South Lawn preparations yield clues about the Foster family

Ford.
Photo by Dan Addison.

Two new graveshafts discovered on University property are giving archeologists a clearer picture of the life of a free black woman making her way in the 19th-century South. The cemetery is part of a homesite located near Jefferson Park Avenue. Catherine “Kitty” Foster and her family once lived and worked there as laundresses and seamstresses, probably washing clothes for faculty and students at the University during the first decades of its existence.

The two new graveshafts add to 12 that were discovered on the site in 1993 and may contain the remains of Kitty Foster herself, though the University will not disturb the coffins. The exploration of the site comes in preparation for the South Lawn Project, which includes plans for a memorial at the location of the Foster home.

Benjamin Ford (MA, Anthropology ’97, PhD ’98), who led the investigation of the site, says the discovery is extremely significant in that there is very little surviving evidence of free blacks in the commonwealth, particularly in urban areas. The Foster family makes for an engaging story, Ford says, because of the way in which they crossed both socioeconomic and racial boundaries and made a living for themselves. “This is shedding light on free blacks in Virginia in both the antebellum and postwar periods.”