history archive
August 8, 2008
Civil War walking tours in Richmond
The National Park Service has 3 Civil War walking tours remaining this month: Industrial Work Force Tour tomorrow, Richmond’s Civil War Prisons walking tour on 8/16, and Walking Tour of Historic Tredegar Iron Works on 8/23. [via]
July 26, 2008
location of Burial Ground for Negroes confirmed
VCU and the Richmond Slave Trail Commission have confirmed the location of a burial ground for slaves and free blacks covered by Interstate 95 and a parking lot on the VCU/MCV campus.
June 20, 2008
along the canal flashback…
Roads to the Future has a batch of interesting photos of the Richmond skyline from 1997 (a few years before the smokestacks came down).
June 10, 2008
Juneteenth to include torchlight walk on Slave Trail
This year’s Juneteenth celebrations will take place June 20-21, include a fashion show, a panel discussion, African music and dance, a Dead Prez concert, and will end in a torchlight walk on the Richmond Slave Trail. [via]
June 10, 2008
Sons of Confederate Veterans proposes Davis statue at Tredegar
The Sons of Confederate Veterans is offering to donate a bronze statue of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the the Confederacy, to be placed at Tredegar Iron Work to mark the bicentennial of his birth. [via]
June 9, 2008
burial ground banner and workshop night @ Gallery5
Following up on the protest last Tuesday of the repaving of what “may be the site of the largest slave burial ground in the nation”, organizers are working towards a follow-up rally to marshall momentum. An organizing meeting will be held @ Gallery 5 on Wednesday the 11th at 7:00PM.
June 7, 2008
repaving of slave cemetery postponed
After grass-roots protests earlier this week, VCU has decided to delay repaving the parking lot that may cover a burial ground for slaves and free blacks.
June 4, 2008
dig to commence at Lumpkin’s
Archaeologists from the James River Institute for Archaeology of Williamsburg will work through the summer excavating at the site of the Lumpkin’s slave jail, currently a city-owned parking lot behind Main Street Station. [via]
“I’m hoping what we will find will give us insight in how they lived not only as slaves but slave owners, so we can educate the public of how people lived in a hostile environment,” said City Councilwoman Delores L. McQuinn, chairwoman of the Richmond Slave Trail Commission.
May 29, 2008
protest @ 15th and Broad Streets
A protest/rally will be held on June 2 beginning at noon at the soon-to-be-renovated parking lot @ 15th and Broad Streets. A ground breaking for renovating the parking lot, which “may be the site of the largest slave burial ground in the nation”, is also scheduled for that day. The land which was established as a burial ground for both slaves and free blacks in the 1700’s also doubled as the town gallows for public execution. It is believed that this is where Gabriel Prosser was hanged and buried.
May 24, 2008
Shockoe Bottom walking tour on Sunday
The Valentine Richmond History Center will be leading a walking tour of Shockoe Bottom on May 25th:
Now an entertainment and residential district, Shockoe Bottom once served as Richmond’s commercial and transportation hub, as well as one of the busiest slave quarters in the country. Explore Main Street Station, the Farmer’s Market, Tobacco Row, and current revitalization efforts.
May 14, 2008
dig at Lumpkin’s Jail could resume this summer
Style Weekly is reporting that the archaeological dig at Lumpkin’s Jail, the slave auction house and nicknamed the “Devil’s Half Acre”, could resume this summer. The site is currently a parking lot behind Main Street Station.
May 6, 2008
“Richmond’s uncomfortable, untold history”
Style Weekly’s Look Away, Look Away delves into Richmond’s history as a major center of the nation’s domestic slave trade, possibly the city’s biggest industry during the first half of the 19th century. The “facts found underfoot in Shockoe and at Rocketts and Manchester” paint a grim and astounding picture.
April 28, 2008
Historic Photos of Richmond
There are more than a few great books covering specific facets of Richmond’s history. The recent Historic Photos of Richmond “captures this city’s journey through still photography selected from the finest archives” with a well-selected set of photos from the 1860s to the 1960s.
April 9, 2008
Civil War Sampler bus tour - 4/12/08
The Valentine Richmond History Center’s Civil War Sampler Bus Tour will be Saturday, April 12 from 1-5PM. Explore the unique role Richmond played as the Capital of the Confederacy and learn about Chimborazo, Libby Prison, the infamous Belle Isle and the Evacuation Fire. Starting in the city, the tour winds through Church Hill, Shockoe Bottom, the Court End and the canal area, stopping at Soldiers and Sailors Monument, and the Tredegar Iron Works. The tour also visits Hollywood Cemetery and then out Monument Avenue to the battlefields, with stops at Gaines Mill and Cold Harbor.
February 18, 2008
Newton Ancarrow’s beautiful boats
Known now for the fishing and as one end of the Manchester Slave Trail, Ancarrow’s Landing takes its name as the former site of Newton Ancarrow’s old speedboat-manufacturing factory.
February 17, 2008
Heavy Flooding at Richmond (2/17/1899)
From the New York Times’ recently opened archive comes an account of flooding in Rockett’s, Shockoe, and Manchester before the turn of the last century:
The rush of the increased volume of water and ice from the upper James River [...] has resulted in in one of the heaviest floods ever known here. The wharves at Rockett’s, the landing place for steamers, and the streets for blocks around are under water, and the Virginia Navigation Company’s wharf has been swept away.
