First Africans Day

  • July 26, 2025 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
  • Stratford Hall

    483 Great House Road
    Stratford, Virginia 22520
Description

Join us for a powerful day of reflection, celebration, and remembrance as we honor the stories and contributions of the enslaved Africans and African Americans who shaped the history of Stratford Hall.

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black will be our keynote speaker at 3 p.m.! A Pulitzer Prize-winning author, she teaches history at Carnegie Mellon University and serves as Director of the Dietrich College Humanities Center. She has written extensively about the transnational history of West African rice farmers, including in such works as Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora. Guests can look forward to a wealth of insight, highlighted in her recent book COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War.

This commemorative day includes:

  • Special performance by KanKouran West African Dance Company;
  • Culinary demonstrations in the Historic Kitchen with Dontavius Williams;
  • Music, art, tours, and food;
  • Special ceremonies at the open and close of the day; and
  • Historical interpreters and storytellers.

Admission is free and includes access to the Great House, grounds, and all First Africans Day activities. 

Date & Time

Sat, Jul 26, 2025 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Venue Details

Stratford Hall

483 Great House Road
Stratford, Virginia 22520 Stratford Hall
Stratford Hall Historic Preserve

Stratford Hall brings together people from around the world to experience two-thousand acres of natural and human history, preserved and presented so that we can all learn from the courageous struggles of our ancestors, taking inspiration both from what they endured and what they accomplished. There are few places in America where people can travel down small, rural roads to arrive at a vast site that preserves so many aspects of early-American life, from the Great House where the influential Lee family helped to forge a new nation, to the fields worked by enslaved Africans, to the waters of the rivers that fueled trade, to the ground, which still yields secrets about the people and animals that lived before.

Come experience this extraordinary place and learn about a layered history that began millions of years ago - a history that continues to educate, inspire, and influence Americans to the present day.


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