Black Lives Next Door in Fairfax

William H. Carter

William H. Carter was a black landholder who lived in the Mount Vernon area of Fairfax County Virginia in the late nineteenth century. This exhibit will attempt to recreate a piece of history easily forgotten and not readily available as a part of the Black Lives Next Door initiative at George Mason University.

In this attempt, it proved difficult to find the records which was no surprise given the demographic as recordkeeping when it came to black lives was not careful in its consideration. Although black history was more easily hidden, its presence was not as easily erased. Due to the period's racial categorical sorting such as "white" and "colored", the search was lessened in burden opposed to had they not denoted lives in such a black and white way. 

As a starting point, the "Table of Tracts of Lands for the Year 1894" was used to give insight on the type of land owned by Carter and of note the amount of acres owned as well and this information proved to be invaluable when it came to to searching for the land deed records. [1]

As mentioned before, it was of considerable importance to have this information of number of acres, land description and of note the name "E. E. Mason". [2] All these details combined allowed for the deeds to appear as the difficulty arose in the name, Carter was a common surname, but the intricate details of the land were not. And while E. E. Mason had many properties, only one could link all the pieces together. 

Now this is only a small portion of Carter's life, yet it sheds a light on the type of place he lived in and what he had to do to accomplish the feat of being a land owner. And as more pieces are uncovered, more light is shed on the details of his life and of the people around him. 

The next pages will follow his presence in the records and what they unveil about the type of life he led, who he was and was viewed, and the type of life he gave to his family.

By Jeffrey Herrera