Duke Street Black History Tours

B.   The Bruin Slave Jail is a standing brick building at 1707 Duke Street in the historic West End of Alexandria, Virginia. This imposing structure was built in about 1820, and in the years leading up to the Civil War it housed the most successful and well-known slave trading operation in Alexandria. Between 1844 and 1861 the property belonged to Joseph Bruin. Bruin lived on an adjacent lot and used 1707 Duke Street as the headquarters of his slave trading business.

C. The  is what remains of a large complex dedicated to trafficking thousands of Black men, women, and children from 1828-1861. Newly reopened with three floors of exhibitions in May 2022, this museum seeks to reframe white supremacist history. 

This Museum honors the lives and experiences of the enslaved and free Black people who lived in and were trafficked through Alexandria. We invite you to visit the museum to learn, reflect, and advocate for change.

D. Take a detour onto Prince St. to see the plaque for L’Ouverture Hospital, which served Black soldiers and those escaping enslavement during the Civil War. 

Built in 1863, L’Ouverture opened in February 1864 for African American troops and contraband civilians and was outside the divisional structure of the other hospitals in Alexandria. It was named for Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture. 

Hospital administration used an existing residence as their headquarters. This building, a private residence with an historic plaque, still stands at 219 S. Payne Street. 

E.  Alfred Street Baptist Church traces its origins to 1803, during the period when Thomas Jefferson served as the third president of the United States. At that time, Baptists in Northern Virginia worshipped at the Backlick Baptist Church on Little River Turnpike. However, in April 1803, members from Alexandria, Virginia separated from them to form the Alexandria Baptist Society. Susan Black, a Negro slave was baptized as its first colored member in May 1803, and soon other coloreds were invited to join this integrated group. In 1806, the colored members formally established the Colored Baptist Society of Alexandria as a ‘conjoined’ church with the Alexandria Baptist Society. This created the first black Baptist church north of Richmond, Virginia. In 1815, its numbers grew when slaves from Mount Vernon Plantation joined the Colored Baptist Society. During 1818, members of the Colored Baptist Society were able to rent property at 313 South Alfred Street to hold their meetings. After 18 years of renting, they purchased the site in September 1842. 

F. During the Civil War, the Union Army occupied the City of Alexandria to prevent the Confederate Army from having a route into Washington, D.C., the capitol. Since the Union Army was not in the slave trade, Alexandria became a haven for runaway slaves (then referred to as contraband). These contraband, along with captured Confederate soldiers, were housed in the old slave pen area at 1315 Duke Street. It was here that Shiloh Baptist Church began March 29, 1863, as the Old Shiloh Society when 50 former slaves gathered in a U.S. government mess hall to worship and praise God.  

G. The African American Heritage Memorial Park includes a one-acre 19th century African American Cemetery. There are 21 known burials on this site and six identified headstones remain and are in their original location. The park design includes part of the original landscape of the cemetery and a wetland.

The memorial sculptures in the park are the creation of Washington, D.C. sculptor, Jerome Meadows. The focal point of the park is a sculpture group of bronze trees called "Truths that Rise from the Roots Remembered" which acknowledges the contributions of African Americans to the growth of Alexandria. Other sculptures throughout the park commemorate historic African American neighborhoods. On June 17, 1995 the Norfolk Southern Corporation dedicated the park to the City of Alexandria.