St. Stephen’s A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Unionville
St. Stephen’s A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Unionville is a cemetery in Unionville, Maryland, an NPS Network to Freedom. The Unionville cemetery—where the free Black community rests. The archive files it under the Underground Railroad, African American history and dark history. The dossier holds 4 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The grounds are open to visitors.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is St. Stephen’s A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Unionville haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
St. Stephens AME is the church of the village the soldiers built — Unionville, founded 1867 by eighteen Black Civil War veterans who came back to Talbot County where their families had been enslaved. Ezekiel Cowgill, the Quaker who owned Lombardy Plantation and fought for the Union himself, leased them parcels at a dollar a month for thirty years. They named it Unionville — a dare in a county where eighty-four sons fought for the Confederacy.
It's believed to be the only village in the United States founded by formerly enslaved soldiers. The church came in 1871; the 1892 Gothic Revival building that stands is the village's oldest structure. All eighteen founders are in the cemetery behind it — Colored Union Army headstones, the men who bought their freedom by enlisting in 1863. Frederick Douglass had worked at Wye House a short walk away; Tubman and Garnet were from the neighboring counties. The cemetery is a Network to Freedom site — the village that defied two hundred years of Talbot County slavery.
The file keeps St. Stephens: the eighteen veterans, the dollar-a-month leases, the 1892 church, and the cemetery of founders.
St. Stephens is the archive's Unionville file — the church of the village the freedmen built.
Why this file matters
St. Stephens is the archive's Unionville file — the church and cemetery of the veterans' village.
A cemetery keeps its founders — the file's suggestion being that St. Stephens's hold is the eighteen: the soldiers who came home to the county that enslaved them, named their village for the Union, and are buried behind the church they built.
Two accounts on file
HISTORIC_SITE
CEMETERY
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The Unionville cemetery—where the USCT veterans rest.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing
NPS Network to Freedom
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 43MD02, source row 675. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.
UGRR enrichment wave 4; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. St. Stephen’s A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Unionville's history is documented — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath the ghost stories. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceSt. Stephen’s A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Unionville is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. St. Stephen’s A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Unionville's history is documented — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath the ghost stories. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceThe cemetery is documented. St. Stephen’s A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Unionville's history is documented — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath the ghost stories. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceSt. Stephen's A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Unionville is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The burial ground's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
UGRR enrichment wave 1; VERIFY task auto-queued.