Canal Walk Series: Slave Trail/Kanawha Canal Traditional Geocache
Canal Walk Series: Slave Trail/Kanawha Canal
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Size: 
(small)
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"Slave Trail/Kanawha Canal" is the second of the Canal Walk Series I am creating. The find is along Richmond's Canal Walk that will take you past historical, natural, and recreational sites. This is an easy find, handicapped accessible, and near historic Shockoe Bottom and its shops, restaurants, and other sightseeing destinations.
The location of the cache is at the intersection of the Canal Walk and the Slave Trail at the Kanawha Canal. Parking may be found in the Shockoe Bottom area streets, a nearby parking garage, or across from Main Street Station.
The interpretive sign provides some interesting information about The Slave Trail and the slaves during the Civil War, some of which is highlighted below. There are concrete blocks to rest if this is part of a longer walk along the Canal Walk or Slave Trail.
Slave Trail:The Richmond Slave Trail is a walking trail that chronicles the history of the trade of enslaved Africans from Africa to Virginia until 1775, and away from Virginia, especially Richmond, to other locations in the Americas until 1865. The Slave Trail begins at Manchester Docks, a major port in the massive downriver Slave Trade that made Richmond the largest source of enslaved Africans on the east coast of America from 1830 to 1860. The trail then follows a route through the former slave markets of Richmond, beside the Reconciliation Statue commemorating the international triangular slave trade, past Lumpkin's Slave Jail and the Negro Burial Ground to the site of First African Baptist Church, a center of African-American life in pre-Civil War Richmond.
Kanawha Canal: First proposed by John Marshall in 1812 to connect Tidewater Virginia with the Ohio River, the canal required for its construction the back-breaking effort of thousands of laborers. After many of the original white Irish laborers died of hypothermia, they were replaced with enslaved blacks who were thought to be impervious to uncomfortable conditions.
This is an easy "Hide a Key" cache along the Canal Walk. Inside the cache is a logbook and room to exchange small items. BYOP. The walk is frequented by walkers and nearby residents of the Vistas on the James (a 18-story high-rise condominium , so please be careful of muggles.
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