The cemetery is located on land currently owned by Interstate Polymer Group. The cemetery is behind the plant and is divided by a railroad spur, so it extends onto the right-of-way of the Norfolk Southern Railroad.

The cemetery was originally a slave cemetery on the grounds of a plantation owned by Confederate General Wade Hampton. After the Civil War, the property was purchased by the Childs Family and the cemetery was used by a pair of churches and several local black communities.

After the land was purchased for commercial use, the cemetery was not maintained. In 2009, Sonya Hodges began a project to reclaim Childs Cemetery, where her grandfather, a World War I veteran is buried. She documented that 12 WWI veterans are buried in the cemetery and requested that the Veterans Administration provide headstones for them. The VA has since provided six of the headstones, including one for her grandfather Sanco Thompson, Sr.