11/02/2025
Sharing a little history of Richmond's African Burial Grounds and historic African American cemeteries. They deserve recognition and respect.
Richmond's African Burial Grounds
Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground: Active from 1799–1816. It was known historically as the "Burial Ground for Negroes". The site's land was later repurposed, leading to its disappearance and subsequent rediscovery.
Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground (Richmond's 2nd African Burying Ground): Active from 1816–1879. It began as two 1-acre parcels and expanded to 31 acres, with over 22,000 burials, making it the largest known burial ground for free people of color and the enslaved in the United States. This site was systematically developed over with roads, I-64, railroad tracks, and even a gas station, leading to its erasure from historical recognition until recent rediscovery and advocacy efforts. It remains one of Virginia's most endangered historic sites.
Richmond's Historic African American Cemeteries (Known Locations and Still Extant)
Barton Heights Cemeteries: A group of six contiguous cemeteries with various establishment dates:
Phoenix Burial Ground (later Cedarwood): established 1815
Union (later Mechanics): established 1846
Methodist: established 1855
Ebenezer: established 1858
Sons and Daughters of Ham: established 1867
Sycamore: established circa 1879
Oakwood Cemetery: Established in 1854 by the city, with segregated African American sections. The first people buried in Oakwood in 1855 were African American.
Mount Olivet Cemetery: Originally the segregated African American section of the Maury Cemetery, which was founded in 1874.
St. Joseph's Cemetery (formerly Bishop's Cemetery): Became a cemetery of African American Catholics in about 1884.
Evergreen Cemetery: Founded in 1891.
East End Cemetery: Formed in 1897.
Colored Paupers Cemetery (a.k.a. The Garden of Lilies): Established in 1896.
Woodland Cemetery: Acquired in 1916 and opened in 1917.
Other Places of Interment (Location Developed, Unknown, or Unusual Sites)
Freedmen's Bureau, "New Negro Cemetery" at Chimborazo Hospital: Established circa 1865, its exact location is unknown.
Old Baptist Church Burying Ground: Associated with the Richmond Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church) established in 1780. Active use for burials likely ceased around 1802 when the church moved locations. The site's location is now known, but it is on privately owned land and has been developed upon and is not yet widely acknowledged. The site was described in a newspaper article as "a kind of potters' field, used principally for the burial of negroes, but unenclosed", with tombstones still visible before 1861. It was said to have been the place where Gabriel and his followers were buried after their ex*****on on Gallows Hill (Canal St. at 1st St.), a couple of blocks away.
East Marshall Street Well (VCU): A site containing human remains related to 19th-century medical practices, including illegal body snatching from locations like the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground.
