Nov 03, 2005 -- For years, Bronwen Souders has been passionately intrigued by the history of Waterford, the 1733 village near where she and her husband, John Souders, live.

Together, they have written several books on the history of the town’s Quaker settlers and its Civil War-era inhabitants. A dual path for Bronwen Souders has been exploring the history of the town’s black population, which, on the eve of the Civil War, was among the most populous free black settlements in the commonwealth.

Recently, the Souders presented the Thomas Balch Library for Genealogy and History in Leesburg a valuable gift: a bound collection of all the records of runaway slaves found in the pages of the 19th century publication, The Genius of Liberty, published by S.B.T. Caldwell for the years 1817 to 1843.