The Franklin and Armfield Office, which houses the Freedom House Museum, is a historic commercial building in Alexandria, Virginia (until 1846, the District of Columbia). Built c. 1810–1820, it was first used as a private residence before being converted to the offices of the largest slave trading firm in the United States, started in 1828 by Isaac Franklin and John Armfield. Another source, using ship manifests (lists of slaves) in the National Archives, gives the number as "at least 5,000".[4]
The 1315 Duke Street building is located just west of Alexandria's Old Town, on the north side of Duke Street between South West and South Payne streets. It is a three-story brick building, topped by a mansard roof and resting on a brick foundation. Its front facade is laid in Flemish bond, while the sides and rear are laid in common bond. It has Federal-period styling, with windows and the entrance door set in segmented, arch openings, with gabled dormers at the roof level.[5]
The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, and has also been designated a Virginia Historic Landmark. The building was formerly owned by the Northern Virginia Urban League which operated it as a museum, with exhibits about the slave trading firm and the life of a slave.[6][7]
The City of Alexandria purchased the building in March of 2020 and reopened it as a museum in June of 2022.[8]
^"Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved May 12, 2013.
^"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
^"Franklin & Armfield Office". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on December 31, 2007. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
^Sweig, Donald (October 2014). "Alexandria to New Orleans: The Human Tragedy of the Interstate Slave Trade" (PDF). Alexandria Gazette-Packet. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
^"NHL nomination for Franklin and Armfield Office". National Park Service. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
^"Freedom House Museum". The Smithsonian Associates. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
^"Alexandria museum of slave trade damaged by winter storms". The Washington Post. March 4, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
^Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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John Armfield (1797–1871) was an American slave trader. He was the co-founder of Franklin & Armfield, "the largest slave trading firm" in the United States...
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attendees such as Washington and Benjamin Franklin, the delegates agreed in a secret session that the abrogation of the Articles and the creation of a new constitution...
breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga. In the Franklin–Nashville Campaign of 1864, he achieved one of the most decisive victories...
Mexican War, including bone spurs in his heel, and insomnia. As a result, Davis maintained an at-home office on the second floor of the house, where his...
and Cyrus Burleigh. He corresponded with them to work out the details after returning to Richmond. They advised him to mail the box to the office of...
displayed no ambition for federal office, declining a seat in the Senate. Mason left no extensive paper trail and, unlike Franklin, who authored an autobiography...
(January 31, 1715 – May 28, 1773) was a colonial American planter, slave trader and lawyer in colonial Virginia. He is historically best known as the father-in-law...
economic activity. Maryland and Virginia, for example, would export surplus slaves to the south. (See FranklinandArmfieldOffice.) Enslaved family members...
Virginia and North Carolina after escaping enslavement. Although conditions were harsh, research suggests that thousands lived there between about 1700 and the...
Servants and Slaves), were a series of laws enacted by the Colony of Virginia's House of Burgesses in 1705 regulating the interactions between slaves and citizens...
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J. (2003). "George Washington And The Politics of Slavery" (PDF). Historic Alexandria Quarterly (Spring/Summer). Office of Historic Alexandria. OCLC 34512039...
criminalized interracial marriage in 1691, and subsequent laws abolished free blacks' rights to vote, hold office, and bear arms. Virginia's House of Burgesses...
The first Africans in Virginia were a group of "twenty and odd" captive persons originally from modern-day Angola who landed at Old Point Comfort in Hampton...
end, and will never be revived, unless the South is victorious. The slave prisons are empty, and the long line of slave auction rooms in Franklin street...
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