In the nineteenth century, more than 300,000 men, women, and children were auctioned off as slaves in the Shockoe Bottom district of Richmond, Virginia. Second only to New Orleans, Richmond served as the largest market for the U.S. slave trade in the early nineteenth century. In the past five years, there has been a grassroots movement to build a memorial park in the Shockoe Bottom area to remember the historical significance of this area. Controversially, the city also has a growing interest in building a new stadium for the Flying Squirrels baseball team in the same district. The city is looking to stimulate the city’s economy through the construction of a new stadium, whereas others argue that a memorial park would bring in little revenue to the city. The council has proposed including a memorial heritage site within the baseball stadium complex. These two ideas have developed into a battle of what is most important for the needs of the city: a need for the community’s memory to be protected or the need to bring in significant profits for the city through a structure intended for public gatherings. Is the city better off with the construction of a baseball stadium or a memorial park in remembrance of Richmond’s slave trade? The city only sees it financially fit to incorporate the memorial site within the stadium. What role do local communities and community groups play in the creation and preservation of history and memory?

I have been thinking about this question and who we mean by “community.” Whose history and memory counts? Collective memory is formed by time and by who is heard. Today, Shockoe Bottom’s significant role in American slavery is not well known or widely told. The dominate Richmond city history narrative skirts around the slave narrative and instead, stresses the Confederacy and the experience of confederate leaders, soldiers, and citizens during the Civil War. In Richmond, the slave trade narrative is a critical part of the city’s history, yet not much has been done to highlight or explain the city’s significant role in slave trade.

Is there what Michael Kammen calls a “heritage syndrome” in Richmond where certain narratives emphasize good deeds of the city, and where the history of the slave trade is obfuscated? The community’s collective memory becomes scarred when infrastructures become more valued than preserving a historical site. The city of Richmond struggles with a narrative between groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, African Americans, and other community members, increases with tension. Richmond is trying to assert a narrative which can reconcile African American history and the history of the Confederacy, in part by providing a memorial for the slave trade within the baseball stadium complex. Around the stadium debate, community members attempt to resolve their issues with the city council’s plans to make changes in the historic district. Dwight Jones, mayor of Richmond, has supported the plans for the construction of a stadium to fuel the economy. Jones hopes to include a memorial or museum space within the stadium’s complex to preserve the slave narrative. He believes that the stadium has the ability to unite both spectrums and help the economy in the most beneficial way.

In the Shockoe Bottom district, citizens, historians, and activists in Richmond have created meaning and built connections to this historical site where important lessons can be learned not only about the city’s history but also the nation’s history. Their fear resides in the fact that Richmond’s slave trade narrative will be lost with the construction of a stadium, as the stadium will erase all memories connected to the site. They believe that the narrative needs to be represented on this specific site as the site gives meaning to the narrative. They worry that the community’s memory will be clouded if traces of this site are altered beyond recognition.

The city of Richmond faces a difficult decision as to which track it should take: building upon a historically rich narrative or constructing a stadium to bring in more revenue for the city. The historical narrative is often slighted when examining a city’s economic situation in comparison to an institution which does have the ability to stimulate a city’s economy to a great extent. The community’s memory of the slave trade must be preserved in a way in which the African American narrative is an integral part of the history along with the Confederate history. The slave trade in Richmond has affected millions, for there were those who traveled through the hub as enslaved and dehumanized in spirit, and those who deeply embedded the practice of slavery into the structure of society.