African American Heritage Trails
Even before the founding of the City of Alexandria in 1749, Africans and their descendants, enslaved and free, have lived and worked along the waterfront, making significant contributions to the local economy and culture. In the 1820s and 1830s Alexandria became home to the country's largest domestic slave trading firm, which profited from the sale and trafficking of enslaved African Americans from the Chesapeake to the Deep South. The Civil War revolutionized social and economic relations, and newly freed African Americans found new job opportunities as a result of the waterfront’s industrialization. The Potomac River played an important role in leisure activities too, including picnicking, boating, and fishing, much as it does for Alexandrians and visitors today.
The African American Heritage Trails comprise interconnecting routes in the City of Alexandria. Together, these trails illuminate the history of the African American community over a span of several centuries. The Trails currently have two routes along the Waterfront. The African American Heritage Trail Committee created this walking tour through history, with the support of the Office of Historic Alexandria.
The StoryMaps
Alexandria’s African American history is told through online StoryMaps and can be experienced in-home on your computer or on your smartphone as you walk the trail along the Potomac River.
Each StoryMap is accompanied by a web page including references and links, for those who would like to explore further.
In the News
A Walk Through Black History: Updated African American Heritage Trail to Come. By Wafir Salih, Alexandria Times, February 8, 2024.
On Saturday, the African American Heritage Trail Committee will gather at Founders Park for the unveiling of 11 new signs and two orientation panels installed along the waterfront. These signs are a showcase of various historical facts and paint a complex history of what African Americans faced in Alexandria since, and even prior to, the city’s founding....
African American Heritage Trail: Ribbon Cutting officially opens South Route. By Jeanne Theismann, Alexandria Gazette Packet, February 15-21. 2-24.
A crowd of more than a hundred gathered in Founders Park Feb. 10 to celebrate the official ribbon cutting for the South Route of the city’s African American Heritage Trail along the Potomac River waterfront.
Honoring Black History Month, Alexandria unveils new African American Heritage Trail signs. By Lacy Nelson, InsideNoVa,, February 20, 2023.
With a red ribbon draped across the marker and flanked on both sides by elected officials and members of the African American Heritage Trail Committee, the marker was the first of two stops during a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the new interpretative signs.
Related Photos and Videos
African American Waterfront Heritage Trail Ribbon Cutting (February 2024)
Waterfront Forum (2023)
Watch a panel discussion about the project at the 2023 Alexandria Forum entitled, “Community History and the African American Waterfront Heritage Trail.