History that’s everywhere, and nowhere

The recent revelation that a former slave cemetery has been found within the 3,400-acres destined to become the Berry Hill industrial mega-park should surprise no one.

Modern cemeteries are usually large, highly visible and well known. In its time, the cemetery near what was once Oak Hill Plantation was probably just as well known as Highland Burial Park is today.

But time marches on, and apparently, the cemetery near Oak Hill Plantation slipped from the public’s consciousness.

Until now.

Danville and Pittsylvania County have big plans for the land surrounding this cemetery. The city and the county hope to attract an automobile assembly plant to the property, and they have worked during the recession to develop the site for that purpose.

The discovery of this cemetery shouldn’t slow that work down, but it should take an acre or two of the land out of use.

“It will end up being surveyed, platted and recorded,” said Assistant County Administrator Otis Hawker. For now, the cemetery’s exact location is being concealed to protect it from looters and vandals.

Forgotten family cemeteries — and even slave cemeteries — aren’t uncommon here in the Dan River Region. They represent tattered bits and pieces of our history that need to be preserved and protected.

Especially in this case.

“It just makes you feel that you had a brother or sister you didn’t know about,” said Cedric Hairston, the principal at Chatham Middle School and a descendent of some of the slaves and former slaves buried in the Oak Hill Plantation cemetery.

What’s different about this cemetery is what it tells us about the lives and burial traditions of the people who are buried there.

Lynn Rainville, a research professor in humanities at Sweet Briar College who has studied slave cemeteries, called this cemetery a piece of “hidden history.”

The cemetery should be carefully marked and then set aside. With a potential of 3,400 acres to lure a big industry, Danville and Pittsylvania County should have more than enough property to attract the big industrial prospect they’re trying to land.

The irony is that the descendants of those buried in the slave cemetery will no doubt wind up working on the same land that their ancestors did. We can honor the dead by preserving their final resting place, just as we have created a better society for their grandchildren, great-grandchildren and future generations.