Emanuel Quivers (1814-1879)

V-56

Emanuel Quivers was born into slavery on Berkeley Plantation to Jonathan and Sarah Quivers. Trained as a blacksmith, in 1845 Quivers became an enslaved wage earner at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond. There he learned the closely guarded puddling technique for manufacturing high-grade iron, rising to supervise a large group of artisans and laborers. He and his wife, Frances, were early members of the First African Baptist Church in Richmond. In 1852, he and Frances purchased their family’s freedom and left for California. As a community leader, Quivers advocated for educating African American children and for laws allowing persons of color to testify against whites.

Department of Historic Resources, 2021

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:

Gregg D. Kimball, American City, Southern Place: A Cultural History of Antebellum Richmond (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000). http://databases.charlescity.org/freedom/exhibit14C.shtml Rudolph M. Lapp, Blacks in Gold Rush California (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977). Kathleen Bruce, Virginia Iron Manufacture in the Slave Era (New York: The Century Co., 1931). Delilah Leontium Beasley, Negro Trailblazers of California (Los Angeles: Times Mirror Binding House, 1919). Patricia A. Schechter, “Free and Slave Labor in the Old South: The Tredegar Ironworkers’ Strike of 1847,” Labor History, vol. 35, no. 2 (Spring 1994): 165-186. Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, 6 Dec. 1873. San Jose Pioneer, 19 Dec. 1879. Quivers Family Notes, William Brown Layton Papers, 1907-1978, Virginia Museum of History and Culture.