ORGINAL STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Establishing the historical highway marker to honor Gabriel's sacrifice in the struggle for freedom, justice and equality was a gratifying experience; it was also a multi-functional success.  The Defenders completed a year-long project of political and cultural significance to the community.  The marker also officially placeD the site of the "Burial Ground for Negros" north of Broad Street between 15th and 16th streets in the Shockoe Bottom historic district.  It was closed the year that the Barton Heights Cemetery was completed, approximately 1807.  As such this burial ground may have been the oldest municipal cemetery for African and African Americans in Richmond, and possibly in Virginia, which could place it amongst the oldest of colonial era municipal cemeteries in the U.S.  It currently lies 15-20 feet beneath what is now a parking lot, owned by Virginia Commonwealth University and used daily by students and staff at VCU Health Center. In 2004, the area, once one of the five principle slave trading areas of the United States, survived the threat of destruction by the development of a sports and entertainment megacomplex because of the efforts of community and civic objectors, including the Defenders and the Sacred Ground project.

Each year since 1996, the city of Richmond's Slave Trail Commmission and the Elegba Folklore Society present the Juneteenth Celebration and Slave Trail Walk.  The Walk begins at dusk, leaving from the Manchester docks at Ancarrow's Landing, follows the foot paths of captured Africans and their enslaved descendents through Shockoe Bottom, and culminates in the parking lot over the Burial Ground.  Every year homage is paid to the ancestors who are buried there, under earth, under asphalt, under a traffic of indifference. 

The burial ground's existence had been suspected for many many years, but was proven by the research of local historian and author Elizabeth Cann Kambourian in 1992.  Her original and seminal research, conducted at the Library of Virginia, has been used by the Department of Parks and Recreation, ACORN, the City of Richmond, the Slave Trail Commission, the Defenders and other organizations to bolster projects which should always belong to the bank of cultural and community enrichment.  Bringing Gabriel's rebellion into sharper view within the bounds of the city he sought to free from the ideological hypocrisy of slavery in the "age of enlightenment" was a solid contribution to that enrichment. The marker is now a permanent standard, and those who read it will find meaning in that place and these times they would not otherwise have found. 

The Defenders have formed the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project committee.  We are busy building a cohesive group of highly qualified and passionate people whose prime motivation is the strengthening of our people and their identity in this culture, which would banish or absorb them into oblivion if at all possible.  We seek to add to the community's understanding of its origins by reclaiming this burial ground, bringing the memory of our ancestors into view, and by acknowledging the whole history of the existence, humanity and contributions of Africans to this place, to our people now.  We will not simply nod to the ingredients of our history's co-contributors; we will enrich the stew and make sure its flavors are complex and distinctive. 

We will continue this work by "rising up" the stories of others in our history, like Gabriel's widow Nan, Mary Bowser and Elizabeth Van Lews, John Mitchell Jr., whose lives have added critical layers to the evolution of the RIchmond in which we now live.  We will defend the places of historical truth from the indifferent imposition of shortsighted schemes. Why does it matter now?  It matters, because without a whole history, understanding is fractured and combative, justice unreachable and our foundation for social improvement unsound.  It matters because we who are living now are the survivors, and we will continue to walk the ground of our ancestors, leaving sacred traces for our descendants.