For half a century, Major Isaac Hite Jr. was one of the leading residents of the northern Shenandoah Valley. Through birth and marriage, he was connected to many of Virginia’s leading families, including the Madisons, a family he married into through his wife, Nelly Conway Madison Hite.
From his return serving in the Revolutionary War until his death in 1836, Isaac was an influential public figure, a successful farmer, a prominent landowner, and an innovative entrepreneur. However, his prosperity also depended on the forced labor of 270 Black men, women, and children whom he enslaved.
Because two things can be true at the same time, this exhibit shares Isaac’s story of fighting for freedom in the American Revolution while also recognizing the hypocrisy of being an enslaver who deprived an entire community of their unalienable rights to liberty.
Funding for this research and exhibit was made possible through a grant by The Chrisman Family Foundation. It draws on dedicated and extensive research on the Hite family and Isaac’s role in the American Revolution by Dr. H. Wayne Sulfridge as well as research by Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park Ranger Christopher Mattingly, Scott Terndrup, and Kristen Laise. Exhibit design by Jessica Pritchard-Ritter.