{"nrhp_refnum":"82001475","name":"African Jackson Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"N of Piqua on Zimmerlin Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Piqua","county":"Miami County","state":"OH","lat":40.15715876000007,"lon":-84.23517408799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-12-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small one-acre cemetery on Zimmerlin Road in the northern part of Piqua (Rossville), Miami County, Ohio, used from the 1840s to the 1930s. Ex-slaves formally obtained title to the land in 1866.","why_significant":"It is the main surviving historic resource of the Randolph Slave Settlement, a freed black community established in the 1840s after John Randolph of Roanoke's slaves were freed by his contested will. Few such rural black settlements remain in Ohio, and Rossville is still an active community whose residents descend from the original freedmen. The cemetery was chosen because the surviving houses have serious integrity problems.","narrative":"African Jackson Cemetery is a one-acre burial ground, roughly 360 by 120 feet, in the northern part of Piqua, Ohio. It was laid out in 128 plots with five east-west streets, and its graves date from the 1840s to the 1930s. An iron archway marks the west entrance, and a boulder with a bronze plaque commemorates the free Randolph slaves. The cemetery is tied to the Randolph Slave Settlement at Rossville. Nearly 600 slaves of Virginia statesman John Randolph were freed after litigation over his will ended in 1845, and about 383 came to Ohio in 1846. Hostile white settlers blocked their planned landing in Mercer County, and many eventually settled north of Piqua. Fires, demolitions and the 1913 flood reduced the settlement's houses, and alterations compromised those that remain. The cemetery still keeps its nineteenth-century appearance and has clear links to the freedmen, so it was selected as the best surviving resource of the community.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1847 to 1934","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Described as generally cared for, with some stones vandalized or displaced; the few remaining gravestones are at the western end. It is owned by a local historical society.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:14.867435-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/82001475.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001475/0c01f5897c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001475/0c01f5897c-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broken_gravestones_in_the_African_Jackson_Cemetery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broken_gravestones_in_the_African_Jackson_Cemetery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71990343","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Jackson_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4689802"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/miami-county/african-jackson-cemetery-82001475/"}