Honoring Those Who Endured
I was fortunate to be a part of a group of stakeholders who came together to provide insight into what will be a memorial to the Enslaved Africans who were held at Lumpkin's Slave Jail in Richmond, Virginia. Although we don't know whether the final product will be a museum, memorial site, or any combination of the other 13 options discussed today; what I do know is this will be a memorial that honors the strength and resilience of those who were held in captivity and will tell a story unique to Richmond in this place and time.
The people around the table are educators, curators, historians, legislators, community activists, and a host of architectural designers. The company who facilitated this workshop was also responsible for designing parts of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History on the National Mall.
The best part of my visit was not the view (although it was awesome), but the rich and engaging discussion that we had about what the commemoration of this site should be. For those who don't know, Robert Lumpkin was a slave owner who ran a jail in the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond, Virginia. He was notorious for his heinous and deplorable treatment of the enslaved Africans held in the prison. Let that sink in for a minute. In an era where slavery is legal and the beating, mutilation, and murder of enslaved people is common, Lumpkin earned a reputation for being so gruesome that his property was known among slave owners as the "Devil's Half Acre." It was only recently (2005) that a portion of his jail was discovered in Shockoe Bottom and excavated. That discovery led us to engage in this workshop today.
For the record, I was not even aware that "slave jails" existed. It is astounding to me that when a person has already been enslaved and is beaten and tortured at his/her "owner's" discretion, that there is any need for a jail. Nevertheless, there were apparently over 80 Slave jails in Richmond, VA alone that held fugitive slaves and anyone whom a slave owner was willing to pay the daily fee to house them. It appears that the most resistant runaways and those who adamantly refused to conform to enslavement were actually sent to jail, and Lumpkin was known for being the most inhumane of all jailers.
In addition to learning from scholars whose knowledge of this location and its history far surpasses my own, I was able to interact and help shape the course of what will be a lasting monument to the resilience and determination of my ancestors. A fascinating part of this experience was learning about Mary Lumpkin. She was an enslaved woman whom Robert Lumpkin took as his wife and with whom he bore several children. My mind continues to ruminate around her life. While it was common for Slave owners to rape and bear children with their female slaves, it is far less common for them to take them on as wives. In addition, once he died, he bequeathed his entire estate to his wife, an African women, formerly enslaved, who became a large land owner in the capital of the confederacy. It was her leasing of the land to a pastor seeking to open a seminary that laid the foundation for what is now Virginia Union University. Her importance in the history of this site and city cannot be overstated. I will be researching and writing about her throughout the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
All in all, I have learned a great deal throughout this process and look forward to working with this group. I do want to provide a special thanks to Delegate McQuinn for supporting this work in the legislature and convening this group. I am thankful that I was chosen to be a member of the team helping to support this work. I look forward to writing more about my experiences as this work goes forward.
-AW
