Freedmen's Cemetery (Louisiana)

Freedmen's Cemetery
Freedmen's Cemetery in 2019
Details
Established1867
Location
CountryUnited States
Coordinates29°56′34″N 89°59′16″W / 29.9427°N 89.9879°W / 29.9427; -89.9879
No. of graves2,000 to 4,000
Find a GraveFreedmen's Cemetery

The Freedmen's Cemetery was a cemetery in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, where formerly enslaved men, women and children were buried following the end of the American Civil War. Established in 1867 as a four-acre civilian cemetery by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, it was located near the historic African American community of Fazendeville, Louisiana and adjacent to Monument Cemetery (now known as the Chalmette National Cemetery), where the U.S. government had begun burying deceased Union soldiers in 1864, many of whom had been involved in the Red River campaign.

Adding new burials until May 1869, the cemetery quickly became overgrown after its management was abandoned by the Freedmen's Bureau when it ended its operations in Louisiana in 1872 and transferred its management authority over the cemetery to the city government in New Orleans, Louisiana.

This Freedmen's Cemetery site is considered to be one of the Historic Cemeteries of New Orleans, and has been memorialized by a historical marker, which is located near the entrance to Chalmette National Cemetery.