Chapel Hill cemetery home to unknown graves-PLEASE Donate!

Barbee-Hargrave Cemetery in Chapel Hill North Carolina, is a slave cemetery that was active from about 1790 until 1915. Little is known about the cemetery, but the Chapel Hill Cemeteries Advisory Board and the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill are working to bring attention to Barbee-Hargrave.

A small plaque identifies the cemetery, but there are no headstones to mark its graves. There is only one known interrment-George Hargrave. Hargrave was a black slave who once belonged to Margaret J. Hargrave, according to the Twelfth Census of the United States, conducted in 1900. At the time of the census, George Hargrave was 71 years old. Although it is known that Hargrave is buried in the cemetery, it is unknown where his body – or any other body – lies within the cemetery’s grounds. One goal of the Preservation Society and the Cemeteries Advisory Board is to figure out where these bodies are buried using ground penetrating radar (GPR).

GPR for Barbee-Hargrave will cost approximately $500 and should not take long to perform, Dollar said.

“If someone wanted to walk in and donate the money to have this done for the Barbee-Hargrave, it could be done very quickly,” Moore said. “And the information would be known publicly.” Moore and Dollar said they are hopeful that once the GPR project is finished, they will be able to find out more about the history of Barbee-Hargrave.
“There may be a direct family connection that may be unknown until this point,” Moore said.These connections could mean a lot to local African American community, Moore and Dollar said.“I feel like the families want to know where their loved ones are buried,” said Jim Merritt, the Chapel Hill Town Council Member who sits on the Cemeteries Advisory Board. Discoveries made at Barbee-Hargrave could provide important links between Chapel Hill, its African American population and their intertwined past, Moore said. “Projects like this are a good way to highlight that history,” Dollar said. “You cannot destroy it, but you can lose it. Barbee-Hargrave cemetery was lost.”

The Preservation Society and Cemeteries Advisory Board are looking to complete the GPR project by the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010.

To donate to this cause or request general information about the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, e-mail: chpreservation@mindspring.com or visit their website.