Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground

The purple trapezoid indicates the property at 1305 N. 5th St. which is 1.2 acres of the original two-acre 1816 burying ground. The light purple shape represents the full 31+ acres to which the site grew to accommodate at least 22,000 burials.

The Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground is one of thirteen sites featured in Landslide 2021: Race and Space, a report and online exhibition from The Cultural Landscape Foundation about nationally significant cultural landscapes associated with African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native peoples that are threatened and at-risk. The detailed entry about Shockoe Hill includes a six-minute video documentary with voiceover narration by Lenora McQueen, a descendant of people interred at the site.

In May, 2021, Preservation Virginia included Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground on the listing of Virginia's Most Endangered Historic Places. The listing is intended to raise awareness of the threats to what remains of this sacred place and to highlight the opportunity for solutions to reclaim this history and this resting place after decades of desecration and disrespect.

At present there is no map of the area included, though the linear format of included aerial views would put it before Page 71. The MOA should be revised to include the scaled maps showing the approved boundaries of the Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District (127-7231) and the associated Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground (44HE1203) as depicted in the draft NRHP nomination form and/or reference to the boundaries of these sites as currently defined in VDHR’s V-CRIS database of historic resources in Virginia. Copies of Figure 2 (HD boundary map) and Figure 12 (SH African Burying Ground) from the draft NRHP nomination submitted to VDHR can be found here.

The draft Second Amendment to the MOA (Stipulation III.A.1.a.) should be revised to require the immediate initiation of consultation regarding the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground. The identification of historic resources, including the boundaries and associated eligibility questions, is presently incomplete. All historic resources potentially impacted by this project should be identified as soon as possible to ensure that further consultation can focus on alternatives and modifications to the project to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the adverse effects.

In an effort to evaluate the adverse effects of the current project, we strongly urge that a “Cultural Affiliation Study” be undertaken as defined by the National Park Service’s “NPS-28: Cultural Resource Management Guideline”: “Using anthropological, archeological, ethnohistoric, historic, and other evidence, this study satisfies the need to identify cultural ties among past and present groups that used and may still use or relate to park resources and park natural and cultural resources, including museum objects.” 

The project requires compliance with Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, 49 U.S.C. § 303(c), which prohibits the “use” of historic properties for transportation projects unless there is “no prudent and feasible alternative,” and the project includes “all possible planning to minimize harm.” 23 C.F.R Part 774. The DOT needs to initiate the process now for evaluating feasible and prudent alternatives that would avoid and minimize the use of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground and the Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District.



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Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground (1816-1879)

The second municipal burying ground for African American people, enslaved and free, was established by the city of Richmond in 1816 following the closure of the first municipal site in Shockoe Bottom. Labeled "Grave Yard for Free People of Colour and Slaves," had several names to refer to it but no consistent name over the seventy-five years of its operation. In that time the site grew from its original two acres to more than 31 acres and current research indicates that more than 22,000 people's remains were interred there. Historian Ryan K. Smith has included a concise historical account on his blog, Richmond Cemeteries, that also references current preservation concerns. The reclamation of this site extends the historical landscape of African American life in Richmond by adding it to that of the first African Burial Ground, the East Marshall Street Well Project, the East End and Evergreen Cemeteries and the collected Barton Heights cemeteries. 

Graphic image courtesy of Lenora McQueen


A truly moving story about the burying ground is centered on an enslaved Richmond woman named Kitty Cary who died and was buried in the Shockoe Hill Burying Ground in 1857. Ms. Cary was the ancestor of a present-day researcher and advocate Lenora McQueen who has presented her research into her ancestor's life and death on many occasions, and which includes a letter written by Elizabeth,  the anti-slavery daughter of Ms. Cary's slaveholder. A featured presenter at Truth and Conciliation in the 400th Year: A Shockoe Bottom Public History Symposium in December 2019 at the Library of Virginia, McQueen wrote an open letter for support of the site in Style Weekly magazine's Back Page opinion section.

City plans for street improvements, state plans for expansion of Interstate 64, and federal-state high speed rail implementation projects coupled with an inaccurate record of the actual size and scope of the cemetery's geography have made the advocacy efforts of Ms. McQueen as a member of the descendant community of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground imperative. 

PROGRESS: An application for state and federal historic registry is underway. The city of Richmond city council recently approved an ordinance (Ord. No. 2020-213) to acquire the remaining property at 1305 N. 5th Street and add it to the Richmond Slave Trail as part of the planned development of heritage campus that will include a museum/interpretive and genealogy center at the Lumpkin's Jail/Devil's Half Acre archaeology site and Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park. A second ordinance was passed in November to approve acquisition of the parcel and effective April 2021, the city purchased 1305 N. 5th St for $145,000. 

People can get involved by asking their City Council representative and Planning Commission members to support protection of the site from the direct and indirect impacts of expansions to I-95/64, the high speed rail line addition and all accompanying tracks,  that will secure and protect the burying ground. 


View of  site of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground at 1305 N. 5th St. in Richmond, Virginia,
from eastern edge of Hebrew Cemetery on Hospital St. Photo credit (c) Ana Edwards 2018.


To state an opinion: Move the tracks north of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground 31+ acre boundaries; likewise, move the highway off the Burying Ground’s historic footprint. If the greater good is to be served by expansion of the rail and highway infrastructure in this moment, bear in mind that who the "greater" represented has, at long last, shifted dramatically. Beginning in 1879, successives claims on behalf of the "greater" good were made to justify destructruction and desecration. All these years later the affected community prefers to request redress. So, change the framing and move the tracks and highway. Help ensure the respectful reclamation of the entire 31+ acres of historically significant commemorative African American cemetery landscape, the potential for recovery and proper stewardship of remains, and the memorialization deemed most appropriate by the identified descendants and the descendant community. That seems just fair.