Details emerge about more slave cemeteries
Two descendants of the Hairston family say they have seen another cemetery — in addition to the one disclosed last week — at the former Oak Hill Plantation off Berry Hill Road.
Dean and Will Hairston say they found a plot about five years ago that sits on a bluff and has about 90 graves. About three of the graves have marked stones, while most of the remainder of the graves have unmarked rocks, Dean said during an interview Tuesday.
“There are other slave cemeteries throughout that property,” Dean Hairston, a major with the Danville Police Department, said. Hairston’s great-great grandfather, Major Lewis Hairston, was born in 1835 and was a slave at Oak Hill.
William Gosnell, a Dry Fork resident who has studied the area’s history, discovered the other 200-plot graveyard about a decade ago when a descendant of the Hairston homestead — the name of the old property — asked him to conduct a study of the site to find Native American and European artifacts. Gosnell has declined to reveal the cemetery’s location to protect it from grave robbers and pillagers, he said. Pittsylvania County officials say an archaeological survey will reveal more about the cemetery at the proposed Berry Hill industrial mega park site.
Pittsylvania County officials say the isolated site will be fenced off and protected from looters and from damage resulting from development in the 3,400-acre park. The Berry Hill Road industrial mega park is a joint project between Pittsylvania County and Danville. Officials hope to attract large-scale industry to the property along Berry Hill Road. The county already has two other cemeteries it maintains — one behind Yates Tavern in Gretna and another at Turkeycock Mountain in Callands.
Dean Hairston said he isn’t sure whether the cemetery he and his brother visited is actually on the property that will be used for the proposed Berry Hill Road mega park site. But he said there is also a separate cemetery in the area where whites are buried. Hairston said he began seeking information about the property in the mid-80s and took photos of the 1820s-built plantation house before it burned down in 1988.
Will Hairston, a great-great-great grandson of Sam Hairston, the slave owner who built the plantation house, said stumbling upon the cemetery “was a powerful moment.” Will, who lives in Harrisonburg, said Sam Hairston had about 5,500 slaves on about 40 plantation sites in Virginia, North Carolina and Mississippi in the mid-19th century, according to a conservative estimate from his research.
“During that period, that was the epitome of a profitable tobacco-slave empire,” said Will, a grounds supervisor at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg.
Will said he doesn’t know the exact size of the former Oak Hill Plantation, but said it totaled thousands of acres.
Since the 1970s, the Hairstons have held family reunions bringing blacks and whites from the family together, Will said.
“There is a legacy of injustice,” he said, “but there’s (also) a legacy of reconciliation.”
Will said he is supportive of the Berry Hill industrial mega park proposal, because he’s aware of the high unemployment here and Southside’s need for economic development. Dean pointed to the cemeteries as final resting places that are unique and should be recognized and learned from.
“I say do it in a way that respects the past,” Dean said of area officials’ plans for the Berry Hill Road mega park.
“It’s a lesson there for all people,” he said of the property and the cemeteries.
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Reader Reactions
I know where there is another one at, my son and I stumbled upon it while hunting several years ago. I recognized immediately that there were graves there due to the concentricy of the depressions and the layout. Several are infant and child sized, none were marked with carved stones though some looked to have placed stones,probably marking the head of the graves. I talked to the landowners who said they weren’t aware of it being there. We felt bad for walking into it but once we realized what it was we showed the utmost respect and didn’t disturb the groundfall. I’ve always felt it needed to be carefully documented and studied so that if there was any written records of who might be buried there then they could be linked together. It could be a Native American burial site, but I believe it’s later and probably has slave remains there. I’d just like to see it protected for the future generations to know that people who came before them and worked that land gave their lives and rest there now.
The Oak Hill “plantation” qualifies as a Slave Holocaust.
For this newspaper to write these stories and a editorial (a ho-hum just another slave cemetery) qualifies for some type honor in the callow and cruel category. To use the untold misery and agony these poor souls must have suffered simply because they were born at the Hairston-Klutz place to sell newspapers is bad.
But it is much worst for the descendants of this slave factory operation not to at least notify some/all of their “Hairston” brethern who are well known of their intent to sell the property. And also for them to claim no knowledge of the burial place/places is unlikely. Read the many books on this subject and put yourself in their shoes.
Face it people,,, like I said before,,if no one is around to remember,,, nothing is sacred,, however I would like to see something done,, but one person cannot do it alone.
I know where one is that has between 50 and 100 graves. I know within a couple hundred yards of where it is, just not exactly anymore. A few small stone markers, but nothing else but depressions. It is very old, I have no idea how old. It is a shame no one takes care of the old ones anymore. :(
I am thinking I read some time back about builders being responsible for fully investigating any prospective construction sites for old graves or historic burials.Can someone who knows please post info?
I’m not far from the mega park site and have an old cemetery in the yard. It’s all unmarked stones.
I found a old cemetary, maybe for slaves, a few years ago with friends. If u go to the bottom of fall creek drive and then walk across the railroad tracks its in that vicinity, its sits kinda elevated in the woods, but u can see where steps were made out of rocks in the ground to access it. some of the graves are marked and some are just depressions in the ground. they are marked with the year of birth and length of time they lived down to the days. For instance John T. son of Will and Martha T. Born 1830 lived 40 years 3 months and two days. Thats how they r marked.
There was another plantation that backed up to Oak Hill called Briarcliff Plantation which might account for additional slave graveyards on the property. To my knowledge no one has found the exact location of the Briarcliff homestead.
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