Emancipated Community at Chimborazo Hill

Richmond (Ind. City) County · dedicated 2022 · 3125 East Broad St.

Formerly enslaved African Americans found community at this site following the Civil War. Under the direction of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Chimborazo Hospital buildings abandoned by the Confederates became a refugee camp in mid-1865, providing limited food, shelter, clothing, and support. Schools within the community were well attended, and by July 1865, the camp was home to more than 2,500 people. Throughout the year, freedpeople faced violent harassment from white Richmonders. After confrontations in March 1866, the Freedmen’s Bureau ordered able-bodied men to vacate the camp by 1 April 1866. Some residents remained at the camp until the City of Richmond cleared the site for a park in 1877.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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