Excerpts from the Exhibition Catalogue

The City of Alexandria’s archaeologists have studied the town’s African American archaeology since 1978. This exhibit is a summary of findings from archaeological investigations of 25 free black residential sites, two slave sites, and three manufacturing sites where blacks worked. These archaeological studies have included a great deal of research using historic documents relating to the sites, their inhabitants, and the development of African American neighborhoods in Alexandria. Although standard histories and many documents are often silent about African American lives and accomplishments, the artifacts are tangible witnesses to the past.

• Slavery" in Alexandria
  The Alexandria Slave Pen
  A Slave Household
• African American Freedom in Alexandria
  The Bottoms Neighborhood
  The Hayti Neighborhood
• Working in Alexandria
  The Alfred Street Sugar House
  The Alexandria Pottery Tradition and the Wilkes Street Pottery
  The Old Dominion Glass Company
• Some Other African American Sites
  The Black Baptist Cemetery
  The Alfred Street Baptist Church
  Seminary Area African American Neighborhoods
  L'Ouverture Hospital and Contraband Barracks

Order a copy of the complete illustrated catalogue. Other papers on Alexandria’s African American community are also available from our Museum Shop.

To learn more about black history in Alexandria, visit the Alexandria Black History Museum at 902 Wythe Street.

This exhibit was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, in Conjunction with the PACT series, "Two Centuries of African-American Heritage in Alexandria," and by the City of Alexandria, Virginia.