The City of Charlottesville, which is about to unveil a historical marker recognizing the sale of slaves at Court Square, is poking the bear, big time.
In our anti-DEI climate right now – “DEI” being the MAGA version of the n-word – this is troll level: master.
It’s also history that a lot of people don’t want recognized.
Slaves were sold throughout Court Square beginning in 1762, ending in 1865 only because the plantation owners lost the Civil War.
Some folks don’t want us to think about that uncomfortable part of our local history.
For more than 100 years, White people went to Court Square to buy and sell Black people outside taverns, at the Jefferson Hotel, at the “Number Nothing” building, in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse, where sales were then recorded, and, according to tradition, from a tree stump.
After Thomas Jefferson’s death, 33 enslaved people from his Monticello estate were auctioned at the Eagle Hotel to satisfy his debts.
Enslaved Charlottesville residents Fountain Hughes and Maria Perkins recalled Court Day sales as awful occasions that separated Black families.
For keeping this memory fresh, MAGA Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin might want to roll some heads at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, which approved the historical marker that will be unveiled at a ceremony next week.
The Charlottesville Historic Resources Commission submitted an application for the marker in 2023, and last March, the VDHR Review Board approved the request.
The city will unveil the marker on Monday, March 3, at 2 p.m., with remarks by Mayor Juandiego Wade.
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Chris Graham
