Our Experience
LUMPKIN’S JAIL PROJECT
City of Richmond, VA
Between December 2005 and April 2006, JRIA conducted an historical and archaeological investigation of the former site of “Lumpkin’s Jail,” an antebellum slave trading compound located in the Shockoe Bottom district of Richmond, Virginia. The site was later used as a religious school for freed African-Americans, and was the precursor to Virginia Union University. The project was performed on behalf of the City of Richmond, the Richmond Slave Trail Commission, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, and the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods.
JRIA conducted detailed documentary, cartographic, and photographic research to identify the location of the former city lots owned by Robert Lumpkin, now buried beneath a parking lot and Interstate 95. Once the project 
area had been defined in the field, JRIA conducted mechanical trenching to identify possible remains of the jail and the associated buildings in the Lumpkin complex. The project was technically challenging, with deep overburden strata measuring between five and eight feet in depth; however, JRIA succeeded in identifying an intact mid-nineteenth-century stratum, and excavated a number of test units by hand to collect a representative sample of artifacts.
JRIA is currently advising the City of Richmond on the possibility of conducting more intensive data recovery efforts at the site.