{"nrhp_refnum":"12000516","name":"Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery","other_names":["Site #44AX0179/VDHR # 100-0121-1085"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"1001 S. Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Alexandria (Independent City)","county":"Alexandria","state":"VA","lat":38.79449323950007,"lon":-77.04991246276717,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-08-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Prehistoric","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Black","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 1.3 to 1.5 acre archaeological site at 1001 South Washington Street in Alexandria, Virginia, holding a Civil War and Reconstruction-era African American cemetery run by the U.S. government from 1864 to 1869, above an earlier Native American tool-making camp.","why_significant":"The cemetery holds 1,711 recorded burials of formerly enslaved people who came to Union-occupied Alexandria seeking freedom, and it documents African American ethnic and social history. Archaeology has located 541 graves and a carriage path, and the grave locations are expected to remain largely intact. The site also yielded 4,210 Native American artifacts, including a Clovis point, showing use from about 11,000 B.C. to 900 A.D.","narrative":"At the corner of South Washington and Church streets in Alexandria, an open, fenced lot conceals a Civil War-era burial ground for African Americans. The federal government operated it from March 1864 to January 1869, and records name 1,711 people buried there, more than half of them children under ten. Many had fled slavery and arrived in Union-occupied Alexandria seeking freedom. Later a gas station, a commercial building, street construction and the Capital Beltway cut into parts of the grounds, and the cemetery was largely forgotten until research in the late twentieth century. Archaeologists have mapped 541 graves in orderly rows, along with an unburied lane that probably served as a carriage path. Hundreds more graves are expected under slabs and pavement. Excavations also recovered 4,210 stone artifacts from Native American visits, including a Clovis point, dating from as early as 13,000 years ago. Protective fill now covers the graves.","period_of_significance":"11,000 BC - 900 AD; 1864-1869","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","D"],"status_note":"Open, fenced ground covered with protective fill; two concrete slabs from demolished twentieth-century buildings remain to protect graves. A memorial is planned for 2012-2013.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.231279-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/15/6794/41679415/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/12000516.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000516/a6b978dc94-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000516/a6b978dc94-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Shearonink","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freedmen%27s_Memorial_(construction).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Shearonink</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freedmen%27s_Memorial_(construction).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"66000928","name":"Alexandria Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/alexandria-historic-district-66000928/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679415","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrabands_and_Freedmen_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5165631"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/alexandria/contrabands-and-freedmen-cemetery-12000516/"}