1315 Duke St

Virginia’s Ignominious Past

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I have always been shocked and amazed at how things existed in Virginia. From the moment I first became a resident of the Commonwealth in 1976.

Where I was told the schools were “integrated”. Oh, that really meant the Black high school was finally closed and there was just one high school- but all the White folks were sending their kids to Christian academies. It took more than a decade for those bastions of racism to disappear. (The financial burden of sending one’s kids to those schools overrode the parent’s desire for separate and unequal education.)

And, when I left Charlottesville for the more urban Alexandria, I learned of that city’s history in the practice of slavery. Alexandria had a long history of participation in the slave trade. From way back in the late 1700s. (The city had the dubious distinction of being named by the American Anti-Slavery Society- within 3 years of the society’s establishment.)

District of Columbia (Washington, Alexandria)

Alexandrians maintained their slave market just outside the confines of Alexandria, DC. (Come on, you do recall that the compromise that moved the US capitol from New York required 10 square miles of land donated by both Maryland (Washington, DC) and Virginia (Alexandria, DC) to form the new US capitol. With the dividing line between the DC border and Virginia being King Street, the slavers kept their operations 1 block away from the border on Duke Street. Oh, and this was contiguous to the railroad lines that let the slaves be transported to the deep South (for the more lucrative business of cotton picking; tobacco farming in Virginia was running out of steam.)

Duke Street

The main slave trade  building run by Franklin and Armfield was basically a jail (owners shelled out 25 cents a day to house the slaves until they were sold) at 1315 Duke Street (established in 1828). The specialty were folks of both genders, ranging in age from 12 to 25. The “inventory” rotated out about twice a month at a minimum, although some slaves were sold and transported by cart or occasionally walked to their new owners’ abodes. (The business later changed hands to  the Price, Birch & Company as you see in the second picture below.)

1315 Duke St

Further down the block was the Bruin Slave Jail (1707 Duke). It, too, is on the National Register of Historic Places. But, this opened for business years later (1840) than Franklin-Armfield. This site served as the model for Harriet Beecher Stowe for part of this stories in her books, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Key. By the time of the Civil War, when the Feds marched in and took over Alexandria, Bruin was captured and jailed; the building served as the Fairfax County Courthouse.

It’s kind of hard to believe that Alexandria is now among the most liberal cities in the Commonwealth.

Or, as was the motto of a tobacco product (Virginia Slims) proclaimed… “You’ve come a long way, baby.”

 

AFTERWORD:

My AlexandriaTimes newsweekly arrived today- and this was in their “Out of the Attic” section…..

Alexandria's first jail
The Alexandria Times “Out of the Attic”
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6 thoughts on “Virginia’s Ignominious Past”

  1. Really fascinating bit of history. Not pleasant, because slavery is a barbaric practice, but fascinating, nevertheless. We need to look at the bad stuff in our history, as well as the more uplifting stuff.

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