Hamilton detour

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. 
There will be no more death or mourning 
or crying or pain, for the old order of 
things has passed away."
(Revelation 21:4) 



An unexpected detour through the little town of Hamilton, VA, provided an interesting photo shoot opportunity.

The first thing that caught my eye was this house with the bright blue shutters, and I couldn't resist pulling over to take some pictures.  Then it was up the road with my camera for a short walk before continuing on my way.






















At the end of the road I came to an old church with a church cemetery,  and quite a ways past the cemetery, was a concrete slab on the grass near the parking lot that seemed to be an entity unto itself.

It was covered with tombstones, and I wondered how they all wound up on the slab, and where the graves of the folks they represent are located.












When I later called the church to see if they could shed some light on this mysterious sighting, they told me the area had once had a large African American population, and the cemetery had been neglected, fallen into disrepair, and been forgotten.  Many of the headstones had toppled over, making it hard to tell which grave they belonged to.

About 30 years ago, these tombstones were put on the slab as a memorial to the deceased they represented.  Sadly, however, a friend I showed the pictures to found some much uglier information on a historical blog about slavery in the area.  You can click on this link if you are interested in reading the whole story.