9 new graves discovered at Bull Run Regional Park enslaved cemetery
Neal Augenstein | naugenstein@wtop.com

July 9, 2024, 10:52 AM

A few hundred yards from the popular Atlantis Waterpark at Bull Run Regional Park, in Centreville, Virginia, researchers identified nine graves Monday, using ground penetrating radar in a recently discovered cemetery of African Americans who were likely freed or enslaved. ... With Monday’s research, the cemetery is thought to be the final resting place of 100 descendants of formerly enslaved African Americans. By 2022, 91 graves had been identified.

In the mid-1700s, the land was owned by Robert Carter III, said Paul McCray, historian with NOVA Parks. ... “He was one of the richest men in America. He owned over 500 enslaved, and plantations all over Virginia,” McCray said. ... However, “he started to have a bit of a change of heart about his life, and he adopted the Baptist faith in the 1770s.”

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Fairfax County researchers identified nine graves Monday, using ground penetrating radar in a recently discovered African American cemetery of people who were likely free and enslaved.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)

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Neal Augenstein
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.

naugenstein@wtop.com
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