On September 15, 2022, best-selling author and journalist Kristen Green joined Dr. Carolivia Herron to discuss the subject of Green’s book and Herron’s ancestor, Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who liberated an infamous slave jail and transformed it into one of the nation’s first HBCUs.

"The Devil's Half Acre: The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South's Most Notorious Slave Jail" draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary story of Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal 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. It still exists today as Virginia Union University, one of America’s first Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Presenter Biographies:
Kristen Green is a reporter and the author of The Devil’s Half Acre and the New York Times bestseller Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County. She has worked as a journalist for two decades for newspapers including the Boston Globe, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. She holds a master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and lives in Richmond with her husband and two daughters.
Carolivia Herron is an African American Jewish author, educator and publisher living in Washington, DC. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, and has held multiple professorial appointments, including at Harvard University and the College of William and Mary. Currently she teaches Classics in the English Department of Howard University and has recently been commissioned to write a play about her ancestry. Two of her children's books, Nappy Hair and Always An Olivia, highlight her Virginia heritage. Carolivia Herron is a descendant of Mary Lumpkin.

The Devil’s Half Acre: Book Talk and Discussion with Kristen Green and Dr. Carolivia Herron

On May 5, 2023, author Craig S. Chapman spoke about the first overseas deployment of American troops, in which 4,000 colonists (including 400 from Virginia) served in the British Army on a disastrous expedition to the Caribbean.

In 1740 Great Britain mounted the largest overseas expedition in its history to that time. The goal was to seize control of Spain’s West Indies possessions during the so-called War of Jenkins’ Ear. Because of the large number of sailors and soldiers required, Britain resorted to enlisting recruits from its North American colonies to serve in the king’s army. The British launched joint land-sea attacks on Cartagena de Indias (modern day Colombia), Santiago de Cuba, and Panama, but failed in all three missions. Thirteen to fifteen thousand Britons and Americans perished on the expedition, as many as would die in the entire French and Indian War. As Capt. Lawrence Washington remarked, “War is horrid, in fact.”

Craig S. Chapman is the author of "Disaster on the Spanish Main: The Tragic British-American Expedition to the West Indies during the War of Jenkins’ Ear" and two other military histories, "Battle Hardened: An Infantry Officer’s Harrowing Journey from D-Day to VE Day" and "More Terrible Than Victory: North Carolina’s Bloody Bethel Regiment, 1861–65."

This lecture was sponsored by the Society of Colonial Wars in Virginia.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

“War is horrid, in fact”: Virginians in the West Indies Expedition, 1740–42

Eric Clapton&John Mayer - Broken Hearted

This series contains audio from lectures given in person or online at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture by renowned authors on historical topics. The content and opinions expressed by guest lecturers in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.To view a video of the lecture, visit VirginiaHistory.org/video. 

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is owned and operated by the Virginia Historical Society — a private, non-profit organization. The historical society is the oldest cultural organization in Virginia, and one of the oldest and most distinguished history organizations in the nation. For use in its state history museum and its renowned research library, the historical society cares for a collection of nearly nine million items representing the ever-evolving story of Virginia.

The Devil’s Half Acre: Book Talk and Discussion with Kristen Green and Dr. Carolivia Herron

Virginia Museum of History & Culture

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