Escaping Slavery During the Civil War: A Monument to African-Americans Lost Pursuing Freedom
How can we explore the story of Black men and women who escaped from slavery during the fighting of the Civil War? In this episode of BRIdge from the Past, Mary explores the Contrabands & Freedmen Cemetery Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, to reveal stories of sacrifice and bravery. What imagery does the sculptor use to convey the hardships these men, women, and children faced? What is the significance of the statue's location right outside of Washington, DC?
0:03 Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of bridge from the past art across US history. I’m your host, Mary, and this series is for students like you to get ahead in your US. History class by using visuals as a way to explore complicated and sometimes overlooked stories in America’s past. Today, we’re looking at images of the contraband and freedmen cemetery memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.
0:28 The memorial is a powerful way to explore the story of African American men and women who escaped from slavery during the fighting of the civil war. What does this memorial and its very complicated story reveal about their lives and legacies? Let’s jump in. So, here is an image of the contraband and Freedman Cemetery Memorial. And again, this is in Alexandria,
0:49 Virginia, which is just across the Potomac river from Washington, DC. And in fact, Alexandria used to be part of Washington, DC. And where you’re trying to think about what this memorial reveals about the lives and legacies of the African American men and women that it is honoring. So, right off the bat, this word contraband is a word that I think we will probably need to define.
1:13 If I’m looking at this memorial, I can see that it is a large sculpture. It’s on a pedestal, so I’m assuming it’s honoring something. And I can see men, and it looks like a woman holding a child, and they appear to be climbing up something. And this rope or this circular thing right here,
1:35 I’m not sure what it is, but I can see that there are spikes on it. And the man at the top, which is sort of where my eye is drawn, he’s at the top of the sculpture here. He is holding something in his outstretched hand. So I’m not really sure what that is or what that might mean. So I definitely have some questions. And as with any primary source, it’s helpful to have a little bit
1:56 of context before we can really jump into our analysis. The first thing we need to know is the term contraband. So, contraband of war was what African American men and women who were escaping enslavement were referred to as during the fighting of the civil war. So by 1861, if you were an enslaved man, woman, or child, and you escaped to union
2:20 held territory, you were declared a contraband of war. So, in essence, it’s like enemy property, enemy being the confederacy. So that property becomes the property of the union, and they’re declared free. So, as you can imagine, if you were an enslaved man, woman, or child and you knew of this, you would do your best to get into union
2:40 occupied territory, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen. So, Alexandria, Virginia, as I mentioned, is right across from Washington, DC. It’s in Virginia, which has succeeded from the union during the civil war, and it’s held by federal troops starting in 1861. So what happens is you start seeing Alexandria experiences a refugee crisis
3:01 because all of these men and women contraband are coming into the city. And because they’re contrabands, they’re under the protection of the Union Army. They’re not subject to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. So this was a very controversial law that was passed at a time, and you can learn more about it on BRI’s website. But it’s basically said that any
3:21 individual, if they encountered someone who was an escaped enslaved person, they had to return them to their owner. So contrabands are not subject to that, and they end up coming into Alexandria for protection. So unfortunately, many of these people are ill and ill health.
3:42 They’ve been living in slavery and there are so many of them. There’s not a lot of food, there’s not a lot of places for them to take shelter. So disease and malnutrition are very common. And the community, the local community of African Americans is lobbying for a burial place. And they get one. In 1864, approximately 1700 people were
4:05 buried there, and over half of them were children. And again, this was mostly due to disease and exposure. So in 1869 is when the last burial happens in this cemetery. And references to this place as the cemetery basically sort of fade away with time. So descendants know about it and they’ll
4:25 come and honor the graves of their family members. But the city and other people sort of forget or willingly forget that this was a place where the final resting place for these men, women and children. It becomes property of a church. It becomes a brickyard. A gas station is built there and an office building. And in 1987, historical research because of road construction brings to light
4:49 the fact that this was a cemetery for African Americans during the Civil War. So there’s local advocacy group descendants in the city of Alexandria actually reclaim the site and salvage the graves. So there’s archeological digs going on to identify where the graves are and to honor those that are still there.
5:10 And 540 graves approximately are protected by the site today. And it was rededicated in 2014. So really interesting story of what was there at the time of the Civil War and what became of it. So here is the main sculpture, sort of the centerpiece of the memorial. And this is called the path of thorns and roses.
5:31 And it’s by the sculptor Mario Kyoto. And you can see if we can zoom in a little bit on the memorial here, you can see that he is holding a rose, this main man here. And you can see that there are thorns, thorns and roses throughout the memorial. So you can see here mother with her child. You can see men.
5:51 You have people of different ages. You can see broken bodies. So this is an allegorical depiction of the struggle for freedom. So you can see this sculpture is honoring the men and women who chose this path escaping from slavery. And many of them who this is their final resting place.
6:11 So what I have here are how some of the graves are marked. So within the memorial itself, where a grave has been identified, there’s a marker for where the grave is. Here, we can zoom in on it so you can look at it with me, is an explanation that the cemetery used to be much larger than it is today.
6:33 So it extended out into the street. There’s actually a street as part of the cemetery. So any place that there is a light brick marks the place where a grave was. So again, not all of the graves had been identified. But if you’re walking along this street in Alexandria, Virginia, and you look down and you notice these bricks of a different color, this is where a grave would have been.
6:55 Some of them are very close together. And again, most of the people buried here, or half of the people buried here, I should say, were children, and many of them very young children. Again, malnutrition and disease are especially going to be a problem for those who are very young. So you’re constantly in contact with this final resting place for these men and women.
7:18 So because of this refugee crisis that Alexandria is experiencing at the time, many people came to help aid workers, missionary groups, and one such aid worker was Harriet Jacobs. And Harriet Jacobs herself lived in slavery. She escapes from slavery and she comes and she sets up schools and she helps
7:39 the freedmen and women who’ve escaped the city. And it’s her quote here that is on the side of the memorial of the roses and thorns. And I’ll read it to you because I think it’s so powerful. You can read along with me says, I am thankful there is a beginning. I am full of hope for the future. A power mightier than man is guiding this revolution.
8:00 And though justice moves slowly, it will come at last. The American people will outlive this mean prejudice against complexion. What I love about this memorial is not only that it’s a place of remembrance and reflection, but that again, there’s this idea that there’s hope for the future. And I’ve lived in Alexandria for several
8:21 years and I didn’t actually stop into this memorial until very recently because speaking of the future, here’s my son toddling along at this memorial. He’s two, and he was interested in he wanted to stop, so we explored it together. So I think this is a great way to think about there’s hope for the future by learning about our past and honoring the things that took place before us,
8:43 that things could be better off for our country in the long run. So we started by asking what the moral reveals about the lives of the men, women and children who once lived here in Alexandria. And we learned that many African Americans fled to union occupied territory like the city of Alexandria during
9:03 the Civil War, and their story was literally buried for many years. But the concerted efforts of ordinary citizens and descendants brought their story to life, and now we’re able to honor them appropriately with this memorial. So now I turn it over to you. What do you want to know more about? What questions do you have?
9:24 And what’s the next part of our conversation? Let us know in the comments below. If you learned something, be sure to like and subscribe to this video and come back soon for more resources, videos, contests to help you through this school year. I’ll be back with another image very soon. Until then, keep your eyes open, because history is everywhere, all around us, all the time.
9:46 Take care.
