By Aallyah Wright, Photo: The Pew Chartiable Trusts, PEW, February 25, 2022
On a windy Thursday morning in mid-February, the Rev. Michelle Thomas walked up a winding gravel path surrounded by dirt, broken tree branches and mostly brown grass.
The path led to the African American Burial Ground for the Enslaved at Belmont, a 2.75-acre site formerly known as the Belmont Slave Cemetery. In 2017 the Toll Brothers building company donated the site to the nonprofit Thomas founded, the Loudoun Freedom Center, which works to preserve African American historical sites in the county.
Scattered across the burial grounds lie rocks: Some were used as headstones for the enslaved people, and research shows that others found on the grounds had been used to make row beds and cornerstones of houses, Thomas said. To date, only 44 headstones have been identified.
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