They accompanied the Steptoe Langhorne family to the tiny mountain community of Meadows of Dan, Virginia, in the
mid-nineteenth century. The Langhorne family owned thousands of acres in the area prior to the Civil War.
They were slaves and by some accounts there
were twelve or thirteen of them; by other accounts, only four or five.
Little, if anything, is known about them, but two facts are certain, they
were slaves and this meadow is their final resting place.
The Langhorne family obviously thought highly of these people because they specified that they be buried in the Langhorne family section of the Meadows of Dan Baptist Church
Cemetery.
However, sixty
years ago, when the Blue Ridge Parkway was built, the National Park Service
acquired that portion of the cemetery where the slaves are buried. The Langhorne family is buried
on church property beneath the shade of a tall poplar tree immediately adjacent to Parkway
property.
If you were standing in the shade of this old tree today, however, you would not see
any evidence of the slaves' graves, only the little mountain church on a small hill with its
tall white steeple and
well-kept cemetery. Separating the cemetery and the Parkway is a small meadow, covered in waist-high orchard grass that sways gently in cool mountain breezes.
Buried in this picturesque mountain setting, is not only the Langhorne
slaves but the symbolic remnants of black history in the Blue Ridge.
These pioneers have passed into the oblivion of
time unknown, their lives and contributions all but forgotten. They lived without benefit of freedom and now in death they face eternity without the final human dignity of a simple stone marker to acknowledge their
lives.
Old man Matt Burnett, told me about the graves before he died and recalled why there were no markers. During the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway the markers, which were just simple stones, were carried into the woods at the edge of the field to
"get them out of the way” during construction. The intent was to put them back when they were finished but no one ever got around to it.
Shortly after hearing about these unmarked slave graves fifteen years ago, I approached Gary Everhart, who was then
Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, about the possibility of placing a granite marker on the site to commemorate not only the people buried there but to honor the
overall black contribution to Blue Ridge history. Mr. Everhart agreed, provided I could raise the funds necessary to erect the monument and prepare the site.
The monument I envisioned was a single granite boulder between six and eight feet high, left rough and unpolished to symbolize the rugged life, hardships and
quiet endurance of those it would commemorate. However, efforts to raise the necessary funds met with no
success.
I fear that unless something is done before long, the replacement of the
gravestones or the erection of a monument
may never happen. With that in mind, I recently wrote a letter to Daniel W. Brown, who succeeded Gary Everhart as superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and asked the National Park Service to assist in getting the grave markers replaced.
After all, National Park Service employees removed the gravestones during
Parkway construction and it only seems right that the National Park
Service shoulder the burden of replacing the monuments.
I was pleased to receive a prompt and encouraging email reply from Gordon Wissinger,
Chief Ranger, of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and plan to meet with Mindy
DeCesar, District Interpretive Specialist, as soon as she contacts me for
a mutually convenient time.
We would appreciate your taking a moment to send an email in support of this effort to the National Park Service, in order to show a broad base of support for
restoring these gravestones, or hopefully toward erecting a more fitting monument in the Slave Meadow at
Meadows of Dan, Virginia. If you are an educator please tell your
students, if you are a minister please tell your congregation or tell your
family, friends and co-workers and encourage their support. Let's put
our hope together and encourage the National Park Service. A monument in this meadow
would serve as a reminder
to generations that the pioneers of our nation were of all
races, the rich and the poor, the free and the slave. For your
convenience we have created a form that can be completed in just a few
moments to express your support for this effort. Your message will go
directly to the appropriate officials in the National Park Service. Please
click here to send your message now. |
