ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS C ar rs 3 Henry Martin H d il a at the University of l R o R d y b 1 g u R According to oral history, Henry Martin was born UVA Walking Tour d N e b R n n m a co at on July 4, 1826—the day Jefferson ew L Enslaved African Americans at the University N n o s died. He was sold to the Carr family at i

r d a B U Jefferson’s estate sale in 1827 and until 1847 9 ni M 2 ve t rsit The utilized the labor of enslaved R y A remained enslaved at a property in Albemarle / ve nu t e S Alderman LIbrary / R County. In 1847, the Carrs hired out Mr. Martin t African Americans from the earliest days of its t 25 e 0B

u UVA Chapel to Mrs. Dabney Carr, who ran a boarding m m

construction in 1817 until the end of the American E house just north of the University. Until the Civil War. Most of the university’s first enslaved general emancipation in 1865, Martin hauled coal, delivered wood, 3 and worked as a domestic laborer at her boarding house. In freedom, o laborers were rented from local slave-owners and P he took a job with the University as janitor and bell ringer, which he worked alongside whites and free blacks in all the wrote about in a letter to College Topics, a student publication that 4 Hotel A T tasks associated with constructing the Academical asked to report on his life story. Martin routinely awoke at 4 a.m. to 5

Village. When the first students arrived in March 1825, tend to his responsibilities. It was Martin who rang the bell to spread Mew Rotunda s A the alarm when the first wisps of smoke were spotted in the Rotunda lley Pavilion I 2

enslaved African Americans worked in the pavilions, r d 6 a fire of 1895. “I was as true to that bell as to my God,” Martin said in o 1 R 7

hotels, and the Rotunda; maintained classrooms, k a 1914 interview. And by his retirement in 1909, Martin had become c Pavilion III i

g Pavilion II m a UVA icon, The student newspaper commented, “He was known u r laboratories, and the library; and served the daily needs o C c personally to more alumni than any living man.” M of the students and faculty, especially in providing Pavilion IV o Pavilion V

n cooking and cleaning services. This self-guided tour The Lawn Downtown Mall T > is an introduction to some of the significant people, 4 Anatomical Theater i Pavilion VI 9 places, and events that shaped the early history | ` 1 8 e g of African Americans at the University of Virginia. g Hotel E n Following a complaint from Pavilion X resident a R

k t and professor of medicine Robley Dunglison s For further information see slavery.virginia.edu . Pavilion VIII a E

that his front room was an “unacceptable n M

l c Guf Pavilion IX venue” for dissecting cadavers, Jefferson ad ey D i Ro rive ick designed a new building in 1824 (featuring orm Key cC a tiered amphitheater for observing dissections) M Pavilion X k e a v i r that stood for a period of time in front of where D l 10 l Site open to the public a t Alderman Library is today. A student dissection Hotel F i p s lab was added later. Nineteenth century medical faculty and students o H Exterior viewing only, building not open to the public a  commonly stole the corpses of recently buried African Americans from Historic location only nearby cemeteries for use in their classrooms. By the late 1840s, the

W ` University was competing for cadavers with two other medical

Historic marker W 1 schools in the state. Professional grave robbers known as “Resurrec -

P Parking tionists” were hired in Richmond, Alexandria, and Norfolk. These men primarily

targeted African American burial sites to meet the University’s demand Cabell Hall A Front cover: Sally Cottrell Cole was an enslaved maid and seamstress for 25 or more cadavers per session. An enslaved man named Lewis who labored for Professor Thomas Hewitt Key in Pavilion VI (site 9) was hired by the University from carpenter George Spooner specifically between 1824 –1827. Professor Key arranged for her manumission to clean up after the cadaver experiments. Because of these duties, V upon his departure from the University in 1827. Cole remained in the University community referred to him as “Anatomical Lewis.” 50' 100' 500 feet Charlottesville until her death in 1873. During his time at UVA, Lewis lived in several locations including U Back Cover: Henry Martin behind Pavilion VII. It is unknown whether Lewis left by death or by sale, but by 1860, Lewis no longer appears in University records.

ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS 1 The Rotunda 5 Hotel A 7 The Mews 9 Pavilion VI and Garden at the University of Virginia and Bricks on the Lawn   | |  Hotels intersperse the East and West Ranges. The building now known as the Mews was Pavilion V and VI were places where William One of the most overlooked legacies of These buildings were rented to Hotelkeepers, built around 1830. It is one of the few surviving and Isabella Gibbons, who were both enslaved enslaved labor are the bricks that cover the each of whom owned many people who original outbuildings. Built as a detached at UVA, lived and labored. Owned by different r This self-guided tour introduces Academical Village. Enslaved laborers dug were expected to prepare meals and provide kitchen, it also provided accommodations for faculty, they were able to maintain family the clay, helped fire the bricks, hauled them cleaning for the students. On a daily basis, some of the professor’s enslaved laborers. connections and become literate despite the some of the people, places, and to grounds, and laid them to build this the enslaved would bring fresh water to the These kitchen quarters were modeled after constraints of slavery. Mr. Gibbons was owned

u stories related to early African university. The brick making began in the students and tend their fires. They regularly plantation kitchens, which were usually by Professor Henry Howard and later worked summer of 1817, and the enslaved laborers cleaned the rooms and public spaces of the detached and situated near the main house. for Professor William H. McGuffey in Pavilion American life at the University of working on this task were a diverse group Academical Village. In addition, in the basements and gardens, These buildings and the enslaved cooks and domestics were integral IX. Mrs. Gibbons was a domestic servant in the household of Professor of mostly men, but included at least one they prepared the meals that were served to students in the Hotels. to the formal functions of the University’s community, providing Francis Smith in Pavilions V and VI. Although their marriage had no

o Virginia. Between 1817 and 1865 woman and several children. An enslaved This work required an extensive labor force. In 1830, the Conways meals and domestic service to the professors and their families. legal standing, William and Isabella Gibbons preserved their union and the University relied on the labor man named Charles was responsible for who operated Hotel A owned twelve people who may have lived in The building has since been enlarged and was renamed “The Mews” raised their children while living in slavery. Legal restrictions and the T of enslaved African Americans, digging the clay and manning the kiln with the basement and in outbuildings in the gardens. At any time, the when Professor Pratt moved here in 1923. strong opposition of white society severely limited access to education the help of six enslaved boys rented out popu lation of enslaved people living and working in the Academical for Virginia’s slaves. William Gibbons learned to read by carefully

whose presence was undeniably from John H. Cocke in 1823. Enslaved Village was between 90 to 150 in the decades before emancipation. observing and listening to the white students around him. His daughter central to the building and laborers named Dick, Lewis, Nelson and In the course of carrying out their responsibilities, free and enslaved East Lawn Basement Rooms Bella recalled that she could not have learned to read and write, Sandy were also assigned to the brickyard, African Americans interacted with white students in the hotel dining 8 “unless my mother taught me secretly.”

g functioning of the University of and worked long hours by the kiln. Enslaved halls, student dormitory rooms, and throughout the Academical Village  laborers also carved out the terrace levels on the lawn, creating the on a regular basis. On occasion, these daily interactions could and did Virginia. This walking tour is The basement rooms served many different unique landscape that you see today. Many of the enslaved laborers turn violent. Faculty records document that students resulted to physical purposes over the decades. Some were 10 The Crackerbox an initiative of the President’s violence upon the bodies of free and enslaved laborers for a variety of n were highly skilled at construction, carpentry, stone cutting, living quarters for enslaved African and blacksmithing, who were forced to work alongside free black ‘offences,’ including insolence, impertinent language, or a perceived Commission on Slavery and the Americans owned by professors. Pavilion  i and white laborers, contributed to some of the more intricate lack of attention to duties. For example, Mr. Rose complained to the occupants occasionally annexed these One of the few surviving outbuildings within the University, a group committed to design work seen in the details of the architecture on grounds. faculty when a student kicked one of his enslaved workers and Col. Moon rooms by breaking through common walls, Academical Village, the “Crackerbox” is a In 1823 as part of Rotunda construction, free man of color Robert objected when a student threw a knife. Even when students were acknowledging and memorializing which allowed a direct passageway from two-story cottage named for its small size and k Battles hauled over 176,000 bricks and a few tons of sand to the judged by faculty to be at fault, their actions very rarely led to suspension. the lives and legacies of enslaved the basement to the inside of the pavilion, rectangular shape. Built between 1825 –1826 University during a five-month stretch. For his Herculean efforts, the structure stands today in the rear yard of

l allowed them to be used as auxiliary he was paid $170. laborers at UVA. work spaces. Hotel F. Like the Mews, the Cracker Box was 6 The University Gardens originally constructed as a detached kitchen Many of these rooms show evidence of improvement to make with

a Garden 3 To learn more visit them more habitable. They were whitewashed and some had residential space in its upper story. Hotelkeeper John N. Rose brought 2 Enslaved Labor Plaque plaster ceilings. Despite those improvements, most of the rooms his household, including 13 enslaved people and still had dirt floors, no windows and no fireplaces. slavery.virginia.edu 1 Over the decades, dozens of buildings were three free black women, to Hotel F in 1829. The Board of Visitors approved t he construction of a one-room addition to the north end of In February of 2007, the University’s Board of added to these spaces including: smokehouses, Some rooms were rented out to businessmen such as Jack kitchens, privies, wood sheds, and quarters. Kennedy, a member of the Charlottesville Free Black community, the Crackerbox, perhaps to accommodate his large enslaved labor force.

W Visitors approved the installation of a slate Others living within Rose’s household were Edmund, an enslaved man memorial in the brick pavement of the Enclosed by walls and thus largely hidden from who applied for one of the cellar rooms to be used as a barber’s owned by Rose’s son William, and James Munroe who belonged to Rose’s passage under the south terrace of the the university community, these spaces provided shop for the accommodation of the students. The faculty approved wife, Mary. Edmund and James Munroe and the other people owned Rotunda. The memorial reads: “In honor of a place to butcher hogs, to cook and do because they hoped the students would have fewer reasons to by Rose likely served one of two capacities: as hotel servants preparing, the several hundred women and men, both laundry, and to perform the many other tasks go to town. In another room (under Room 24), enslaved laborers serving, and cleaning up student meals; or as dormitory servants free and enslaved, whose labor between 1817 expected of the enslaved community. These constructed a large cistern, which was once a vital part of the providing services to students and cleaning their rooms. On occasion, and 1826 helped to realize ’s were the primary spaces where the enslaved community worked, lived, University’s water supply and fire protection system. The cistern Rose leased his slaves for short periods of time. Edmund was hired to design for the University of Virginia.” The memorial was part of an and communed while tucked away from the view of the central Lawn. was connected to wooden pipes and trenches, all of which were Professor George Blaetterman in 1832 for a period of two months. effort led by President John Casteen III to honor the university’s By the twentieth century, most of these buildings were torn down and constructed and maintained by enslaved laborers and, in later Rose and his family left the University in 1834 and opened a boarding “original labor force,” which included enslaved workers. only a few remain. In the mid-twentieth-century the Garden Club of years, Thomas Farrow and Robert Battles, free black tradesmen. Virginia redesigned the gardens to their present appearance. house for students on Main Street. It is likely that the people they owned President‘s Commission on Slavery and the University continued to serve the Roses at their boarding house establishment.

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ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS Mrs. Gray’s Kitchen C Catherine Foster Site E Gibbons House G Violence Against Enslaved Individuals at the University of Virginia A ` ` | 1   In 1829, the Board of Visitors approved the During the expansion of a parking lot east of The Board of Visitors voted in March 2015 In the course of carrying out their responsibilities, free and enslaved construction of a one and a half story ‘office’ and adjacent to Venable Lane in 1993, to name the new first year dorm building African Americans interacted with white students in the hotel dining with two rooms to the rear of Hotel E. Built University staff discovered several grave “Gibbons House” after William and Isabella halls, student dormitory rooms, and throughout the Academical r This self-guided tour introduces between 1829 –1830 and referred to as Mrs. shafts. Archival research identified the Gibbons. The President’s Commission On Village on a regular basis. On occasion, these daily interactions Gray’s kitchen, this structure would have served historic parcel containing the graves as Slavery at the University (PCSU) established could and did turn violent. Faculty records document that students some of the people, places, and as both residence and work space and was belonging to Catherine Foster, a free black an educational exhibit in an alcove on the resulted to physical violence upon the bodies of free and enslaved

u stories related to early African operated chiefly by enslaved laborers. Mrs. woman who purchased the property in first floor of the Gibbons House dormitory laborers for a variety of ‘offences,’ including insolence, impertinent Gray expanded the kitchen structure when she 1833. Subsequent archaeological research to teach first year students about the language, or a perceived lack of attention to duties. American life at the University of added an ‘apartment for the lodging of servants’ in 1844. John and conducted on the property identified a total namesakes of the building and the larger In particular enslaved individuals working for hotelkeepers in the Cornelia Gray operated the hotel between 1825 –1845 providing food of 32 graves as well as an early nineteenth history of slavery at UVA. The building was

o Virginia. Between 1817 and 1865 dining halls and dormitories faced the greatest threat. Failure to and services to students in adjacent dormitories. century house and landscaped yard. As free formally dedicated in summer 2015 and change a plate at the dinner table, or perceived negligence in the University relied on the labor laundresses and seamstresses, owning later that same year, descendants of Isabella Census records document that a total of 13 enslaved individual resided preparing a dormitory room or changing bed linens could result in T property adjacent to the University during Gibbons were honored with a reception of enslaved African Americans, in the Gray household in 1830. One of these individuals was the a violent interaction. Enslaved individuals who did not speak to the antebellum period was a significant at Gibbons House.” dormitory servant William, a young boy. In early 1834, several white white students with respect and deference were also putting them - whose presence was undeniably asset for “Kitty” Foster and her daughters students boarding with Mrs. Gray had complained that William was selves at risk of violence. Student on slave violence at the University and grand-daughters. During the postbellum central to the building and “impertinent” and that he did not “attend well” at the rooms. Under included strikings and beatings, as well as threats of whippings, period the area surrounding the Foster residence became known as pressure from the faculty, William was “withdrawn” from serving the and even sexual assault. This physical punishment was carried out g functioning of the University of Canada, a predominantly African American owner-occupied student dormitories. In late 1835, Mrs. Gray complained to the faculty University Cemetery with or without the assent of the master. Complaint against a slave neighborhood. The 2 1/8 acre historic parcel remained in the Foster F Virginia. This walking tour is that a student boarder, William W. Harris, “struck her servant William for an offense could lead to their removal from duties, or even from family until 1906. The memorial adjacent to the South Lawn in her presence” and that Harris behaved in a very rude and insulting the University. Furthermore even when students were judged by an initiative of the President’s complex commemorates the Foster residence, the larger landscape, n manner to her. Harris replied stating that “he would do so [strike her In 2012, Archaeologists discovered 67 faculty to be at fault, their actions were only reprimanded and very and the cemetery believed to contain members of the Foster family Commission on Slavery and the servant] whenever it pleased him.” Faculty reviewed the complaints mostly unmarked grave shafts, which likely rarely led to suspension. i and adjacent Canada community. University, a group committed to and testimonies and concluded that William was “highly offensive in contains the remains of both enslaved and manner, & impertinent in language to Mr. Harris & is habitually as newly freed African Americans. The graves Photography acknowledging and memorializing in his conduct to others.” William was subsequently removed from any were left undisturbed.In 2014, the PCSU k Gooch Dillard Grave Site Front attendance on the students. D the lives and legacies of enslaved organized a formal service at the First Baptist cover Minor, Southall and Venable family photographs, 1860 –1900, Accession #10100-d, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA .

l | Church, followed by an evening vigil led by ` 1 2 UVA Magazine laborers at UVA. renowned Reverend Almeta Ingram-Miller uvamagazine.org/articles/unearthing_slavery_at_the_university_of_virginia The land upon which the Gooch Dillard McGuffey Cottage and a choir singing the gospel song, Walk 3 Holsinger Studio Collection, c. 2890 –1938, Accession #9862, Special Collections, University B dormitory stands was originally part of of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA . Together Children, Don’t You Get Weary. 4 Details: E. Sachse, Engraver. View of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville & Monticello, a Piedmont, a 290-acre plantation acquired by taken from Lewis Mountain, 1856. Casimir Bohn, Publisher, Richmond, Virginia. Broadside To learn more visit  Ingram-Miller led the community in Reuben Maury in 1809. Piedmont was 1856. B64. Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA . McGuffey Cottage is all that remains of a row a libation ceremony to celebrate, honor, 5 ‘East Range.’ [It is actually West Range] RG-30/1/10.011. UVA Prints 01667. University of Virginia passed down through the Maury family until Visual History Collection. University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Virginia. slavery.virginia.edu of outbuildings located to the west and rear and remember the men, women, and 6 Anne Chesnut its acquisition by the University in 1947. of Pavilion IX. These were built as work and children who were buried in the cemetery. 7, 8 Kelley Deetz As Maury’s plantation holdings grew, so did 9 Rivanna Archaeological Services, LLC (2014) residential spaces including one built as early Renowned poet Brenda Marie Osbey wrote 10 Kelley Deetz W the number of enslaved people he owned. as 1831 for the ‘accommodation of domestics.’ a poem, Field Work, especially for the Back In the decades between 1820 and 1860, Maury owned between cover Holsinger Studio Collection, c. 2890 –1938, Accession #9862, Special Collections, University George Tucker, a professor of Moral Philosophy, cemetery ceremony. The poem was read at of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA . 25 and 62 enslaved individuals. was the first resident of Pavilion IX, occupying the commemoration. A ‘Jefferson Statue.’ Rufus W. Holsinger, April 4, 1914. Holsinger Studio Collection, Call #MSS 9862. Retrieval ID – X03164B4. Special Collections Department, University of it between 1825 and 1845. Census records Prior to the construction of the Gooch Dillard dormitory Mrs. Alice Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA . C Top: Rivanna Archaeological Services, LLC (2005) document that he owned two men and two women in 1840. H. Clark, a Maury descendant, recalled the location of a cemetery Bottom: The Catherine “Kitty” Foster Family and Canada Community Park, Photo: Jane Haley In addition to supporting his own family, Tucker also rented out his containing the remains of enslaved who lived and worked on the E Bottom: Isabella Gibbons, n.d. Courtesy Trustees of the Boston Public Library F Top: ‘Cemetery, University of Virginia.’ Rufus W. Holsinger, March 9, 1917. Holsinger Studio slaves to the University as needed. In 1828, Anthony was rented Piedmont plantation. In 1982 University archaeologists conducted limited Collection, Call #MSS 9862. Retrieval ID: X04909AB. Special Collections Department, out by Tucker for five months performing labor for the University. testing in the area adjacent to the proposed dormitory construction site. University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA . Middle: Benjamin Ford, principal investigator at RivannaArchaeological Services, explores the In 1840, Tucker’s slave Isaac was rented for a month and assisted a Although only nine graves were identified, it is believed that the cemetery dig north of the University Cemetery. Photo: Cole Geddy stonemason while building walls surrounding the Academical Village. is much larger and may contain the graves of many more individuals. uvamagazine.org/articles/unearthing_slavery_at_the_university_of_virginia PresPidresnidte‘sn tC'so Cmommisissisoionn oon Sllaavveeryr ya nadn tdh et hUen iUvenrisvitey rsity Bottom: Dan Addison