About this tour: In April of 1994, during construction of the Kontos Medical Sciences Building on Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Medical College of Virginia campus, construction workers uncovered human remains and artifacts in an abandoned well on Richmond’s East Marshall Street. Researchers later established that the well dated back to the nineteenth century. The human remains were from people, mainly of African descent, whose bodies were obtained for medical education, mostly through grave robbing, and subsequently disposed of in the Well.1 The remains were then stored at the Smithsonian and essentially ignored by VCU until 2011, when VCU professor Dr. Shawn Utsey released “Until the Well Runs Dry: Medicine and the Exploitation of Black Bodies,” a documentary film that sparked renewed interest in the history of the East Marshall Street Well.2 As a result, VCU committed to advancing efforts to address these historical injustices. Specifically, VCU facilitated the creation of the East Marshall Street Well Project’s Family Representative Council (FRC), a group of community leaders who represent the descendents of victims found in the well since biological descendents are not known. The FRC identifies community priorities, which include ensuring respectful interment, memorialization, and research of the remains.1 As part of research and memorialization efforts, the following East Marshall Street Well Project Digital Walking Tour offers an interactive exploration of the history of the East Marshall Street Well, in particular landmarks and sites directly and indirectly related to the history of the Well and to the communities and people whose graves were most likely to be robbed. Through this panoramic tour, you will learn about the racism and injustice literally embedded in the history of VCU and the greater Richmond area to understand the context of how past racism continues to contribute to health inequities in present-day Richmond.
For easiest viewing, select the full screen icon to the top right.
About This Tour
In April of 1994, during construction of the Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building on Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Medical College of Virginia campus, construction workers uncovered human remains and artifacts in an abandoned well. Researchers later established that the well, located on Richmond’s East Marshall Street, dated back to the mid-nineteenth century. The human remains were from people, mainly of African descent, whose bodies were procured for medical education, mostly through grave robbing, and subsequently disposed of in the Well. The remains were then stored at the Smithsonian and fell into obscurity until 2011, when VCU professor Dr. Shawn Utsey produced Until the Well Runs Dry: Medicine and the Exploitation of Black Bodies, a documentary film that sparked renewed interest in the history of the East Marshall Street Well. As a result, VCU committed to advancing efforts to address the injustices at the foundation of the institution. Specifically, VCU facilitated the creation of the East Marshall Street Well Project’s Family Representative Council (FRC), a group of community leaders who represent the descendents of victims found in the well since biological descendents are not known. The FRC identified community priorities, which include ensuring respectful interment, memorialization, and research of the remains.1
As part of research and memorialization efforts by the East Marshall Street Well Oral History and Memorialization Project, the following Digital Walking Tour offers an interactive exploration of the landmarks and sites directly and indirectly related to the history of the Well and to the communities whose graves were desecrated. Through this panoramic tour, you will learn about the racial injustice embedded in the history of VCU and the greater Richmond area and understand the contexts of past oppression and how it continues to contribute to health inequities in present-day Richmond.
Kontos Building excavation where human remains were found in 1994, Medical College of Virginia.
5
St. Philip is an example of systemic racism in Black medical training and care that continues to impact the present. The history of racial segregation and discrimination (MCV was not formally integrated until 1965) omitted in mainstream narratives of medicine elides the racial injustice underpinning health and healthcare disparities.
As the center of Richmond’s slave trade during the antebellum period, Shockoe Bottom was the site of the second largest slave market in the United States.People of African descent were bought and sold here, enduring unimaginable suffering before being sent to plantations across the South. Shockoe Bottom is the location of other important sites, including the African Burial Ground, Lumpkin’s Slave Jail, and the Winfree Cottage, which are all mentioned later in this tour. Despite the significance of Shockoe Bottom, much of the history embedded in the landscape was gradually erased and built upon after the Civil War as the area further industrialized. Today, efforts to preserve Shockoe Bottom’s history highlight the resilience of the descendants who lived through these atrocities.10 The East Marshall Street Well Project seeks to honor the individuals whose histories have been erased from authorized accounts, many of whom likely passed through Shockoe Bottom before being subjected to medical exploitation.
This site was the first burial ground for both Richmond’s enslaved and free populations; naming it “The Burial Ground for Negroes.” The burial ground possibly opened in 1799 and was the first burial ground for people of African descent in Richmond. The land was of poor quality and was also used as a site for gallows, or public executions by the city of Richmond. In 1810, Richmond’s Black residents protested the conditions of the site. In response, the Richmond City Council at the time surveyed land nearby the burial ground for possible expansion, but such an expansion never took place. In the wake of this disappointment, free Black Richmonders collectively purchased land on the Northside of Richmond in 1815 and named the new burial site “Barton Heights Cemeteries.”14 The land was later paved over for development, another example of disregard for African American history. The paving of this burial ground has dire implications; if we do not retell and memorialize the histories of African Americans oppressed in the past, such as those found in the well, we are prone to forgetting their importance and resilience.
The Shockoe Hill Burial Ground was established in 1816 following protests by Richmond’s Free Black Community, who demanded the closure of the nearby “Burial Ground for Negroes,” a site that had long been treated with disrespect. The new cemetery initially lacked a formal name. As noted on an 1835 map, it was divided into two sections: “Graveyard for Free People of Color” and “For Slaves.” These names reflected the deeply entrenched racial hierarchies of the time and formalized the segregation of the dead within the city’s burial practices.
Over time, the site became the segregated section of the larger Shockoe Hill Cemetery, one of Richmond’s most prominent historical cemeteries. While created under pressure from the Black community to secure more dignified burial space, Shockoe Hill Burial Ground was still vulnerable to exploitation. It is believed to be one of several sites targeted for body procurement by nineteenth century medical schools, including the Medical Department of Hampden-Sydney College, later known as the Medical College of Virginia. African American graves, especially those of enslaved individuals, were regularly robbed to supply cadavers for medical dissection, often without any record or acknowledgment.17
Like many African American cemeteries across the country, Shockoe Hill Burial Ground faced neglect, desecration, and eventual erasure from public memory. This pattern of destruction reflects a broader history of systemic devaluation of Black lives and deaths, especially in urban centers where cemeteries were repurposed or built over.18 The difference in status between Barton Heights Cemeteries and this one is stark. Grave markers are still visible in Barton Heights, while none exist in this one. This is an example of what occurs when Black, and other oppressed people are allowed to control their own narratives, legacies and stories. Like Shockoe Hill Burying Ground, and Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground, the East Marshall Street Well was once forgotten too. Those found in it were not able to control their legacies or stories.
Emily Winfree’s name became known to Richmond residents in 2002, when a small Reconstruction-era cottage in Manchester (an incorporated neighborhood in Richmond) was nearly demolished to make space for a parking lot. It was the last remaining example of hundreds of similar homes built after the Civil War. The now-defunct Association for the Conservation of Richmond Neighborhoods recognized the building’s historical value and intervened just in time to save it. Although it still lacks a permanent location, the cottage currently rests on a trailer near Interstate 95, beside the site of Lumpkin’s Jail in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom. The home is believed to have belonged to Emily Winfree, a formerly enslaved woman who received it from David Winfree, her former enslaver and the father of several of her children, following the Civil War.
Emily Winfree’s life could have been similar to those found in the Well. Emily and other enslaved women at the time were incredibly resilient and faced extreme hardship. She was born into slavery around 1834 and sold at an auction in 1858. She was later purchased by David Winfree. She lived on his farm, and as his health declined he gave her property and land from his estate. Emily struggled financially after David’s death as she was illiterate and had little job opportunities. Nevertheless, she was able to provide for her family and keep it intact, regardless of the horrid exploitation she faced.19 Emily’s descendants are currently alive and thriving around Richmond and throughout the nation. The descendants of those found in the Well could likely also be alive. Though we do not know them, they are represented by the Family Representative Council. It’s important to embolden, recognize, and listen to these voices as we continue the work of historical recovery and justice to not only honor the past, but also nourish future generations and communities.
This grassy patch used to be the site of “Lumpkin’s Slave Jail,” another site those found in the Well could’ve seen in their lives. Lumpkin’s Jail was a slave trading complex made up of multiple wooden buildings made to hold enslaved people before auction, and was considered one of the worst slave jails from the time period.22 It had many owners before Robert Lumpkin bought it in 1844 to pursue his own slave-trading business. The jail was used to confine enslaved people before they were sold oftentimes as part of the domestic slave trade where captives were purchased oftentimes for cotton cultivation in the Deep South.
Lumpkin charged his clients fees to have their slaves held in this jail. The jail was known to have horrible, inhumane conditions. Anthony Burns, a runaway enslaved person who fled from Richmond to Boston and was caught under the Fugitive Slave Act, a law which permitted slave owners to recapture runaways even in free states.23 Burns was one person who suffered the jail’s dreadful conditions for four months. After the Civil War, Mary Lumpkin, Robert Lumpkin’s widow and his former slave, rented the building to a Black minister who founded the Colver Religious Institute for Free African Americans. He held classes in the former jail building, and the school later became Virginia Union University, a HBCU.24
St. Philip School of Nursing Class of 1937 8
St. Philip Hall (1931)9
Richmond Times Dispatch, May 11, 1994. Photo depicts archeologist Daniel Mouer
1937 photo of the Egyptian Building.29
Chris Baker
During dissection Photo courtesy of Tompkins-McCaw Library.30
This is a map of the six cemeteries that made up the “Barton Heights Cemeteries” drawn in 1915.16
Barton Heights Cemeteries Historical Marker Erected in 1998.18
This 1877 map from Frederick W. Beers’s Illustrated Atlas of the City of Richmond shows the layout of Shockoe Bottom at the time.12 Shockoe Bottom was the home of many slave auction sites. Slave auctions took place in hotel lobbies, auction houses, jails, and trade offices. From 1830-1865, the peak of Richmond’s domestic slave trade, around 50-60 firms and individuals in Richmond were involved in the selling of thousands of men, women, and children
A 2022 Google map image of Shockoe Bottom, the area home to the African Burial Ground (in yellow), Lumpkin’s Jail (in green), Winfree Cottage (in pink) and the Slave Auction Houses.13 Most of Shockoe Bottom is covered by a parking lot, indicating a disregard for this dark point of history.
Emily Winfree
Descendants of Emily Winfree infront of her cottage on a trip to Richmond.
Lumpkin’s Jail building.
The entire Lumpkin complex.26
Historical marker for the First African Baptist Church located at 310 College St., Richmond, VA 23219.
.png)
