Editing Farmville, Virginia (section)

===Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation System===
Between 1795 and 1890, Farmville was the end of the line for the [[Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation System]], built to improve navigation on the river. [[Slavery in the United States|Enslaved African Americans]] built the canal system that allowed commodity crops of tobacco and farm produce to be loaded on a [[James River bateau]] in Farmville and shipped to [[Petersburg, Virginia]].  The canals were used until railroads were constructed in this area.<ref name="VIRGINIA TOURISM CORPORATION 2016">{{cite web|url =http://www.virginia.org/listings/HistoricSites/UpperAppomattoxCanal/|title =UPPER APPOMATTOX CANAL|date =2016|website =Virginia is for Lovers|publisher =VIRGINIA TOURISM CORPORATION|access-date =2016-08-25|url-status =live|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160914032644/http://www.virginia.org/listings/HistoricSites/UpperAppomattoxCanal/|archive-date =2016-09-14}}</ref>

Many of the boatmen who worked near Farmville were [[free people of color]]. They lived in the [[Israel Hill]] community. Israel Hill was home to both [[White people]] and free [[African-American]] laborers, craftsmen, and farmers freed from the end of the Revolutionary War to around 1810. People of African and European descent worked for the same wages, built a church together, and could have resort to the court of law within the 350-acre town.<ref name="Department of Historic Resources">{{cite web| url = http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/contents/post%20march.2009.bd.meeting.marker.release.1x.pdf| title = Ten New State Historical Highway Markers Approved| last = Jones| first = Randy| date = 2009-04-15| website = Department of Historic Resources| access-date = 2015-08-25| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150923214238/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/contents/post%20march.2009.bd.meeting.marker.release.1x.pdf| archive-date = 2015-09-23}}</ref>