Throughout February, WTOP is celebrating Black History Month. Join us on air and online as we bring you the stories, people and places that make up our diverse community.
The Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial, a burial ground for more than 1,700 people who escaped slavery, stands alone on a plot of land at the corner of North Washington and Church streets on the outskirts of historic Old Town Alexandria in Virginia.
They were known at the time as “contrabands,” and risked everything for a chance at freedom — and a better life — during the 1860s…