Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Timeline
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Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Timeline
Through images and descriptions of events, the Timeline provides an opportunity to explore sequentially the experiences of African American freedom-seekers in Alexandria during the Civil War, the establishment of Freedmen’s Cemetery, the neglect and desecration of the burial ground that followed the period of its use, and the creation of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial. The timeline opens with the establishment of the City of Alexandria in 1749 and skips to the Federalist period in 1790 with the birth of our nation to set the stage for the arrival of thousands of self-emancipators in a city controlled by the Union Army. The final entries focus on the events that led to the creation of the memorial.
Events related to the cemetery and memorial are in bold type, and are interspersed with entries in italics, relating to local, state and national events that provide context.
Year | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
1749 | The City of Alexandria was established in 1749 on a shallow cove on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. | |
1790 | Plans for creation of the nation’s capital included parts of Virginia and Maryland on both sides of the Potomac. With passage of the Organic Act of 1801, inclusion of Alexandria became official after the capital moved from Philadelphia to the District of Columbia.1 The capital city provided more opportunities for African Americans, such as the ability to gain an education. | |
1790 | First U.S. Census indicated Alexandria had a population of Alexandria of 2,748: 595 were African American individuals; 52 were free. | |
1796 | Penny Hill Cemetery, a public burial ground, was established on Payne Street south of the developed area of the city. This area would become a cemetery complex when Alexandria’s Common Council restricted the creation of new cemeteries within city limits in 1804. Numerous churches bought land in the area for establishment and expansion of their burial grounds. Penny Hill was fenced in July 1809. | |
1806 | The oldest of two antebellum Black churches in Alexandria, the Alfred Street Baptist Church, was established under the supervision of the Alexandria Baptist Society, a white religious organization. A second church opened in 1832 as Davis Chapel Church, and was renamed Roberts Memorial United Methodist when the Methodist Church split on the issue of slavery | |
1808 | Jan 1 | An Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves went into effect in the United States, but did not prohibit slavery nor the sale of enslaved people. |
1809 | The first documented school for African American children was established in Alexandria, as noted in a special report by the U.S. Department of Education in 1871. | |
1810-1850 | Establishment of Alexandria’s first free Black neighborhoods. | |
1828 | The slave pen at 1315 Duke Street opened as Franklin & Armfield, one of Alexandria’s most lucrative enterprises during the antebellum period. It dealt in the trafficking of human suffering by transporting 1,000 to 1,200 slaves annually from Alexandria to the southern states, primarily to work on cotton plantations. | |
1847 | Alexandria and Alexandria County (now Arlington) became part of Virginia again when the Virginia General Assembly voted to formally accept retrocession legislation after Congressional approval in 1846. This resulted in more restrictive policies for the city’s African American population, including the closure of schools. | |
1850 | Sept 18 | Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850 between southern and northern states. The act required the return of all runaway slaves. Educator and aid worker Harriet Jacobs, formerly enslaved, considered the passage of the law “the beginning of a reign of terror to the colored population.” |
1853 | June 2 | Francis L. Smith purchased the property that would eventually become Freedmen’s Cemetery at what is now 1001 South Washington Street. |
1859 | Alexandria participated in the passage to freedom along the Underground Railroad. As reported in the Alexandria Gazette, “the most wonderful part of the story is that in the transit across the Suspension Bridge at Niagara, the ‘property’ suddenly became metamorphosed into about a dozen smart, intelligent, young and middle-aged men and women. These ‘chattels personal’ were part of a large shipment which left Alexandria, Va., about the time of the Harper’s Ferry insurrection.” | |
1860 | The 1860 census documented that Alexandria was home to 1,386 enslaved Black individuals, held by 251 enslavers. The total population was 11,266, which included 1,415 free African American people.14 On the eve of the Civil War, the percentage of Alexandria’s free Black population was markedly greater than in any other urban area in the Commonwealth, except for Richmond. | |
1861 | April 12 | The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, began the American Civil War. |
1861 | May 24 | Virginia seceded from the Union.15 Union forces seized Alexandria. Federal control lasted until January 26, 1870. |
1861 | May 24 | The 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry liberated enslaved individuals held at the Price, Birch & Company slave pen at 1315 Duke Street, Alexandria. This was the first known act in Alexandria of Union troops freeing enslaved people. |
1861 | May 24 | Major-General Benjamin Franklin Butler granted refuge at Fortress Monroe to three enslaved men who made their way to the Union fortification. He considered these individuals “contraband of war” because of their ability to contribute to the southern war effort. His decision not to return the self-emancipators to their enslavers was embraced as the unofficial federal policy. |
1861 | Aug 6 | The First Confiscation Act passed, allowing seizure of all Confederate property used to aid the war effort. This included formerly enslaved individuals. |
1861 | Sept 1 | Mary Chase, an enslaved African American woman abandoned by her enslavers in May 1861, opened the first of 24 schools to educate African American students in Alexandria during the war. The Columbia Street school, located near Wolfe Street, was the first known Contraband school in the U.S. Many of the schools in Alexandria were founded by African American individuals and reflected their recognition of the importance of education. Between 1861 and 1864, 3,732 Black students registered for school, with 1,734 able to read by the war’s end in 1865. |
1862 | April | The military government in Alexandria began an official tally of the number of deaths of contrabands and freedmen in Alexandria, as recorded in the “Monthly Official Report,” the opening page of the Book of Records. |
1862 | May | The military government established a smallpox hospital/quarantine facility on the south side of Saint Mary’s Cemetery, along the Manassas Gap Railroad cut that led from Jones Point. The establishment came after Alexandria’s Board of Health reported their difficulty controlling the spread of the disease. As the number of cases increased throughout the fall, three or four African American nurses cared for at least 29 cases in the facility by the end of November. Burials, especially of smallpox victims, may have taken place in a potter’s field near this location. |
1862 | May | The Alexandria Gazette reported on the arrival of numerous freedom-seekers in the city: “‘Contrabands.’—There are here now numbers of negroes from the adjoining counties of Virginia.” |
1862 | July | The federal government created Soldiers’ Cemetery, now known as Alexandria National Cemetery. It was one of the original military cemeteries in the nation. The first burials were soldiers who died during training or from disease in the numerous hospitals around Alexandria. |
1862 | July 17 | The Second Confiscation Act was enacted, proclaiming the immediate liberation of all slaves who escaped to Union lines and authorizing their employment for the Union cause. The Confiscation Acts and the designation as contraband of war stimulated the race to freedom, providing hope for may enslaved individuals. In addition, President Lincoln signed a bill that allowed for the military recruitment of African Americans to aid the war effort, paving the way for the establishment of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). |
1862 | Aug 26 | The Alexandria Gazette reported on the influx of self-emancipators: “[L]arge numbers of contrabands continue to arrive here, principally from the upper counties. Yesterday about 100 reached here. A large number are engaged in the streets, in the hospitals, public laundries &c. They are paid by the government 40 cts. a day” |
1862 | Aug 30 | The Alexandria Gazette noted that freedom-seekers continued to pour into the area: “Contrabands are flocking to Washington in great numbers—in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. About half the numbers are little children and old men. Most of the rest are women.” |
1862 | Sept 9 | The Alexandria Gazette announced work opportunities for African Americans: “The U.S. Government made drafts yesterday, upon the contraband depot, for all the able-bodied contrabands, to work upon the fortifications around Washington.” Fort Ward and Fort Ellsworth, now part of Alexandria, numbered among the more than 160 forts and batteries that surrounded the capital for defensive purposes. |
1862 | Sept 29 | The Alexandria Gazette reprinted an article from a New York newspaper that documents the problems facing the new arrivals: “The Contrabands.—At Alexandria, there are over a thousand deserted and neglected negroes. There is a nominal care over them; but, in reality, it is next to none. They are huddled together in old slave pens in the rudest kind of shanties, under trees and ragged canvas coverings, many times without food, necessary clothing or beds….” |
1862 | Oct 12 | Reverend Albert S. Gladwin unofficially took on the responsibilities of Superintendent of Contrabands in Alexandria. |
1862 | Nov 4 | Julia Wilbur arrived in Alexandria to serve as a freedmen’s agent for the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Julia went on to advocate for the freedmen and to recount her experiences as an aid worker in diaries and letters. |
1862 | November | The military government took over Clermont, a 300-acre estate about 3 miles west of the city, for use as the Claremont Smallpox Hospital. Originally established for contrabands who had contracted “eruptive fever,” i.e., smallpox, the hospital did not provide treatment for wounds or general illnesses but functioned more like a quarantine facility to protect the community from the spread of the deadly infection. By the end of January 1864, with other facilities proving insufficient to deal with the magnitude of the problem, Claremont had begun to care for soldiers as well as civilians, both Black and white, suffering from smallpox. The facility included a cemetery for victims of the disease. At least 121 burials were removed after the war and reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery. |
1862 | Dec 8 | Recognizing a severe housing shortage and the poor living conditions for the arriving freedom-seekers, the Secretary of War ordered barracks constructed for the increasing number of contrabands in Alexandria. |
1862 | Dec 24 | Julia Wilbur reported home about the horrifying spread of smallpox in Alexandria: “Smallpox ambulances may be seen in every part of the city. I think it is all over & all around us…How dreadful it will be if it is in the army. Poor soldiers.” |
1863 | Jan 1 | The Emancipation Proclamation became law, officially granting freedom to enslaved African American people in Confederate states, including those in Alexandria. It ordered “military and naval authority to recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons….” and explicitly authorized enlistment of African American men as soldiers. |
1863 | Jan 14 | Sponsored by the New York Society of Friends (Quakers), abolitionist, educator, and aid worker Harriet Jacobs, formerly enslaved, arrived in Alexandria to work with the contrabands and freedmen. |
1863 | Feb 27 | The Contraband Hospital was established in the northern half of the house at 321-323 South Washington Street, specifically for care and treatment of the African American community in Alexandria. Aid workers and government officials occupied the southern half of the house. |
1863 | March 5 | Working out of Reverend Gladwin’s office, Eliphalet Owen, began the “Personal Record of Deaths,” a list of the names of the contrabands/freedmen who passed away in Alexandria. Morris Grimes, age 5, was the first listed. The individual records, noting name, age, and date of death, ended January 12, 1869. |
1863 | April 13 | The Freedman’s Relief Society reported that in “Alexandria, there are 3,000 contrabands at present. About 800 have died since they first began to assemble there.” While burials of smallpox victims may have taken place in the vicinity of the hospital at the south end of town prior to the establishment of Freedmen’s Cemetery, most burials of the freedom-seekers in the early years of the war took place in Penny Hill Cemetery, established as a public burial ground in 1796 on Payne Street within what became the city cemetery complex. Harriet Jacobs wrote in a letter that the “refugees were buried in this town by the Government, beside many private burials….”44 A month later, Julia Wilbur wrote of the conditions of the cemetery [complex], saying it was “all green & nice but the potters field,” where the “contrabands are packed away, oh, such a place!” |
1863 | Early May | The military government officially appointed Reverend Albert S. Gladwin as Superintendent of Contrabands. |
1863 | May 22 | The Bureau of Colored Troops officially established within the Office of the Adjutant General of the Army. The Bureau managed matters pertaining to recruitment, organization, and service of the U.S. Colored Troops. The Alexandria Gazette noted: “It is reported in official circles that the first drafts at the North will be from the free negro population. All the able-bodied colored men between twenty and thirty-five years of age are to be taken to fill up the ranks of the various negro brigades now under way.” |
1863 | July 23 | The 2d United States Colored Infantry organized in Alexandria County (now Arlington) to serve for three years. The unit was mustered out on January 5, 1866. |
1863 | July 23 | The military government seized the property of Francis L. Smith: “[It] has recently been levied by the U.S. authorities, under the Confiscation act…[He has been] absent …since the commencement of the war….” This seizure included the property at 1001 South Washington Street that would become Freedmen’s Cemetery. |
1863 | October | Beulah Baptist Church on South Washington Street was the first African American church formed after the military seized control. Over the next few years, three other new churches, all associated with schools, would be established to address the spiritual, educational, and social needs of the war-time freed population: Third Baptist Church at Pitt and Oronoco streets, Shiloh Baptist Church near the L’Ouverture Hospital complex, and Zion Baptist Church on South Lee Street. |
1863 | Oct 29 | The Alexandria Gazette noted: “…hundreds of shanties and slight frame buildings for ‘contrabands’ are going up in the suburbs of the town….” |
1863 | November | Construction of L’Ouverture Hospital, specifically built for African American soldiers, began on property confiscated by the Union army at Prince and Payne streets, the location of the former slave pen. Initially constructed for USCT, the facility, first called the New General Hospital, soon took on treatment of all people of color in the community. |
1863 | Dec 4 | The Alexandria Gazette reported 48,000 black troops and 106,000 blacks “in all employed in the army of the United States.” |
1864 | Jan 21 | Mayor Charles A. Ware granted the use of Penny Hill Cemetery for burials, giving “Mr. Gladwin, Supt. Contrabands, …permission to bury negroes in Penny Hill until further notice.” Julia Wilbur again noted the horrific burial situation, referring to the Penny Hill location: “The Potters field is the most heathenish looking place I ever saw. The[y] were put in holes rather than graves, and bare[ly] covered.” These conditions undoubtedly led to the establishment of Freedmen’s Cemetery by the military government. |
1864 | Feb 29 | The location of the contrabands/freedmen’s burial ground selected and laid out on the confiscated property of Francis L. Smith. General Slough directed Reverend Gladwin to “please superintend the building of a Fence around the Burying Ground recently selected. It is to be done as cheaply & expeditiously as possible.” |
1864 | March 4 | Alexandria Gazette published notice of the establishment of Freedmen’s Cemetery: “A grave yard for the burial of ‘contrabands’ who may die in this place [Alexandria] has been laid off near the Catholic Cemetery.” |
1864 | March 7 | First interment took place at Freedmen’s Cemetery. In his correspondence to General Slough, Reverend Gladwin recounted the order to begin burials “…with verbal orders from your Head Quarters [sic], …I selected and laid out the grounds for the present Cemetery in February last, and reported back; and on the 29th day of the same, received a written order to superintend the building of a fence to enclose it, and that on the 7th day of March, I commenced to inter bodies there.” |
1864 | March 10 | Julia Wilbur described the route of her daily visits in her diary, making a stop at what is probably Penny Hill in the cemetery complex: “At 9 went with Jepitha to the Barracks, the Hospital, the Slave Pen and the Soldiers Rest. Then to the Soldiers Burying Ground, and through the cemetery to Potters Field. Such a heathenish place but no more Contrabands are buried there now.” |
1864 | April 12 | Julia Wilbur wrote about visiting the new cemetery: “…went in Ambulance to the new Contraband burying Ground, 65 graves there already, as good a place as they could get.” |
1864 | July 8 | James G.C. Lee was officially appointed to serve as assistant quartermaster in Alexandria. One of his duties was management of the interment of soldiers in the military cemetery of Alexandria. |
1864 | Aug 1 | Ceremonious celebration held for the naming of the new general hospital—L’Ouverture Hospital—in honor of General Toussaint L’Ouverture, the leader of the successful 1791 Haitian slave revolt. The name for the hospital was adopted before the ceremony; it was apparently in use as early as May 1864. Harriet Jacobs recalled that she awoke early to partake in “Alexandria’s first commemoration of British West Indian Emancipation. The center of the ceremony was to be the presentation of a flag to a representative of the hospital.” |
1864 | Dec 26 | A funeral procession ordered to Soldiers’ Cemetery (now Alexandria National Cemetery) from L’Ouverture Hospital by Assistant Quartermaster J.G.C. Lee was intercepted by Reverend Gladwin and redirected to the Freedmen’s Cemetery. Julia Wilbur recorded the day’s events, “Mr. Gladwin has buried 2 soldiers in Cold. Ground this P.M. Quite an excitement. The soldiers at hos[pital] are furious, refused to go as escort. Mr. G. has caused one to be put in Slave Pen.” |
1864 | Dec 27 | A petition was prepared by the sick, wounded, and dying soldiers of the USCT at L’Ouverture Hospital, who strongly expressed their desire and honorary right to be buried at Soldiers’ Cemetery rather than at Freedmen’s Cemetery. The document was signed by 443 Black soldiers. The petition read: “As American citizens, we have a right to fight for the protection of her flag, that right is granted, and we are now sharing equally the dangers and hardships in this mighty contest, and should shair [sic] the same privileges and rights of burial in every way with our fellow soldiers, who only differ from us in color….” The petition resulted in what was likely the first successful civil rights action in the city. |
1865 | Jan 6 | Removal of the remains of 118 USCT from Freedmen’s Cemetery with reinterment in Section B of Soldiers’ Cemetery (now Alexandria National Cemetery) began and continued over a three-week period. The first soldiers to be reinterred were Privates James Brown and Solomon Dorsey. |
1865 | Jan 10 | The Alexandria Gazette described Alexandria’s contraband neighborhoods: “[T]wo principal villages of the ‘Contrabands,’ in this place are situated at the North and South ends of the city—whole squares on those localities being now covered with the shanties which they occupy. Some of these frail and temporary buildings are owned by the occupants, being built upon leased [land] at a certain price per foot; whilst many are rented at specified prices per month…. Whilst, however, the ‘contrabands,’ for the most part, settle together in places specified, they occupy houses in various other parts of the city.” |
1865 | Jan 15 | A diary entry by Julia Wilbur documented the removal of Reverend Gladwin as Superintendent of Contrabands as a result of the USCT burial issue: “When we returned from meeting, Dr. Pettijohn informed us that Capt. Ferree was really to supersede Gladwin & an order to that effect had been given by Sec. of War.... |
1865 | Mar 3 | Congress passed An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees (13 Stat. 507). This established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, more simply known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. |
1865 | April 9 | Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, ending the Civil War. |
1865 | April 15 | President Lincoln shot at Ford’s Theatre on the evening of April 14 and died the next day. Within a few hours of Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President. |
1865 | June 22 | The Alexandria Gazette noted: “It is said that the negroes, contrabands, and others, have invested, in this place [Alexandria], in the last three years, in ground rents, shanties &c, over $52,000.” |
1865 | June 26 | Francis L. Smith officially pardoned by President Andrew Johnson for his role during the Civil War, allowing him full rights to his Alexandria property, which would have included the cemetery lot. The pardon came as a result of an initiative instituted by President Johnson, a Southern Democrat with pronounced states’ rights views, to begin a process to reconstruct the former Confederate States. He pardoned all Confederates who would take an oath of allegiance, but required leaders and men of wealth to obtain special Presidential pardons. |
1865 | July | Freedmen’s Bureau takes over control of the burials at the cemetery and the documentation of the deceased in the Book of Records. |
1865 | Oct 7 | .L’Ouverture Hospital was closed as a military hospital. Sixty-five remaining sick and wounded soldiers were sent to Slough General Hospital in Alexandria. Admission records show that 1,420 patients had been treated at the hospital since it opened in February 1864. |
1865 | Dec 6 | Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution adopted, abolishing slavery nationally. |
1866 | Jan 1 | In furtherance of the transition to the Freedmen’s Bureau’s administration of the cemetery with continued recording of the list of names of the deceased, a new section of the Book of Records was begun, “Records of Deaths and Burials, New System.” The new section summarizes the previous practices related to burials in Freedmen’s Cemetery. It references the supply of coffins and headboards for burial, describes the preparations for funerals with pick-up of the deceased in the government-owned hearse, and lists the names of the grave-diggers--Randall Ward assisted over the years by Joseph Stuart, Hezekiah Ages, and Joseph Thompson. Randall Ward may have continued care and maintenance of the cemetery until his death in 1880, even after the end of federal control. |
1866 | June 13 | Congress passed the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting citizenship to individuals born in the country, thus extending this right to the formerly enslaved. The amendment also guaranteed due process and equal protection to all citizens, the basis for the Constitutional principle that no one is above the law. |
1867 | Oct 22 | African American males in Virginia voted for the first time under the military government for delegates to the state’s constitutional convention. About two dozen African American men were elected to the convention, which met from December 3, 1867 to April 17, 1868.76 While African American men cast ballots in Alexandria, their votes were not included in the final tally. |
1869 | Jan 12 | With a reduction in the functions of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the final entry recording the death of Millie Bailey, age 80, was set down in the Book of Records. |
1869 | July 6 | Virginia agreed to a new constitution granting suffrage to black men, thereby becoming the only state of the former Confederacy that avoided military governance throughout the full period of Reconstruction. |
1869 | Oct 8 | Virginia ratified the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution as a requirement for readmission to the Union. |
1870 | Jan 26 | Virginia readmitted to the Union with representation in Congress.81 This marked the official end of federal military rule and a return to civilian control in Alexandria. |
1870 | Feb 3 | The Fifteenth Amendment adopted, stating the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” |
1871 | After the passage of the 15th Amendment, the outlook was hopeful for African American voting and political representation. The first African American members of the Common Council and the Board of Aldermen were elected in Alexandria. | |
1870s | Reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the changes brought about by the Constitutional Amendments in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South. Black Codes, laws passed by legislatures of most southern states, restricted the freedom of African American people, making it illegal for Black individuals to vote, serve on juries, travel at will, marry whomever they chose or work at any occupation they chose. In Virginia, an 1870 statute prohibited white and Black children from being taught in the same school. Following the state legislation, an 1871 Alexandria law instituted segregated schools, a separate but unequal educational system that would last nearly 100 years. Later that decade, the Virginia legislature passed miscegenation laws that stipulated prison sentences and fines for any white marrying a Black person, a statute that also remained on the books for nearly a century. | |
1877 | May 10 | Francis L. Smith died; his will bequeathed the cemetery property to wife, Sarah G. Smith. |
1890 | Feb 26 | The Smith family received notice that “the House of Representatives War Claims Committee has reported favorably upon the claim of Mrs. Sarah G. Smith, widow of Francis L. Smith of this city.” To date, it is unclear if the family ever received payment. |
1890s | By the end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century, racial segregation had become entrenched in the South. Southern states enforced a race-based system of political, economic and social relationships through lynching and Jim Crow laws, seeking to control African American populations through policies of terrorism and fear. Virginia was no exception. Two lynchings are documented to have occurred in the heart of Alexandria: Joseph McCoy on April 23, 1897, and Benjamin Thomas on August 8, 1899. | |
1892 | March 29 | The Washington Post published an article describing disturbance to burials in Freedmen’s Cemetery: “One of the most uncanny localities in Alexandria is in the vicinity of the old “contraband graveyard,” at the end of South Washington street and just opposite the Catholic cemetery...[where] many of the mounds are still pretty well preserved…Of late the owners have allowed the neighboring brick yards to dig clay from the outer edges of the graveyard with which to make brick. This digging, seconded by heavy rains, has resulted in unearthing many coffins and skeletons and leaving the outer graves in very bad conditions. Some time ago, it is said, coffin ends protruded from the banks like cannon from the embrasures of some great fort...” |
1917 | April 25 | Margaret (aka Maggie) Smith, daughter of Francis and Sara, conveyed Washington Street property to Reverend Dennis J. O’Connell, Bishop of Richmond (Catholic Diocese of Richmond). The deed did not include any reference to the presence of a cemetery. |
1930-1932 | Construction of the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, part of the George Washington Parkway. The work included the extension and widening of South Washington Street in Alexandria. Cemetery boundaries are known to have extended into the middle of S. Washington Street; thus, parkway construction caused disturbance to graves and desecration of burials. | |
1946 | June 25 | Property rezoned for commercial use by City Council at request of Eugene J. Olmi, on behalf of Bishop Peter L. Ireton, the Bishop of Richmond, in anticipation of sale and development. The City Planning Department objected to the change, but City Council granted the rezoning. |
1946 | Sept 3 | Bishop Peter L. Ireton of Richmond sold part of the tract at 1001 South Washington Street to George Landrith, with restrictions: 1) said property nor any portion thereof, shall never be used for an automobile service station and the definition of automobile service station shall include a public garage either used for storage or automobile repairs; 2) the sale of alcoholic beverages or the storage thereof for sale is prohibited on the property. |
1946 | “Colored Cemetery” noted on an official city map of Alexandria.96 Until historical research led to knowledge of the cemetery in the late1980s, a map by Alexandria’s Office of Engineering, updated every two years, may have been one of the last times that the location of the cemetery was shown on an official city document. | |
1955 | City permit issued to erect a gas station on property at 1001 South Washington Street. To facilitate the gas station construction, Bishop Ireton revoked the restrictions that were placed on the cemetery property in 1946. Construction of the gas station and later replacement of tanks resulted in disturbance to and desecration of graves. | |
1958 | April | Construction of the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) began in Virginia. The section just south of Freedmen’s Cemetery opened around the time of completion of the highway in April 1964. Construction in this area cut into the southern edge of cemetery, destroying and desecrating graves. |
1959-1960 | Permitting and construction of a building at 714 Church Street on the western section of Freedmen Cemetery. Initially built as a store and apartments, the structure eventually became an office building. Construction of this building on cemetery property disturbed and desecrated burials. | |
1964 | July 2 | President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. This landmark legislation outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibited unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations. |
1966 | Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act that mandated federal agencies to consider the effects of their actions on historic properties. Implementation of the law requires identification of historic properties, assessment of adverse effects on identified properties, and resolutions to avoid or mitigate recognized adverse effects. | |
1987 | City of Alexandria research librarian, T. Michael Miller, found late nineteenth-century newspaper articles referring to a cemetery in Alexandria for contrabands and freedmen established during Civil War. He produced the first timeline of the site’s history. This work was instrumental in establishing the location of Freedmen Cemetery and paved the way for its inclusion on the Virginia Abandoned Cemetery Survey in 1989. | |
1988-1992 | Beginning in 1988, the Federal Highway Administration initiated a cooperative study effort among the affected jurisdictions (including the City of Alexandria) and agencies (including the Virginia Department of Transportation-VDOT) to address the operational and structural deficiencies of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. In 1992, the agency established the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Improvement Study Coordination Committee to deal with effects of new bridge construction on the environment and affected communities. | |
1995 | Wesley Pippenger found the Book of Records at the Library of Virginia and transcribed the names and other information, which are published in his book Alexandria, Virginia Death Records 1863-1868 (The Gladwin Record) and 1869-1896. | |
1996 | October | In compliance with federal historic preservation laws, the study for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project continued to assess the effects of construction of a new bridge on nearby historical and archaeological resources, including the Freedmen’s Cemetery location. VDOT hired Parsons Engineering Science, Inc.to conduct remote sensing to investigate the possible presence of graves under the asphalt of the gas station lot. |
1997 | Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery established by founders Lillian Finklea and Louise Massoud to increase public awareness of the existence of this important, nearly forgotten part of Alexandria’s history. | |
1997 | May 24 | City Council proclaimed the first Annual Week of Remembrance, organized by the Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery to increase public awareness of the cemetery and its significance. |
1998-2000 | Dec-May | Potomac Crossing Consultants (URS Corporation) was hired by Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to undertake archaeological test excavations in the Capital Beltway right-of-way south and west of the Mobil Station and office building properties. The investigation resulted in the identification of 78 grave locations. |
1999 | The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge Project began construction of new bridge. | |
1999 | Nov 11 | “Veterans Day Remembrance of Freedmen’s Cemetery” held with candle-lighting ceremony. |
2000 | September | Virginia State Marker erected at request of Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery as part of the group’s goal of increasing public awareness of the cemetery. The marker reads: “Freedmen’s Cemetery—Federal authorities established a cemetery here for newly freed African Americans during the Civil War. In January 1864, the military governor of Alexandria confiscated for use as a burying ground an abandoned pasture from a family with Confederate sympathies. About 1,700 freed people, including infants and black Union soldiers, were interred here before the last recorded burial in January 1869. Most of the deceased had resided in what is known as Old Town and in nearby rural settlements. Despite mid-twentieth-century construction projects, many burials remain undisturbed. A list of those interred here has also survived.” |
2002 | August | With successful lobbying by the Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery, Alexandria adopted a plan to purchase the privately-owned portions of the cemetery so that the entire cemetery could be protected and preserved with the establishment of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial. Acquisition and enhancement of the cemetery site was included in the possible mitigation measures between the city and the Federal Highway Administration as early as 2000. With the adoption of the plan in 2002, mitigation activities began, leading to memorial development through city, state and federal cooperation. |
2004 | Alexandria Archaeology conducted test excavations on the gas station and office building sections at the cemetery. The total number of graves identified reached 123 as a result of this investigation, confirming the presence of graves on the privately-owned sections of the original cemetery property. | |
2007 | The City of Alexandria purchased the western portion of the cemetery (714 Church Street) for $3.5 million and the eastern portion (1001 South Washington Street) for $2.3 million. VDOT reimbursed Alexandria for these acquisitions out of Woodrow Wilson Bridge project funds. | |
2007 | April-May | Demolition of the gas station and office building monitored by City archaeologists in preparation for the rededication of the property as a sacred site. |
2007 | May 12 | “Alexandria Freedmen’s Cemetery, 1864-1869” – Reclaiming the property as a sacred site, the City held a rededication ceremony with a program that included music, speakers, the reading of names of those who had passed away, and the lighting of luminaria. |
2007 | May-Dec | Major archaeological excavations conducted by the City’s archaeologists. The goal of the archaeological investigations was to identify grave locations for memorial designers so that construction could be planned and executed with no further disturbance to existing burials. Upon completion of these excavations, the number of graves identified by archaeologists totaled 534. |
2007 | Aug 3 | An artifact unearthed during July archaeological investigations identified as a 13,000-year-old Clovis point. The quartzite tool was discarded when the tip broke off near the end of the manufacturing process. Identified by Michael Johnson, a specialist in the study of early human occupation in North American, the point represents the oldest artifact discovered to date in Alexandria. Its discovery pushed the date of the first human occupation in the city back to about 13,000 years ago. |
2008 | Feb-April 25 | City conducted the Memorial Design Competition. Over 200 designs were received from all fifty states and twenty countries; the design of architect C.J. Howard of Alexandria was chosen. The final site plan, executed by AECOM, incorporated elements of the first, second, and third prize winners, and relied on the archaeological work to determine placement of memorial features to avoid any disturbance to extant graves. |
2008 | April 28 | Genealogist Char McCargo Bah hired to research African American descendants of those interred in the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery. |
2008 | May 30 | The new Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge opened. Construction had begun in 1999; original bridge was demolished in 2006. |
2011 | Additional archaeological excavations conducted to determine if graves were present in an area of inadvertent disturbances by utility companies. Archaeologists found an additional seven graves, bringing the total number of graves identified to 541 graves. | |
2011-2012 | Oct 11-Feb 20 | Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial Sculpture Competition held. |
2012 | March 27 | Conservation Easement for the cemetery (1001 South Washington Street and 741 Church Street) granted to the Alexandria Historical Restoration and Preservation Commission by City of Alexandria. |
2012 | May 1 | Contractors for the City began construction of the Memorial. |
2012 | Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register and added to the National Register of Historic Places. | |
2012-2013 | Archaeological investigation and monitoring of construction activities conducted in concert with the construction of the Memorial to ensure protection of burials. Additional grave locations were discovered, bringing the total number of grave locations identified to 631. | |
2013 | July 25 | Selected statue, The Path of Thorns and Roses by Mario Chiodo, installed at the cemetery site. |
2014 | March 5 | As a precursor to the Memorial dedication, the City marked the 150th anniversary of the site’s first burial in the cemetery on March 7, 1864, with a program for descendants and the local community. |
2014 | Sept 3-7 | Five days of remembering those who came before and celebrating the opening of the memorial at “The Journey to be Free: Descendants Returning Home to Alexandria.” Events featured lectures, a gala dinner, candlelight vigil, and descendant connections. |
2014 | Sept 6 | Dedication ceremony of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial. |
2015 | The National Park Service included the cemetery in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. | |
2017 | September | Paula Tarnapol Whitacre published A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time, Julia Wilbur's Struggle for Purpose, University of Nebraska Press, 2017. |
2019 | Jan 21 | Genealogist Char McCargo Bah published book titled Alexandria's Freedmen's Cemetery: A Legacy of Freedom (American Heritage). |
2019 | Sept 13-15 | Fifth Anniversary celebration of the Dedication of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial. |
2021 | Freedmen’s Cemetery listed on the African American Civil Rights Network, recognized for the successful petition by USCT to secure the right to burial in the Alexandria National Cemetery to honor their service to the country. | |
2024 | Sept 7 | Tenth Anniversary celebration of the Dedication of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial. |
Ongoing | The City of Alexandria remains the steward of Freedmen’s Cemetery to ensure protection of all graves and to continue to foster an understanding of the site, its place in history, and its connection to the present and the future. |