Archer Alexander’s story is important not only to the fabric of Virginia’s history, but it stretches across America. A man born enslaved in Virginia, who became a hero in Missouri’s Civil War conflict, was unknown in our Nation’s capital. There Archer Alexander rises before President Abraham Lincoln, his emancipator. The Emancipation Monument which was the gift of the formerly enslaved, was the only memorial to honor Lincoln in Washington, D.C. until 1922. The “unidentified man” now has a new opportunity for his story to be heard loud and clear with this Encyclopedia Virginia entry. Continue reading Encyclopedia Virginia