SANFORD, FL – Page Jackson resided in the Sanford, FL area and was well known for having purchased 1000’s of acres of land to not only farm on, but to have a special area to create a cemetery so that African Americans could bury their loved ones for free. Thus, the name Page Jackson Cemetery. He often would wave to the funeral procession as it entered the grounds.
The cemetery was established in 1877. Today the City of Sanford owns the cemetery which is full of history and numerous stories. Many of the graves are above ground, which was a common burial practice for African Americans at the time.
Grave robbers have vandalized many of the markers and tombs throughout the years of the past. Graves are scattered through the woods, the main common area, and many more are unmarked with large sections of grass, with only a stone being found here and there where the body is buried. There are quite a number of sunken graves in all the areas too.
The peaceful gopher tortoise also make their homes amongst the graves.
Some of the tombstones are even handmade, the letters such as “S” and numbers like “5” and “7” appear backwards as the imprinted reversed when they pressed the wet cast into the headstone.
Today, Santeria rituals have been discovered in the densely wooded area. The main difference between Santeria and Voodoo is that Santeria is influenced by Spanish Culture and Voodoo by French Culture.
Watch this Graveyard Ghosts video to see what we found in our investigation.
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