This story was reported and written by VPM News.
The city of Charlottesville unveiled its newest state historical marker Monday: a plaque recognizing the sale of enslaved people at Court Square Park.
“It is critical that we acknowledge and educate ourselves on the dark history behind the industry that was once so central in Virginia's — and much of the country's — economy,” Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade said at the ceremony. “This marker represents the suffering of countless Black men, women and children for over 100 years in this community.”
In October 2023, the Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee applied to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources for a historical marker at Court Square. (A previous marker denoting Court Square as a site where enslaved people were sold was stolen by a local resident in February 2020, then replaced by a temporary marker.)
In its request, the city’s HRC asked that the marker communicate three points: Sales of enslaved people occurred throughout Court Square from 1762 to 1865; sales occurred once a month on “Court Day”; and transactions of those sales were recorded in the Albemarle County Courthouse — where the transactions are still archived.
Every year, the VDHR selects 20 marker requests for consideration, and in March 2024, it approved the HRC request.
“We're here today to formally acknowledge the truth, the painful truth, about what happened right here on this ground,” Dede Smith, former Charlottesville City Councilor and chair of the HRC, said Monday. “In the 18th and 19th century, men, women and children were bought and sold right here in Court Square.”
Smith added: “Their lives, their families and their futures were treated like nothing more than commodities. Today, we take this one small step toward ensuring that their lives are not forgotten.”
The marker will include additional “long-missing” information for interpretation and education about the events that took place in Court Square, said Jeff Werner, Charlottesville’s historic preservation and design planner. There are more than 2,900 historical markers throughout Virginia, commemorating events, people and places of regional, statewide or national significance.
Jalane Schmidt, an associate religion professor at the University of Virginia and HRC member, said the marker was an achievement — but not an endpoint.
“We keep revising our community's memory,” she said. “The work of history doesn't end. As we learn more, as we unsurface more, as we interpret better, our stories about ourselves hopefully become more inclusive.”
Wade said he was looking forward to bringing his mentee to see the marker and learn the historical significance of Court Square.
“It is so important to make sure that the next generation understands the histories and the struggles of African Americans right here in the community where they live and learn,” he said. “We have a long way to go, but part of that journey begins with this marker.”
Since 2019, March 3 has been officially recognized in Charlottesville as Liberation and Freedom Day, a city holiday. It commemorates the day in 1865 when Union Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan and his troops came to the city, liberating more than 14,000 enslaved people. This year marks the 160th anniversary of the event.
The full text of the marker, written by Schmidt, is below:
Sales of Enslaved People in Court Square
Between 1762 and 1865, auctioneers sold enslaved men, women, and children at various locations in Court Square: outside taverns, at the Jefferson Hotel, at the "Number Nothing" building, in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse (where sales were then recorded), and, according to tradition, from a tree stump. After Thomas Jefferson’s death, 33 enslaved people from his Monticello estate were auctioned at the Eagle Hotel in January 1829 to satisfy his debts. Enslaved Charlottesville residents Fountain Hughes and Maria Perkins recalled Court Day sales as dreaded occasions that separated Black families. Such sales were frequent in Virginia, where the domestic slave trade was central to the economy.
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