African American Burial Site

The African Burial Ground National Monument and Museum (NPS) is New York’s earliest known African American cemetery, which dates back to 1626. The burial ground was in-active use from 1626 to the late 1700s. The site contains the remains of 419 African American men, women and children in what was the largest colonial-era cemetery for free and enslaved Africans. The burial ground was closed in the 1790s, and was later divided into different sections to be put up for sale. The site was then covered with numerous layers of building developments until it was rediscovered in 1991. All other burial sites had already been destroyed over the years by the construction of other buildings. In 1993, the site was designated a National Historic Landmark

and it was declared a National Monument in 2006.
Prior to the excavation for the Ted Weiss Federal Building, researchers conducted a General Services Administration survey on the land at 290 Broadway. This showed records of an African Burial Ground beneath the site. Many believed that after 200+ years, no remains would be left. To the archeologists’ surprise in 1991, a large amount of untouched, preserved human remains that were protected by up to 25 feet of soil was uncovered. Nearly 40% of the people that were buried at this site were under the age of 15. Most of the children buried died before the age of two. This shows the rough conditions that the slaves had to endure during their lifetime.
The rediscovery of the burial ground highlighted the forgotten history of the African slaves in colonial New York City.

Thousands of Africans were forced to make the long journey across the Atlantic to provide unpaid labor. Slavery in New Amsterdam developed without clearly defined laws. Once the British took over in 1664, they expanded the slave trade. By the middle of the 1700s, New York’s African community made up 20% of the population. At that time, New York had the second-largest number of slaves in the nation after Charleston, South Carolina. Individuals who grew up in Africa and were later enslaved had healthier childhoods than those born into slavery in New York. Those who survived the voyage to North America had to routinely haul 80-100 pounds on a daily basis. This kind of grinding labor made enslaved Africans worn before their time. Once enslaved, malnutrition and disease were common. Death would typically come between 30 and 45 years, and women usually died at a younger age than men. European men and women at the time lived to an old age up to 10 times more often than

Africans.
The African Americans were banned from being buried within New York’s public cemeteries in 1697.

This prohibition prompted the African Americans to establish their own cemetery, marked on maps at the time as “Negros Burial Ground”. The burial ground was first recorded was being used around 1712. This burial ground was located on what was then the outskirts of New York City. The area was a part of a land grant to Cornelius van Borsum for his wife’s services as an interpreter for the city and the Native American tribes in the area. The land remained in van Borsum’s wife’s estate until the late 1790s and then the city divided up the land and put it up for sale. As time went on, the burial ground became lost in history until its rediscovery in 1991. It remains unknown exactly what had occurred in this site from its closing in the 1790s to its rediscovery prior to the development of the Ted Weiss Federal Building, aside from the division and sale of that

land.
What I found to be most interesting about the museum was learning about the effect that the unveiling of the burial site had on the African-American community all across the country. One year after the site was discovered in 1991, African-Americans held a 26 –hour vigil at the African Burial Ground to prove that after all the years that had passed, it was still an important spiritual site for the community. In 1993, candlelight ceremonies followed the remains from the burial ground to the laboratory at Howard University in Washington, DC for research. Ten years later in 2003, the remains of the 419 discovered at the burial site return back to the original site from Howard University with a six-day ceremonial journey. Thousands of members of the community gathered across the east coast in commemorative events in Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia and Jersey City, with a final public tribute in New York. Although none of the members of the community knew any of the individuals’ whose remains were excavated, they all felt that they needed to stand up and protect the 419 men, women and children.
There are many parts of history that has been lost in time. Although the African Burial Ground was forgotten about for over 200+ years, it does not mean that it is not a part of American history.