Indigenous Stewardship

The land was home to indigenous peoples for thousands of years.

In final years of Late Woodland Period (900–1650), Fall Line of James River marks meeting point of Monacan Nation to west and Powhatan people to east (one of more than two dozen tribes in the Tsenacomoco alliance).

1742–1765

Early Records of Westham Plantation Enslavement

References to enslaved people and forced labor at Westham Plantation (expanded to 5,000 acres) appear in multiple records; at least 30 individuals enslaved on property in 1765.

1766

Robin’s Escape

Record of Robin’s escape from Westham Plantation provides first known name of an enslaved individual held on property.

1787

Division

Forty-four enslaved adults and children named in Westham Plantation property division.

1820

Auction

Fifty individuals enslaved on remaining Westham Plantation advertised for auction with the land (about 700 acres following past divisions).

1832

Liquidation

Names of 53 adults and children enslaved at Westham Plantation recorded in preparation for auction, part of a liquidation process to assure financial well-being of landowners' daughter.

...Stephen and Lavinia and their children Denniss, Patsy, Rosetta, Matildianna, and Andrew... 

1843

Mill Side Tracts

At least 43 individuals enslaved or held through 'slave hire' by the family controlling a tract previously divided from the Westham Plantation (any children under 12 were not included in this total). Together, this land and adjoining northeastern acreage, which the family acquired in 1848, includes most of the present-day Richmond College side of campus.

1847

Anaca Purchased

Anaca (also recorded as Annica, age about 43) purchased by family controlling mill side tracts. She had been auctioned away from her children and grandchildren for $5.00. Amount indicates she may have been disabled.

1849

James Henry Ferguson (a.k.a. Henry James Williams) Kidnapped

Approximate date of kidnapping of James Henry Ferguson, age about 7

Parents and siblings enslaved by family that controlled mill side tracts. Sold to the Deep South and in elder years returned to Richmond area seeking his family.

1864

William’s Escape

William follows retreating Union soldiers after failed raid on the Confederate capitol at Richmond; recaptured and imprisoned at Richmond’s Castle Thunder prison.

1865

Freedom Won

American slavery ends with the Federal defeat of the Confederacy, following centuries of enslaved individuals' acts of resistance and a decades-long abolition movement.

1897

True Reformers

Westham Farm purchased by William Washington Browne, head of Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, an African American mutual benefit organization.

True Reformers plan a home for the elderly and orphans in and around former plantation house on River Road.

1910

Richmond College

Syndicate members plan whites-only neighborhood (referred to in one newspaper as a “White Man’s Settlement”) and to anchor the development effectively give Richmond College the first 251 acres of its new campus for ten dollars. 

Additional acreage was acquired, totaling more than 275 acres when campus opened in 1914.

1912

“Knowledge of this cannot be hidden”

April: Survey sketch for campus development includes two Burying Ground boundaries, each marked “Graveyard.”

July: Brush clearing reveals “at least twenty graves” in path of planned road. Landscape designer recommends relocating to a cemetery all the human remains in the path of the roadway as well as all others in the Burying Ground due to the risk of student 'pranks' when the campus is opened. While no known records indicate how graves were marked, incident indicates visibility and countability.

Head of Richmond College Board of Trustees and coordinator of campus development replies that despite Virginia law protecting graves, he believes the college will not have 'any trouble in regard to this graveyard' but will 'look into the matter.'

Construction proceeds.

1947

“Burying Ground for Slaves”

Two graves uncovered during road widening and remains reburied a “few hundred feet” away. Richmond newspapers report that university officials were previously aware area was a “burying ground for slaves in the Ante Bellum period.”

2018–2021

Research & Community Engagement 

In 2018–2019, research conducted by Shelby M. Driskill, with GIS mapping by Douglas Broome, identifies location of the Burying Ground, details of enslavement on the land, and evidence of institutional desecrations of the site. Findings are assembled in digital narrative Paths to the Burying Ground: Enslavement, Erasure, and Memory. In 2019–2020, Driskill conducts further research through University of Richmond Inclusive History Project initiated by then-University President Ronald A. Crutcher and led by Dr. Lauranett L. Lee, published in the report “Knowledge of This Cannot Be Hidden”: A Report on the Westham Burying Ground. 

In 2020, the Burying Ground Memorialization Committee is established to determine approaches to memorialization of those enslaved on the land and interred at the Burying Ground. Burt Pinnock, principal at Baskervill, is retained as design consultant and later hired to lead the project design. The Committee’s final report, informed by extensive conversations with descendants and campus community members about Burying Ground history and memorial design priorities, is released in February 2022.

In 2020–2021, Mrs. Brenda Dabney Nichols — educator, historian, consultant to Memorialization Committee, and descendent of an individual enslaved by 19th century owners of land that became part of the campus — uses details contained in Burying Ground research and genealogical data she compiled over decades to trace and locate other descendants of some who were once held by enslavement era owners of campus. She organizes pilgrimages to bring more than 70 people — many descendants — to the Burying Ground.

2022–2025

Memorialization

The Burying Ground memorial design process moves forward. The university initiates archeological and a second ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey of Burying Ground Memorial site and surrounding area to determine more exactly the location and number of graves which are found to number at least 50. The design process continues to engage the descendant and campus communities. In January 2024, descendants gather at the Burying Ground for a Ground Honoring Ceremony prior to memorial construction commencing in February 2024. In April 2025, the Burying Ground is consecrated, and the memorial is completed and formally dedicated.