Freedom House Museum

1315 Duke Street

The Freedom House Museum was once part of the headquarters for the largest domestic slave trading firm in the United States, Franklin and Armfield. Enslaved people were brought from the Chesapeake Bay area and forced to the slave markets in Natchez, Mississippi and New Orleans either by foot or ship. 

The building is currently owned by the Northern Virginia Urban League and together with the Office of Historic Alexandria, we invite you to visit the museum in this historic reminder of slavery.

Museum Hours

• Friday and Saturday, 1-5 p.m.
  
• Check this page or see the Calendar for special programs and tours and for any changes to the schedule.
  
  

Visit

Admission is $5 per person. Tickets can be purchased at the door.

Admission includes a powerful exhibit in the basement of the building, which was once part of a larger complex used by the slave trading firm Franklin and Armfield. Through first-person accounts of enslaved men and women and details from the business, encounter the harsh reality of the domestic slave trade and Alexandria's role.

• Plan at lease 45 minutes for your visit.
• The museum is recommended for ages 8+.
• Please note that the majority of the exhibit is down a flight of stairs in the basement of this historic building.
• Groups of seven or more should call 703.746.4736 to arrange a time to visit.
  
  

Group Tours

Tours for seven or more should contact 703.746.4736 at least one week in advance to arrange a time to visit. Groups are typically scheduled to visit before or after public hours.

Donate

Make a donation to the Freedom House Museum. On the Northern Virginia Urban League donation form, please specify the fund "NVUL Freedom House" to direct your donation to the Museum.

Virtual Tour

Visit the Freedom House Museum on a Google 360 Virtual Tour, courtesy of Virginia Humanities.

Volunteer

Volunteer at Freedom House. Help is currently needed with visitor services. Fill out the volunteer application, selecting the second activity, "Give tours of the Black History Museum, Freedom House Museum and African American Heritage Park." 

History

The Franklin and Armfield Slave Pen at 1315 Duke Street was one of the largest slave trading companies in the country and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The three-story brick building with mansard roof was built as the residence of Robert Young, Brigadier General of the second Militia of the District of Columbia. By 1828, it was leased by Isaac Franklin and John Armfield and used as a "Negro Jail" or slave pen for slaves being shipped from Northern Virginia to Louisiana. Franklin and Armfield were active until 1836, exporting over 3,750 slaves to cotton and sugar plantations in the Deep South. Later, other firms continued trading in slaves here. A sign seen in Civil War period photographs has the name of Price, Birch & Co. During the Civil War the building and its surrounding site were used as a military prison for deserters, the L'Ouverture Hospital for black soldiers and the barrack for contraband-slaves who fled the confederate states and sought refuge with Union troops.

News and Information

• City of Alexandria Awarded National Trust for Historic Preservation Grant to Support Freedom House Museum. Alexandria has received a $50,000 planning grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. 
  
• Alexandria council loans $63,000 to stabilize slave-trading museum, by Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post, February 13, 2018. The Alexandria City Council unanimously agreed to make a $63,000 interest-free loan and donate the time and talents of city historians to help save a financially struggling museum housed on the site of the largest slave-trading operation in the pre-Civil War United States.
  
• Alexandria council to vote on rescue plan for Freedom House slavery museum, by Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post, February 12, 2018.
  
• ‘Like we descended from Hitler’: Coming to terms with a slave-trading past, by Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post, February 8, 2018 describes how descendants of the slave trader Isaac Franklin tried to make amends in Alexandria, VA.
  
• "A Loathsome Prison:” Slave Trading in Antebellum Alexandria is a lesson plan for teachers.
• Archaeological excavations took place at the site in the 1980s, and the site report includes additional history.
  
  

Event Tickets

To purchase tickets to events at the Freedom House Museum, and to shop online, visit The Alexandria Shop. 

Contact the Museum

Telephone 703.746.4702