We all know that the site of the Arlington National Cemetery was on land once owned by Robert E. Lee and was taken by the federal government when he took command of CSA forces. What might not be known was that on the site, about a half mile from the Lee home, was a "thriving black town" called "Freedman's Village". The village was established some time during the war and consisted on about 50 one and half story duplex style homes that housed 1100 former slaves. The village had "churches, stores, a hospital, mess hall, a school, an 'old peoples home' and a laundry". Sojourner Truth spent a year there as a teacher. Unfortunately, white landowners would raid the village and "kidnap children for slave labor". Once the land became more valueable the federal government paid the residents $ 75,000 for the entire town and tore down it down in 1900.
(Source: "The land of the freed" by Jesse J. Holland of the AP. In The Virginian Pilot on 4/20/10).
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