Hidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia

Acknowledgments

I have been fortunate to receive advice and support on this project from numerous individuals. These enthusiasts ranged from descendents of individuals buried within the cemeteries that I studied to professional historians and archaeologists and from landowners to hikers. Since my work on historic African American cemeteries has spanned more than a decade, I cannot possibly list the hundreds of individuals who helped me along the way, but the following lists give a small sense of the community effort that went into the research behind this book. I received generous financial support from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities , the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Sweet Briar College. Thesegrantsenabledmetohireassistantstohelpwiththerecordingof gravestones and mapping of cemeteries. Some of these assistants include Derek Wheeler, Celine Beauchamp, Julie Solometo, Steve Burdin, Don Gaylord, Nathaniel Schwartz, Grace Miller, Laquisha Banks, and several Sweet Briar students, including Mandi Ponton, Dana Ripperton, Anne Mathias, Sasha Levine, Katharina Fritzler, Karli Sakas,WendyHarder,JodieWeber,TiffanyMeadows,CrystalCollins,KatieMiller, and Ashleigh Hawkins. Many other local residents volunteered their time to help read inscriptions and take photographs of gravestones. I have had the pleasure of working with many descendent communities. These families generously shared family stories and photographs and helped me locate and identify historic black cemeteries. I spoke with descendents at most of the sites where I worked, but a few individuals took additional time to work with me in the subsequent research phases. These skilled family genealogists include Shirley Parrish, Shelley Murphy, Edwina St. Rose, Lenora McQueen, Sheila Rogers, Linda Johnson, Jackie Johnson, Jasper “Eddie” Fletcher, Crystal Rosson, William “Billy”Hearns,LizCherryJones,MaryReaves,VirginiaBurton,GeneBurton,Jada Golden Sherman, Vickie Dean, and Bettie Fitch. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Julian Burke (now deceased) for the work that he led on transcribing African Acknowledgments xviii Acknowledgments American death records and Martin Burks III for sharing information about area cemeteries and burial practices. Many of the historic African American cemeteries discussed in this book lie on private land (often no longer owned by the families interred at the site). Thus I often relied on the hospitality of current landowners to get access to these sites. I amverygratefulfortheopportunitytovisitsiteslocatedonlandownedbytheHart family, the Carter family, the Douglass family, the Pflug family, Wilson Steppe, the Innisfree community, Wiley Martin, Alison and Mark Trimpe, Mario diValmarana, Jim Murray, Phyllis Ripper, and Peter Agelesto. In other cases, the descendants of white families who once owned plantations in the region shared with me their research , which helped me locate antebellum cemeteries, most notably Kevin Brown and Jeanne Brown. The Charlottesville region is rich in historians and archaeologists. Many of these experts helped me track down archival leads and locate historic cemeteries, especially K. Edward Lay, Leah Stearns, Joey Combs, Ted Delaney, Mieka Brand Polanco, AliceandJonCannon,Sara LeeBarnes,Robert Vernon,ScotFrench,Sam Towler, Ben Ford, Steve Thompson, Margaret O’Bryant, Cinder Stanton, Gayle Schulman, Leni Sorensen, Fraser Neiman, Sara Bon-Harper, Jerome S. Handler, Reginald Butler, Steven Meeks, and Dede Smith. InsomecasesIreachedouttospecialiststoanswerquestionsaboutspecifictopics . I am very grateful for the insights provided by Dr. Rebecca Ambers (associate professor of environmental science at Sweet Briar College, who helped me identify gravestonematerial),RickBarton(forprovidingstatisticalassistance),LauraKnott (forgivingmereferencesabouthistoriccemeterylandscaping),andTamaraNorthern (curator emeritus, Dartmouth College, for images of African obelisks). The staff at the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, the Amherst Historical Society and Museum, and the University of Virginia Special Collections Library were extremely helpful. Any remaining errors in the book are my changes to the professional and muchappreciated editing assistance from Jessica Mesman Griffith, Carrie Brown, Alice Cannon, Kathleen Placidi, Carolyn Cades, George Roupe, Jane and Roger Rainville , and Ian Freedman. I also very much appreciate the insight and suggestions provided by Lorena Walsh and two anonymous reviewers. My husband, Baron, provided support and honest assessments of the various versions of the manuscript. My twin daughters were born during the editorial stages of this research and are rapidly proving adept at locating small stones sticking out from the ground. I hope to instill a love of graveyards and their histories in this next generation. HIDDEN HISTORY ...