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Editor’s Note: This article has been edited to reflect a correction. 

For the last year-and-a-half, Steve Bonner and his cousin Bonner Guilford have been uncovering a lot of their family history at the Sycamore Cemetery, which borders the north side of Oakdale Cemetery and was once part of the Bonner Hill Plantation. The overgrown and wooded area has since been cleared thanks to the help of some goats and an excavator with a mulching head. Perhaps the most significant find thus far has been what is believed to be the tomb of the family patriarch, Sheriff Thomas Bonner, and his wife Abigail. Thus far, Bonner and Guilford estimate that they have located at least 19 different graves, and anticipate that number will grow once members of the ECU Archeology Department come in with the latest ground penetrating radar (GPR) device, with the hope of finding more undiscovered graves.

Recently they had some additional information brought to their attention, which Bonner wanted to share with Leesa Jones, the co-founder and curator of the Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad Museum.

“We have learned, through land deeds dating back as early as 1840, that the original Bonner home was located very close to the Sycamore cemetery,” said Bonner. “However, perhaps the most intriguing piece of information was the fact that there were two cemeteries on the property. A one-acre tract is identified as the burying ground of the Whites, which is the Sycamore Cemetery. The other is a half-acre tract listed as the burying ground of the Blacks.  The most striking thing for me was that, in 1840, the cemetery for Blacks was referred to as a Black cemetery and not a slave cemetery or some other derogatory word.”

This news also piqued the interest of Jones. “Many folks in the Black community, including myself, knew that the cemetery was out there, but no one knew the exact location,”  said Jones. “The deeds verify the stories and information we have been given about enslaved people being on the property, and that there was a cemetery out there for them. But perhaps the most striking piece of information for me, as well, is the fact that it was referred to as a Black cemetery in the deeds. That is very significant in that it is telling us a lot more than what the words are saying. In Washington, we have other enslaved cemeteries but they are often referred to as ‘the old negro burying grounds,’ or slave cemeteries. If you look back to other historic documents from that same period you will see the that word negro was often used to describe the enslaved. It was always a negro was for sale or a negro had escaped the plantation. So for a cemetery in 1840 to be referred to as a Black cemetery is a very big deal.”

Jones added that the reference to a Black cemetery could mean that the owner had a lot of his children by enslaved women buried there. “We have other documentation showing the children of enslaved women sometimes had privileges that the other enslaved children did not have,” said Jones. “We have evidence that the mulatto children were sent to school, as one example.”

Bonner said they have identified a couple of areas where they believe the Black cemetery might be located, but they won’t know until they have a GPR scan of those areas. “The new technology identifies the differences between one piece of dirt and another,” said Bonner.  “It will give us a much better idea of what we have, rather than poking and prodding the area with metal rods.”

Jones said there are a few things that they can be looking for. “Stone grave makers were never used,” said Jones. “At best it may have been a wooden cross that would be long gone by now. There may be such things as small burial or memorial stones that were interned with the enslaved. The enslaved also wore slave tags that had an engraved number on it that was registered at the courthouse.”

Bonner said there is also a sense of urgency to finding the Black cemetery. “Time is of the essence,” said Bonner. “Even though the suspected area is not on the new housing development tract to the north, the location could end up being different than where we think. We are hoping that others with resources will take up the challenge of locating the Black cemetery before it is lost forever.”