It’s impossible to walk through Richmond, Virginia without feeling the weight of its history. Founded in 1737, the capital city became a primary market in the domestic slave trade industry in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Nowhere is this legacy more palpable than in Shockoe Valley, where hundreds of thousands of enslaved men, women, and children were bought, sold, and buried mere blocks from where historic proclamations of liberty were declared.
Yet amidst the shadows of this harrowing past, Shockoe’s legacy is also woven with strength and resilience. It is in these stories that the Shockoe Project emerges as a transformative force, a cultural destination aimed at illuminating Afrocentric histories and reclaiming narratives long silenced. Following many years of research, advocacy, and commitment by the City of Richmond, Shockoe’s hallowed ground will soon be home to an experiential interpretive site intended to commemorate, memorialize, and otherwise enshrine the painful yet all-important histories imbued there.
Spanning ten acres, the Shockoe Project will commemorate pivotal sites such as the Trail of the Enslaved, the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, Winfree Cottage, the Reconciliation Statue Plaza, Richmond’s First African Burial Ground, the planned Shockoe Institute at Main Street Station, and the future National Slavery Museum. These hallowed grounds are poised to become a multi-faceted space for remembrance, reflection, research, and connection – reclaiming the historical and contemporary narratives of Richmond’s Black experience.
Meticulous curation, interactive displays, and immersive experiences will bring to life the untold stories of resilience, resistance, and triumph with designs that intentionally contrast their surroundings and reappropriate Richmond’s colonial heritage with forms inspired by themes of African tradition, water, and illumination. As visitors traverse the space, they will follow the path of ancestors and descendants, symbolizing a literal and figurative overcoming of the challenges represented by the ebb and flow of Shockoe Creek. Step by step and hand in hand, we forge a path to recognize black stories and uncover a new legacy.
