in 1779, in Richmond on January 16, 1786, which is now commemorated annually as National Religious Freedom Day. From 1785 to 1787, the oldest Masonic Hall in America still in continuous use was constructed on Franklin Street between 18th and 19th Streets in downtown Richmond. Virginia ratified the proposed U.S. Constitution on June 26, 1788, after a tumultuous and nearly month-long Virginia Ratifying Convention in Richmond. This averted the potential problem of a geographical split between states previously ratifying the document which created a stronger national government than in the previous Articles of Confederation. The Virginia Ratifying Convention also recommended adoption of a Bill of Rights modeled on one previously adopted in the Commonwealth, as eventually occurred on December 15, 1791. 19th century 1800–1860: Antebellum period For much of the 19th century, the institution of slavery shaped several local issues. Shockoe Bottom became a center for slave trading in the years after Congress prohibited the US-African Slave Trade in 1808. It is believed that between 1800 and 1865, 300,000 slaves were sent from Virginia, a majority of them from Richmond's Shockoe Bottom markets and auctions, to work in the deep south. The first municipal burial ground dedicated expressly for Negroes (enslaved) and free people of color by the city of Richmond was the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground and was noted on the 1809 Plan of Richmond as the "Burial Ground for Negroes". A historic marker at 15th and E. Broad overlooks the area to the north where the burying ground once existed. In 1810 free Black Richmonders petitioned for a new site, and in 1816 the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground was closed and two new burying grounds were opened, The "Burying Ground for Free People of Colour", and the "Burying Ground for Negroes (Slaves)". Both plots consisted of one acre each and were located directly east of the Jew's Burying Ground (Hebrew Cemetery) on the opposite side of 5th St. at what is now Hospital St. It was established within the 28 1/2 acre city of Richmond Property on which the Poorhouse was located on Shockoe Hill. An extension of the original two acres was made before 1835, and again in 1850 that grew the burial ground to as many as 15 acres. It appears on the 1853 Smith Map of Henrico County by two names, the "Shockoe Hill Burying Ground" on the county portion of the map,