BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Richmond -- Slave Trail

VA -- Richmond -- Slave Trail:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SLAVET_120606_021.JPG: Acknowledge and forgive the past Embrace the present Shape a future of reconciliation and justice.
2. SLAVET_120606_030.JPG: THE TRIANGLE Liverpool, England The Benin Region of West Africa Richmond, Virginia During the 18th Century, these three places reflected on of the well-known triangles in the trade of enslaved Africans. Men, women and children were captured in West and Central Africa and transported from Benin and other countries. They were chained, herded, loaded on ships built in England and transported through the unspeakable horrors of the Middle Passage. They were imported and exported in Richmond, Virginia and sold in other American cities. Their forced labor laid the economic foundation of this nation.
3. SLAVET_120606_051.JPG: Reconciliation Statue Dedicated 2007 CE Identical statues in Liverpool, England; Benin, West Africa; and Richmond, Virginia, memorialize the British, African, and American triangular trade route, now identified as the Reconciliation Triangle. Traders profited from delivering over 114,000 Africans to Virginia between the 1600's and the American Revolution - and at least 337,800 to other North American places before 1808. The "triangle" extended between Liverpool and other large British cities, Benin and other West African kingdoms, and Virginia and other North American colonies and states. Profits from the sale of enslaved Africans, profits from the commodities they produced and the benefits of these products in Anglo-American lifestyles financed major British and North American economic development. Richmond's journey towards racial healing began with its first "walk through history" in 1993, and the marking of the historic Slave Trail. In 1999, President Mathieu Kerekou of the Republic of Benin, convened an international gathering at which he apologized for Benin's part in selling fellow Africans to slave traders. Also in 1999, Liverpool City Council apologized for that city's prominent role in the trade. Last month, Virginia's General Assembly expressed profound regret for the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and called for reconciliation among all Virginians. "Forgiveness does no change the past but it does enlarge the future." -- Paul Boese
4. SLAVET_120606_054.JPG: Richmond Slave Trail Reconciliation Statue
5. SLAVET_120606_061.JPG: Richmond Slave Trail Odd Fellows Hall Established in England in the mid-1700's, the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows began as a philanthropic organization that welcomed both white and black membership. 1813 witnessed a significant rift in the Order's structure when many of the members broke away to form the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, or I.O.O.F.. Setting its sights on American enrollment, this new faction sent members oversees and by 1819 established its first official American chapter in Baltimore at the Seven Stars Tavern. Sadly, this new iteration of an originally inclusive and unbiased organization refused to honor African American membership and denied all-black or mixed-race groups of Odd Fellows official charter status. Over the course of the following decades, established chapters of the I.O.O.F. spread throughout the northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. While their denial of black membership quickly associated I.O.O.F. with whites, African Americans seeking a recognized Odd Fellows chapter followed their own course of action. In 1843, African American members of a yet unrecognized group in New York met Peter Ogden, a British black man and member of the original Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. A steward on the transatlantic vessel, the Patrick Henry, Mr. Ogden travelled frequently between Liverpool and America and during a visit to England appealed to the Grand United Order for a charter. As this original group still honored the fundamental principles of the Odd Fellows, the Grand United Order did not discriminate against skin color and granted Mr. Ogden a charter on March 1, 1843. He returned to New York and founded the first African American lodge of the Odd Fellows later that same year. Unfortunately, such liberties did extend to blacks in the South. Prior to the Civil War, strong sanctions prohibited blacks from gathering in public and while clandestine fraternal orders certainly existed, meetings and member identity were kept in absolute secrecy. As one can imagine, the I.O.O.F. established a devoted following in Richmond during this time and by 1841 boasted a strong enough membership to warrant a dedicated meeting house. Built on the northeast corner of Franklin and Mayo, the Odd Fellows Hall hosted all manner of events on its stage: opera performance, dance ensembles and the occasional visit by General Tom Thumb, the famous midget. In the basement, another popular activity took place: the auctioning of slaves. Announced by hanging a red flag on the basement door, these open sales of men, women and children led to an annual dispersion of over forty thousand blacks throughout the slave trading states in the antebellum years. During years of particularly brisk trade, this number could double as parents and children, husbands and wives and brothers and sisters were separated indefinitely. Sources: Mjagkij, Nina, ed. Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations; Lee, Richard M. General Lee's City - An Illustrated Guide of the Historic Sites of Confederate Richmond; Scott, Mary Winfield. Old Richmond Neighborhoods. About the Trail Designed as a walking path, the Richmond Slave Trail chronicles the history of the trade in enslaved Africans from their homeland to Virginia until 1778, and away from Virginia, especially Richmond, to other locations in the Americas until 1865. The trail begins at the Manchester Docks, which, alongside Rocketts Landing on the north side of the river, operated as a major port in the massive downriver slave trade, making Richmond the largest source of enslaved blacks on the east coast of America from 1830 to 1860. While many of the slaves were shipped on to New Orleans and to other Deep South ports, the trail follows the footsteps of those who remained here and crossed the James River, often chained together in a coffle. Once reaching the northern riverbank, the trail then follows a route through the slave markets and auction houses of Richmond, beside the Reconciliation Statue commemorating the international triangular slave trade and on to the site of the notorious Lumpkin's Slave Jail and leading on to Richmond's African Burial Ground, once called the Burial Ground for Negroes, and the First African Baptist Church, a center of African American life in pre-Civil War Richmond. Richmond Slave Trail Commission - 2011 -
6. SLAVET_120606_075.JPG: Slave Auction Site You are standing in the geographical heart of the slave trading district of Richmond. To your left, around and behind you, were the cobble stone streets that led to the large, fashionable, brick hotels where dealers had their first floor offices and buyers rented upstairs rooms. The St. Charles Hotel, one of the major sales sites, was located on this corner. Adjacent was Bell Tavern (later known as the City Hotel) and nearby was the Exchange and Ballard hotels. Public auctions were generally held in the biggest room on the first floor and a red flag would be raised above the roof to alert the buying public, and occasional European tourists, when a sales event was to occur. Straight ahead and slightly to your right (but out of sight), were the slave holding facilities. Located in the muddy valley of Shockoe Creek (now underground) they were reached by a maze of damp and smelly, small dirt alleyways. There were over 50 facilities in total, but Lumpkin's Jail, known as the Devil's Half Acre, was the largest and most infamous. It held the most severe slave jail for punishing runaway and recalcitrant slaves. As part of the effort to understand the historical footprint of slavery in Richmond, an archaeological investigation is underway of this slave-holding facility and the adjacent Negro Burial Ground and Richmond City Gallows sites. You can see the study efforts at these sites, and visit the Slavery Reconciliation Statue and fountain, by following the extension of 15th Street through the railroad parking lot.
7. SLAVET_120606_085.JPG: "My friends... managed to break open the box, and then came my resurrection from the grave of slavery."
8. SLAVET_120606_096.JPG: "Buoyed up by the prospect of freedom ... I was willing to dare even death itself." In a wooden create similar to this one, Henry Brown, Richmond tobacco worker, made the journey from slavery to freedom in 1849.
9. SLAVET_120606_099.JPG: The Richmond waterfront is steeped in African American history. From the early days when Richmond was a colonial trading post, free, indentures, and enslaved African Americans lived and worked in the area. Later, the Richmond dock became a place of arrival for many slaves brought from other parts of the South to be sold at auction houses a few blocks north of here. Both free and enslaved blacks worked in the ironworks and tobacco warehouses along the waterfront, and on the river, canals, and docks. African American batteauxmen, who plied both the James River and the canals, were known for the skill and daring with which they navigated the river's rocks and rapids.
10. SLAVET_120606_102.JPG: Mayo's Bridge at 14th Street played a role in one of the most famous anti-slavery plots in U.S. history. In 1800, Gabriel, an enslaved blacksmith, recruited hundreds, and possibly thousands, to his plan to attack Richmond and demand that all slaves in Virginia be freed. Inspired by the ideals of the American Revolution, Gabriel took as his motto "Death or Liberty," evoking the words spoken 25 years earlier by Patrick Henry at St. John's Church, just 10 blocks from here. The plan, which called for some troops to secure Mayo's Bridge, while others set fire to Rockett's Landing, was foiled by a violent storm. Before a second attempt could be made, Gabriel was betrayed. He was eventually captured, tried, and hanged at 15th and Broad Streets.
11. SLAVET_120606_105.JPG: The sale of family members was often a motive for escape from slavery, as happened with Henry Brown, who became known as "Box" Brown after his extraordinary journey to freedom. Brown, a worker in a tobacco warehouse at Cary and 14th Streets, resolved to escape after his wife and three children were sold in 1848. With the help of a white shoemaker, Brown had himself boxed up inside a crate approximately 2 feet square by 3 feet high and taken to the depot on Broad Street, where he was loaded onto a freight car. During the 27-hour trip, the crate was turned upside down several times and he almost suffocated, but he finally arrived safely at an abolitionist address in Philadelphia. Brown went on to become a well-known anti-slavery activist. His helper, Samuel Smith, was arrested after attempting to box up two more fugitives from slavery. "Buoyed up by the prospect of freedom…I was willing to dare even death itself." -- Henry "Box" Brown
12. SLAVET_120606_108.JPG: With emancipation, Richmond's waterfront was no longer a place of slavery, but it continued to be a workplace for generations of African Americans. When the canals closed, the railroads replaced them as employers of many black men, and the tobacco warehouses and factories employed black men and women through World War II. Today, the riverfront is a setting for recreation and enjoyment by all of Richmond's residents. When the restored canals opened in 1999, among the dignitaries present was Douglas Wilder, a descendant of slaves, who as governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994 was the first elected African American governor in the United States.
13. SLAVET_120606_112.JPG: In a wooden create similar to this one, Henry Brown, Richmond tobacco worker, made the journey from slavery to freedom in 1849.
14. SLAVET_120606_116.JPG: Richmond Slave Trail Use of Arms "The Confederate war machine required slave labor to build its fortifications, work its factories, quarry its mines, fix its railroads, defend its harbors, tend its urban areas, and serve its soldiers." -- The Freed People in the Tobacco South: 1860-1900, Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States." -- Frederick Douglass As the intensity of the Civil War increased, life for Africans in America and living in Richmond became more and more dire. Not only did they endure wartime hardships such as lack of clothing and food with the rest of the city's residents, but Africans especially fell under the scrutiny of their neighbors. As the Union troops approached the city, both free and enslaved Africans were viewed as potential insurgents, leading to a heightened fear of a rebellion by the enslaved. Converting Richmond into the capital of the Confederacy, military engineer General Robert E. Lee, who earned the moniker, the "King of Spades," worked quickly to prepare the city's defenses, enlisting both free and enslaved Africans to prepare the city for war. Thousands of pounds of soil were removed and reshaped by hand to form trenches and berms; forests were cleared to provide lumber for the construction of camps; dikes were built to control the waters. By 1864, 10,000 men were working to improve Richmond's defenses, the majority of them African descendents who had been arrested on the streets by the Provost Marshal and ordered to join the labor efforts. As the strength of the Confederate forces waned, many military personnel believed that the South's only chance for victory rested in the hands of the enslaved. However, President Davis opposed this recruitment strategy; by the time he realized its potential the war had nearly ended. In the North, blacks could enlist in Union units only after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Serving on both land and sea, roughly 180,000 formerly enslaved or freed people served in the Union army while countless others fought as navy seamen. The response of Africa's descendants to President Lincoln's visit to Richmond on April 4, 1865 signified the fulfillment of emancipation. About the Trail Designed as a walking path, the Richmond Slave Trail chronicles the history of the trade in enslaved Africans from their homeland to Virginia until 1778, and away from Virginia, especially Richmond, to other locations in the Americas until 1865. The trail begins at the Manchester Docks, which, alongside Rocketts Landing on the north side of the river, operated as a major port in the massive downriver slave trade, making Richmond the largest source of enslaved blacks on the east coast of America from 1830 to 1860. While many of the slaves were shipped on to New Orleans and to other Deep South ports, the trail follows the footsteps of those who remained here and crossed the James River, often chained together in a coffle. Once reaching the northern riverbank, the trail then follows a route through the slave markets and auction houses of Richmond, beside the Reconciliation Statue commemorating the international triangular slave trade and on to the site of the notorious Lumpkin's Slave Jail and leading on to Richmond's African Burial Ground, once called the Burial Ground for Negroes, and the First African Baptist Church, a center of African American life in pre-Civil War Richmond. Richmond Slave Trail Commission - 2011 -
15. SLAVET_120606_122.JPG: As the intensity of the Civil War increased, life for Africans in America and living in Richmond became more and more dire. Not only did they endure wartime hardships such as lack of clothing and food with the rest of the city's residents, but Africans especially fell under the scrutiny of their neighbors. As the Union troops approached the city, both free and enslaved Africans were viewed as potential insurgents, leading to a heightened fear of a rebellion by the enslaved. Converting Richmond into the capital of the Confederacy, military engineer General Robert E. Lee, who earned the moniker, the "King of Spades," worked quickly to prepare the city's defenses, enlisting both free and enslaved Africans to prepare the city for war. Thousands of pounds of soil were removed and reshaped by hand to form trenches and berms; forests were cleared to provide lumber for the construction of camps; dikes were built to control the waters. By 1864, 10,000 men were working to improve Richmond's defenses, the majority of them African descendents who had been arrested on the streets by the Provost Marshal and ordered to join the labor efforts. As the strength of the Confederate forces waned, many military personnel believed that the South's only chance for victory rested in the hands of the enslaved. However, President Davis opposed this recruitment strategy; by the time he realized its potential the war had nearly ended. In the North, blacks could enlist in Union units only after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Serving on both land and sea, roughly 180,000 formerly enslaved or freed people served in the Union army while countless others fought as navy seamen. The response of Africa's descendants to President Lincoln's visit to Richmond on April 4, 1865 signified the fulfillment of emancipation.
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Description of Subject Matter: Richmond Slave Trail is a walking trail that chronicles the history of the trade of enslaved Africans from Africa to Virginia until 1775, and away from Virginia, especially Richmond, to other locations in the Americas until 1865.
It begins at Manchester Docks, a major port in the massive downriver Slave Trade that made Richmond the largest source of enslaved Africans on the east coast of America from 1830 to 1860. The trail then follows a route through the slave markets of Richmond, beside the Reconciliation Statue commemorating the international triangular slave trade, past Lumpkin's Slave Jail and the Negro Burial Ground to First African Baptist Church, a center of African-American life in pre-Civil War Richmond.

The above was from http://www.virginia.org/Listings/HistoricSites/RichmondSlaveTrail/
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (VA -- Richmond -- Slave Trail) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2016_VA_Slave_Trail: VA -- Richmond -- Slave Trail (19 photos from 2016)
- 2015_VA_Slave_Trail: VA -- Richmond -- Slave Trail (6 photos from 2015)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Heritage Trails] [History 1700s (excl wars)] [History 1800s (excl wars)]
2012 photos: Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA), a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean, another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc). Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else.. Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired. Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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