By Blake Wilson
Alexandria, VA – Much has changed in the Commonwealth since the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial opened on September 6, 2014. The Confederate statues in Richmond have been removed along with Appomattox a few blocks away. These removals reflect a wider push to reevaluate what would be honored in public space and how.
In many instances, revaluation is not the result of a single spontaneous act but an organized effort that takes time and includes many losses.
In the case of Freedmen Cemetery, an active friends group led by Lillie Finklea and Louise Massoud was founded in 1997 for the purpose of preserving, commemorating and researching a little-known Civil War-era African American buying ground in Old Town Alexandria.
Early in the Civil War, the Union Army occupied Alexandria, making it the first Confederate city to fall. Under Union rule, it became a sanctuary of sorts for enslaved Black people fleeing bondage. Once in occupied territories, the formerly enslaved were reclassified as “contrabands of war,” and placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army. Poor health, overcrowding and disease would claim the lives of many before the end of the Civil War.
In March 1864, just under a year before Robert E. Lee surrendered in Appomattox, Virginia, an empty site on the southern end of the city officially became a burial ground for contrabands, many of whom were children. The official record of burials, totaling nearly 2,000 at the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery, ends in 1869, when the federal government abandoned the site. This record, kept by cemetery administrator Rev. Albert Gladwin, was uncovered and published by Wesley Pippenger.
The site languished for decades and the cemetery disappeared from city maps in the 1940s. This allowed the site to be redeveloped with a gas station in the 1950s, just in time for the suburban growth of the mid-twentieth century.
In 1987, T. Michael Miller, historian for the city of Alexandria, found proof of the cemetery deep in the historical record. This information, when published, would motivate Lillie Finklea to act. A decade later, with Louise Massoud, the Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery was founded.
Social and cultural historian Ana Lucia Araujo writes, “In societies around the globe, places where the dead are put to rest, such as churchyards, cemeteries, and tombstones, constitute exemplary sites of memory designed to permanently commemorate the deceased.” The steadfast team of Finklea and Massoud pushed for the present day Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial, one that halted any further desecration while permanently commemorating the deceased.
The upcoming anniversary arrives at a time when cemeteries across the region, from Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda to Douglass Memorial Cemetery here in Alexandria, are engaged in lengthy fights to properly honor those interred so that they may rest in peace.
On Saturday, September 7 at 8:00 pm a candlelight vigil and wreath laying will be held at Freedmen’s Cemetery. Shuttle service will be offered starting at 7:30 pm, leaving from the Lee Center. All are welcome.
