On a warm, cloudy day this summer, a small crowd gathered to witness the installation of three bronze plaques on sidewalks in downtown Lynchburg marking the locations of sites associated with slavery. The latest addition was on July 29, when historic markers were set in place at the James River & Kanawha Canal site, the Market House and Woodroof’s Slave Auction & Boarding Business.Those three plaques joined three others that had been installed on Lynchburg streets three days earlier on July 26.The markers identify work sites that relied on enslaved labor during the 18th and 19th centuries, auction houses where enslaved individuals and families were sold and often separated from each other, tenements where enslaved families lived, and a church established for enslaved and free people of color on Court Street.These six plaques are the first of a number of markers planned for locations downtown and elsewhere in the city to be installed in the coming years. The map of Silent Witnesses sites in Lynchburg. Courtesy of Silent Witnesses.The plaque project is one arm of the Legacy Museum of African American History’s and the Lynchburg Museum’s Silent Witnesses program, whose mission is to document the experience of enslaved people of African descent.Silent WitnessesSilent Witnesses tells the story of a dark and often violent past, but it is also a story about courage, fortitude and determination. The project honors the accomplishments of enslaved African Americans in building many of Lynchburg’s public works, sharing music and worship, and supporting one another. Silent Witnesses is the first comprehensive study of the history of slavery in Lynchburg created to educate residents about this history. It is a collaborative public history project involving historians, genealogists, archaeologists, museum professionals and volunteers. By better understanding the past, residents will be better able to understand the present and it can serve to be a guide to the future. Silent Witnesses is an independent nonprofit that relies on public donations to continue its work. Fundraising is underway to pay for the manufacturing of these markers. During the Civil War, the city of Lynchburg, with three railroads and a canal, was a major logistical center and manufacturing hub in the eastern theater.So how did this small municipality in central Virginia, far from major waterways and big cities, grow so successfully? The one-word answer is slavery.Slavery, unlike the way it is portrayed in many movies, did not exist exclusively on large plantations in rural settings. Many Black Americans were bought and sold in cities to toil for long hours in local industries and on city projects. While urban slavery differed from field slavery, it was no less grueling. “Enslaved people built so much of the city that we still use and benefit from today,” said Ted Delaney, director of the Lynchburg Museum. “They worked in the factories and foundries here. They built railroads. They excavated the railroad tunnel. They worked as specialty craftsmen, coopers, blacksmiths and all of the trades that needed to happen then. And they were really an absolutely essential part of the local economy,” Delaney said.Enslaved laborers built Lynchburg through long hours of demanding work in places like Knight’s Tobacco Factory, which was housed in a building that still stands today at 612 12th St.“All over Lynchburg famous brands of goods were being manufactured almost entirely by enslaved people,” Delaney explained.The Silent Witnesses marker near base of Confederate statue. Photo by Cindy Forrest. The Silent Witnesses marker near the James River. Photo by David Neumeyer.The Silent Witnesses marker for the African Baptist Church. Photo by David Neumeyer.The Silent Witnesses marker for Leftwich’s Row. Photo by David Neumeyer.What the researchers discovered was appallingIn the heart of downtown, at the intersection of Ninth and Main streets, stood the Market House, probably one of the most infamous slavery-associated sites in Lynchburg. In pre-Civil War days, the city boasted the largest slave market in Virginia west of Richmond. A place where residents came to buy and sell eggs, chickens and produce — and, on certain days and at specific times, people.Over a 50-year period, human beings were put up on blocks and auctioned off to the highest bidder. “Individuals were scrutinized for their bodies, families were separated and all of that right here,” Delaney said. “It’s hard to drive through those intersections and see them the same way.”Today at the corner of Commerce and 10th streets sits an ordinary parking deck, but from 1846 until the end of the Civil War, it was home to Woodroof’s slave auction and boarding business. Seth Woodroof, a notorious slave trader, boasted that his business could hold slaves as securely as the city jail.A newspaper advertisement from pre-Civil War Lynchburg. Courtesy of Silent Witnesses.According to Delaney, Woodroof was the most famous, or infamous, slave trader and dealer in Lynchburg. He was so well known that Harriet Beecher Stowe mentioned him in a book that she wrote after the well-known “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” She described Woodroof as an example confirming the reality of slave trading and how people were treated like livestock, like animals.Slave auctioneers and traders placed ads in the newspaper that brought in people from far and wide to buy and sell through Woodroof. One of the most heart-wrenching ads: “‘Selling 20 negroes consisting of men, women, boys and girls’ — at the same time he advertised for the sale of beef cattle, milk cows and oxen,” Delaney said. Another newspaper ad offered “Public sale negroes, stock, crops.” Enslaved laborers working in the city were kept in housing projects like Leftwich’s Row on Harrison Street, which was built around 1845 and stood for over 60 years. It was named after its owner, tobacco tycoon Col. Augustine Leftwich.David Neumeyer (left) and Ted Delaney. Photo by Cindy Forrest.Why now?According to David Neumeyer, president of the Silent Witnesses board of directors, the city council discussed the presence of the Confederate memorials in Lynchburg in 2017 and again in 2020 as other cities were taking such memorials down. “The consensus each time seemed to be that the memorials represented the city’s history and should remain in place, but as one council member put it, context needed to be added. The city has not added context,” said Neumeyer.The catalyst for the project was the general community discussion about racial justice and Civil War memory in the summer of 2020, explained Delaney. Peaceful protests were held at the Confederate monument in downtown Lynchburg, and the long, highly controversial process of removing Confederate monuments in Richmond had begun. However, the Lynchburg City Council never officially voted to either remove or keep the local monuments.The closest thing to council action was taken 18 months later, on Dec. 14, 2021, when the city council adopted a formal report from the local African American Cultural Committee. Among many recommendations, the committee specifically recommended keeping Lynchburg’s Confederate monument in place. The report noted: “Since there was no consensus, the removal of the statue is not a recommendation being made by the committee.” The Confederate statue in Lynchburg. Photo by Cindy Forrest. Committee spokesperson Pat Price spoke to the city council during the report presentation. “Rather than to tear down something, we propose telling, enhancing, expanding on the history,” Price said. “We feel that it’s more important to build up the city of Lynchburg, to embrace all of her history. But we want to tell all of her history.” The committee’s report listed Silent Witnesses as one way the city could tell a more inclusive and balanced history.Neumeyer felt that the Silent Witnesses markers were essential to bring balance and context to the landscape of Civil War memory in Lynchburg. He convened the first exploratory meetings in 2020, which ultimately evolved into the formal organization in 2021. The boards of both the Legacy Museum and the Lynchburg Museum officially endorsed the Silent Witnesses project and agreed to partner to support it in the fall of 2021.Adam Anderson of MH Masonry, which donated the labor for installation, begins an installation. Photo by David Neumeyer.Ramona Battle, vice president of the Silent Witnesses board of directors, added, “This story needed to be told.” Battle grew up in New York, but her family goes back five generations in Virginia. When she moved to Lynchburg, she was shocked at how enamored of the Civil War some Southerners are. “It’s important to show the inhumanity of what took place here,” she said. “People need to see that time from a different point of view. Enslaved people worked six or seven days a week from sun-up to sundown, all to monetarily benefit others. Back then, as it is today, everything is, and was, about money.”Neumeyer and the rest of the board believe that the Silent Witnesses project adds the necessary context, much of which is not taught in schools or visible to the public. Many people are unaware that a significant part of the history of Lynchburg involves the centrality of slavery in the local economy, the life stories of enslaved people, and the significant work done by enslaved people that more than 100 years later benefits the residents of Lynchburg.“That time in history is really all around us, and yet it’s unknown or forgotten by most people,” said Delaney. “The Civil War was fought to end slavery, and the story of life as a slave and all it entailed needs to have a light shined upon it.”Adam Anderson of MH Masonry, which donated the labor for installation, begins an installation. Photo by David Neumeyer.Adam Anderson of MH Masonry, which donated the labor for installation, works on an installation. Photo by David Neumeyer.Adam Anderson (left, in red hat) and Damon Sims install one of the Silent Witnesses plaque. They both work for MH Masonry, which donated the labor for installation. Photo by David Neumeyer.Adam Anderson (in red hat) and Damon Sims install one of the Silent Witnesses plaques. They both work for MH Masonry, which donated the labor for installation. Photo by David Neumeyer.Adam Anderson (in red hat) and Damon Sims install one of the Silent Witnesses plaques. They both work for MH Masonry, which donated the labor for installation. Photo by David Neumeyer.Damon Sims (left) and Adam Anderson of MH Masonry, which donated the labor for installation. Photo by David Neumeyer.The post Lynchburg sidewalks now bear ‘silent witness’ to city’s history of slavery appeared first on Cardinal News.First published by Cardinal News.