GC4E4XA Freedom House (Traditional Cache) in Virginia, United States created by johnaugus

This cache has been archived.

offline.cacher: The general rule reviewers use to archive a cache is that the cache owner has been notified (through a log entry) by the reviewer and that no response has been forthcoming. This is the case with this cache. As a result it has been archived.
If the owner would like to discuss this issue, please contact me through my gmail address. Don't forget to include the GC code for the cache.

Thanks
offline.cacher
Virginia geocaching.com reviewer

GC4E4XA ▼

A cache by johnaugus Message this owner

Hidden : 6/12/2013

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

The three-story building at 1315 Duke Street was originally built as a private residence, but in the late 1820s the property became known as the Alexandria Slave Pen, used by the Franklin & Armfield Company, one of the largest dealers in the domestic slave trade, selling as many as 1,800 people per year to Louisiana and Mississippi.

[Update: The Oscar-winning film Twelve Years a Slave (2013) is based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery. James H. Birch, the last slave trader to operate the Alexandria Slave Pen, paid kidnappers $250 for Northup.]

During the Civil War, in 1862, several months after the Union took Alexandria, this building and its surrounding land were still being used as a prison for fugitive slaves who would be returned to their owners.

Massachusetts' anti-slavery Senator Henry Wilson described the Alexandria Slave Pen to the Senate on January 14, 1862, reading from a letter addressed to him by Dr. Samuel G. Howe:

"The building is a wretched one, totally unfit for a public prison. It seems to have been built in the days when accused persons were considered as public enemies, and to be caged like wild beasts. The cells are narrow, dark, and damp, and the rings and staples fixed in some of the walls tell their own story. The internal arrangements are very bad; and the general condition of the house is filthy and noisome to the last degree. Such a jail would be presented by the grand jury in any Northern city as an intolerable nuisance. The system of administration is disgraceful to any State claiming to be Christian and civilized….

"Among the prisoners are nineteen whose only offence is that of fleeing from those who claimed to be their masters. Some of them have been confined several months; but, in spite of all the horrors of the place, they do not want to be sent back to their masters, because they fear 'being sold down South.' I saw fifteen of these unfortunate creatures, and spent time enough to ascertain the exact truth respecting their history and condition…. how loosely injustice is administered in the sacred soil of Virginia by the United States authorities….

"The persons claiming to own these human beings are, for the most part, rebels, and have fled; the United States acts as jailor, and takes care of their chattels during their absence."

As the war progressed, however, the Union stopped keeping and returning fugitive slaves to Confederate owners. Their status as "property" allowed the United States to dub them "contraband of war" and let them remain in Alexandria and elsewhere in relative freedom. The former Slave Pen property was repurposed in a variety of ways, serving as a military prison for deserters, the L’Ouverture Hospital for Black soldiers, and a barracks for "contrabands"(later known as freedmen) who fled the Confederacy to find refuge in Alexandria. Union soldiers sometimes visited to see the manacles, chains, and iron doors for themselves.

This latter use is a kind of precursor to its current use: the bottom floor now serves as the Freedom House Museum, educating the public about the site’s slavery history. The building is dedicated to Rev. Henry Louis Bailey, a former slave who was sold by Franklin & Armfield to a family in Texas and returned a free man to Alexandria to found several churches and schools. Freedom House is intended to tell the story of what slaves endured, but also "a story of perseverance and triumph."
The cache is close to an Alexandria Heritage Trail marker.

As best I can tell, the Handicaching.com rating of this geocache might be H11111. You can provide fellow cachers more information about accessibility by rating this cache (and others!) at Handicaching.com.

Congratulations to flowerman for First to Find!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Gur pebffjnyx ohggba vf abj shapgvbany.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)

This cache has been archived.

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Freedom House Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

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Geocache Description:

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