to become part of America’s history, not just black history.”

The opening reception for “Yesterday’s Stories, Today’s Inspiration” is this Friday from 6-8. The exhibit will run through May.

Top Photo By: Black History Museum & Cultural Center

Black Union Soldiers Remembered By American Civil War Museum

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At least four of the 180,000 African American soldiers who fought for the Union were buried in either East End or Evergreen cemetery on the outskirts of Richmond. Their stories were forgotten, in part because of the Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised Black Richmonders and their burial grounds.

Two journalists, Brian and Erin Hollaway Palmer, brought some of those stories to life Monday night at The Camel, for 60 attendees of a History Happy Hour sponsored by the American Civil War Museum, titled “Freedom Fighters at Rest.” The theme and timing coincide with Black History Month.

Sean Kane Programs Specialist From ACWM

The Palmers became interested in local graveyards after Brian discovered his great-grandfather, Matthew Palmer, was buried in Camp Peary, near Williamsburg. Matthew had served in the 115th Regiment during the Civil War, in one of the many regiments of the United States Colored Troops (USCT), named during a time when the offensive term colored was in wide use.

Brian knew his father had grown up in Magruder, an unincorporated community where many African Americans lived following the Civil War before the Army displaced them to make Camp Peary during World War II. He was able to visit and see the grave of his ancestor, but that was the end of his story. Like many of the African American soldiers, Matthew had been enslaved before the war, and records for him and many other men were conflicting, contradictory, or non-existent.

The Palmers relocated to Richmond, from their home in Brooklyn, and began work on two ambitious projects: The first to document the classified site known as Camp Peary, and the second, to uncover and reveal the stories of local men and women buried in East End Cemetery.

The stories of soldiers they found gave them a little insight into Brian’s great-grandfather, from the extraordinary life of William I. Johnson to the more ordinary account of Henry Williams.

Johnson was a prominent and wealthy man when he died in 1938. The Palmers found his story in the Work Projects Administration, which he shared in 1937, a year before his death at 98. He recounted growing up, being traded from home to home, and witnessing acts of torture at neighbors homes that shocked him. Even families that didn’t use torture “thought nothing of breaking up a family and selling the children,” Johnson said to his interviewer.

“Virginia WPA narratives were more accurate because African Americans interviewed the subjects, instead of the descendants of slave owners doing the interviews,” Brian said, as he described reasons Johnson’s narrative was credible.

While Matthew Palmer never became rich, Brian theorized that he probably joined the Union army the same way that Johnson had, at the urging of Union soldiers held prisoner near the men.

“They explained to us about slavery and freedom,” Brian read from Johnson’s account. “They told us if we got a chance to steal away from camp and got over on the Yankee’s side we would be free. They said if we win, all your colored folks will be free, but if the “Rebels” win you will always be slaves.”

Henry Williams of the 51st, Henry Wheaton of the 62nd, and Coleman Smith of the 27th Regiment were the other three soldiers buried in East End or Evergreen. Williams led a mostly ordinary life in comparison to Johnson, and conflicting records place him at both East End and Evergreen, but a letter suggests Evergreen.

Wheaton served under Lieut. Col. David Branson, a notoriously tough commander who didn’t tolerate idle soldiers. When he entered the war his signature was a crude X; under Branson, he learned to read and write, and the Palmers have found documents archived with his handwriting.

The final man, Smith, is mostly documented only in his pension application, made long after the war when he was 82. Part of the pension process required documentation of age, which wasn’t easy for most of the men; they had no birth certificates or records, as they were legally considered property.

Smith claimed his age was 82, with a family anecdote to support it. Seventy years prior, he had helped his father, an engineer, and other men with dangerous work on the James River; after one particularly risky moment, another man asked his age, and his father affirmed he was only 12. He kept count from that day forward.

Brian and Erin continue to seek information on Camp Peary, and have made connections with other historians and archivists as they hunt for the story of Matthew Palmer. They know he was in Texas at the close of the war, but the official record ends there.

“We spoke with a historian who thinks he followed the path of other men before him,” Erin said. “Taking a boat to New Orleans, then heading to Charlotte probably.” Matthew’s story may end there, but for Brian and Erin, their work has just begun. They’re part of Friends of East End Cemetery, a local group that meets at the burial site every Saturday to uncover the history of the men and women buried there.

The two have found nearly 2,900 graves since they began this project, but it’s taken a long time for Brian to feel optimistic, he said. “Erin knew it from the beginning, but not me. I would pull vines and go home feeling angry. But now I see opportunity. Every headstone we uncover is a victory.”