The Rev. Dr. William E. Thompson, retired chaplain of Hampden-Sydney College and Minister of Presbyterian College Church (Presbyterian), will speak at the Historical Society's April 19 meeting, as part of Confederate History Month.

Dr. Thompson's presentation will include information about the slave-owning Presbyterian churches in Prince Edward County and the Prince Edward County chapter of the American Colonization Society, which worked to free local slaves and return them to Liberia to establish colonies of free African-Americans. He will touch on the 1831 efforts of the Virginia legislature to make slavery illegal in Virginia and of the local Presbyterian pastors to set an example to their congregations by freeing their own slaves.

The meeting is open to the general public and will begin at 7 p.m, Tuesday, April 19, at the Farmville Train Station.