There are no markers. The place was a parking lot for years, gravel  
surfaced if memory serves.

If you look at the Micajah Bates map of Richmond done in 1835, there  
are two other burial grounds which have apparently not been treated  
with decorum. Shockoe Cemetery out by the Poor House, later the City  
Hospital and now a set of condos was between 2nd and 4th streets and  
south of Hospital Street. The Jewish cemetery is north of Hospital  
between 4th and 5th. Directly east of that was a "Free Persons of  
Color Cemetery" and east of that was "For Slaves". The approach for  
the new bridge cuts across that partially and formerly a service  
station at the northeast corner of Hospital and 5th stood over the  
Free Persons of Color cemetery and the slave cemetery is a totally  
overgrown mess going down a very steep slope and onto the bottom land  
by the creek. I may be totally wrong, but I don't know that any effort  
was made to move burials for the service station and I would like to  
be proved wrong. There is not trace of either cemetery extant.

The Library of VA might have the records for these cemeteries so you  
might be able to find your ancestor in the Free Persons of Color  
cemetery, but the date is a bit early as those weren't in use if  
memory serves. As far as I know, the cemetery at 15th and Broad  
contained slaves and some executed criminals.

Lyle Browning, RPA

On Oct 27, 2008, at 10:18 PM, Anita Wills wrote:

> I am very interested in who is buried in that grave. One of my  
> ancestors was a Free Black in Richmond, and died there in 1800.  I  
> don't know if he was buried on his property or in one of the  
> graveyards there. Are there any markers on the graves, or have they  
> been removed. This is very interesting.
>
> Anita
>
>> Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:36:06 -0400
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: SLave graveyard, including Gabriel's grave?, found in  
>> Richmond
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> The Washington Post has a story today on the emerging battle over the
>> fate of an important, recently-rediscovered African-American burial
>> ground in RIchmond:
>>
>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/26/AR2008102602162_2.html
>>
>> Highlights:
>>
>> The burial ground is "at the edge of a parking lot between a train
>> trestle and Interstate 95. . . .  Beneath the blacktop are the graves
>> of slaves and free blacks from the 18th and 19th centuries. The city
>> gallows once stood nearby, where a slave named Gabriel was hanged for
>> planning a revolt.
>>
>> Everyone agrees that the cemetery will be commemorated. But exactly
>> how to do that has led to debate in a city that was once the capital
>> of the Confederacy and still struggles with those ghosts.
>>
>> The state's largest school, Virginia Commonwealth University, bought
>> the parking lot this year and has agreed to carve out a piece of it
>> for a public memorial. But a prominent anthropologist at the College
>> of William & Mary, along with many residents, contends that the
>> graves probably extend beyond the strip that the university is
>> donating. They are leading a movement to identify and reclaim the
>> entire site. . . .
>>
>> The 250-year-old cemetery, used until about 1816, faded from public
>> memory as the city grew up around it. But several years ago, a local
>> historian stumbled on records of its existence. Gabriel was executed
>> there after a failed 1800 rebellion, and some historians believe he
>> could be buried there. . . .
>>
>> The drive to preserve the cemetery gained momentum after VCU bought
>> the three-acre downtown lot for $3 million in February. A few months
>> later, as the university took steps to repave the lot and improve its
>> lighting, a small grass-roots protest raised questions about the
>> project's impact on a place of historical interest. Work was halted  
>> to
>> allow the state to delve into the land's history.
>>
>> In June, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources concluded that
>> much of the old cemetery and the site of the gallows lay under the
>> interstate and that old records don't define the burial ground's
>> limits. It's unclear how large the cemetery was. But some graves are
>> believed to extend past the highway and into the parking lot, under  
>> 10
>> to 15 feet of fill.
>>
>> The department, drawing on the work of a local historian, also
>> considered the possibility that the graveyard's edges could be  
>> defined
>> by a label on an 1810 map that notes "Burial Ground for Negroes."  
>> VCU,
>> citing that interpretation, has agreed to turn over a 50- by 200-foot
>> piece of the lot, worth about $350,000, to the city for a memorial.
>>
>> But last month, Michael L. Blakey, director of William & Mary's
>> Institute for Historical Biology, said there was no reason to assume
>> the mapmaker's label encompassed the entire cemetery. Blakey called
>> the estimation of the boundary "implausibly small." He estimated that
>> there could be graves under most, even all, of the parking lot, and
>> recommended digging archaeological trenches, which would not disturb
>> the remains, to determine the cemetery's scope. . . .
>>
>> VCU officials said they recognize the site's historical and spiritual
>> importance, and that is why they are ceding land for a memorial. But
>> the only practical option is to use the remainder of the lot for
>> student and staff parking because the university is relying on  
>> parking
>> fees to pay for the purchase, said Don Gehring, VCU's vice president
>> for government relations and health policy.
>>
>> "We have reached a consensus that this is the most reasonable way to
>> memorialize the site and recognize its significance and at the same
>> time go forward with our purpose for parking," Gehring said. He said
>> VCU would sell the property -- for the $3 million it is paying -- to
>> anyone who wants to preserve the entire site.
>>
>> Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the historic resources department,
>> said her staff reviewed available records and research to study the
>> cemetery.
>>
>> "Nothing short of archaeology will determine the actual boundaries,"
>> she said. "But I don't want to lose sight of the larger goal, which  
>> is
>> how best to memorialize the site. The issue is where we go from here
>> to get it right, to honor the people there and to educate the  
>> public."
>> She said the department has agreed to work with the Slave Trail
>> Commission to raise money to buy the land."
>>
>> More at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/26/AR2008102602162_2.html
>>
>> -- Jurretta Heckscher
>>
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