Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris was an African American landowner who worked as a farm laborer. Despite getting a hold of multiple legal documents and primary sources through extensive research, much about his life still remains a mystery due to the much potential evidence that could not be found as a whole. Even multiple standard documents that are expected to be held in the Fairfax County Circuit Court’s historic archives were not found under his name. This signaled that Thomas Harris had a life that was relatively quiet from the court, potentially being the reason much first-hand documents are not on file, nor could much second-hand sources about him be found.
This exhibit will present the limited evidence that were able to be found and will piece together information to form a narrative of his life, his family, and his land ownership.
It is important to know that he had owned land during a time when bigotry was a part of society and even the government. Proof of this includes the fact that government documents, such as the Land Tax records, were separated and identified by the race of the person, being labeled as either “White” or “Colored”.