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The “long shadow of slavery” still looms over the country, and museum planners hired by Richmond officials say the city is uniquely positioned to tell that story using the archaeological remains of Lumpkin’s Slave Jail in Shockoe Bottom that were uncovered in 2006.

“What is clear is that the enslavement of people in this country is a major historical theme that has shaped the identity of this country,” said Robert Sullivan, the principal museum planner hired to guide the project. “It is a major historical story that really does not at this point have a home.”

For several years, the city has been working to develop an as-of-yet-undefined museum or memorial at the Shockoe Bottom site, which is also known as the Devil’s Half Acre.

After a community meeting in July, the team working on the project recently released a draft statement of purpose that will guide development of the project going forward.

Included in that is a series of “central questions” it wants a visit to the site to answer: What is the continuing legacy of enslavement? How does African-American persistence overcome horror? And, more generally, what happened here?