Virginia Union plans presentation on Lumpkin’s Jail

A presentation on the history and archaeology of Lumpkin's Jail will be held in the Wilder Library Lecture Hall at Virginia Union University at 9 a.m. April 15.

The Lumpkin's Jail complex in Shockoe Bottom was the site of one of the largest slave-trading centers in the United States before the Civil War. After the Civil War, Virginia Union's first classes were taught in the former slave jail.

The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will feature Matthew Laird, whose firm was hired to excavate the site, and Philip Schwarz, professor emeritus of history at Virginia Commonwealth University.