Important Confederate Bond for First African Church, Charlottesville Virginia
Highly Unusual and historically significant Confederate States of America bond, issued for the First African Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. As the Civil War dragged on, the Confederacy issued bonds to raise money to finance its government. By 1864, inflation weighed heavily on the Southern economy, and these bonds were issued en masse as a way to reduce the rampant printing of paper money. While Confederate bonds are therefore relatively common, this particular example is singularly important. A handwritten ink inscription notes this bond was issued to “J.T. Thompson for trustees, Chville Af. Bap. Ch.” This is a shorthand reference to the First African Church in Charlottesville, Virginia – the first African American religious congregation in that city. Enslaved people and freed blacks from the Charlottesville area desired their own Baptist house of worship and began to organize; local church leaders reluctantly agreed to allow the practice so long as they would accept a white pastor to oversee them. Thompson was that pastor and served in that role from circa 1863-1867. Black congregants pushed back against his paternalistic sermons and eventually formed their own separate congregation, the Delevan Church.

It is unknown for what purpose Thompson was issued this bond, but it remains a reminder of a time when African Americans – both free and enslaved – fought to create their own houses of worship. The document is in very fine condition.


[African Americana, African-American History, Slave, Slavery, Abolition, Liberia] [Prints, Engravings, Lithographs, Ephemera]. [Slave, Abolition, African Americana, Civil War, Prints] [African American History, Black Americana] [Abraham Lincoln, Union, Confederate, Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist, 13th Amendment, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Barack, Obama]