Light poles have been installed along the boardwalk at the Town Harbor. The poles stand between The Shanty and the bath house, as well as around the north and east sides of the inner harbor walkway. These lights add much needed light for pedestrians on the boardwalk, as well as in the parking lots. Light poles for the south side of the inner harbor are slated to be included in the rehabilitation project under consideration by the Town Council.

Central Park – Town Crews have removed damaged and dead Wax Myrtles around the tennis courts, as well as the damaged Bradford Pear growing into the swing set.

There are future plans to fix the tennis court fence which was damaged by storm winds. The town plans to straighten the damaged areas, and a Ligustrum hedge will be planted on the north, east and south sides. The hedge will function as a wind break.

Future plans include replacing the missing light pole on the south side of the courts. There is a dark spot on the court that this will address.

Surveillance cameras will be installed to monitor activity at the playground, gazebo and restrooms.

The Town of Cape Charles awarded a contract effective November 1, 2017 to
Davis Disposal for all waste collection and disposal services for the Town.

Thursday, the town approved the third of three extensions covering the timeframe from November 1, 2020 through October 31, 2021.

The cost for year four of the contract will be $15.55 per month. The amount may vary due to changes in the Northampton County landfill’s tipping fees.

Trunk-or-Treat has been canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic fears.
The town will allow normal trick-or-treating on Halloween day, October 31.
For those passing out candy, please the town wants you to try to provide individually wrapped goodie bags that are lined up to grab.

Cape Charles also recommends that you do not use a costume mask as a substitute for a cloth mask, instead consider using a Halloween-themed cloth mask.

The Town of Cape Charles and Cape Charles Main Street have decided to add a decorating contest. There will be two different categories to include businesses and homes.

Support Cape Charles Christian School by taking a chance!  Chances are $5 each or 5 for $20.  The first winner drawn on November 13th gets their choice of the packages – second drawn gets the second choice and so on!  

Contact  Debbie at 331-1717 , 350-5460 or debbie@cccsesva.org.  

Tickets must be purchased in advance for the Cape Charles Volunteer Fire Company’s Smoked Pulled Pork Dinner To-Go.

Contact Jeb Brady at (757) 651-5154 or any Cape Charles Volunteer Fire Company member to purchase tickets.

(Norfolk, Virginia) — Halloween represents an exciting and fun time of the year for children and adults alike, but the current Halloween season may look different this year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Everyone can protect one another from COVID-19 by avoiding people who live outside of your household, wearing a cloth face covering in public settings, frequent hand washing and staying six feet or more apart from each other.  

Some people, especially those at higher risk for illness, may choose not to participate in Halloween festivities this year because events that involve large gatherings of individuals can increase the risk of transmission of COVID-19.

VDH recommends NOT trick or treating in large groups or outside your own neighborhood, and NOT holding indoor haunted houses or other large Halloween parties.

To stay healthy and safe during Halloween, consider activities such as decorating your living space, carving pumpkins with people who live with you, or having a virtual Halloween costume contest.

To learn more about how to protect yourself and your family from COVID-19 during the Halloween season (in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Korean) see “Information about Public Events” here and the CDC’s Guidance for Holiday Celebrations.

The word of the year is division, and the on cue, the debate over what to do with the Confederate Monument in Eastville Green has exposed a rift among Northampton residents.

At Tuesday’s public hearing, the response was mixed, with some speakers supporting the monument, others steadfastly against it remaining. All written comments were in favor of removing the statue.

Where there was agreement, it came in support of Dr. Art Carter’s proposal to leave the Confederate Monument, and adding a monument to a Union Solider who is carved in “an African-American likeness.”

Supervisor Dixon Leatherbury argued that modern mores and morality should not be used to judge those that lived in the 19th century.

Chairman Oliver Bennett was more divisive, noting he would not compromise on the monument based on the racism he had to endure living in Northampton County.

The fate of the monument will be on the agenda at the Board’s next Regular meeting in November.

The Eastern Shore of Virginia Ground Water Committee will meet at the Club Car Cafe, 18501 Dunne Avenue in Parksley. The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 12 Noon on Tuesday Oct. 20th.

COVID-19 Guidelines and Regulations will be adhered to during this meeting. For more information, visit Virginia.gov.

This GWC meeting is in-person for Committee Members Only and will comply with COVID-19 Regulations. Committee Members are welcome to attend in-person or virtually. 

All members of the public who wish to participate must attend virtually, using the Zoom information provided.

For virtual attendance, please join the meeting at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting. If you are in need of technical assistance, please email jsteelman@a-npdc.org (technical assistance will be available 9:40a.m. – 10:00a.m.)       

Click here to visit the website: http://www.a-npdc.org/accomack-northampton-planning-district-commission/ground-water-management/eastern-shore-of-virginia-ground-water-committee/

PUNGOTEAGUE, Va. — Long before there was a village store or post office, a family named Johnson raised cattle near the winding creek. Anthony Johnson (b. c. 1600 – d. 1670) was one of the first African American property owners and had his right to legally own a slave recognized by the Virginia courts. Held as an indentured servant in 1621,he earned his freedom after several years.

He was eventually granted land by the colony, where he became a successful tobacco farmer. He has been referred to as “‘the black patriarch’ of the first community of Negro property owners in America”

Johnson was sold as an indentured servant to a white planter named Bennet to work on his Virginia tobacco farm. (Slave laws were not passed until 1661 in Virginia; prior to that date, Africans were not officially considered to be slaves).

Such workers typically worked under a limited indenture contract for four to seven years to pay off their passage, room, board, lodging, and freedom dues. In the early colonial years, most Africans in the Thirteen Colonies were held under such contracts of limited indentured servitude. With the exception of those enslaved for life, they were released after a contracted period. After their time of “servitude” they would receive land and equipment after their contracts expired or were bought out.

Most white laborers in this period also came to the colony as indentured servants.

In 1623, “Mary, a Negro” arrived from England aboard the ship Margaret. She was brought to work on the same plantation as Johnson, where she was the only woman. Anthony Johnson and Mary married and lived together for more than forty years.

Sometime after 1635, Johnson and Mary gained their freedom from indenture. He first entered the legal record as a free man when he purchased a calf in 1647.

Johnson was granted a large plot of farmland by the colonial government after he paid off his indentured contract by his labor. On 24 July 1651, he acquired 250 acres (100 ha) of land.

The land was located on the Great Naswattock Creek, which flowed into the Pungoteague River in Northampton County, Virginia. With his own indentured servants, Johnson ran his own tobacco farm. In fact, one of those servants, John Casor, would later become the first African man to be declared indentured for life.

In 1653, John Casor, the black indentured servant whose contract Johnson appeared to have bought in the early 1640s, approached Captain Goldsmith, claiming his indenture had expired seven years earlier and that he was being held illegally by Johnson. A neighbor, Robert Parker, intervened and persuaded Johnson to free Casor.

Parker offered Casor work, and he signed a term of indenture to the planter. Johnson sued Parker in the Northampton Court in 1654 for the return of Casor. The court initially found in favor of Parker, but Johnson appealed. In 1655, the court reversed its ruling. Finding that Anthony Johnson still “owned” John Casor, the court ordered that he be returned with the court dues paid by Robert Parker.

This was the first instance of a judicial determination in the Thirteen Colonies holding that a person who had committed no crime could be held in servitude for life.

Though Casor was the first person declared a slave in a civil case, there were both black and white indentured servants sentenced to lifetime servitude before him.

Individuals made assumptions about the society of Northampton County and their place in it. According to historians T.R. Breen and Stephen Innes, Casor believed he could form a stronger relationship with his patron Robert Parker than Anthony Johnson had formed over the years with his patrons. Casor considered the dispute to be a matter of patron-client relationship, and this wrongful assumption resulted in his losing his case in court and having the ruling against him. Johnson knew that the local justices shared his basic belief in the sanctity of property.

The Casor lawsuit was an example of how difficult it was for Africans who were indentured servants to prevent being reduced to slavery. Most Africans could not read and had almost no knowledge of the English language. Planters found it easy to force them into slavery by refusing to acknowledge the completion of their indentured contracts.[1] This is what happened in Johnson v. Parker. Although two white planters confirmed that Casor had completed his indentured contract with Johnson, the court still ruled in Johnson’s favor.