Clemson University researchers are working to tell the story of African Americans who were buried at Woodland Cemetery dating back to the early 1800s.
The cemetery, originally known as Cemetery Hill, borders Clemson University’s Memorial Stadium and is marked by former vice president John C. Calhoun’s family burial ground in the center.
As far back as the early 1800s
It has also long been the resting place of a number of slaves who worked at Clergy Hall, a four-room house owned by the Rev. James McElhenny. The house and property later became Calhoun’s Fort Hill Plantation in the early 1800s where as many as 139 slaves lived through the years, according to Woodland Cemetery’s website.
Between 1865 and 1915, Black sharecroppers and prisoners who helped build Clemson’s Agricultural College would also be buried in the cemetery. Since 1924, when it was reincorporated as Woodland Cemetery, it has been the resting place of a number of Clemson employees including former Clemson President Walter Riggs, who had the idea to open the cemetery to employees of the college, and was the first Clemson employee buried there in 1924.
Cemetery releases its secrets
The site’s rich history has become a more recent focus of the university as researchers have unearthed more about it. In 1946, a Clemson building and grounds committee believed the cemetery held graves of enslaved and convict laborers. In 1960, Clemson College was granted a court order to move several graves from the western slope of the cemetery to the south side for the “orderly and proper development of the campus.”
It’s hard to know how many slaves were buried in the area, mostly because slave owners kept poor records and death certificates weren’t required in South Carolina until 1915. Instead, combined with information from previous decades, researchers have employed newer technology to peer into the graves without having to disturb them. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR), which uses radar pulses to detect anomalies in the underlying soil, has identified 667 unmarked graves so far, the first of which were found in July 2020.
Dr. Rhondda Thomas, coordinator of research and community engagement for the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation Project, has been involved with the project since 2020 when students approached her about preserving the southern slope of the cemetery. By that point, the site was littered and surrounded by a broken fence. The preservation group has since cleaned up the area, removed the broken fencing and identified a number of unmarked graves in the southern slope of the hill.
Thomas has been leading the “Call My Name“ project, gathering stories and acknowledging the contributions of African Americans at Clemson University dating back to the 18th century. Woodland Cemetery is now part of the project.
Still in ‘research mode’
“We’re still very much in research mode,” Thomas said. In 2020-21, researchers found 667 unmarked burial sites throughout the cemetery, with many found outside the current boundaries, including a number of graves in unmapped parts of the cemetery and under paved roads. Researchers said they want to rebuild the paved path going through the cemetery so it avoids all unmarked graves.
Carrel Cowan-Ricks, a Black historical archaeologist who worked with Clemson University in the early 1990s and was instrumental in researching Cemetery Hill, found evidence the west side of the cemetery was used for slaves before 1837. According to an article by Upcountry Historical, papers Cowan-Ricks had written were later used in helping teams discover the graves using GPR, along with oral history and lists of enslaved people.
Researchers have no plans on digging up the buried bodies, as most of them would have completely decomposed from the acidity of the soil. Instead, they hope to continue their research so everyone buried there has a voice.
“We will do our due diligence to ensure that every person is honored,” Thomas said.
Clemson University employees can still be buried in the cemetery, provided they’ve been with the university at least 20 years.
