Freeman is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in Brunswick County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, formally known as Totaro.

Oral history of origins

The oral history that is shared by members of the Union Bethel RZUA Church tells of two or three enslaved persons, some by the last name of Callis. The brothers, Rufin and Ira, were told by their enslaver in Louisiana that they would be given their freedom and a certain amount of gold if he did not return alive from the Civil War. The enslaver's last name was Callis; Rufin and Ira took it as their own.1866-1990 ''Callis Reunion'' by Dorothy Callis, dated July 7, 1990 (Unpublished Manuscript). Copy with Yigal Rechtman, genealogical research library When it became known that the enslaver had died, in 1866 the two brothers, now free, walked for about ten days to Totaro, Virginia. With their large sum of money, they were referred to as freemen. Rufin Callis purchased 900 acres of land for $1 per acre. Ira Callis also purchased "several hundred" acres. The area is now known as "Freeman", named in honor of their freedom. The oral history tells that the land for the Union Bethel RZUA Church, the adjacent school building (now a cemetery), and the cemetery were parts of the purchased land donated to create the church. To this day, members of the CallisCallis
/ref> and Robertson families own tract of lands in Freeman, Virginia.

References

* Unincorporated communities in Virginia Unincorporated communities in Brunswick County, Virginia {{BrunswickCountyVA-geo-stub