The immediate vicinity of what is now Earls appears to have been spared significant action during most of the
Civil War. Troops from both sides passed close by during the
final days of the war in early April 1865, as
Confederate forces retreated westward and
Union forces pursued and flanked the Rebels. However, most of the movement around Earls would have occurred during a brief lull in the fighting, between the
Battle of Namozine Church and a series of increasingly bloody and desperate engagements in central and western Amelia County. General
Robert E. Lee surrendered to
Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox on April 9. Manassas (or Manassa) Hill School, built sometime between 1917 and 1920, was one of the first of at least a dozen
Rosenwald Schools in Amelia County. The particular design for Manassas Hill called for a 1-acre campus with a
building to accommodate one teacher; the school was located on
SR 615 (modern-day Namozine Road) near Earls. During the early 20th century, the Rosenwald School project was a collaborative effort that constructed thousands of facilities across the South primarily to improve the education of
African American children. After
desegregation, the Rosenwald model became obsolete, and many former Rosenwald properties were demolished or sold. The Manassas Hill property, along with several other former Rosenwald Schools in Amelia County, was put up for auction in the late 1960s. Manaza (or "Manassa") Hill Baptist, a historic
African American church, is 2 miles north of Earls on Route 615. Although the church and the school have similar names and were located on the same road, it is unclear what the connection may have been between the two. ==References==