BY SARAH HONOSKY
The (Lynchburg) News & Advance
BROOKNEAL â In a clearing about a half mile from the main buildings of the Patrick Henry National Memorial on Red Hill, on the northwest edge of the old tobacco plantation, was a sea of white markers â more than 140 crosses marking the gravesites of the Quarter Place enslaved and African American cemetery.Â
Until recently, the graves were only recognizable by depressions in the earth, by scattered field-stones and the single engraved tombstone, which carves like a question mark from the soft soil. It was a history almost lost entirely.Â
But Saturday morning, the cemetery was washed with chatter and song, and crowds of people spilled into the clearing to attend a dedication and remembrance ceremony at the cemetery, a celebration of the lives of the enslaved people who once lived on the site.
From 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on June 5, 2021, Patrick Henry National Memorial in Brookneal will host a ceremony to dedicate the Quarter Place Enslaved and African American Cemetery at Red Hill, the last home and burial site of Patrick Henry.
Until 1865, at the end of the Civil War, the residents of Quarter Place were enslaved. After the war, a free Black population lived there. Only one tombstone bearing a name stands in the cemetery at the end of the Quarter Place Trail. All other graves are marked by simple fieldstones. After years of research, 147 graves have been discovered, and 40 identified.