Editing Blackstone, Virginia (section)

==History==
[[File:Map of Court House and Blacks & Whites Area of Nottoway County, Virginia, from 1864.jpg|thumb|left|Court House and Blacks & Whites Area of Nottoway County, Virginia, 1864]]

The settlement was founded as the village of "Blacks and Whites", so named after two tavern keepers, before the Revolutionary War. It was renamed Bellefonte on May 11, 1875, and back to Blacks and Whites on August 4, 1882. On February 23, 1886, the town was incorporated with the name of Blackstone, in honor of the influential English jurist [[William Blackstone]].<ref name=town/>

The [[Blackstone Historic District]], [[Butterwood Methodist Church and Butterwood Cemetery]], [[Little Mountain Pictograph Site]], [[Oakridge (Blackstone, Virginia)|Oakridge]], and [[Schwartz Tavern]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>

The town, under its former name, was a stop on the [[Southside Railroad (Virginia)|Southside Railroad]] in the mid-nineteenth century. The railroad became the [[Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad]] in 1870 and then a line in the [[Norfolk and Western Railway]], now the [[Norfolk Southern Railway]].<ref Name=Bright2015>{{cite web |url=http://www.csa-railroads.com/South_Side.htm  |title=Confederate Railroads - South Side|last=Bright |first=David L. |date=2015 |website=Confederate Railroads |access-date=January 25, 2018 }}</ref> The town's grid street pattern was laid out in 1874, and the town incorporated in 1888. Its economy thrived as a location for [[Types of tobacco#Aromatic Fire-cured|dark-leaf tobacco]] sales and shipment through its railroad station.