Britain is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

village in

Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun C ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

lying along Milltown Creek. It is located on the eastern flanks of

Short Hill Mountain Short Hill Mountain is a mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest Loudoun County, Virginia. Geography Short Hill rises sharply from the Piedmont countryside of the Loudoun Valley, northwest of Purcellville. It is a low-lying ri ...

along Mountain Road (VA Route 690) at its junction with Britain Road.

History

Originally known as Guinea, the village of Britain—named after

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

senator

Calvin Britain Calvin Britain (December 31, 1800 – January 18, 1862) was an American politician who served as Lieutenant Governor of the U. S. state of Michigan. Biography Britain was born in Jefferson County, New York. Britain came from New York to Michigan ...

—became the place of settlement for a free

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

community in the mid 19th century. Mount Sinai Free Baptist Church was built here in 1880 and served as a school for the community until 1915. Unlike most of the black settlements in Loudoun County, Britain had a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

in operation. Its African American residents began to move elsewhere in the early 19th century with the last black families leaving Britain in the 1920s. African-American history of Virginia Unincorporated communities in Loudoun County, Virginia Washington metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Virginia {{LoudounCountyVA-geo-stub