The Franklin and Armfield Office, which houses the Freedom House Museum, is a historic commercial building in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

( until 1846, the District of Columbia). Built c. 1810–1820, it was first used as a private residence before being converted to the offices of the largest

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

trading firm in the United States, started in 1828 by Isaac Franklin and John Armfield. Another source, using ship manifests (lists of slaves) in the National Archives, gives the number as "at least 5,000". The 1315 Duke Street building is located just west of Alexandria's

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...

, on the north side of Duke Street between South West and South Payne streets. It is a three-story brick building, topped by a mansard roof and resting on a brick foundation. Its front facade is laid in

Flemish bond Flemish bond is a pattern of brickwork that is a common feature in Georgian architecture. The pattern features bricks laid lengthwise (''stretchers'') alternating with bricks laid with their shorter ends exposed (''headers'') within the same cou ...

, while the sides and rear are laid in common bond. It has Federal-period styling, with windows and the entrance door set in segmented, arch openings, with gabled dormers at the roof level. The building was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1978, and has also been designated a Virginia Historic Landmark. The building was formerly owned by the Northern Virginia Urban League which operated it as a museum, with exhibits about the slave trading firm and the life of a slave. The City of Alexandria purchased the building in March 2020 and reopened it as a museum in June 2022.

History

The building was constructed as a residence in the 1810s by Robert Young, a brigadier general in the District of Columbia Militia. Due to financial reverses, Young was soon afterward forced to sell the house.

Franklin & Armfield

The building was purchased in 1828 by Isaac Franklin and his intimate friend and nephew-by-marriage John Armfield, who established it as their Washington-area office, and the residence of Armfield. The property then extended further east, and they added structures for holding and trading in slaves. They also provided, for 25¢ a day, housing in their jail for slaveowners visiting Washington. The two-story extension to the rear of this house was part of the slave-holding facilities, which included high walls, and interior chambers that featured prison-like grated doors and windows. The firm also commissioned three slave ships for use as packets. One of their ads describing these was reprinted in William I. Bowditch's ''Slavery and the Constitution'' (1849): "ALEXANDRIA AND NEW ORLEANS PACKETS. — Brig ''Tribune'', Samuel C. Bush, master, will sail as above on the 1st January; brig '' Isaac Franklin'', William Smith, master, on the 15th January; brig '' Uncas'', Nathaniel Boush, master, on the 1st February. They will continue to leave this port on the 1st and 15th of each month, throughout the shipping season. Servants that are intended to be shipped will at any time be received for safe keeping at twenty-five cents a day. JOHN ARMFIELD, Alexandria." Circa 1833–34, Franklin & Armfield had trading agents in at least five cities: * R. C. Ballard & Co., Richmond, Va. * J. M. Saunders & Co., Warrenton, Va. * George Kephart & Co., Fredericktown, Md. * James F. Purvis & Co., Baltimore * Thomas M. Jones, Easton, Eastern Shore, Md. Other agents associated with Franklin & Armfield included: * John Ware, Port Tobacco, Md. * William Hooper, Annapolis, Maryland * A. Grimm, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Franklin left the business, starting in 1835, and Armfield sold the property to their former trading agent George Kephart in 1836. Franklin and Armfield sold more enslaved people, separated more families, and made more money from the trade than almost anyone else in the United States. They amassed a fortune equalling billions in today's dollars (2021) and were two of the nation's richest men. Franklin sold slaves from an office in Natchez, Mississippi, with branch offices in New Orleans, St. Francisville, and Vidalia, Louisiana. His nephew Armfield handled the supply, sending agents door-to-door in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware looking for enslaved people their owners might like to sell, and arranging transportation. Maryland and Virginia had surpluses of slaves and spoke of slaves as an export, like livestock. As portrayed in ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans ...

'', there was a vast, internal forced migration of enslaved people from the

Upper South The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, economics, demographics, ...

to the Lower South, and Franklin and Armfield were central to that business. "In surviving correspondence, they actually brag about raping enslaved people who they’ve been processing through the firm."

Price, Birch and Co.

From 1858, the building was occupied by Price, Birch & Co. an American slave trading company founded in 1858 by George Kephart, William Birch, J. C. Cook, and Charles M. Price. Price, Birch & Co. ceased business in 1861. Arriving at the Duke street office of the company on May 14, 1861, the Union Army discovered that "The firm had fled, and taken with them all but one of the humans that they sold as slaves — an old man, chained to the middle of the floor by the leg." A letter to the Liberator in 1862 stated, "It is now occupied as a Police Office, and occasionally as a prison for rebel soldiers. The dungeons on the ground floor, formerly used for refractory slaves, are horrible dens, without a chance for ventilation; they look like a row of gas retorts." Union forces had possession of the building until February 2, 1866, using it as a military prison. Late in the war, it was used as L'Ouverture Hospital for black soldiers, and as housing for

contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") is any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It comprises goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes of the leg ...

Use after the Civil War

After the war, the building's outlying slave pens, of which there are photographs, were torn down. The bricks may have been reused in the construction of the adjacent townhouses. After serving a variety of other uses, the main building is now used for Freedom House Museum, with exhibits devoted to the slave trade. The second floor houses the offices of the Northern Virginia Urban League. In 2005, the

Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

erected the following marker in front of the building:

Isaac Franklin and John Armfield leased this brick building with access to the wharves and docks in 1828 as a holding pen for enslaved people being shipped from northern Virginia to Louisiana. They purchased the building and three lots in 1832. From this location Armfield bought bondspeople at low prices and shipped them south to his partner Franklin, in Natchez, Mississippi, and
New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, to be sold at higher prices. By the 1830s they often sold 1,000 people annually, operating as one of the largest slave-trading companies in the United States until 1836. Slave traders continually owned the property until 1861.

Freedom House Museum

The Northern Virginia Urban League purchased the building in the 1990s and installed an exhibit in the basement. The rest of the building was used for offices and classroom space. The Office of Historic Alexandria partnered with the Northern Virginia Urban League in February 2018 in an effort to maintain and interpret the building. The Urban League received $50,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund that same year. The City of Alexandria purchased the building from the Urban League in March 2020. The Freedom House Museum reopened in June 2022. It houses three exhibits that tell the story of the Black experience in Alexandria and the United States.

References

External links

City of Alexandria: Freedom House Museum

Northern Virginia Urban League: Freedom House Museum

Freedom House Museum official Web page

Slave pen in Alexandria, Virginia envelope
{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Historic Landmarks in Virginia Brick buildings and structures in Virginia American Civil War prison camps Federal architecture in Virginia Houses in Alexandria, Virginia Commercial buildings completed in 1820 National Register of Historic Places in Alexandria, Virginia 1828 establishments in Washington, D.C. Museums in Alexandria, Virginia History museums in Virginia African-American museums in Virginia African-American history of Virginia Buildings and structures in Alexandria, Virginia Virginia Historic Landmarks History of slavery in Virginia History of the District of Columbia Slave jails in the United States Slave-trading companies of the United States