A broken ring of granite in front of you is the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers on the University of Virginia's main campus, near the University of Virginia Corner, east of Brooks Hall and the Rotunda. Before you is a wall of local "Virginia Mist" granite formed into a broken ring — a deliberate shape that evokes broken shackles. The ring is about 80 feet (24 m) across, deliberately echoing the dimensions of Jefferson’s iconic Rotunda. Inside that outer ring a second concentric band holds a timeline of slavery at the university.
Walk the curve with your eyes: the outer ring could hold the names of the 4,000 enslaved people who worked on University grounds, but only 578 full names are known. Another 311 are known only by a first name, a job, or a relation. A single engraved word remembers each — Jerry, butler, Agnes, grandmother, midwife, domestic, Billy — while most of the ring remains blank, marked only by notches for the other 3,000+ whose basic information is lacking. If more names are discovered they will be added. Your hand can touch the cool granite, and the Rotunda and Brooks Hall wait just beyond it.