The Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery

Individuals and Families

Group of Black People
"Contrabands" at Cumberland Landing, Virginia, 1862.
Library of Congress.

The Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery would like to make available to the public not only primary resources containing references to many individuals but also articles and blurbs relating to exceptional and "typical" individuals and to the genealogies of families. Some are previously published and others are transcriptions, extracts or summaries from primary sources. Many are accounts of runaway slaves, some who merely passed through Alexandria. The researcher should not expect to find fully developed biographies or family trees here, but visitors to the site are encouraged to submit their own information on Alexandria families or figures (to the message board or for posting on this page) and to use the thumbnail sketches here as a point of departure for further research.

Please remember that many of the historical documents and excerpts cited were created during the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and reflect prevalent attitudes and language used at the time.

Anderson, Samuel
Ball, Joseph
Ball, Oscar D. (John Delaney)
Banks, Henry
Bayne, Richard
Botts, Mary Mildred
Burns, Anthony
Carroll, Charlotte
Carter, James
Cartwright, Ann
Clagart, John
Derrix, Townsend
Dowling, Carter
Ferrell, Joseph
Frank
Fuller, Thomas
Graham, Montgomery
Gray, Thornton
Harper, Thomas
Jackson, William
Kemper-Jackson-Crigley Family
Lee, Lewis
Lucas-Kye-Carr Family
Martin, James H.
Nichols, Christopher "Kit"
Noland, Alfred
Parry, Alfred
Payne, London
Payne, Oscar
Rose, Clara
Russell, Emily
Taylor, Benjamin
Thornton, Lawrence
Triplett, William
Ward, Randall
Williams, Isaac

Freedmen's Cemetery Historical Site Marker - E 109 Freedmen's Cemetery - Federal authorities established a cemetery here for newly freed African Americans during the Civil War. In January 1864, the military governor of Alexandria confiscated for use as a burying ground an abandoned pasture from a family with Confederate sympathies. About 1,700 freed people, including infants and black Union soldiers, were interred here before the last recorded burial in January 1869. Most of the deceased had resided in what is known as Old Town and in nearby rurual settlements. Despite mid-twentieth-century construction projects, many burials remain undisturbed. A list of those interred here has also survived.

Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery
638 North Alfred Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
E-mail: freedmen@juno.com

Freedmen's Cemetery Logo - This logo was designed by Alexandria Archaeology Assistant City Archaeologist, Dr. Steven Shephard, in 2006. The beautifully executed final drawing was made by Alexandria Archaeology volunteer, Mr. Andrew Flora, who made a few modifications. At the center of the logo is a headboard of the design seen in historic photographs of the Alexandria National Cemetery, established at the north end of Wilkes Street in 1862. These grave markers were supplied by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Department in Alexandria and records state that this department also supplied the headboards and coffins for Freedmens Cemetery. The pine boards were whitewashed and the plot number, and presumably, the name of the deceased, and possibly the date of death, were painted in black on the headboard. The number 1864 in the logo represents the year that the cemetery was established. The black silhouette of the African American woman in the center of the board is meant to represent the people, the Freedmen, who were buried at the cemetery. Civilian men, women and many children were buried here, along with African American soldiers of the United States Colored Troops. The rays radiating from the top of the headboard are meant to represent the light of freedom, as well as the souls of the Freedmen ascending into heaven and their final reward. The F and C are for Freedmen's Cemetery. The surrounding broken chain wreath symbolizes the severed bonds of slavery which resulted from the American Civil War which transformed Alexandria and the nation.

July 8, 2017