The Devil's Half Acre

In The Devil’s Half Acre, bestselling author Kristen Green recounts the remarkable true story of Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who transformed a notorious slave jail into a pioneering institution for Black education. Forced to endure a harrowing existence under a brutal slave trader, Mary eventually inherited the facility, which she repurposed into "God’s Half Acre," leading to the establishment of Virginia Union University, one of America’s first Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Through thorough research, Green highlights Mary’s resilience and her significant impact on education and liberation within the context of the American slave trade.