Gravesites on Campus

Sweet Briar’s campus is home to many gravesites. The Monument Hill gravesite, named by Elijah Fletcher, is the most recognizable gravesite on campus. In the late 19th century this cemetery was known as “Woodruffs’ mound” (named after the previous landowner at the time). Along with the previous landowners, the Woodruff’s, the Fletcher family is also buried. If you hold Sweet Briar very close to your heart, you as a member of the Sweet Briar community can also be buried on the hill in a Cinerarium.
Another gravesite on campus is the “Oak Tree Plantation Cemetery.” The school is uncertain who is buried in this particular cemetery, but they believe that it was most likely a cemetery for enslaved field- hands that worked for the Fletchers.

Lynn Rainville, a professor at Sweet Briar has done many field studies and research regarding this particular cemetery. Her website features pictures of the featured gravesites at Sweet Briar, along with a brief history of slave cemeteries during the ante- bellum period.
“Slave Cemetery during the ante- bellum period, enslaved African Americans were often buried on plantations, commemorated by un- inscribed locally available fieldstones. The largest slave cemetery at Sweet Briar, the Sweet Briar Plantation Burial Ground, contains over 50 gravestones. These stones mark the final resting place of several dozen individuals. Efforts are on- going to preserve and protect this sacred site.”

Above is a sketch of the Slave Cemetery. You as a Sweet Briar student should take this opportunity to venture out and explore this fascinating burial ground.