DC to rededicate Civil War-era burial site for blacks
WASHINGTON DC -- The small, white porcelain button lay just inches below the asphalt.
It was found three years ago when Alexandria archaeologists started digging beneath the surface of a gas station that had been sitting for decades at the busy intersection of South Washington and Church streets.
The button, from a dead person's clothing, was evidence of what lay there more than a century ago: Freedmen's Cemetery, a burial ground that opened in 1864 to accommodate the flood of former slaves who lived -- and died -- in Alexandria during the Civil War.
The discovery in 2004, along with other evidence of graves, was part of an $8 million project that has been 10 years in the making: to rededicate the site and commemorate the 1,800 people buried on the 1.5-acre plot.
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It was found three years ago when Alexandria archaeologists started digging beneath the surface of a gas station that had been sitting for decades at the busy intersection of South Washington and Church streets.
The button, from a dead person's clothing, was evidence of what lay there more than a century ago: Freedmen's Cemetery, a burial ground that opened in 1864 to accommodate the flood of former slaves who lived -- and died -- in Alexandria during the Civil War.
The discovery in 2004, along with other evidence of graves, was part of an $8 million project that has been 10 years in the making: to rededicate the site and commemorate the 1,800 people buried on the 1.5-acre plot.