Freetown, Orange County, Virginia
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Freetown is a freedmen's town in Orange County, Virginia founded by formerly enslaved people, one of multiple Freetowns created in Central Virginia during the Reconstruction Era.[1][2][3][4] One of the founders was Chester Lewis, who was born enslaved around 1830 on a plantation in Lahore, Virginia.[5][6]
Village life was "communal", according to Phil Audibert. "Your child was everybody's child, and your parents were everybody's parents. If you borrowed a cup of sugar, you returned two."[1] Life in the community was detailed by Edna Lewis in her 1976 The Taste of Country Cooking.[7]
An annual Revival celebration is held in August at the Bethel Baptist Church in nearby Unionville.[8] In 2024, an historical marker honoring Edna Lewis was installed at the site.[9]