May 22, 2023 — Most days, James Douglas would be on the water by 5:30 in the morning, on the hunt for oysters.
He’d push off in his small boat from his family’s wharf on the Yeocomico River in Westmoreland County, the birthplace of the nation’s first president, George Washington, and, since 1824, of Douglas’ family, the Wilsons.
Douglas’ family has owned their waterfront property in Virginia’s Northern Neck since 1877. This is an astounding feat, considering few Black people were able to purchase land back then, and those that did were sometimes bullied by whites to give up their property or sell it for a pittance.
“Mitchell Wilson number one, he got a white fellow to buy it for him, and he split it up between all of his children and descendants,” said Douglas, sweeping his hand toward a ring of homes perched near the riverbank. “Those descendants, my family, are still here now.”