Upper Appomattox canal system

For over a hundred years, from 1745 to 1891, the Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation system enabled farmers to deliver wheat and corn to mills on the Appomattox River as far west as Farmville, Virginia, and ship milled flour to Petersburg. The canal, which circumvented the falls at Petersburg, featured a turning basin which let the long, narrow bateau reverse direction, unload shipments, and load goods for the return trip. The system could thus served downsteam markets destined for the Chesapeake Bay markets and likewise serve upstream markets from the coastal plain. As well, canal boats carried passengers in relative speed and comfort.

The river was continuously modified over its life to facilitate transportation, including significant modifications circa 1745, much of labor by slaves as well as freed Blacks from Farmville's Israel Hill neighborhood served as boatenn. The canal suffered damage in the Civil War, but survived in use until it was displaced by rail transit.

The Appomattox River was cleared for bateau by 1745. These boats were the same dimensions as the James River bateau, sixty feet long, six feet wide and two feet deep, appropriate to carry the largest load through the smallest parts of the river. Unlike the James River bateau, the Appomattox trips served westward and eastward river service, and were not sold off at the end of the voyage for their value as lumber.

To protect river navigation, the Virginia General Assembly enacted laws governing the James and Appomattox rivers, for example, forbidding construction of a river dam without locks for boat passage.

The Virginia General Assembly incorporated the Upper Appomattox Company in 1795. The state had bought 125 shares by 1801 to support the growth of transportation. In 1807, the company is allowed to sell bonds for one fourth of the expense of building the canal. A 335 foot long dam in the Appomattox diverted water to the canal. The canal was built entirely by enslaved Africans owned by the company.

The Appomattox Canal, completed in 1816, connected 5.5 miles from the head of the falls at the Fall Line on the Appomattox River to the Turning basin in Petersburg, Virginia. Built for $60,000, the canal could carry the bateau, six feet wide and three feet deep. With another $10,000 it could carry all river traffic. Slaves labored on the Appomattox River from Farmville to Petersburg, more than one hundred miles, constructing numerous wing dams to maintain the river's water level. The canal ;system included four stone staircase locks. Four watermills along the river had locks in their dams. Two of these watermills had stone locks.

The Canal around the falls had a navigable aqueduct made with Stone Arches and stone culverts to take boats over the Rohoic Creek confluence on the way to the canal basin. A short distance from the Basin, connected a by carriage route, were deep water ports that allowed for transport of to goods to and from the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.

One fourth of all cargo was transported from Farmville in bateaux on the Appomattox, andne third of the bateaux were owned by Free people of color. Otherwise, Bateaux were owned by White People who employed white boatmen as well as freemen and slaves. In 1796, plantation owner, Richard Randolph, freed his slaves upon his death and bequeathed his land to those freemen, including Sam White, enabling them to take ownership in 1810. The freemen, who formed the settlement of Israel hill; constructed building; farmed; operated bateaux; engaged in the transportation commerce — and lived in Israel Hill up to the time of the Emancipation Proclamation.