Media & Resources

CBN Article & Video

Man of Honor: How a Religious Dissenter Put This Church on the Map

Polegreen on NPR

Timeline of Religious Freedom

One of the most popular features of the Historic Polegreen Church site is the Timeline of Religious Freedom. The Timeline is a long brick walkway leading to the original church's structure. The walkway is inlayed with markers listing the most important dates over two millennia in the history of the struggle for religious freedom.

Many of our visitors — especially students — find the Timeline to be a real eye-opener. A common assumption is that “religious freedom” is exclusively an American creation. But the reality is those freedoms represent hard-fought struggles that emerged over centuries of sacrifice and hard work.

Guide-by-Cell Tour of the site

Visitors to the historic Polegreen Church site can now take a tour of the site using their cellular phone. By calling (804) 205-9836, Dr. Dan Roberts of the University of Richmond and host of National Public Radio's "A Moment in Time" will guide you through the history and significance of Polegreen Church. You can listen to this virtual tour by choosing one of the segments below. All files are in mp3 format.

1. Religious Freedom
2. Polegreen Church: The Beginning
3. Samuel Davies
4. Samuel Davies and Patrick Henry
5. Moving toward Tolerance
6. Davies and Black Literacy
7. Princeton
8. The Demise of Polegreen Church
9. Polegreen Today
10. Why Preserve Polegreen

Interview with Robert Bluford, Jr., President of Historic Polegreen Church Foundation

Dr. Bluford discusses his life and the story of the Foundation. The interview is broken up into 15 .mp3 audio files.

Transcript (pdf)

Part 1	Part 6	Part 11
Part 2	Part 7	Part 12
Part 3	Part 8	Part 13
Part 4	Part 9	Part 14
Part 5	Part 10	Part 15

• Colonial Letters in the Defense of the Establishment
• Sermons on Important Subjects by the Reverend Samuel Davies A.M., President of the College of New-Jersey
• Sermons by the Rev. Samuel Davies, A.M., President of the College of New Jersey

• Living on the Borders of Eternity, by Bob Bluford, Jr., President of Historic Polegreen Church Foundation • Buy online from Amazon.com
• Samuel Davies and Transatlantic Campaign for Slave Literacy in Virginia
• Notes for a speech on Samuel Davies and Patrick Henry, by Dr. Jan Swearingen, Texas A&M University and Historic Polegreen Foundation Advisory Board Member
• Memoir of the Rev. Samuel Davies, Formerly President of the College of New Jersey
• The Story of the American Hymn, page 42 • Sketch of Davies
• Transcript and Two Translations of the Inscription on Samuel Davies' Gravestone, Courtesy of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton, NJ

Historic Polegreen Church met its demise during the Battle of Totopotomoy Creek in late May, 1864.

• Richmond National Battlefield Park Brochure: May-June 1864 The Overland Campaign