Memorial Place

Space on Campus

Reparative

The African American cemetery at the University of Virginia is located just to the north of the University of Virginia Cemetery. The space is a reparative memorial that was memorialized and interpreted after it was rediscovered in 2012. The burial ground contains 67 grave shafts. Historians believe that this space was the original location where those enslaved at UVA were buried before 1865, but no direct evidence survives about who was actually buried here.

African American Cemetery at the University of Virginia

The cemetery was discovered in 2012 during an archaeological survey of the land just north of the University of Virginia Cemetery. That survey was conducted as part of a planned expansion of the university cemetery. Sixty-seven burials were identified and archaeological evidence indicates that approximately forty percent of the burials were of children. The only written documentation regarding the cemetery is from an alumni recollection written decades after the Civil War, although university records make scattered reference to deaths of the enslaved and include budget lines for inexpensive coffins (without indicating where they were to be buried). The grave shafts in 2012 all lacked formal headstones, but a few had what may have been intact fieldstones still in place. The site was renovated, landscaped, fenced, and interpreted with a permanent installation that opened in 2014. In fall 2014 and again in fall 2017, the University of Virginia President’s Commission on Slavery and the University (PCSU), in partnership with other UVA divisions and community organizations, held public memorial and libation services to acknowledge and consecrate the burial ground.

The cemetery, a rectangular patch of land comprising perhaps an eighth of an acre on a sloping hillside just north of the stone wall surrounding the University of Virginia cemetery, sits near the corner of McCormick And Alderman Roads just west of Hancock Dormitory. The cemetery, a grassy hillside, is enclosed by wooden plank fencing with stone pillars. The fencing is located where archaeological evidence demonstrates that a simple split rail fence once sat. Clear signage demarcating the space greets visitors at each of three entrances. A handful of ornamental trees are planted in the space in areas without burials. the site also includes a bench and interpretive installation.

"Buried here are 67 unknown men, women, and children-individuals for whom the University has no records. The location of these graves and evidence from archaeological investigation suggests that they represent a portion of the hundreds of enslaved and free African Americans who labored at the University in the years before 1865. The only acknowledgement of this burial site occurred in 1898 when it was noted that 'in old times, the University servants were buried on the north side of the cemetery, just outside the wall'. It is not known when the African American Cemetery was established or ceased to be used. This grave site, adjacent to but separate from the white University Cemetery, represents a sacred space where deceased members of the University community were buried and are now memorialized."

University of Virginia

October 2014

1820-1865: Slavery, Anti-Slavery, and Civil War

1865-1890: Emancipation, Reconstruction and Resistance to Reconstruction

The University of Virginia funded the archaeological research on the Cemetery that was conducted by Rivanna Archaeological Services.

University of Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia

University of Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113197654

President’s Commission on Slavery and the University 2018 Report https://slavery.virginia.edu/sample-page-2/pcsu-report-final_july-2018/

Bromley, A. E. (2014, September 19). From Kitchens to Gravesites: Commission explores history of slavery at U.Va. UVA Today. https://news.virginia.edu/content/kitchens-gravesites-commission-explores-history-slavery-uva

From Kitchens to Gravesites: Commission Explores History of Slavery at UVA

UVA President's Commission on Slavery & the University 2018 Report