Our names are Victoria Wassmer and Denne Reed, and we are raising money for the Emanuel Quivers VA Historical Highway Marker Dedication Ceremony. This Dedication Ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 4, 2022, at the Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County.

 

Emanuel Quivers was our 4th Great Grandfather. He led a remarkable life that Victoria's mother, Viola Baecher, traced back from California in the 1850s to the banks of the James River in Virginia, where Emanuel was born in 1814. In collaboration with the Charles City County Center for Local History, and supported by the current owners of Berkeley, the Jamieson family, we applied to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to recognize Emanuel's life and accomplishments with a Virginia Historical Highway marker. The board approved the official marker text on September 23, 2021, and the sign is now being crafted at the forge.

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, June 4th, the marker will be unveiled. We are hosting a dedication program to honor Emanuel, his family and other descendants of the enslaved and indigenous communities from Berkeley. The funds raised through this effort will help pay for the highway marker, program activities and light refreshments. We have already raised $4,000 of the $11,000 budget, and your contribution will help us make this exciting program possible.

 

 

Official Marker Text:

Emanuel Quivers (1814-1879)

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.

 

For more information about the June 4th program, please contact Victoria

Attached is a short video: