The land known today as Arlington National Cemetery bears witness to those who gave their lives to protect the nation's ideals of liberty and justice for all.
But there is another history lurking beneath this scene, the history of the African American struggle for freedom, a history that has been erased from the pages of history. Before the Civil War, enslaved African Americans worked, escaped, started families, and died in Arlington, on a plantation founded by George Washington Parke Custis and inherited by the wife of Confederate General Robert E. for me.After the Union Army confiscated Lee's property, Freedman's Village was established on the site, providing refuge for a vibrant community of thousands of newly freed African Americans. By creating a neighborhood with homes, schools, stores, and networks for free blacks in the capital and beyond, Arlington's freedmen played a pivotal, if largely forgotten, role in promoting African American freedom and equality throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century.Written in a fluid and meticulously documented style, this story brings to life Arlington's African-American past in a vivid way. Based on extensive historical research conducted at Arlington House and on the National Cemetery grounds, William A. Blair's definitive account of individuals and families' inspiring journey from slavery to freedom.
