“We Can Take Care of Ourselves Now”: Establishing Independent Black Labor and Industry in Postwar Yorktown, Virginia.

The article provides a historical account of the establishment of independent labor and industry by Black refugees and freedpeople in postwar Yorktown, York County, Virginia. Information is provided on the patterns of land use and production introduced by formerly enslaved people, efforts of Black residents to negotiate with federal authorities for economic independence, alternate forms of industry to farming free-labor such as oystering and fishing, the advocacy for self-supporting farming.