Help Save Historic Black Cemetery in Maryland

VOLUNTEER CLEANUP EVENT SCHEDULED FOR SAT. DEC. 2, 2023!!!

FOLLOW CHESAPEAKE STORY TOURS on FB or email: [email redacted] to GET UPDATES!!!

There have been over 700 graves discovered in these sacred resting grounds. African American cemeteries all over America are in this condition. This is because it was either too expensive or impossible for African Americans to get life insurance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Therefore, perpetual care was not an option and maintenance was left up to individual families.

Some do not have any descendants, siblings die off, and nobody is left to preserve their burial site, so it becomes overgrown and slips into despair.

Black history in America is one of oppression, enslavement, and hardship.

The achievements made by these people resting here are incredible, especially considering the circumstances they faced.

These legacies cannot be lost and this is our opportunity to save, preserve and share them with future generations.

African Americans in Somerset county, even when held in bondage, worked as ship builders, and sailors, and did other skillful duties that they do not get recognition for doing.

Even though we are not sure if he is buried here, Fredrick Jones is almost certain to have been the first black locomotive engineer in America.

He drove the train that came to Crisfield which is also where he lived and died.

We have veterans dating back to the civil war, Crisfield's first African American doctor, preachers, and watermen, along with mothers, daughters and women who were an integral part of Crisfield's seafood industry and many other significant stories that need to be preserved.

Since 2017 this project has been ongoing.

However, we have come to the point where over 100 large trees need to be removed, site work done to eliminate flooding, the caskets and headstones need to be restored, and to make this place what it can be…. The standard for all other African American cemeteries.

We are raising 5,000 dollars to map, document and research those buried at Union Asbury - with veterans getting the priority.

So please click the link in the description section to donate now to help save the Union Asbury Cemetery.