"Taken from our motherland,

Brought into an unknown land.

Where I stood I died;

Where I lay, I cried.

Chained and shackled, whipped and bruised,

Shoved in a crowded cell; much confused.

My heart knows no thunder like the clap of a whip;

My lungs know no pain like the stench of the ship."

These initial words from the poem "We Remember You" were written by the Armstrong Leadership Team of students at Armstrong High School as they sat beneath a tree and thought about the 300,000 African-Americans who passed through Lumpkin's Jail.

The jail, which sat upon a half acre of land known as "Devil's Half Acre," was the largest slave trade site outside of New Orleans before it was liberated during the Civil War in the 1800's.

That piece of land is located in what's known today as Richmond's historic Shockoe Bottom neighborhood.

On Tuesday, city, state and history officials spoke about the importance of remembering Richmond's history, despite the embarrassment of it, as they broke ground on the second phase of archaeological research at the site.

"This brings to the forefront the forgotten and the forsaken history of Richmond, and our desire to educate generations to come," said Richmond City Councilwoman Delores McQuinn (7th), chairwoman of the Richmond Slave Trail Commission.

Several speakers also commented on the fact that because people are embarrassed by the history of slavery, they often try to hide that its existence.

"Hidden history means hidden people," said the Rev. Benjamin Campbell, with the commission.

"Both races helped to hide it. (I was asked why) and my answer is that if you tell the truth, you have to change the way you live."

Nearly every speaker, including state Delegate Dwight Jones, council president Bill Pantele and others, also publicly denounced the plans of Virginia Commonwealth University to repave a nearby parking lot on its medical campus that sits atop a burial ground for slaves and freed blacks.

"While Richmond needs more parking, it doesn't need it here," Jones said.

Pantele pointed out that land was not taken from the Jewish Cemetery on 21st Street or Hollywood Cemetery in Oregon Hill to create more parking so it shouldn't be in this case either.

He also stated that if there was going to be a slavery museum in Virginia, it should be here in Richmond.

Robert Lumpkin was the owner of Lumpkin's Jail, a two-story brick house with barbed windows, and where hundreds of thousands of slaves were housed as they brought into the country and sold to slave owners. Lumpkin eventually fell in love with one of his slaves, Mary, whom he freed and married and left the property to when he died. She later leased it to a man who began teaching freed blacks and that school grew into what became Virginia Union University today.

The city started research on Lumpkin's Jail about two years ago with the James River Institute of Archaeology. The next phase will include moving hundreds of cubic yards of fill, said Matt Laird with the institute, and then dividing the land up into a grid to excavate.

They're hoping to learn about the living conditions at the house; how the building was divided up for those living there and customers coming through; and how it became an educational facility.

"Hopefully, this will help us see Virginia's role in the slave trade," Laird said, "and shine a new light on a chapter of Richmond's history."