The New York African Burial Ground

The unearthing of the “Negroes Burying Ground” in New York City in 1991 challenged the narrow, popular perception of slavery as an antebellum, southern-based, agrarian institution. It revealed to the public what historians had long recognized—that slavery could be found throughout America, in every period of its history before 1865, and in its varying economies. Although differing from one location to another, its characteristics everywhere operated to dehumanize the people caught in its grip.

Rediscovered in preparation for the General Services Administration’s construction of a new federal office building in Lower Manhattan, the African Burial Ground, as it is officially known today, was first mentioned in extant records in 1712. However, circumstances suggest that it might have been in existence much earlier, possibly in the mid-seventeenth century, while the city called New Amsterdam was still under Dutch rule. During that period, a community comprised of “half free” Africans had been established near what would become the primary cemetery for Black people. Alternative space was limited at that time, and the residents likely appropriated the site to meet their needs. Until the last decade of the seventeenth century, Africans also had been known to use the public cemetery adjacent to Trinity Church. In 1697, however, the church gained ownership of the land and promptly banned Africans from burying their dead there.

When it was first established, the African Burial Ground lay beyond the city wall. Its location in a ravine that over time would be graded and leveled by landfill, protected it from street and building construction. As a result, the burials remained remarkably preserved after it officially closed in 1794.

Archaeologists excavated only a small portion of the site, but they estimate that the area extended over six acres and was the final resting place of as many as 10,000 to 15,000 New Yorkers, nearly all of whom were enslaved and free Africans and African Americans. The cemetery’s size and capacity reflect the steady growth of the Black population, which by 1800 comprised roughly 20 percent of the city’s residents and made colonial New York the urban center with the largest concentration of enslaved laborers after Charleston, South Carolina.

Over the course of the cemetery’s existence, African and African-descended people put their loved ones to rest according to their own customs. Documentary evidence suggests that burials were carried out with rituals that were unfamiliar and unsettling to the local White population. In response to concerns about rebellion and work productivity, the municipal government enacted laws to control burial practices, such as limiting the number of persons who could attend funerals and preventing them from being held during daytime hours. And as a final assault on their humanity, the Black population witnessed the desecration of their sacred space by medical students who robbed graves in their desire to acquire cadavers for dissection. The site also became a dumping ground for industrial waste during the eighteenth century.

As one of the oldest and largest archaeological sites of its kind in North America, the African Burial Ground’s rediscovery created a great deal of excitement among scientists and other scholars. But it also generated controversy over the handling of sacred space and human remains and the role of civic engagement in scientific projects. Local Black residents, who considered themselves the descendant community, demanded that they have a voice in who would study the excavated remains and how their ancestors would be memorialized. Community activists and political leaders insisted on congressional hearings regarding the matter since a federal agency was overseeing excavation and construction at the site. With the concurrence of the local community, the General Services Administration transferred the remains to Howard University in Washington, DC, for study. The interdisciplinary team assembled by Howard was national in scope and included, among others, archaeologists, skeletal biologists, historians, and geneticists. The team leadership understood the importance of public engagement and forged a partnership with the local community that ensured Black New Yorkers would be kept informed of the direction of the study and would be given an opportunity to voice their concerns as the project progressed.

The African Burial Ground proved to be a rich source of information on mortuary practices of the time. In addition, it provided the researchers with evidence of the many challenges African New Yorkers faced in the colonial period, including nutritional deficiencies, diseases, injuries caused by accidents, and harm inflicted through violence. Skeletal remains and roughly 500 artifacts were removed from more than 400 burial sites and studied. During their examinations, the scientists discovered stress markers on the bones of both men and women that signified hard, repetitive work. Documentary evidence collected by historians confirmed that labor in New York (including the loading and unloading of cargo from the many ships that entered the port, the carting of goods from the docks to the warehouses, the construction of buildings, and women’s daily domestic chores) could be very damaging to the body because of heavy lifting over long periods of time. The scientists studied the teeth to ascertain exposure to pollutants and the characteristics and adequacy of diet. Broken and singed bones in otherwise normal burials suggested either accidental or intentional injuries.

Violence in colonial New York was ubiquitous; hence, it was hardly surprising to find remains with its imprint. But one discovery was especially notable for its brutality. It was the case of a young woman who had been shot in the chest; the musket ball still rested against her ribs. A wrist fracture consistent with a violent twisting motion, had just begun to heal, and the bones in her face were broken as if she had been hit by blunt force.

The African Burial Ground also revealed cultural practices that hinted at African origins. Dental modifications, a practice indigenous to certain African ethnic groups, included teeth filed in the shape of an hourglass or into points or chipped into other patterns. Beads, including strands worn around the waist; cowrie shells; crystals; and buttons made from bone, metal, and glass, revealed the importance and utility of simple personal possessions, and in some instances, an African connection. In one burial, a man’s otherwise plain coffin was adorned with a heart made from brass tacks. While possibly connected to European traditions, it just as easily could represent the West African Akan symbol for the word Sankofa, which means “to reclaim” or “to retrieve.”

Items of adornment revealed much about the humanity that was on display in the burial ground. Particularly poignant was a burial that held the remains of a young child who wore around his neck a pendant to which was attached a silver earring. That the family would choose to bury a valuable piece of jewelry with the child attests to the loving care with which they laid him to rest.

Childhood deaths were common; nearly 40 percent of the burial ground population consisted of children under the age of twelve. Their high mortality rate reflects the special vulnerabilities in New York because of climate and living conditions. But it also speaks to practices of children laboring at tasks that were beyond their abilities and wholly inappropriate for their age.

The African Burial Ground has received widespread attention, both nationally and internationally, because of the interdisciplinary approach of its researchers, the commitment to community engagement, and its contributions to broadening the narrative of the slavery experience in America. Its significance has earned it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places and designation as a National Historic Landmark. A Visitor Center is housed at 290 Broadway that provides a history of the burial ground and introduces the public to the research team’s findings.

In October 2003, the remains that had been unearthed were reinterred at the site. Today, a memorial stands in honor of those enslaved and free Black people who played a pivotal role in New York’s history. The burial ground itself provides evidence of their resolve to honor their dead as cherished human beings even as law and custom conspired to strip them of their humanity.

Edna Greene Medford, Professor of History and Associate Provost, Howard University, is the director for history of New York’s African Burial Ground Project, and the editor of Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground: New York Blacks and the Diaspora (Howard University Press, 2009). Her other books include Lincoln and Emancipation (Southern Illinois University Press, 2015) and The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views, co-edited with Harold Holzer and Frank J. Williams (Louisiana State University Press, 2006).