Seeing Lumpkin’s slave jail and the slave burial grounds was very different than when we saw the burial site on our campus. It was much larger and made me more aware of the fact that these were all over and now it is unknown where many of them are now. On my notecard, I wrote about how I thought that it would be similar to the site on campus but with more information.

After arriving we split into two groups to observe where the slave jail once stood as well as the former home of Emily Winfree and the field of the burial grounds. I was in the group that looked at the Winfree cottage and where Lumpkin’s was. Reading about the cottage I learned how Ms. Winfree was one of the thousands of black Richmonders who became free and was able to live in a thriving African-American community. Seeing where Lumpkins once stood was informative because it made me learn how many places like this used to scatter the area and now the majority of them are just buried under the city’s infrastructure.

Moving through the underpass we learned of the execution of General Gabriel and we saw some information signs under the trees where this occurred. The field was much larger than I thought and hearing that it used to be a parking lot was very interesting. There was also an obelisk that was made in memory of “Afrikan Ancestors and symbolizing the spiritual resurrection of a liberated and inspired people” -Afrikan Ancestral Chamber 2017. Leaving the grounds I wrote about how the size of the burial grounds surprised me and how the jail most likely still has part of its grounds under the highway.