1001
South Washington Street

The cemetery was established in 1864 by the Union military government on the southern edge of Federally-occupied Alexandria, at the corner of what is now South Washington and Church Streets, as a burial ground for self-emancipated Black people — “contrabands” in the period’s legal usage — who had reached Union lines, and the African American community that grew up around them in the wartime city ^[1] Source 1 City of Alexandria, "Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial" Government record .

Freedmen’s Bureau records document at least 1,711 burials through 1869, when the Bureau’s record-keeping for the cemetery ended; archaeology completed in advance of the 2014 memorial identified 631 specific grave locations ^[2] Source 2 Boyd Sipe, archaeological data recovery report (2014) Government record . The single most arresting statistic in those records is the age distribution: more than half of those buried are infants and children under sixteen — a measure of the brutal conditions of wartime displacement, the disease environment of an occupied city, and the precariousness of life for newly freed families in the cemetery’s brief active years ^[1] Source 1 City of Alexandria, "Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial" Government record ^[3] Source 3 Laura Trieschmann, "The Faithful Contrabands…" (2015) Article .

The 1865 removal of the soldiers

In January 1865, a delegation of African American soldiers and Alexandria’s free Black community protested that 118 United States Colored Troops — men who had died in service to the Union — had been buried in the Freedmen’s Cemetery rather than alongside white Union soldiers at the Alexandria National Cemetery. After the protest, the Federal government relocated those 118 graves to Alexandria National Cemetery. It is the first documented integration of an American military cemetery ^[3] Source 3 Laura Trieschmann, "The Faithful Contrabands…" (2015) Article .

Erasure, 1880s–1980s

With the Freedmen’s Bureau gone and no organized stewardship, the cemetery passed out of public memory. Its surface was successively paved over for a gas station, an office building, and an off-ramp of the Capital Beltway. By the late twentieth century the burial ground was physically invisible above the grade — but the 1,711 individuals remained where they had been buried, beneath the asphalt ^[1] Source 1 City of Alexandria, "Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial" Government record .

Recovery, 1997–2014

The recovery of the cemetery was the work of a decades-long advocacy campaign. Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery organized in 1997; a state historical highway marker was installed in 2000; the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Archaeological data recovery, completed in 2014, mapped the surviving graves and informed the design of a public memorial ^[2] Source 2 Boyd Sipe, archaeological data recovery report (2014) Government record .

The memorial — designed around Mario Chiodo’s bronze sculpture “The Path of Thorns and Roses” — was dedicated in September 2014. At its entrance, twin stone pillars carry the dates that bracket the history: “CEMETERY ESTABLISHED 1864” at the left, “MEMORIAL DEDICATED 2014” at the right ^[1] Source 1 City of Alexandria, "Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial" Government record ^[4] Source 4 Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery Website .

We must always remember the sacrifices of those laid to rest here. — Lillie Finklea, President, Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery ^[1] Source 1 City of Alexandria, "Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial" Government record

The site is open dawn to dusk at 1001 South Washington Street, at the intersection with Church Street. A tenth-anniversary candlelight vigil was held at the memorial in 2024.