Freed Slave's Life Uncovered

Daily Progress ^ | June 9, 2005 | Melanie Mayhew

[nickcarraway]

Years before the Civil War, a free black washerwoman is believed to have made her living laundering the clothes of University of Virginia students and professors. Little of her story is known, but a new archeological discovery may help unearth her place in history.

Archeologists have uncovered evidence of two additional graves on university grounds, a dozen years after archeologists found 12 other grave shafts nearby. The discovery could shed some light on the people who lived - and now rest - on UVa land, said Mary Hughes, university landscape architect.

“We don’t know fully what these explorations mean, but it does advance our understanding of the site history,” Hughes said. “[And] this enlarges our knowledge of the Charlottesville community and how it developed over time.”

Archeologists on Wednesday showcased what they’ve unearthed near a previously unexplored area immediately adjacent to 400 Venable Lane, a mid-20th-century home slated for demolition. The land has been in university possession since 1976.

The university contracted Rivanna Archeological Services to explore portions of the site in preparation for a memorial park that will be incorporated into the South Lawn Project, a complex of arts and sciences buildings that will replace New Cabell Hall and extend across Jefferson Park Avenue.

Members of the Rivanna team were investigating a previously identified brick feature when they uncovered evidence of one grave. They found the second nearby, partially hidden by the house’s fuel-oil tank. The grave shafts are about 10 feet north of those found in 1993.

Archeologists did not exhume the remains in the graves discovered in 1993 and will not disturb the remains in the newly discovered graves, said Steve Thompson, a partner in Rivanna Archeological Services.

“Our goal is simply to define the location of the grave shafts,” Thompson said.

Members of the archeological team and UVa representatives do not have the legal right to exhume the bodies, said Benjamin Ford, principal of Rivanna Archeological Services. “In order to disturb human remains in the state of Virginia, you need a permit,” Ford said.

Although the team does not have forensic evidence to definitively identify the people buried at the site, archeologists have pieced together a possible theory of who the former inhabitants of 400 Venable Lane were.

Archeologists believe that the 12 grave shafts discovered in 1993 contain the remains of eight children and four adults, possibly including Catherine “Kitty” Foster, a free black woman who purchased the land in 1833, and her descendants. Relatives sold the land in 1906.

“We can certainly tie the cemetery to the Foster family,” Ford said.

The most recent batch of artifacts unearthed from the site includes fragments of glass, ceramic plates, dolls and clay flowerpots. A few metal buttons, a handmade marble and nails are the only intact artifacts.

In November 2003, Rivanna Archeological Services recorded an extensive history of the land and its people in a report to the university.

A handful of white men owned the land before Foster; archeologists know that a local merchant, John Winn, sold the land to her in 1833. They think that Winn sold the land because many of the laborers who were building the university – a project that was nearly complete in 1826 – moved away, creating a housing surplus.

Foster may have been born into slavery sometime between 1790 and 1795. Slaves often took the surnames of their masters, and archaeologists believe that in the late 1700s, Henry Foster of Albemarle owned a slave named Catherine.

The next record of Foster is in the 1820 census, where she’s listed as the head of a household containing two boys and two girls, all under the age of 14 and described as “black.”

Her last appearance in local history, however, permanently links Foster to UVa history.

An October 1832 receipt shows a professor requesting the proctor of the university to pay Kitty Foster $4 for “washing before commencement.” Foster, therefore, may have been serving as a laundress for faculty members and students. UVa records show that free black families frequently lived on university grounds while providing similar services.

By the last quarter of the 19th century, the area surrounding the Foster home was occupied mostly by blacks. In 1906, the Foster family sold the land to white developers. The graves were eventually covered and forgotten until 1993.

Later this week, the UVa Board of Visitors will be asked to approve the expedited demolition of 400 Venable Lane to allow for further excavation underneath. Archaeologists hope the work will tell them more of the forgotten story of “Kitty” Foster and her family.

[nickcarraway]

Archeologist Eric Schorling, with Rivanna Archaeological Services, digs around a tree stump at a graveyard discovered by University of Virginia maintenance crews on UVa property in Charlottesville. The Daily Progress/ Andrew Shurtleff

[nickcarraway]

ping

[microgood]

Seems kind of strange digging people up that died in the 1800s. But that is just me.

[Dumb_Ox]

Archeologists did not exhume the remains in the graves discovered in 1993 and will not disturb the remains in the newly discovered graves, said Steve Thompson, a partner in Rivanna Archeological Services.

I'm glad there's some restraint. So much graverobbing goes on in the name of archaeology.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Nick. Will add to the catalog, but not ping the list as a "Thoroughly Modern Miscellany" topic.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)