The Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial of Alexandria, Virginia: A remembered, “forgotten,” and re‐remembered memory site

The Freedmen's Cemetery, as it was first named, was created in Alexandria, Virginia, by the US Army in 1864. It was created due to the large number of people who self-emancipated to Alexandria, Virginia, because it was under control of Union forces. Enslaved people sought the prospect of freedom behind Union lines due to US government “Contraband Policy” which was enacted in May 1861. This policy in the first months of the Civil War described enslaved people who escaped to Union controlled territories as “Contrabands of War” (“The History of Fort Monroe”), who could be a source of labor for the Union and would not be returned to their enslavers as was the earlier policy. Alexandria, Virginia, a stable territory for the US military starting in late May 1861, was a desirable location to try to reach for self-emancipation due to its stability and the potential for employment. While it is believed the majority of self-emancipating people who came to Alexandria were from nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia, some people are thought to have made their way to Alexandria from places further south. It is not known exactly how many African American refugees came to Alexandria during the Civil War, but the estimated number is between 10,000 (Ater, 2019, p. 221) and 20,000 (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 119). Over-crowding, insufficient food, and outbreaks of diphtheria, smallpox, and typhoid were factors causing the deaths of the Contrabands who made it to Alexandria (Ater, 2019, p. 221; Sipe et al., 2014, p. 502). Starting in 1862 and continuing until 1864 African American Contrabands were buried at Penny Hill, Alexandria's pauper cemetery, which was established by the City of Alexandria in 1796 and was nearly full by the time of the Civil War (Bah, 2022) (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery”). The increasing number of people arriving in Alexandria who were Contrabands, the conditions they had lived in under enslavement, and the poor living conditions in Alexandria resulted in large numbers of Contrabands dying (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 147). The lack of space in the already established cemetery (Ater, 2019, p. 222) made clear the US government needed to build a specific Contraband and African American cemetery. This followed the common practice of segregated cemeteries, a custom which was observed throughout much of the United States until the mid-twentieth century (Yalom, 2008, p. 29). The initial burials took place at the Contrabands and Freedmens Cemetery in 1864. Reverend Albert Gladwin was in charge of the cemetery. Gladwin was a minister who came to Alexandria, Virginia, through the American Baptist Free Mission Society (Ater, 2019, p. 222). His Book of Lists recorded the name of the person buried, the date of their burial and, if known, the person's address at time of their death and their cause of death. The Book of Lists provides information for all 5 years of the cemetery's operation. One problem with the Book of Lists is the lack of detail describing the specific location of any individual's burial, such as what row it was in or how far from the street it was located; instead, it is organized by date of burial (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 148). Randall Ward, a freedman who arrived in Alexandria in approximately 1862, worked as a gravedigger and was involved in the daily operation of the cemetery (Bah, 2022) (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery”). 52% of the burials at the cemetery were children of ages from newborn/stillborn to 10 years old (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 151). Graves locations were noted by wooden markers. Wooden grave markers were common in Virginia from the time of English colonization through the nineteenth century due to lack of useable stone (Yalom, 2008, p. 5). Wooden markers were also used at the second African burial ground in Richmond during its use from 1816 to 1879 (Smith, 2020, p. 26) and in nineteenth century African American burials in Surry County, Virginia (Johnson, 2004, 51, 56). After the Civil War, the cemetery and the land surrounding it were returned to its former owner, a person who had sided with the Confederacy. The cemetery is visible on maps throughout the late nineteenth century (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 160). Local people were involved with upkeep of the cemetery and its use as a memory site through the early twentieth century, even as a brick making yard was established next to the cemetery starting in the 1880s. A Washington Post article in 1894 reported that in digging clay for bricks, human remains of Contrabands were visible and being displaced (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 163). Starting in 1889, on the same street, a half mile north of the cemetery, a large Confederate statue erected by the United Confederate Veterans was displayed in the middle of an intersection (Sullivan, 2020). Two decades later, a plot of land which included the cemetery was given to a local Roman Catholic Bishop and the local archdiocese in 1917 (Sipe et al., 2014, pp. 165–166) (Figure 1). Source: Sipe et al., 2014. Over time, the fencing and wooden grave markers decayed and visible evidence which signified the cemetery disappeared. However, the site was not overgrown and was tended by family members of those buried there and by local community members. The Roman Catholic diocese owned the land until it was sold in 1946 and the area was rezoned by the City of Alexandria. The land had restrictions placed on it which prohibited the building of an automobile service station, an auto repair garage, or any establishment which sold alcohol for drinking (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 167). The last time the cemetery appeared on a map was 1948 (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial”). The land was sold several more times, and in 1955, the prohibitions on what businesses could be conducted on the land were rescinded. In 1956, a gas station opened on the land and in 1960, a two-story office building was constructed near the gas station (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 170). The construction for the gas station and its storage tanks, along with replacement storage tanks through the years, means that human remains were likely displaced during its construction, although none were ever reported (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 528). The CFCM shares with other sites an experience of attempts at erasure of slavery and enslaved people through active abrogation. Like Alexandria's Freedmen's Cemetery, the second African Burial Ground in Richmond was officially “forgotten” and no longer documented in Richmond city records starting in 1877 (Smith, 2020, p. 29). Both cemeteries were impacted by the construction of gas stations (2020, p. 17). And like Black cemeteries in Petersburg, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Columbia, South Carolina; and Dallas, Texas, Richmond's and Alexandria's cemeteries were disturbed by road construction (2020, p. 31). The ways in which people remember the past is influenced by monuments and memorials (Lovelace, 2021, p. 132). Memorials shape both individual and collective national psyches (Moulton, 2021, p. 4). The CFCM is an example of what Moulton considers a living space and a living memory with the land being a monument itself (Moulton, 2021, p. 2). The Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery, as it is now called, was formally reincorporated into the City's history based on a research project in 1987 by the City of Alexandria's historian, T. Michael Miller, who found a reference to the cemetery in an 1894 Alexandria Gazette newspaper article (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial”). The cemetery was registered with the State of Virginia and the potential for impact by the construction of a bridge ramp for the new Wilson Bridge across the Potomac River was incorporated in the City's 1992 Master Plan (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 187). The Book of Lists, which is also known as The Gladwin Record, was published by Wesley E. Pippenger, an independent historian, in 1996 (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial”). Pressure from the community to confirm the existence of the cemetery led to a noninvasive archeological survey, using ground penetrating radar and electromagnetic studies, along with additional archival research (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 187). Likely grave shafts were detected and planning for future construction of the bridge ramp was halted so that additional research could be conducted (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 191). A community advocacy organization, Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery, was formed in 1997 by two activists, Lillie Finklea and Louise Massoud. The “s” in the name of the cemetery has been dropped in the current official title of the CFCM. The first of several cemetery rededications was held in 1998 (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial”) and attended by community members as well as City officials. Because the cemetery would have been impacted by highway and bridge construction, two significant decisions were made by the Virginia Department of Historical Resources. One was a commemoration of the cemetery would be needed in any future project, and the other was additional archeological testing needed to be conducted. Test areas confirmed likely coffins along with nineteenth century artifacts (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 192, 197). In 2000, an official Virginia highway marker was dedicated at the location (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial”). In 2002, the Friends of the Freedmen's Cemetery, along with the City's Archaeological Commission and other activists, were able to obtain an agreement which planned for the demolition of the businesses on the site and the creation of the CFCM (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 212), as well as relocation of proposed highway and bridge ramp (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 524). Additional archeological and archival research was conducted from 2004 to 2013. Alexandria Archaeology, the urban archaeology program for the City of Alexandria, was involved in all parts of this process. During this time, City archeological staff worked with a private CRM (Cultural Resource Management) company to document the site (Ater, 2019, p. 223). It is important to note that no human remains were removed during the archeological work, as the reason for the excavations was to identify the burial locations. The site as a whole was not excavated. Instead, archaeological units were dug in different locations at the site. As much as possible, after initial removal of topsoil, excavations were done using hand trowels (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 213). Digging was conducted until an outline of a coffin was visible due to changes in the soil color, or until sterile soil was reached which included no evidence of artifacts or dirt disturbance (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 527). The purpose of the archaeological work from 2004 to 2013 was to ensure graves would not be disturbed in any construction of a memorial or during future work on the two streets which border the site (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 523, 527). Evidence of acts of memorialization was found above several grave sites. On top of several graves were a purposeful deposit of 78 oyster shells. These were located at the burials' original layer, indicating placement at or near the time of the burials, and were likely grave decorations. During the excavation, these oyster shells were documented but not removed from their in situ grave top locations (Sipe et al., 2014, pp. 501–502). As with the New York African burial ground (Perry et al., 2009, p. 354) earlier removal of soil above the burials in Alexandria during the twentieth century may have destroyed additional evidence of decorations on top of graves. Additional burials with shells or other goods placed on top of the graves may have once been present but removal of topsoil during road and building construction prior to the 1990s may have erased evidence of these funerary practices. The purposeful placement of 78 oyster shells over several graves at the time of the burials may be an act of transgenerational memory of African traditions. These shells were likely grave decorations (Sipe et al., pp. 501–502). Objects can be integral to the sharing of memories, including traumatic memory, across generations (Hirsch, 2008, p. 107, 108). In other eighteenth and nineteenth century African American cemeteries, shells and other objects such as broken ceramics are often found on top of graves (Jamieson, 1995, p. 51; Sipe et al., p. 80; Yalom, 2008, p. 15). Purposeful deposits of white objects on top of graves are also found in Guadeloupe and Haiti (Jamieson, 1995, p. 51). Folklorists in South Carolina in the late nineteenth century mention shells being placed on top of African American graves (1995, p. 50) and the WPA's Georgia Writer's Project included interviews with African Americans who kept the tradition of purposeful placement of objects on top of grave through the twentieth century (Yalom, 2008, p. 123). It is thought the tradition of placing objects on top of graves can be traced to Western African traditions (Sipe et al., 2014, p. 81), primarily the Bakango people from present day Democratic Republic of Congo near the Angola border (Yalom, 2008, p. 15). In a number of West African traditions, after death, the deceased travels to the afterworld through water. Shells may symbolize the water or may be houses for the soul (Sipe et al., p. 81) or be symbols of the dead's passage through water to the spirit world (Perry et al., 2009, p. 355; Yalom, 2008, p. 126). These shells may an act of by people at the time of the The transgenerational of this memorial act is significant that the people who placed the shells were not likely to have of this as the of enslaved people from of the United States was formally after (“The the of However, it is important to note that evidence of be found in the archeological p. 108). The purposeful of shells on top of a grave may have been an important that there have been many to African by people who were enslaved or their p. a between burial of people who were or and African traditions is for several who were enslaved were from a area of West and over an of time (Jamieson, 1995, p. making a African burial tradition This is not the of the practice of purposeful oyster shells from Western or even if this is a practice to enslaved African While not the full of this burial practice in Alexandria or at other African American cemeteries, that not the of the act for those who took the time and to place these goods on top of specific In a was held for the cemetery. The included government a by Alexandria's and the of a person buried at the cemetery, and included the person's and at death. The were by in the to several City in the of Alexandria, as well as members of a local The can be on the City of Alexandria's CFCM (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial”). are held 5 years the cemetery's official for the creation of the CFCM was held in Alexandria the His was used as the for the memorial (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial”). The memorial was created with from the Friends of the Freedmen's Cemetery, members of the Archaeological along with other community members and City in several While the Friends of the Freedmen's Cemetery included of those buried at the other community members were of that organization, and the as a whole on what the memorial The Friends of the Freedmen's Cemetery had several which they in the memorial These included a to the cemetery's the of the of the people buried at the and a map which included information that on the (Sipe et al., p. A of incorporated in the CFCM was a of the of people buried at the cemetery (Sipe et al., p. which to the existence of the people who were at the site into the On the of of those buried at the cemetery, there is an of those for a living has been found by a The of those who have living is a example of by to being made p. through the that the of those buried are present (Figure 2). Additional were to the CFCM. These included a of and which was through a national The of the are to the to Alexandria of the Contrabands and were created by a local The have from two nineteenth century African an African American and formally enslaved and who arrived in Alexandria as a The CFCM was formally dedicated a time on (“Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorials to or often use as a way to p. such as with the in the of children from their by the government p. 17). 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The in the cemetery through archival and archeological was not because of from the of people buried at the but also through a of people of different the Friends of the Freedmen's Cemetery, as well as members of the The creation of the advocacy organization, Friends of the Freedmen's Cemetery, can be thought of as an of Because of and the lack of that resulted from it in the nineteenth and twentieth there are or from people who were Contrabands and urban due to community a way to document the of enslaved the active memory of those by not or the remains of those buried at the site. It is to note that the statue of the Confederate which on the same road several was removed in after the City of Alexandria was given from the government in The statue is in private storage held by The of the Confederacy. Over the last years, memorials and have been created that such as the of War and the in the US in the 1990s and These sites a way to try to that with such as the of to act and an of p. 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The proposed construction of a bridge and highway ramp as of a construction project people to for the of African Americans from Alexandria's nineteenth and twentieth century had been a in the of Alexandria's history of the of people who were Contrabands and with the that in history has with an officially “forgotten” African American cemetery in The Cemetery was the site of as were their of and to the cemetery starting in the to the cemetery's erasure through of In 2004, the cemetery was and it is and its through from different (Yalom, 2008, p. The for sites as places of memory are or in locations throughout the United and memorials such as the CFCM can all the evidence to the that is p. 15). is an in the creation of memorials p. and their history and often into the (Figure The to that the land which the CFCM and the Virginia area to the people and is of a territory of and in Virginia and the The the for their and the and of the a History of Black and