Mt. Fair Plantation Cemetery

Association: Mt. Fair Plantation
No. of Markers: 141 (View)
No. of Individuals: 0 (View)
Location: Private. Brown's Cove, Albemarle Co.

In the 19th Century, Mt. Fair Plantation was owned by the Brown Family, one of a dozen Brown Plantations located in Brown's Cove (in the northwest corner of Albemarle County). This plantation operated as a medium-sized farm (with several hundred acres of land) between c. 1790 and the late 19th Century). Several dozen enslaved African Americans lived and worked on the plantation between 1790 and 1863. About one kilometer from the "Big House" is a large slave cemetery with over 100 burials. None of the stones contain visible inscriptions but archival records suggest that this graveyard may have served as the final resting place for enslaved families at several Brown Plantations.

Please note, this cemetery is located on private property. If you think you are descended from one of the formerly enslaved individuals at Mt. Fair, you should contact the current owner to negotiate access to the cemetery (please click "Cemetery Preservation" in the menu above to find a link to your legal rights for family cemetery access).

The photo below is taken from below the cemetery, looking up to the top of the now tree-covered hill that contains the graves. You will notice that although it is densely covered, none of the trees are very old. This cemetery was most likely located in open pasture until the early 20th Century when the farm ceased to use all of its acres for agriculture and allowed nature to reclaim large tracts of land, including the cemetery.