Franklin and Armfield Office

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = Franklin and Armfield Office

| nrhp_type = nhl

| designated_other1 = Virginia Landmarks Register

| designated_other1_date = October 16, 1979{{cite web|title=Virginia Landmarks Register|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_counties_cities.htm|access-date=May 12, 2013 }}

| designated_other1_number = 100-0105

| designated_other1_num_position = bottom

| image = Franklin and Armfield Office.jpg

| caption = Freedom House in 2022

| location = 1315 Duke Street,
Alexandria, Virginia

| coordinates = {{coord|38|48|14|N|77|3|17|W|region:US-VA_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| locmapin = United States Virginia Alexandria Historical District#USA Virginia Northern#USA Virginia#USA

| area = {{convert|27|acre|ha}}

| built = {{start date|1810}}

| architect = Robert Young

| architecture = Federal

| designated_nrhp_type = June 2, 1978{{cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1795&ResourceType=Building|title=Franklin & Armfield Office|access-date=June 26, 2008|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231130007/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1795&ResourceType=Building|archive-date=December 31, 2007|url-status=dead }}

| added = June 2, 1978{{NRISref|2008a}}

| refnum = 78003146

}}

The Franklin and Armfield Office, which houses the Freedom House Museum, is a historic commercial building in Alexandria, Virginia (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 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".{{cite web|title=Alexandria to New Orleans: The Human Tragedy of the Interstate Slave Trade|newspaper=Alexandria Gazette-Packet|first=Donald|last=Sweig|date=October 2014|access-date=February 13, 2018|url=http://connectionarchives.com/PDF/2014/Slave%20Trader/Slave%20Trader.PDF}}

The 1315 Duke Street building is located just west of Alexandria's Old Town, 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, 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.{{cite web|url={{NHLS url|id=78003146}}|title=NHL nomination for Franklin and Armfield Office|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=January 26, 2016 }}

The building was designated a National Historic Landmark 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.{{cite web|title=Freedom House Museum|url=http://civilwarstudies.org/articles/Vol_9/freedom-house.shtm|publisher=The Smithsonian Associates|access-date=October 5, 2015}}{{cite news|title=Alexandria museum of slave trade damaged by winter storms|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/alexandria-museum-of-slave-trade-damaged-by-winter-storms/2015/03/03/fc4c5b22-bea8-11e4-bdfa-b8e8f594e6ee_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=October 5, 2015|date=March 4, 2015}}

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=

File:United States Slave Trade - Franklin & Armfield - Genius of Universal Emancipation 1829-09-16 Page 9.jpg annotated this poem in Genius of Universal Emancipation with a description of the brig Comet, possibly the same coastwise slave ship that later landed in the British West Indies, resulting in the freedom of the prisoners on board]]

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.{{cite journal|last1=Gudmestad|first1=Robert H.|title=The Troubled Legacy of Isaac Franklin: The Enterprise of Slave Trading|journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly|date=Fall 2003|volume=62|issue=3|pages=193–217|jstor=42627764}}

File:Franklin and Armfield slave prison Alexandria Virginia 1836.pngs in 1836.]]

{{blockquote|{{Center|Cash in Market.}}

The subscribers having leased for a term of years the large three story brick house on Duke Street, in the town of Alexandria, D.C. formerly occupied by Gen. Young, we wish to purchase one hundred and fifty likely young negroes of both sexes, between the ages of 8 and 25 years. Persons who wish to sell will do well to give us a call, as we are determined to give more than any other purchasers that are in market, or that may hereafter come into market.

Any letters addressed to the subscribers through the Post Office at Alexandria, will be promptly attended to. For information, enquire at the above described house, as we can at all times be found there.

FRANKLIN & ARMFIELD|advertisement in the Alexandria Phoenix Gazette, May 17, 1828}}

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.{{cite book|first=James W.|last=Loewen|author-link=James Loewen|title=Lies Across America. What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong|year=1999|publisher=The New Press|isbn=1565843444|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780965003179}}{{rp|292}} 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."{{Cite web |title=Slavery and the Constitution. By William I. Bowditch |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/yale.39002053504081?urlappend=%3Bseq=95 |access-date=January 13, 2024 |website=HathiTrust |page=87 |language=en}}

Circa 1833–34, Franklin & Armfield had trading agents in at least five cities:{{cite book |last=Bancroft |first=Frederic |title=Slave Trading in the Old South |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |others=Introduction by Michael Tadman |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-64336-427-8 |edition=Reprint |series=Southern Classics Series |location=Columbia, S.C. |pages=59 |language=en-us |type=Original publisher: J. H. Fürst Co., Baltimore |lccn=95020493 |oclc=1153619151 |ref=bancroft2023 |author-link=Frederic Bancroft |orig-date=1931, 1996}}{{cite report |url=https://media.alexandriava.gov/docs-archives/historic/info/archaeology/1315dukestbuildinghistoryskolnik2021.pdf |title=1315 Duke Street – Building and Property History |last=Skolnik |first=Benjamin A. |date=January 2021 |publisher=Office of Historic Alexandria - City of Alexandria, Virginia}} pp. 28–29

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.{{cite news|title=They were once America's cruelest, richest slave traders. Why does no one know their names?|first=Hannah|last=Natanson|date=September 14, 2019|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/14/they-were-once-americas-cruelest-richest-slave-traders-why-does-no-one-know-their-names/}}{{cite journal|title=Retracing Slavery's Trail of Tears|first=Edward|last=Ball|journal=Smithsonian Magazine|date=November 2015|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/slavery-trail-of-tears-180956968/}}

Maryland and Virginia had surpluses of slaves and spoke of slaves as an export, like livestock. As portrayed in Uncle Tom's Cabin, there was a vast, internal forced migration of enslaved people from the Upper South 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.=

File:PriceBirch.jpg, 1862]]

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.{{rp|29}}{{cite web | url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283193 | title=Andrew Joseph Russell | Slave Pen, Alexandria, Virginia }}{{cite web|title=Alexandria, Virginia, Price and Birch, Armsfield and Franklin, Slave Pen, Historic Photos|author=My Genealogy Hound|url=http://www.mygenealogyhound.com/vintage-photographs/virginia-photographs/VA-Alexandria-Virginia-Price-Birch-Franklin-Armfield-Slave-Pen-historic-photos.html|access-date=February 12, 2018}}{{Cite book |last=Colby |first=Robert K. D. |chapter=Chapter 2: The 'Uncongenial Air of Freedom': Union Occupation and the Slave Trade |year=2024 |title=An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South |page=45 |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/56158/chapter/442912162 |access-date=March 23, 2024 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197578261.003.0003 |isbn=978-0-19-757826-1}}

Price, Birch & Co. ceased business in 1861.{{cite web |url=https://alextimes.com/2013/11/notorious-local-slave-dealer-had-hand-in-solomon-northups-kidnapping/ | title=Out of the Attic: Notorious local slave dealer had hand in Solomon Northup's kidnapping | Alexandria Times | Alexandria, VA| date=November 7, 2013}}{{Cite web | url=https://www.nps.gov/places/franklin-and-armfield-office.htm |title=Franklin and Armfield Office (U.S. National Park Service)}} 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."{{cite book |last1=Conway |first1=Moncure Daniel |title=Testimonies Concerning Slavery |date=1865 |publisher=Chapman and Hill |location=London |page=22}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/historic/info/archaeology/SiteReportArtemel1987SlavePenAX75.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=September 15, 2019 |archive-date=April 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414081411/https://www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/historic/info/archaeology/SiteReportArtemel1987SlavePenAX75.pdf |url-status=dead }} 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."{{Cite web |date=1862-10-17 |title=Letters from the 33rd Regiment |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-liberator-letters-from-the-33rd-regi/158893129/ |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}} Union forces had possession of the building until February 2, 1866, using it as a military prison.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0ExEzLaX6YC&q=price+birch+cook+alexandria&pg=PA289 |title = Jews and the American Slave Trade|isbn = 9781412826938|last1 = Friedman|first1 = Saul S.|year = 2000| publisher=Transaction Publishers }}{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=41FHAQAAIAAJ&q=price+birch+cook+alexandria&pg=PA491 |title = Congressional series of United States public documents|year = 1870}} Late in the war, it was used as L'Ouverture Hospital for black soldiers, and as housing for contrabands.{{rp|293}}

=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 erected the following marker in front of the building:

{{center|Franklin and Armfield

Slave Office (1315 Duke Street)}}

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, 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.{{cite web |title=E-131; Franklin and Armfield Slave Office |url=https://www.markerhistory.com/Images/Low%20Res%20A%20Shots/e-131%20franklin%20and%20armfield%20slave%20office%20(1315%20duke%20street).jpg |website=Markerhistory.com |publisher=Department of Historic Resources}}

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.{{Cite web |title=How A Once-Notorious Site of Enslavement Became a Bastion of Black History in Alexandria, Virginia {{!}} National Trust for Historic Preservation |url=https://savingplaces.org/stories/how-a-once-notorious-site-of-enslavement-became-a-bastion-of-black-history-in-alexandria-virginia |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=savingplaces.org |language=en-US}}

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.{{Cite web |last=Scott |first=Chadd |title=Reopened Freedom House Museum Focal Point For Exploring Alexandria, Virginia's Rich Black History |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/chaddscott/2022/08/09/reopened-freedom-house-museum-focal-point-for-exploring-alexandria-vas-rich-black-history/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Forbes |language=en}}{{Cite news |title=Once a notorious slave pen, it is now a museum on slavery — and freedom |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/18/alexandria-freedom-house-museum-slavery/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |issn=0190-8286}}

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.{{Cite web |title=Journey to Freedom |url=http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2022/jun/23/journey-freedom/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=www.connectionnewspapers.com}}

References

External links

[https://www.alexandriava.gov/FreedomHouse City of Alexandria: Freedom House Museum]
[http://www.nvul.org/#!freedom-house-museum/c79w Northern Virginia Urban League: Freedom House Museum]
[https://nvulypn.wildapricot.org/Visit-the-Museum Freedom House Museum official Web page]
[https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A37627 Slave pen in Alexandria, Virginia envelope]

Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia

Category:National Historic Landmarks in Virginia

Category:Brick buildings and structures in Virginia

Category:American Civil War prison camps

Category:Federal architecture in Virginia

Category:Houses in Alexandria, Virginia

Category:Commercial buildings completed in 1820

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Alexandria, Virginia

Category:1828 establishments in Washington, D.C.

Category:Museums in Alexandria, Virginia

Category:History museums in Virginia

Category:African-American museums in Virginia