Slave Cemetery

Slaves in their "Sunday best" gather for a burial.
[Click picture for larger image.]

The Slave Cemetery is located in a wooded section of the Montpelier grounds equidistant between the mansion and the Madison Family Cemetery. Some graves here were marked by the placement of field stones, but many had no markers. As a result, none of the gravesites can be associated with specific individuals. The most obvious features within the cemetery are the depressions from the grave shafts. The Slave Cemetery was maintained by the enslaved community, who would have filled in these depressions as they appeared. The visible depressions mark the last burials, ones that would have settled after slavery was abolished.

Grave depressions filled with snow. The depressions, easily seen in this winter picture, are the results of coffins deteriorating and collapsing, allowing the soil above to settle in the grave shaft.	Field stone marking grave shaft. Quartz or other field stones were commonly used to mark the grave shafts of slave burials.