Gordonsville - African American Presence

Fried chicken vendors in Gordonsville. (Orange County Historical Society)

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In the mid-nineteenth century Gordonsville, with its intersecting rail lines, became a center of transportation. During the Civil War, large numbers of troops passed through and some stayed to recover in Union hospitals in the town. Enterprising African American women prepared fried chicken and biscuits and sold them to hungry travelers. They called themselves “waiter carriers” and later “chicken vendors.” The town gained fame as “the Fried Chicken Capital of the World.”

The income from their business helped women gain autonomy and improve the lives of their families. Second-generation vendor Bella Winston, interviewed for the town’s centennial in 1970 related that, “My mother paid for this place with chicken legs. We first lived in a log cabin but that burned almost 50 years ago and we rebuilt further from the road.” In the twentieth century, with the advent of dining cars, closed vestibules, and finally, air-conditioned trains, the business declined and perished. In 1965, however, Bella Winston still prepared and sold fried chicken in the community.

Churchgoers in Gordonsville attended Union Baptist Church on Cobb Street. Children studied at Gordonsville School, a two-room structure with tongue and groove paneling built in 1925. Classrooms were added in 1928 and 1930 to serve the growing community.

Resources

• Psyche A. Williams-Forson. Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
• Walker, Frank S. Remembering: A History of Orange County, Virginia. Orange, Va.: Orange County Historical Society, 2004.

Interest-African American, Prince William County, >African-American, >AF Prince William County