The African Burial Ground National Memorial: A Once Forgotten Cemetery Provides a View of Slavery’s Northern Legacy

Alan Spears 
September 26, 2006

Note: On September 20th, 2006 NPCA's Alan Spears attended a public planning meeting for the design of the interpretive center for African Burial Ground National Monument in New York City.

Although slavery is thought by many to have been a largely southern phenomenon, the “peculiar institution” was as integral a part of life in 18th century New York as it was in antebellum Richmond, Virginia or Charleston, South Carolina. When the Dutch established the settlement of New Amsterdam on the southern tip of the island of Manhattan, they brought with them dreams of colonial expansion, the desire for economic success, and a large number of enslaved Africans. The Dutch used slave labor to construct mills, tend crops, work the docks of the settlement’s busy port, build houses, and construct fortifications. Wall Street, arguably one of New York City’s most famous roads, takes its name from the river to river barricade enslaved Africans helped build to protect New Amsterdam from rival colonial powers and neighboring Indians.

When English forces expelled the Dutch in 1664, they expanded the use of slave labor. Nearly 7,000Africans were brought to “New York” between 1700 and 1774. Far from being ignorant field hands, the enslaved Africans and African Americans of New York City were often skilled laborers who had learned trades before their capture or upon their arrival in the Caribbean or North America. Their contributions as ship builders, masons, and carpenters helped literally to lay the foundations for New York’s emergence as one of North America’s premier cities.

Yet, as much as much as the Dutch and English relied upon enslaved Africans and a small but ever-increasing population of free blacks, for economic development and security, social conventions required that the races be separated in death. The African Burying Ground, located beyond the wall that marked the 17th and early 18th century boundary of European settlement on Manhattan, became the resting place for people of African descent. During the 19th century, however, a rapidly expanding New York City developed over the cemetery and the African Burying Ground quickly faded from memory.

That changed in 1991, when construction on a new Government Services Administration building at 290 Broadway unearthed skeletal remains. Archeological research revealed the bodies to be those of Africans who had lived, worked, and died in New York in the 17th and 18th centuries. A total of 419 bodies were eventually excavated from the construction site, which was first declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993, and then declared a national monument by President George Bush in February of 2006.

Close study of the human remains found at the site has provided a wealth of details about the lives of the men and women interred in the African Burial Ground. Beads, shells, and symbols carved into coffin lids point to the distinctly African heritage of many of those buried at the site. Buttons discovered in the coffin of a deceased black male suggest his connection to the Continental Army.

Skeletal analysis revealed that many of the deceased, including children, had engaged in strenuous, physically taxing labor. All of the bodies seem to have been buried with care and with a cultural specificity indicating that each set of remains was once a parent, child, friend, or relative whose life and death mattered to someone.

The African Burial Ground National Monument interpretive center is scheduled to open in 2008. Interpretation will inform visitors about who these people were, where they came from, how they handled the adjustments from being an African to being an enslaved African in America, and how they resisted enslavement (New York City witnessed large slave revolts in 1712 and 1741). The National Park Service will begin providing visitor services and interpretive tours of the site in November 2006. The African Burial Ground National Monument is located adjacent to the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway in lower Manhattan, between Duane and Reade Streets.

For more information about the African Burial Ground please visit www.africanburialground.gov.

National Parks Magazine: "History Unearthed"

If You Go: The interpretive center will open to the public in 2008, however in the meantime, the National Park Service will begin providing visitor services and interpretive tours of the site in November 2006.

Calendar Notes:

October 12-13, 2006 from 6 to 9pm
The Park Service will host an African Burial Ground film forum at 290 Broadway. Please call 212/637-2019 for more information

October 26, 2006 from 6 to 9pm
The Park Service will host a volunteer meeting featuring an African Burial Ground archeology update provided by Superintendent Tara Morrison. Please call 212/637-2019 for more information.