|
|
Historical Highway MarkersHanover TavernND-14
John Shelton opened the first tavern at the permanent site of Hanover Courthouse about the 1750s. The current tavern's earliest segment dates from about 1791. The tavern prospered with the establishment of the stage coach line until the railroad diverted business in the 1830s. An essential component of the social life of Hanover County, the taverns attracted many important people, including Patrick Henry, Lord Cornwallis, and George Washington, among others. Several enslaved African Americans from the tavern complex were accused of participation in both Gabriel’s Rebellion of 1800 and the Easter Plot of 1802. In 1953, the Barksdale Theater was established here.
Department of Historic Resources, 2012 See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov. |
DHR could use your help! We don't have a recent image of this marker. If you have one that you'd like to submit for inclusion on this site, please send it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov. |
|
References/Bibliographic Citation: Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North American in the Years 1780-81-82, Vol. 2 (New York: White, Gallagher & White, 1827); Mark Couvillon, Patrick Henry’s Virginia (Brookneal: Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, 2001); Douglas Egerton, “’Fly Across the River’: The Easter Slave Conspiracy of 1802,” in North Carolina Historical Review vol. 68 no. 2 (April 1991): 87-110; Douglas Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993); Muriel McAuley, Going On…Barksdale Theater: The First Thirty One Years (Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1984); Michael L. Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion: Narrating Gabriel’s Conspiracy (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012) |