In December of 1829, nine Lucases of Loudoun County left Northern Virginia for Hampton Roads, where they boarded a brig bound for the western coast of Africa. Two of the men, Mars and Jesse Lucas, had recently been emancipated by Albert and Townsend Heaton of Loudoun County. Over the next decade, the two sets of brothers corresponded about family back home in Loudoun and the challenges of life in Liberia. The Museum has a display of several of the letters in our main gallery.

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A  Story Map developed as a collaboration between Museum staff, volunteers, and staff from the Loudoun County office of Mapping and Geographical Information has been created for the letters and includes excerpts from the letters, the locations mentioned within them, and a little about the events that led the Lucas family and other emancipated people to move across the Atlantic for a new life.