Just east of Leesburg, Virginia, next to a heavily trafficked six-lane highway, is a plot of overgrown and scrubby wooded land that went unnoticed for years by passersby. That is until Reverend Michelle C. Thomas took notice while delving into Loudoun County land records researching potential building sites for her church. She discovered that the parcel of land had been a burial ground for the Belmont and Coton plantations’ enslaved populations. Constructed between 1796 and 1802, the plantations owned by Ludwell Lee and the Thomas Ludwell Lee families were on…
