The African American Cemetery

The African American Cemetery is the final resting place for some of Montpelier's enslaved community. At funerals, people could share religious values that had their origins in various African traditions. These occasions often aroused mixed emotions, signaling both an end and a transformation of life. Burials may have included processions through the graveyard, with bearers lowering the coffin into a grave dug on an axis so that the eyes of the deceased faced the sunrise in the east. The living then offered music, dancing, and religious preaching to help transport the spirit home, which for many meant back to the African homeland. Feasting may have concluded the day and its bittersweet celebration of ultimate freedom.

Virginia · United States