Leesylvania State Park

A 508-acre tract of a 2,000-acre estate originally patented in 1658, this site is significant to the Underground Railroad because of fifteen runaways and is included in the National Park Services Network to Freedom. Cate and Sinah, the 18th-century runaway enslaved persons were advertised in Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser, October 21, 1784, Leesylvania. The 19th-century runaways listed in Alexandria Gazette are: “Andrew and James, June 12, 1807, Leesylvania Farm; Daniel, Feb. 25, 1848, Freestone Farm; Henry and Betsy, June 26, 1856, Ohio Farm; and (Henry, Betsy), Tom, Armstead, Littleton, Abram, and Moses, Ohio Farm, August 15, 1856. Five Negro (four men and one woman) escaped to the U. S. Steam Sloop Seminole on September 23, 1861, reporting Confederate troop numbers and the Freestone Point Confederate Battery location.”