On Juneteenth at 11:00am, Prince William Board of County Vice Chair Andrea Bailey will be joined with community leaders and members of the Batestown community for the official renaming of Mine Road to Batestown Road, a 20 year effort. After the formal program, Vice Chair Bailey will be joined by members of the Historical Commission and the Bates family for the official unveiling at the intersection of Cameron and Mine Roads.

Batestown is a predominantly African American community and was one of only a handful of African American communities in Northern Virginia prior to the Civil War.  According to the National Park Service website, a man named Henry Cole, listed in the census as Black, owned seventy-eight acres of land in 1842. He bought another 77 in the 1850s, and more in 1872. By the start of the Civil War, he was the largest African American landholder in Prince William County. He owned three houses, a team of oxen, two milk cows, four cattle, eight pigs, and produced wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, and potatoes. In a time when most African Americans lived in bondage, Cole laid the groundwork for the small town of Batestown. By 1860, there were 550 free blacks in Prince William County, and some settled around Cole’s land.

Cole bought land once owned by Thorton Kendall, another African American, who owned the property in the 1820s. When Kendall died, he left his homestead to his wife, Sally Bates. Bates kept the name of her first husband. Batestown emerged by the middle of the nineteenth century as the property was divided among Bates’ and Cole’s descendants. After the Civil War, Batestown grew in population as formerly enslaved people moved here. Soon it became known as the African American section of Dumfries. Mainly farmers, some residents also worked at the nearby Pyrite Mine and Quantico Marine Corps Base. New work opportunities in the area drew new residents from throughout Virginia to Batestown, with some families moving as far away as Richmond to Batestown. By the turn of the twentieth century, there were 150 residents.

By the 20^th century the community grew large enough to support a church and school. In the 1930s the Federal government threatened eminent domain if local landowners did not sell their land to create Prince William Forest Park. Not all sections of Batestown were incorporated into the Park, and the community still survives today. As of the early twenty-first century, seventy-five continued to claim Batestown as their home.

The event will take place at 3944 Cameron Street in Dumfries.