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Subject: Re: Sacred Ground, Richmond, Virginia<br><br>
From: Robert Hinton
[<a href="mailto:robert.hinton@nyu.edu" eudora="autourl">
mailto:robert.hinton@nyu.edu</a>]<br>
<br>
It appears that business leaders in Richmond, Virginia, calling<br>
themselves "The Richmond Baseball Initiative," are planning to
build a<br>
baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom, the site of one of the largest<br>
slave-trading markets in the country. According to the community<br>
group, "The Defenders of Freedom, Justice, and Equality," after
the<br>
Atlantic slave trade became illegal in 1808, some 300,000 to 350,000<br>
enslaved African Americans were sold down the James River to<br>
plantations in the Deep South from Shockoe Bottom, the location of
the<br>
Omohundro Slave Jail.<br><br>
Just north of Shockoe Bottom is an abandoned "Burial Ground for<br>
Negroes" that is covered by a parking lot. In the nineteenth
century,<br>
according to the Defenders, this was also the location of the public<br>
gallows where it is believed that Gabriel (AKA Gabriel Prosser) was<br>
executed.<br><br>
The Defenders have pressed Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, the<br>
former governor of Virginia, to stop contruction of the stadium and<br>
instead to build a museum of slavery and a genealogy center on the<br>
site. Wilder, who has in the past called for the construction for
such<br>
a museum, seems open to the Defenders' demand but claims to lack<br>
public support.<br><br>
The Defenders publish their own newspaper, "The Richmond
Defender."<br>
For more information:<br><br>
The Defenders for Freedom, Justice, and Equality<br>
Post Office Box 23202<br>
Richmond, Virginia 23222<br>
Telephone/Facsimile: 1.804.644.5834<br>
<br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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