Some Other African American Sites
Cemetery | Church | Neighborhoods | Barracks
During most of the nineteenth century, blacks were often buried in sections of white-owned church cemeteries. In 1885, the Black Baptist Association became the first known black organization in Alexandria to establish its own burial ground. By 1985, this cemetery, located on Holland Lane, had been abandoned for many years and just one headstone could still be seen. In 1991, City archaeologists conducted test excavations on the site to determine if burials or gravestones remained below ground. The area was part of the planned Alexandria African American Heritage Park, and survey work was needed to ensure that no burials would be disturbed. Archaeologists eventually discovered 27 grave shafts and several more grave stones.
Artifacts associated with some graves included glass from a coffin window plate, milk glass vase fragments, and a bowl. Oyster shells spread over some graves provides evidence of a West African tradition of decorating graves with shells, to symbolize the spirit living on in the sea. The practice continues in some African American communities.
Archaeologists did not remove the coffins, human remains or artifacts. The site was mapped and recorded to prevent future disturbance. The cemetery will be preserved as part of the African American Heritage Park.
The Alfred Street Baptist Church
Beginning as early as 1799, a free black neighborhood grew up in a low-lying area of Alexandria known as the Bottoms. By 1816, eight black families lived on the 300 block of South Alfred Street, located in the Bottoms, where they rented lots from businessman James Lawrason and his wife Alice. In 1818, the Lawrasons rented an adjacent lot to the Coloured Baptist Society, the earliest African American religious organization known in Alexandria. The Society constructed the first building there prior to 1836, and in 1842 the trustees purchased the lot from the Lawrasons. In 1855 a "handsome and commodious Brick Church" replaced the "old church." A new church, built in the 1980s, now stands alongside the 1855 building.
In 1992, the congregation funded excavations near the 1855 church prior to constructing an addition. Archaeologists from Engineering Science uncovered artifacts from the backyards of free families who lived in the Bottoms neighborhood.
Seminary Area African American Neighborhoods
Volunteers Patricia I. Knock, Bradford Henderlong and Dr. Henry Mitchell are collecting oral histories of long-time members of both the Oakland Baptist Church and the former Episcopal Mission of St. Cyprian. Their memories have enriched our knowledge of African American life in the community which developed around Braddock Road and Quaker Lane after the Civil War. Documentary study has also shown the role of the Protestant Episcopal Seminary in Virginia in supporting newly forming settlements outside Alexandria's 19th century city limits.
Black families joined one another in small clusters near the Seminary. The place names are still remembered: Macedonia, Fort Hill (Fort Ward) and Bush Hill. The areas are described by all as safe and sharing places in which children were raised with love and open doors. Family and religion were the focus of daily life. Future excavations at the Seminary may offer more knowledge of black culture in this part of Alexandria.
L'Ouverture Hospital and Contraband Barracks
The occupation of Alexandria by the U.S. Army at the beginning of the Civil War changed the town's role in African American history. Large numbers of confederate owned slaves, freed by an act of Congress in 1862, fled to Alexandria and other northern cities looking for protection behind Union lines. Many of the escaped, known as contraband or freedmen, were employed by the army to help in the construction of military facilities in and around Alexandria.
The Army seized the slave pen at 1315 Duke Street for use as freedmen barracks and a jail, and built a black military hospital adjacent to it. The complex was named L'Ouverture, honoring the hero of the Haitian slave revolution. By 1864, L'Ouverture included barracks for a company of black soldiers performing guard duty at the hospital. The complex also included a residential section for freedmen, with three large wooden barracks and a school house. Freedmen who died were buried in a cemetery which is still preserved under a gas station at South Washington and Church Streets.
Archaeological test excavations uncovered post-holes from the wooden structures at the L'Ouverture contraband barracks. Many portions of the site, however, have been lost to post-war development. Further excavations will increase our knowledge of urban contraband settlements.
