The Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery

Free Blacks and Slaveholders in the Alexandria
Personal Property Tax Assessments of 1800

The 1800 tax assessments are similar in format to those of 1787-1790, including the fact that free African American "tithables" or heads of household are identified. Unlike the earlier assessments, those for 1800 explicitly account for the number of slaves—as opposed to "negroes"—in households.

Each of the free African Americans below were assessed only for the standard capitation or "head" tax, indicating that they did not possess an appreciable amount of personal property, such as horses, cows, watches, carts, or silver. Details about the slaveowners extraneous to the present purpose (such as numbers of white members of the household and personal property such as carriages) have been excluded. Thus, the tabular format of the original document has been simplified, and the remaining information may speak for itself. Keep in mind that some owners may have owned slaves who resided in other places, such as Washington, D.C. or farms in northern Virginia.

While most African Americans in town are not identified by name, this source has a value similar to the slave schedules of the federal censuses of 1850 and 1860. For one thing, the entries can provide statistical information. Also, used in conjunction with other sources, such as wills, deeds of sale and trust, manumissions, etc., these personal property records can help trace ancestors (particularly if the researcher can trace his or her ancestor to an individual owner and finds that that owner possesses only one slave).

A number of surnames have been "corrected" to their more common or preferred spellings, based on other contemporary sources. Tim Dennee

FREE BLACKS (males over 21):

——, Adam

——, Buster

——, Collock

Barecroft, Dominy

Cole, Solomon

Eddoch, George

Gall, Levin

Gibbs, James

Julius, Thomas

Monroe, Adam

Payne, London

Quabb, William

Thomas, Joe

SLAVEHOLDERS:

Name

Slaves,
over 16 years

Slaves,
12-16 years

Alexander, Amos

1

Alexander, Mark

1

1

Bennett & Watts

1

Blunt, Washer

1

Brady, Benjamin

1

Brockett, Robert

2

Bryan, John

1

Cadogan, Charles

1

1

Carolin, James & H.

1

Catlett, Peter

1

1

Cazenove, A.C.

1

Clementson, George

2

Conway, Richard

3

2

Cooke, Stephen

3

Coryell, George

1

1

Craik, Dr. James

2

1

Crandell, Thomas

2

Dade, Miss Hety

1

Dawson, John

1

Dawson, Thomas

1

Dempsey, Thomas

1

Deneale, George

2

1

Dick, Elisha Cullen

2

Douglass, Charles

3

Douglass, Daniel

2

Dulany, Benjamin

2

Dundas, John

3

Dunlap, John

1

Dykes, James

3

Edmonds, Edmund

1

Evans, Ephraim

2

Faw, Abraham

2

Fendall, Philip Richard

3

1

Fitzhugh, William

12

1

Fletcher, James

1

Fletcher, estate of John

1

Foushee, John

1

Fortney, Jacob

2

1

Gadsby, John

12

Gardner, Zachariah

1

Geiger, Jacob

3

1

Ghequire, Ber[nar]d

1

Gibson, Isaac

1

Gillis, James

1

2

Gilpin, George

2

Gordon, John

1

Gould, John

1

Griller, estate of John

1

Griffith, Mrs. H[annah]

1

Griffith, Samuel

1

Guthrie, John

1

Hacker, Samuel

1

Halley, William

2

1

Hamilton, John

2

Hamilton, Robert

2

Hampson, Bryan

3

Harper, Capt. John

1

2

Harper, Joseph

4

5

Harper, William

1

Henderson, David

1

Herbert, Thomas

2

Herbert, William

8

Herskill, Peter

1

Hewes, Abraham

1

Hewitt, Rachel

1

1

Hewitt, Richard

1

Hingston, Nicholas

2

Hodgson, William

3

1

Hoffman, Jacob

6

2

Hooe, Robert T.

2

1

Hooff, Lawrence

3

Hopkins, John

2

Horner, John

1

Hughes, John

2

Hunter, John

2

Hunter, William

1

Irish, George

1

Jamieson & Anderson

6

2

Jamieson, Andrew

6

2

Jamieson, Robert B.

2

1

Janney, Abel

1

Johnson, D.M.

2

Johnston, John

1

Keith, James

7

2

Kennedy, James Sr.

4

Kenner, James

1

Kinzey, Ezra

4

Korn & Wisemiller

3

2

Ladd, John G.

1

Lanphier, Robert G.

1

Lawrason, James

1

Lee, Charles

6

Lee, Edmund Jennings

3

2

Lee, Miss Lucy

1

Lemoine, John

1

Lewis, Richard

3

Libby & Carne

1

Livingston, John

1

Lowe, Charles

1

Lynn, Adam

1

Magruder, Philip

1

Mandeville, John

1

Mandeville, Joseph

1

McCall, Archibald

12

2

McCrea, James R.

1

McGahan, Hugh

1

McHugh, Henry

2

McKenna, James

1

McKenzie, Alexander

1

McKenzie, James

1

McKnight, Charles

2

McKnight, William

1

McLean, Daniel

1

McLeod, John

1

McMunn, George

2

Mease, Robert

2

Moody, Benjamin

1

Moore, Cleon

2

Muncaster, John

1

Newton, William

1

Norris, Mark

1

Page, Charles

1

Page, William B.

3

2

Parsons, Elizabeth

1

Patterson, William

1

Patton, James

1

1

Patton, Robert

1

Patton, Thomas

2

Perrin & Bro. [Mathurin & Joseph Marie Perrin]

1

Peyton, Mrs. Ann

1

Peyton, Francis

2

1

Plum & Hughes [Lewis Plum & Thomas Hughes]

1

Potts, John

4

1

Powell, Cuthbert

1

1

Powell, John

1

Price, Ellis

1

Ramsay, Andrew & William

4

Ramsay, Dennis

5

Redmond, Sarah

1

Reno, Hanson

3

1

Rhodes, William

3

Richards, Thomas

1

1

Richardson, Forrest

2

1

Richter, John

1

Ricketts, John T.

1

Riddle, Joshua

3

1

Ridley, John

1

Risler, Jacob

2

Robertson, Mathew

3

Sandford, Will[iam]

1

Scott, David M.

4

2

Scott, John & James

1

Sexsmith, Matthew

1

Shropshire, Wil[liam]

1

Simmons, Susannah

1

Simms, Charles

6

2

Simms, Jesse

1

Simms, Thomas

1

Slacum, George

2

Slade, Charles

1

Smith, Alexander

1

Smith, John

1

Smith, Samuel

1

Smith, Capt. William

1

Smoot, Hezekiah

1

Steel, Thomas

1

Stier, Charles J.

3

Stephens, Stephen

1

1

Summers, estate of William

1

Swann, Thomas

3

2

Swift, Jonathan

1

Wales, John J.

1

1

Westcott, James D. & John

1

Weston, Mrs. Mary

1

Wilson, James

2

2

Wilson, William

7

Wright, William

1

Freedmen's Cemetery Historical Site Marker - E 109 Freedmen's Cemetery - Federal authorities established a cemetery here for newly freed African Americans during the Civil War. In January 1864, the military governor of Alexandria confiscated for use as a burying ground an abandoned pasture from a family with Confederate sympathies. About 1,700 freed people, including infants and black Union soldiers, were interred here before the last recorded burial in January 1869. Most of the deceased had resided in what is known as Old Town and in nearby rurual settlements. Despite mid-twentieth-century construction projects, many burials remain undisturbed. A list of those interred here has also survived.

Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery
638 North Alfred Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
E-mail: freedmen@juno.com

Freedmen's Cemetery Logo - This logo was designed by Alexandria Archaeology Assistant City Archaeologist, Dr. Steven Shephard, in 2006. The beautifully executed final drawing was made by Alexandria Archaeology volunteer, Mr. Andrew Flora, who made a few modifications. At the center of the logo is a headboard of the design seen in historic photographs of the Alexandria National Cemetery, established at the north end of Wilkes Street in 1862. These grave markers were supplied by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Department in Alexandria and records state that this department also supplied the headboards and coffins for Freedmens Cemetery. The pine boards were whitewashed and the plot number, and presumably, the name of the deceased, and possibly the date of death, were painted in black on the headboard. The number 1864 in the logo represents the year that the cemetery was established. The black silhouette of the African American woman in the center of the board is meant to represent the people, the Freedmen, who were buried at the cemetery. Civilian men, women and many children were buried here, along with African American soldiers of the United States Colored Troops. The rays radiating from the top of the headboard are meant to represent the light of freedom, as well as the souls of the Freedmen ascending into heaven and their final reward. The F and C are for Freedmen's Cemetery. The surrounding broken chain wreath symbolizes the severed bonds of slavery which resulted from the American Civil War which transformed Alexandria and the nation.

April 29th, 2007