The night was chilly and the forecast was for possible showers, but more than 50 people still showed up to honor the memory of Gabriel, the Richmond revolutionary who led a massive effort to end slavery in Virginia and was executed on Oct. 10, 1800, at the site of Richmond’s African Burial Ground.
On Sept. 19, the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran a story with the headline “Stoney seeks to lease to a developer a Shockoe Bottom parking lot that could sit atop slavery site.” In response to this development, the Defenders’ Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project wrote the following statement.
In order to provide education regarding the pressing matter of the memorial park proposal, the Sacred Ground Project is organizing “Truth & Conciliation in the 400th Year: A Shockoe Bottom Public History Symposium,” to be held Saturday, December 7, 2019, at the Library of Virginia.
An update on the situation of Shockoe Bottom, detailing the formation of the Shockoe Alliance and describing an upcoming Economic Impact and Benefits Study on the Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park.
John Rolfe, the illegal alien who became famous for marrying the native princess Pocohontas, was also the businessman who introduced a particularly valuable strain of Virginia tobacco to England, thus creating a market that required large-scale agriculture, which in turn required enslaved labor to be profitable.
Some two dozen people gathered at Richmond’s African Burial Ground on October 10th for the 16th Gabriel Forum, an event to honor the great slave rebellion leader Gabriel on the anniversary of his execution.
Longtime advocates for Shockoe Bottom have sent an Open Letter (see below) to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney asking him to finally take a stand on whether he supports the community-generated proposal for a nine-acre memorial park.
The Virginia Defender 