WINTERPOCK AFRICAN AMERICAN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1853

ADDITONAL NAMES: Patterson-Haskins Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• Chesterfield Historical Society

HISTORY:

In a thickly-wooded area in Winterpock (Chesterfield County), Virginia lies a burial ground where enslaved and formerly enslaved African Americans were interred from at least as early as 1853 to as late as the 1930s. The land, purchased in 1853 by James Henry Cox (1810-1877), owner of Clover Hill Coal Mines (which relied on enslaved labor), was used as a burying place initially for African Americans enslaved as domestic workers in the Cox household. Documents in the Cox family (dating to the 1850s) make mention of this burial ground. While none of the graves is marked, existing natural stones suggest that stones were once placed at the heads and feet of the graves. Two people have been identified with a high degree of certain as having been buried here in the 1930s, both formerly enslaved in the area: Edward “Ned” Patterson (c. 1835-1937) and his wife of seventy-five years Martha Jane “Jennie” Haskins Patterson (c.1842-1938). Jennie Patterson’s 1937 narrative was collected by the WPA/ Library of Congress Collection. Records suggest that other Patterson family members are buried here, one or more of their sixteen children (seven of whom lived to adulthood) and/or grandchildren. During a 2023 site visit, archaeologist Joanna Green of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) authenticated the burial ground and estimated that it may contain as many as 30 graves. Green listed the cemetery in the VA State database of cemeteries. The land where the cemetery is located presently belongs to Vulcan Materials Corps, based in Birmingham, AL.

BCN Contact Information:

Elizabeth Logan Harris

eloganharris@gmail.com

https://chesterfieldhistoricalsociety.com