Explore Mount Vernon Slave Cemetery and Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia

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The Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon marks the site where both free and enslaved people were buried in the 18th and 19th centuries, without permanent identifying markers.  A gray, truncated, granite column which represents “life unfinished” is the center of three concentric brick circles. The three steps leading up to the column are inscribed, respectively, “Faith,” “Hope” and “Love” – the virtues that sustained those living in bondage. The memorial is located approximately 50 yards southwest of George and Martha Washington's tomb, on a bluff above the Potomac River. This sacred ground was used as a cemetery for those enslaved and a few free blacks who worked at Mount Vernon in the 18th and 19th centuries. Oral histories suggest that the bodies were buried with their feet towards the east (the river), symbolizing individuals' desire to return to Africa.

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