The Bottom: An African American Enclave Rediscovered
Poor and hardworking, the families of The Bottom needed the labor of the entire family to purchase and cultivate their land. Residents grew crops on their small holdings, including staples like corn, potatoes, wheat, and rye. Outside mostly spare shanties, they tended kitchen gardens and small apple orchards and raised livestock.
Beginning in the early 1850s, "The Bottom," one of the oldest free Black enclaves in Arlington, provided a refuge for a dedicated group of settlers. Though small, it harbored these families during times of great change - from the Civil War through Reconstruction and the beginnings of segregation. As with several other African communities in Alexandria/Arlington and Fairfax Counties, it could not withstand the incredible growth and suburbanization of the region or the segregation and institutional racism that coerced its residents to leave their homes.
On February 16, 1857, John Jackson, a formerly enslaved man, purchased three acres of land near Chain Bridge from William Walker. The parcel, wooded and remote, lay in a hollow about a mile from Chain Bridge. The northern tip of the valley sat in Fairfax County, and the remainder in Alexandria County. Pimmit Run flowed through the secluded timber-laden vale. Over time, the area became known as “The Bottom.”
Several other families bought property in The Bottom before the Civil War. Henry Jackson purchased 1.5 acres from his brother John. A year later, Walker sold three acres of the Pimmit tract to free African Americans George and Eugina/Jane Carter, past neighbors of John in Fairfax County.
It’s unclear when Luke and Hanah Carter and their family began living in the enclave. Hanah bought their two-acre parcel using a lease purchase type of arrangement. She provided a down payment for the tract and utilized her income, working the land
towards a final payoff. Full title then transferred. Historian Curtis Vaughn discussed informal land transfers like this and how they may have reflected a personal relationship between African American buyers and white sellers. Buyers trusted that the title would be officially transferred or “vested” after final payment.
Several other free black families rented in the Pimmit Run area. John and Allen Honesty’s families called The Bottom home in the 1850s and 1860s before leaving the region. During the Civil War, William Vaugh, a good friend of Luke Carter’s, worked a piece of land two farms away from Carter. Luke’s brother William lived with or near his brother. In 1862, James S. Hyson, George Carter’s son-in-law, resided in The Bottom
even though he rented property in another part of Alexandria County.
On the Fairfax side, Elizabeth and George Honesty lodged with the Eskridge family, and Harriet Brice and her children lived on a half-acre plot. In 1865, Brice officially purchased the parcel from John Waggaman.
Poor and hardworking, the families of The Bottom needed the labor of the entire family to purchase and cultivate their land. Residents grew crops on their small holdings, including staples like corn, potatoes, wheat, and rye. Outside mostly spare shanties, they tended kitchen gardens and small apple orchards and raised livestock.
To bring in additional income, some of the residents of The Bottom performed menial jobs for their White neighbors. The men competed with German and Irish immigrants as well as hired enslaved people for jobs as fieldhands and laborers. A few, like William Vaugh, worked in the stone quarries along the Potomac. The women often took in laundry or found employment as domestic servants. Whether leasers or owners, the residents of The Bottom found relative safety in numbers and in the secluded, timber-lined hollow.
The isolation of the Bottom ended during the Civil War. In September of 1861, Union forces built Fort Marcy on the hill to the north of Pimmit Run and Fort Ethan Allen to the south at the crest of what is now Military Road. So close was the Bottom to these fortifications that one resident claimed, “You [could] talk loud enough by [Luke Carter’s] to hear it in the Fort.” Rifle trenches were cut through the land to connect the forts, perhaps through the farms in the community. The area was largely deforested, and many homes were destroyed.
The presence of the Union army provided entrepreneurial opportunities for the families. Luke Carter helped build Forts Marcy and Ethan Allen and would have received good wages. Other men of the Bottom must have worked on the fortifications as well. Families sold baked goods at the forts, and women probably provided washing and ironing services.
Spencer Hyson, a free African American and long-time laborer for John Waggaman, ran Waggaman’s farm during much of the war. In September of 1861, the Waggaman family fled to Washington. Union troops ravaged much of his farm, confiscating hay, corn, potatoes, and more. They cut down 25-30 acres of woodland and left it to rot. Thinking on his feet, Hyson employed a team of workers to haul the abandoned timber to soldiers for fuel and building supplies. In a Southern Claims Commission (SCC) deposition for John Waggaman, Hyson described his activities in 1862, “I was hauling pretty much all winter. I did not haul every day, but 2-3 days during the week.”
Unfortunately, the Yankee occupation brought more mayhem than prosperity to The Bottom. Union soldiers moved freely through the woods and valley between Forts Ethan Allen and Marcy. They used Pimmit Run as their washroom and laundromat. They wandered through the properties of the various families in The Bottom and ate at their homes. The encamped soldiers hounded Luke and Hanah Carter’s household. Through Luke’s 1877 SCC testimony, their interactions are well-documented. Luke testified: “The Union army took [my fence] and burned it up…They had the commissary right in my yard…[They] made their cook houses and places right alongside the apple trees.” The troops took down Carter’s “little shanty” to use for fuel and stole his farm horse.
The Civil War ended in the spring of 1865, yet it took years for Northern Virginians to overcome the destruction and dislocation it caused. For families in The Bottom, slavery’s demise must have brought great joy but a dose of fear and many economic worries.
The population in The Bottom rose significantly after the war as already settled families like the Jacksons grew and newcomers looked for housing. The Carter family exploded in size from 6 individuals in 1860 to almost 30 in 1870. As Hanah and Luke’s situation illustrated, friends and relatives faced with limited housing options, economic hardship, and new social proscriptions banded together.
Land ownership was significant to African American families in The Bottom and beyond. Many had deep agricultural roots in Alexandria and Fairfax and wanted to remain there. Land meant independence and the ability to sustain their families. With it, they controlled their own time and labor. They sacrificed much to buy it and worked hard to keep it. Economic independence from Whites was difficult for the families of The Bottom, especially renters. Residents grew crops on home plots and raised chicken, swine, and dairy cows, but given the minimal acreage of their homesteads and the burgeoning population in The Bottom, many needed to work for their White neighbors to
make ends meet. The demand for labor had increased since the war, but jobs available to Blacks remained largely unskilled. During the 1870 census, almost all the Alexandrian men were laborers or farmhands. The women who worked outside the home were primarily domestic servants or laundresses.
Around 1871, public education for the children of The Bottom became a reality. The Sumner School for Black students opened its doors to residents of the Washington District of Alexandria, where The Bottom was located. By 1872, the school moved to the Odd Fellows Hall on Hall’s Hill. The three-mile walk to Hall’s Hill was long but undoubtedly worth it. For Fairfax County children, Lincolnville and Odrick’s Corner housed colored schools, the former being around two and a half miles from The Bottom.
Religion played an important role in the lives of African Americans and must have been essential to many in The Bottom. Unfortunately, no documentary evidence exists on the presence of a church in the community. Calloway Methodist Church in Halls Hill and the First Baptist Church of Chesterbrook in Lincolnville were the closest black churches. Historian Eleanor Templeman found evidence of an African American cemetery on the outskirts of The Bottom in the 1960s, but its exact location remains a mystery.
Between 1880 and 1900, the population of The Bottom began to decrease. Hanah Carter’s offspring and their families spread across the region to Washington, D.C., Falls Church, and Langley. Other families of The Bottom moved to solidly African American parts of Alexandria and Fairfax, like Hall’s Hill and Green Valley. Those migrating to the District could take advantage of more plentiful and sometimes better job opportunities. They found excellent black schools, possibly the best in the country.
Some Bottom residents like Richard Hyson commuted to Washington for work. The area’s proximity to Chain Bridge made this possible. Hyson worked as a laborer at the US Navy Yard. Jobs with the government offered stability and higher wages than Black men and women could find in private employment, though the latter were mostly closed to African Americans.
By 1900, far fewer Black families remained in The Bottom and many of the original residents had passed away including John and Henry Jackson, George and Eugenia Carter, and Spencer Hyson.
The turn of the century ushered in a period of substantial White growth in Alexandria and Fairfax Counties. To provide housing for the population, real estate developers began buying farmland in the counties and subdividing it for residential use. At the same time, increased racial discrimination and segregation began taking hold in Northern Virginia. Beginning in 1902, local Democrats began limiting the rights of Blacks through poll taxes and anti-Black housing covenants. After 1919, areas near The Bottom like Walker Chapel and parts of Chain Bridge Heights became off limits to non-Whites.
The neglect of infrastructure in Black communities and the severe underfunding of Black schools also caused a great deal of damage to African American neighborhoods. Specifically impacting The Bottom was the abandonment of the road to Pimmit Run Bridge, which led from Walker Chapel down the west side of The Bottom. Instead, the county built a new route using Chain Bridge Hill (now Glebe Road to Chain Bridge), circumventing the community. The establishment of a regional KKK headquarters in Ballston, only a few miles from The Bottom, also portended trouble.
Throughout Alexandria and Fairfax Counties, White in-migration and institutional injustice slowly destroyed Black communities. The Bottom was on a similar trajectory. Several families like the Hyson’s held their land for as long as possible, but the trend continued until developers and speculators purchased all the old homesteads.
In 1930, plans to build the George Washington Memorial Parkway along the banks of the Potomac River saved The Bottom from development. The proposed route in Virginia ran through the Pimmit Run area. Investors continued to amass land in the valley, knowing they would eventually cash in via the government. By 1953, The Bottom was entirely owned by real estate investors, Samuel Goldberg and Percy and Clarence Talley. In 1959, the U.S. Government, utilizing eminent domain, purchased the area from the men.
The Bottom can be visited today. Follow the Pimmit Run Trail northwest of Chain Bridge and let the contours of the land and the peaceful flow of the stream remind you of a once forgotten community.
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