Lumpkin's jail

Lumpkin’s Jail, also known as “the Devil’s half acre” was a holding facility, or slave jail, located in Richmond, Virginia, just three blocks from where the capitol building sits today. It was active from the 1830s through the Civil War. Richmond was the nerve center for slave trading and boasted the largest running operation outside New Orleans. Robert Lumpkin was a notorious and prominent slave trader who bought and sold slaves throughout the south, and turned Lumpkin’s Jail into the largest slave holding facility for well over twenty years.

Robert Lumpkin purchased three lots on Wall Street in Shockoe Bottom on November 27, 1844, for roughly six thousand dollars. Although named after Lumpkin, the property had two previous owners and the holding facility had already been established by the time Lumpkin acquired the property. Even though this was already used as a holding facility for slaves, it was not used to the extreme until it came into Lumpkin’s possession. Being the largest slave trader in Richmond at the time, he had a flair for cruelty. Those that ran away or tried to escape were publicly beaten or tortured. Inside the jail was “the whipping room.” Here slaves were stretched out upon the floor, fastened by their wrists and ankles to iron rings, and flogged. Four other lots on Wall Street (now 15th Street) contained slave jails; the area was collectively referred to as Lumpkin’s Alley.

The complex known then as Lumpkin's Jail actually contained four separate buildings, including Lumpkin's residence, a guest house, and a kitchen/bar. The two-story brick "slave pen" was approximately forty feet long. On the bottom floor of that building was the main jail area, which typically held slaves that were next or fit to be sold. It temporarily housed men, women, and children until they were auctioned off to plantation owners. The jail was situated along Shockoe Creek and featured “barred windows, high fences, chained gates opening to the rutted streets, and all seen and smelled through a film of cooking smoke and stench of human excrement.” It was said to more closely resemble a chicken coop, holding so many slaves that they were virtually on top of one another. Multiple slaves would be crammed into one room or floor, with no toilets or access to the outside with the exception of a small window. Due to these conditions, slaves at the jail often died of disease or starvation, if not from beatings and torture. Those that died were simply dumped into the area surrounding the jails. This area is now known as the African Burial Ground. The nearby market that sits on the canal and railroad tracks was used as the slave market. This is where slaves were groomed, fed, and dressed up to be sold at auctions on the river. Once bought, they were pushed onto a boat or train and shipped down river to their next destination.

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