Partlow 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 ...

Spotsylvania County Spotsylvania County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is a suburb approximately 60 miles (90km) south of D.C. It is a part of the Northern Virginia region and the D.C. area. As of 2024, Spotsylvania County is the 14th most populat ...

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 ...

. Partlow is a small rural community located between

Jefferson Davis Highway The Jefferson Davis Highway, also known as the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, was a transcontinental highway in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s that began in Arlington County, Virginia, and extended south and west to San Diego, Cali ...

( U.S. 1) and

Lake Anna Lake Anna is one of the largest freshwater inland reservoirs in Virginia, covering an area of , and located south of Washington, D.C., in Louisa and Spotsylvania counties (and partially in Orange County at the northern tip). The lake is easil ...

. It sits at an elevation of 400 feet, and appears on the Lake Anna East U.S. Geological Survey Map. Partlow's zip code is 22534, and as of the 2000 census, it had a population of 2,083. Partlow is located 31 miles northwest of the city of

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

. Originally, the area was termed "Pea Ridge" and was the site of a slave auction. Part of the original slave block still rests directly on Rt. 738 between the Partlow Post Office and Mt. Olive Rd (Rt. 658). A tavern, called "The Partlow Tavern", was established by Capt. John C. Partlow on the same corner as the slave block. Partlow is also home to Wallers Baptist Church, a historically notable church founded in 1769, known for the notorious persecutions against its founding pastor, John "Swearing Jack" Waller, by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. Capt. Partlow and Benjamin Waller, a descendant of John Waller, were also persecuted for their religion and briefly jailed at one point for having services in their homes. In the early 19th century, Benjamin Waller and John Partlow worked together to form the first Partlow Post Office. The family farm was sold in 2018. The last direct descendant bearing the Partlow name, Anne Partlow Pemberton, died in January 2004. Partlow's primary significance in popular culture is as the location of the plantation where the fictional character

Kunta Kinte Kunta Kinte ( ) is the main character from the 1976 novel '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family'' by American author Alex Haley. Kunta Kinte was based on family oral tradition accounts of one of Haley's ancestors, a Gambian man who was born ...

was enslaved.

External links

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Unincorporated communities in Spotsylvania County, Virginia Unincorporated communities in Virginia {{SpotsylvaniaCountyVA-geo-stub