Virginia Museum of History & Culture to host author, descendant of enslaved Richmond liberator

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture will host a book talk and discussion with best-selling author and journalist Kristen Green and Dr. Carolivia Herron, a descendant of Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who liberated an infamous Richmond slave jail and transformed it into one of the nation’s first historically black colleges.

This will be the first time that the two will publicly discuss the subject of Green’s book in the city where it happened nearly 150 years ago.

The Devil’s Half Acre: The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South’s Most Notorious Slave Jail, tells the extraordinary story of Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. Sold away as a young girl, Lumpkin was forced to have the children of a violent slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre.” When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre,” a school where black men could fulfill their dreams, and that school still exists today as Virginia Union University.

“Hosting Kristen Green and Dr. Carolivia Herron for this powerful discussion about Mary Lumpkin’s life is not only monumental in revealing the often-erased stories of enslaved women, but also in telling a broader story about the history of slavery in Richmond,” said Joseph Rogers, manager of partnerships and community engagement at the VMHC.

Green is a reporter and author of The Devil’s Half Acre and the New York Times bestseller Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County, which received the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Nonfiction and the People’s Choice Award. She has worked as a journalist for two decades for newspapers including the Boston Globe, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Herron is an African American Jewish author, educator, and publisher who has held multiple professorial appointments, including at Harvard University and the College of William and Mary. She currently teaches classics in the English Department at Howard University and has recently been commissioned to write a play about her ancestry. Two of Herron’s children’s books Nappy Hair and Always An Olivia, highlight her Virginia heritage.

The event will be held at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture on Sept.15. There will be a reception and book signing immediately following the discussion. Guests may also purchase signed copies of the book at ShopVirginiaHistory.org.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit VirginiaHistory.org/events.