Richmond Slave Trail

This trail is terrible. My sister and I came to Richmond just to walk the trail and one more site. We could barely find it. It started in a parking lot. At first we wasn’t sure if we should get out the car because there was a lot of people fishing and figured maybe the map quest was wrong. We eventually got out and saw little signs saying slave trail. Needless to say the people in the area has absolutely no respect for the area. They were fishing all over the trail, hanging out, allowing their children to play on the signs that offered the information concerning the trail. As we walked along the muddy dirt path the trail goes into a very wooded area where I decided I’d seen enough and refused to go in. My sister went in and came back out because there was a fallen tree that did not allow her to go any further. We tried to find the jail but was unsuccessful. It looks like this trail is no longer being ran and who ever started it should pull its advertising from Google so that others like myself will not be disappointed when we make long trips to see something that is no longer functioning.

This walk is a failure. This path needs to be completed and marked properly before it is opened to the public. The trail starts in a creepy parking lot. My car was he only one there. Then he trail goes along a muddy track alongside the river. Then you cross a bridge and the trail disappears. Had to use google maps to work my way to lumpkin’s slave jail, which is a lawn in a parking lot with a sign saying the jail is gone. There was also an old shack that had clearly been relocated from elsewhere with no indication as to what it was.
Att his point I gave up. Wish I had just followed the Richmond liberty trail instead.

I did part of the Slave Trail but in the reverse direction. I’ve pasted some info below. I started out at the First African Baptist Church and walked until I reached Richmond’s Burgeoning Slave Trade section. I saw and learned about the burial ground, Lumpkin’s Jail, and the Reconciliation Statue. I also learned about Henry «Box» Brown who mailed himself in a wooden box to freedom. It can be jarring to look at the auction blocks area that is now converted to restaurants/​residential use and think about what happened there.
But again, I didn’t start the trail from the beginning. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t do it all and in the correct direction. Keep in mind that the trail is not a loop and that the Manchester Docks area is kind of out of the way. Also, note that once you’re crossing Mayo Bridge, you may be on the trail by yourself. I was surprised by that. I figured more people would be walking it, but it could have been the day and time and how hot it was.
I recommend this trail — it makes you pause and think about the past and the implications of that past.

You can do this as a self-​guided walk or go with a guide. Walk in the footsteps of former slaves from the docks of Manchester, a major port in the slave trade of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, past the sites of the former slave markets and Lumpkin’s Slave Jail, the Negro Burial Ground and ending at the First African Baptist Church.