Booker T. Washington, the renowned African-American leader and educator, was born into slavery on the Burroughs plantation in rural Virginia and was freed there after the Civil War ended. He spent his childhood there with his family and other enslaved Africans while the plantation was owned by the James Burroughs family. As was typical in 19th century rural Virginia, Burroughs family members were buried in a family cemetery on their land, while the enslaved people were not buried in that plot, maintaining slavery’s social hierarchy even in death. After the Civil War, however, James H. Starkey, the infant son of African-American Nellie G. Starkey, was buried in the Burroughs Cemetery in July, 1899—1900. Booker T. Washington was later buried on the campus of Tuskegee University, where he carried out his life’s work. When the Civil War began in April 1861, five of the Burroughs sons joined the Confederacy; James Burrough, the family patriarch, died that July soon after they enlisted, and two of his sons, Christopher Frank and John William (Billie), died during the war.