 The James River is a major source of commerce for the entire eastern part of Virginia. In the early colonial period Yorktown, Hampton and others became the major disembarking of enslaved Africans. They are brought to these given ports and then they're sold and they move west towards the Piedmont. So rivers are very important to the slave trade and the river was very important to those that were enslaved because it augmented their diet. I mean the fish, the crabs and so on that they took from the river provided subsidence from them when the plantation system may or may not have provided adequate food. Large numbers of the pilots of those rivers were African-Americans, whether enslaved or free. And matter of fact during the American Revolution and during the War of 1812 the first thing that the British would seek out is the knowledge of those particular individuals. Land that was close to the river was marshland, mosquito infested and had less value than it does today. Therefore blacks in certain instances lived closer to the water's edge because it was land that was not wanted in large measure by the larger white community or the white economic interest. The seafood industry primarily was a black industry at the end of the Civil War. So when you have black freedmen coming out of the Civil War it becomes a major source of economic opportunity. It provided them a means by which they could improve their condition. It provided them a means to educate their children. It was an important part of the lifestyle of my family in particular. My own father even after he retired from the shipyard went to the James River in Treads Oysters. My sister and I were educated from the monies that my father earned outside of his initial job at the shipyard from when he oystered. So you can see that the river offers a great source of possibilities to local populations.