Virginia

The Virginia panel pays tribute to the lead mines of Wythe County, Virginia, integral to the production of musket balls for the Continental Army.

The panel depicts Welsh miners who were hired and brought to the colony to revive the failing mines. Subject to the same conditions as other laborers, they worked alongside enslaved men who were hired out by their masters as well as convicts who were serving out their sentences. Once the lead ore was excavated from the mines, it was transported to a smelting furnace and transformed into ammunition for muskets and rifles.

An enslaved man named Aberdeen (upper right) defied his Loyalist master’s orders to join the British and volunteered to enlist with the Continentals. Despite being led away from the line of action to Wythe County, Aberdeen served in the mines for seven years. After writing a petition to the House of Delegates explaining his service to the Patriot cause, Aberdeen received his freedom in 1783.

It is believed that the shots fired during the last conflict of the war, the Battle of Yorktown, used musket balls derived from the mines of Wythe County.