For those of you who didn't get down to Shockoe Bottom yesterday, you
can read about the history- making archaeological survey in local and
other news (including the
L.A.Times).
Here are some other links:
Richmond Times-Dispatch
New York Times
NBC/Channel 12
Norfolk Examiner
Fox News
On Dec 22, 2008, at 8:06 PM, Jurretta Heckscher wrote:
> From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 18, 2008. Full article
> at http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/SLAV18_20081217-212925/155991/
>
> Richmond slave jail’s foundation found
> Melodie N. Martin, Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
> Published: December 18, 2008
>
> With young black men used as bait, dogs were trained to track and
> pursue runaway slaves in the cobblestone courtyard of a Richmond
> slave jail.
>
> Hidden for more than a century, the courtyard of round, gray stones
> and other remnants of Lumpkin's Slave Jail lay exposed yesterday in
> the corner of a Shockoe Bottom parking lot.
>
> Archaeologists have spent the past four months digging 8 to 15 feet
> down to uncover "an amazingly intact urban complex," which included
> brick foundation walls, said Matthew R. Laird, principal
> investigator with the James River Institute for Archaeology in
> Williamsburg.
>
> The dig recovered thousands of period artifacts, including ceramics,
> glassware, bottles, a shoe and animal bones.
>
> The discovery completes more than five years of planning. The exact
> location was identified through the use of an 1835 city survey
> map. . . .
>
> The jail, owned by Robert Lumpkin, held slaves from 1840 until the
> end of the Civil War. Richmond was the country's largest domestic
> slave market, second only in overall trade to New Orleans,
> Kilpatrick said.
>
> "The African-American story cannot be told without exploring the
> slave trade and the slave experience. That experience is also
> integral to the development of the city of Richmond, socially and
> economically," [Kathleen] Kilpatrick [executive director of the
> Virginia Department of Historic Resources] said. . . .
>
> The cobblestone courtyard was referenced in the writings of 19th-
> century author and abolitionist Richard Henry Dana, said Philip J.
> Schwarz, a member of the Richmond Slave Trail Commission.
>
> "The dogs would accompany the coffle [a group chained together]
> taking people south. If somebody tried to run away, they let the
> dogs loose," Schwarz said. "It was part of the brutality."
>
> The site will be covered with fabric and backfilled with dirt to
> protect it, said City Councilwoman Delores L. McQuinn, who heads the
> Richmond Slave Trail Commission. A tall, chain-link fence separates
> the 12,000-square-foot site from a city-owned parking lot off 15th
> and East Franklin streets.
>
> In the meantime, McQuinn said, the groups involved in the dig will
> seek funding resources for ideas such as a genealogy center, a
> museum or a reproduction of the slave jail.
>
> She said it was too early to discuss a developer's plans for a
> baseball stadium and condominiums in the area, but that they would
> continue to pursue their goals "not be deterred by a developer's
> plans."
>
> "Richmond will speak loud and clear what they want for this
> particular area," McQuinn said.
>
>
> [Note from Jurretta: the statement that "Richmond was the country's
> largest domestic slave market, second only in overall trade to New
> Orleans" is incorrect: the interstate domestic trade flourished in
> the wake of the ending of the overseas slave trade in 1808, and from
> that time until Emancipation, New Orleans was the nation's largest
> slave market. Richmond was also, however, a critically important
> site for the trade.]
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