Hugh Carr

How this work helped shape America

Born enslaved in Virginia, Hugh Carr emerged from slavery to establish an independent agricultural and landowning enterprise in Albemarle County after the Civil War. Shortly after emancipation, Carr purchased the first 58 acres of what became River View Farm. Working with his wife, Texie Mae Hawkins, he continued acquiring property, and by 1890 the family held more than 125 acres, making them the largest Black landowners in Albemarle County at that time. Carr transformed emancipation into sustained agricultural production, property accumulation and an intergenerational family landholding that eventually expanded to approximately 200 acres.