8/22 7:30am Black August Pilgrimage to Richmond
A Black or Afro-Indigenous space. Inheriting and continuing this tradition started by the Black August Planning Organization, we will take a pilgrimage to Richmond to visit the site of the first rebellion of enslaved Africans in America. There, we will honor our ancestors, learn their stories, and to anchor our current activism with the work of those whose shoulders we build upon.
Note: The Annual Pilgrimage is an all day event, from DC to Richmond, where we learn history of Black revolutionary movement , walk the trails our enslaved ancestors walked on, take in the arts, visit the sites of the first Black liberation rebellions in the US. This is a full day trip.
Participants can either drive their own vehicles down caravan style, or register to travel with the group in an Herb and Temple provided passenger van for an additional fee. If you register to travel with the group, you must meet at the Big Chair on MLK by 7am to depart at 7:30am. If you are meeting us there, please plan to arrive at the location at 9:30am. It is a 2 hour drive from SE DC and in order for things to run smoothly, we want our full party to start the tour on time.
Registrants will receive follow-up info with itinerary and carpooling options REGISTER HERE
Cost: $45 registration fee for adults, $40 for members, $15 registration fee for children
Location: Sent upon registration and payment
ITINERARY
Part I: Freedom Interrupted (10-3p)
Once we arrive in Richmond, we will convene at the Elegba Folklore Society at 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA 23219 and be exposed to African ancestral history. It is important to contextualize our history of resistance beginning with our freedom. We will then embark on an interactive experience along the Trail of Enslaved Africans, beginning at the James Riverbank where attendees have the chance to ponder the impact of enslavement on the enslaved as shared in their own words and from their own view. Participants will walk in our ancestors’ footsteps from their arrival point at river’s edge into Shockoe Bottom, the area of Richmond that housed the holding pens, jails, auction blocks, and burial ground. Shockoe Bottom was the center of Richmond’s slave trade and played a pivotal role during the peak years of the nation’s interstate slave trade. In fact, Solomon Northup, author of 12 Years a Slave, was held here in 1841 at the notorious Goodwin’s slave jail before he was transported in chains to New Orleans. Richmond’s slave trade industry was second only in importance to New Orleans between 1830 and 1865.
BREAK FOR LUNCH (3-4p)
Senegalese Cuisine Provided
Part II: Gabriel’s Rebellion: Death or Liberty in 18th Century Richmond (4-6p)
Joined by by Ana Edwards of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, we will convene at the African Sacred Burial Ground at 1540 E Broad St, Richmond, VA 23219. Known only as a “Burial Ground for Negroes” on an 1809 surveyor’s map of Richmond, Richmond’s African Burial Ground was active from 1799 through 1816. It is notable for being Richmond’s first municipal cemetery that was designated for the burials of Black people, and for being the site of the city gallows where many of the members of the slave revolt of 1800 were hanged, including its principle organizer and strategist, 24-year old enslaved blacksmith Gabriel, known at the time as “General Gabriel”, on Oct. 10, 1800 (his actual burial place is unknown).
The final portion of the Pilgrimage will take place at the Spring Creek Park, where the rebellion was planned to begin. Tour guide Ana Edwards will provide us with the epic story of Gabriel’s Rebellion of 1800 and its impact on politics and Black life after the victory of the Haitian Revolution in 1804, and the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1808 which turned Richmond into the epicenter of the domestic slave trade.
The Shoulders Beneath My Feet 