Have You Been to Maury Cemetery? Dish by Design by Laura Dyer Hild - December 22, 2016December 22, 201611 A recent trip took me to the Maury Cemetery in Southside. The cemetery is anchored by two streets, Maury and Jefferson Davis Highway. Maury Street as you may know runs through Manchester. I’m embarassed to say it, but I did not know about this cemetery until recently. Apparently, there were a number of small private cemeteries in Manchester before Maury opened its gates back in 1874. This prompted town trustees to purchase land outside of town limits to consolidate into one cemetery. By April 1872, an ordinance was passed forbidding burial within the town limits and all burials were moved out of Manchester and into Maury by 1877. The name of the cemetery refers to Matthew Fontaine Maury. For some of you who aren’t familiar with Maury, he was a true Renaissance man. He was an United States Naval Command Officer, oceanographer, astronomer, meterologist, among many other disciplines. He was nicknamed “Pathfinder of the Seas” as well as “Scientist of the Seas” later in life. Maury started his career on the open seas but after injuring his right leg those days were over. So he decided to devote his time charting navigation and meteorology. He entered into the civil war and helped to acquire a ship, all the while trying to advocate for the end of war. When the war was over he did what Robert E. Lee did and resided in Lexington, Virginia until his death. Maury became a teacher at Virginia Military Institute while Lee became President of what is now known as Washington and Lee University. There are many places named after Maury as well as monuments erected in his name. The Maury River being one such place that flows solely in Rockbridge County and directly into the James River. I spent summers fishing back behind my Granny’s house on the Maury and remember it fondly. Upon Maury’s death in 1873, he was taken through Goshen Pass along the Maury River to Richmond where he was to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery. He rests alongside other notable individuals, James Monroe and John Tyler. My walk through Maury cemetery was like discovering remnants of a time capsule. Each headstone has a story to tell. A lot has changed around this plot of land that continues to overlook Manchester and Downtown Richmond, including industrial tobacco warehouses. It’s about time we rediscover these once thriving areas and celebrate their history. You will see in the following images that quite a few familiar names stand out as names that you’ve seen or heard throughout the city. Photo credits – Laura Dyer Hild
Maury had another claim to fame—or infamy: he promoted a plan “to entice Virginia planters to migrate” to Mexico with their slaves after the end of the Civil War. (See Race and Masculinity in Southern Memory…, Matthew Mace Barbee, p. 27) Barbee writes that while his naval and scientific work “is remembered and celebrated on Monument Avenue, Maury did hold a prominent position in Confederate government, was opposed to racial integration, and was involved in efforts to perpetuate the plantation economy after the end of the Civil War. In fact, his scientific work was closely intertwined with his lifelong goal of creating a modernized, wholly white Virginia plantation society.” Reply
Maury had another claim to fame, which should be acknowledged: he promoted a plan “to entice Virginia planters to migrate” to Mexico with their slaves after the end of the Civil War. (See Race and Masculinity in Southern Memory… Matthew Mace Barbee, p. 27). Barbee writes that while Maury’s naval and scientific work “is remembered and celebrated on Monument Avenue, Maury did hold a prominent position in Confederate government, was opposed to racial integration, and was involved in efforts to perpetuate the plantation economy after the end of the Civil War. In fact, his scientific work was closely intertwined with his lifelong goal of creating a modernized, wholly white Virginia plantation society.” We need to remember the whole man, not just the valorous bits. Reply
Maury had another claim to fame, which should be acknowledged: he promoted a plan to entice Virginia planters to migrate to Mexico with their slaves after the end of the Civil War. (See Race and Masculinity in Southern Memory Matthew Mace Barbee, p. 27). Barbee writes that while Maury’s naval and scientific work is remembered and celebrated on Monument Avenue, Maury did hold a prominent position in Confederate government, was opposed to racial integration, and was involved in efforts to perpetuate the plantation economy after the end of the Civil War. In fact, his scientific work was closely intertwined with his lifelong goal of creating a modernized, wholly white Virginia plantation society. We need to remember the whole man, not just the valorous bits. Reply
Attempted eradication of all slavery in the United States of America[edit] In 1851, Maury sent his cousin, Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon, and another former co-worker at the United States Naval Observatory, Lieutenant Lardner Gibbon, to explore the valley of the Amazon, while gathering as much information as possible for both trade and slavery in the area. Maury thought the Amazon might serve as a “safety valve” by allowing Southern slave owners to resettle or sell their slaves there. (Maury’s plan was basically following the idea of northern slave traders and slave holders just as they sold their slaves to the Southern states of the US.) The expedition aimed to map the area for the day when slave owners would go “with their goods and chattels to settle and to trade goods from South American countries along the river highways of the Amazon valley.”[8] Brazil’s slavery was extinguished after a slow process that began with the end of the international traffic in slaves in 1850 but did not end with complete abolition of slavery until 1888. Maury knew when he wrote in the News Journals of the day that Brazil was bringing in new slaves from Africa. Proposing moving those who were already slaves in the United States to Brazil, there would be less slavery or, in time, perhaps no slavery in as many areas of the United States as possible, while also hoping to stop the bringing of new slaves into Brazil which only increased slavery through the capture and enslavement of more Africans. “Imagine”, Maury wrote to his cousin, “waking up some day and finding our country free of slavery!” (Source: s:Matthew Fontaine Maury/9 topic “African Slave Trade”, the Letter to his cousin dated National Observatory, December 24, 1851[2] Reply
