Fredericksburg City Council has said that the team behind the museum plans has until the end of the year to pay the tax bill, or it may sell the land.

The team, headed by former governor Doug Wilder, has been making slow progress and many are calling for the project to be moved to a different site.

The Virginian Pilot has published an opinion piece demanding that the museum be built at Fort Monroe, saying: “It is the site of the landing of the first slave ship in the British colonies. It is where three slaves - Frank Baker, Sheppard Mallory and James Townsend - sought refuge early in the Civil War, prompting the fort's Union commander to declare them contraband of war and refuse to return them.”

So far, the “museum” just consists of a memorial garden, which opened in 2007 but has since been neglected.