Dumfries Slave and Free African American Cemetery

This treed hill is believed to have been the site of a slave burial ground prior to the Civil War. After the war, Freedmen and Blacks who were free before the war were denied burial in the town cemetery because of existing racial prejudices. These African Americans continued to use this same hillside burial ground for the interment of their dead. Archaeologists have recorded five depressions and as many as thirty fieldstone grave markers at this site but additional unmarked graves may also be present. Preservation of this sacred plot lends dignity and honors the memory of the slaves, Freedmen, and members of the free Black community of Dumfries resting here.

Dumfries, Virginia · United States