The African Burial Ground located in the Lower Manhattan section of New York City is a National Monument dedicated to the thousands of African slaves who were forcibly taken from their native homelands into a life of servitude by Europeans. These slaves were brought to New York before it became the great city that is now today and forced to work to build it into a stable colony without any compensation. Approximately 15,000 are estimated to be buried within the burial ground. The remains of men, women and children of all ages were found at the site and their remains provide further proof of the cruel and violent injustices slaves had to face at the hands of their slavers.
For years the burial ground was a forgotten part of American history until it was rediscovered in 1991. The site was then designated as historical landmark and later a national
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One large coffin capable of fitting an adult and a smaller coffin presumably of a young child. The significance of the inclusion of a child’s coffin is an example of how slave life was hard on everyone, including the children of slaves who were slaves themselves. This is made further evident by the nearby wall containing photographs of the remains found at the site with the age and gender listed below each. I found this the wall of photographs to be particularly haunting not only because of the graphic imagery, but because it illustrates how young many of the bodies were. It is estimated that nearly forty percent of the bodies excavated at the burial ground were under the age of 15, with infants under age 2 possessing the highest mortality rate. Malnutrition and disease are considered to be the cause of the majority of deaths of slaves as a result of the poor and harsh conditions slaves had to live
Whitney Battle-Baptiste, the author of Black Feminist Archaeology creates the framework of this book because as a Black woman who is interested in race, gender, and cultural views, believes that too often in mainstream archaeological theory, Black culture and the experiences of Black women and our families are overlooked and dismissed. Dr. Baptiste states her explanation on how joining Black Feminist Theory and archaeology in her projects provides a way to open a discussion between archaeologists, which is her intent. It also shows that “when archaeologists critically engage with a dialogue about the intersectionality of race and gender, we begin to see the deeper forms of oppression and how they affect the lives of marginalized populations.”.
According to a chart on slavery and cotton production in America, cotton and slavery are directly proportional (Doc B). For example, in 1840 the number of slaves in America was 25,00000 slaves, while the number of bales was 125,0000 bales. Another economic reason that made slavery a dominating reality of Southern life in the antebellum period was slave auctions. On the auction block, families were often sundered, due to economic reasons. These economic reasons included insolvency or the segregation of “property” among successors. The separation of families was one of slavery’s biggest psychological nightmares. The poster from 1823 promoted a slave auction (Doc A). The point of view of the poster is in favor of slavery. In this poster, the slaves are described in terms of their capability to do tasks. Slaves would be inspected like an animal by potential buyers. Potential buyers would have slaves open their mouths, and would also prod them with sticks. The younger and healthier the slave was, the more expensive he/she
The killings made by the slaves are saddening, too. Mutilating the whites and leaving their bodies lying is inhumane. It is such a shocking story. This book was meant to teach the reader on the inhumanity of slavery. It also gives us the image of what happened during the past years when slavery was practised.
Although the !Kung San of southern Africa differ greatly from the people in the west African nation of Mali, both areas share similar problems. Both suffer from diseases, illnesses, malnutrition, and having to adapt to the ever changing and advancing cultures around them. What I found to be the most significant problem that is shared between both areas is that the people suffered from a lack of education. In the book Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine A. Dettwyler, there is a lack of education in proper nutritional practices, taking care of children and newborns, and basic medical knowledge and practices. The Dobe Ju/’hoansi have recently started putting in schools to help children receive an education to help them have better success with the surrounding peoples and culture, but there is a lack of attendance in these schools. There are also many education issues in proper sexual practices that would help stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, in a place in the world were theses illnesses are at surprisingly high levels.
When reading about the institution of slavery in the United States, it is easy to focus on life for the slaves on the plantations—the places where the millions of people purchased to serve as slaves in the United States lived, made families, and eventually died. Most of the information we seek is about what daily life was like for these people, and what went “wrong” in our country’s collective psyche that allowed us to normalize the practice of keeping human beings as property, no more or less valuable than the machines in the factories which bolstered industrialized economies at the time. Many of us want to find information that assuages our own personal feelings of discomfort or even guilt over the practice which kept Southern life moving
conditions aboard ship were dreadful. The maximum number of slaves was jammed into the hull, chained to forestall revolts or suicides by drowning. Food, ventilation, light, and sanitatio...
I recently visited the American History museum and came upon the most interesting artifact in the Lighting a Revolution section within the Transportation and Technology wing of the museum. This artifact is an advertisement from Charleston, South Carolina in 1769 about the selling of “a choice cargo” of two hundred and fifty slaves.
Thought to contain a hundred years of one of the races of people that helped build and shape America as we know it. Being overlooked for centuries. IN 2003 Bush signed a law creating the African American history museum. It was one of the most educational and invigorating experiences of my life. Not many The museum is not only enlighten but enriching by capturing African American history in its entirety.
Mortality rates among inner city African Americans have a detrimental increase depending on the quality of life from the adolescent stages of growth. African Americans historically have had the highest mortality rates among American racial and ethnic groups.1 The living conditions associated with inner-cities may be a contributing factor along with limited medical facilities and care options along with the lack of education and childhood socioeconomic family disadvantages. Studies have shown these early risk factors may be a major contributor to mortality rates in African American adults later on. Further studies show there are cultural barriers built in the inner city, which hinders the request for help or asking for help within their community.
Harris, Leslie M. “In The Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. New York: University of Chicago Press, 2003. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.html
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 1794. The African Burial Ground was the setting for thousands of funerals during the time period. The families that would lay their loved ones to rest would do so with dignity and respect in a ceremony that was rich in traditions. These ceremonies would weave together traditions from their African homeland and new Christian traditions. 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.
In From Slavery to Freedom (2007), it was said that “the transition from slavery to freedom represents one of the major themes in the history of African Diaspora in the Americas” (para. 1). African American history plays an important role in American history not only because the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage of Afro-Americans struggling to live a good life in America. Afro-Americans have been present in this country since the early 1600’s, and have been making history since. We as Americans have studied American history all throughout school, and took one Month out of the year to studied African American history. Of course we learn some things about the important people and events in African American history, but some of the most important things remain untold which will take more than a month to learn about.
Rome, Georgia is a beautiful area and embodies a rich portion of Georgia’s history. Hargrove, Mitchell, and Lumpkin, some of the founders of Rome, are buried in the area. Mitchell was the founder who suggested the naming the fledgling town after the great city of Rome. The small town mirrored the great city with the seven hills and the great river running through it. A marker is found at the Myrtle Hill Cemetery, but no record of his funeral or burial can be found; without exhuming the grave, no one will ever no with certainty whether it is honoring him as a founder or his actual grave. Lumpkin, another founder, is buried at the original city cemetery, Oak Hill Cemetery.
I chose this research question because I found it strange that on the Voyage on the Alligator 38 slave children died and no slave adults. I found this information to really catch my attention. Some questions came to me while I was going over this data base, why would only children mortality occur during this journey?
The study of metallurgy in Africa has been dominated by a concern with origins and antiquity. Some Anthropologists believe that African metallurgy was an early, independent invention, while others believe that it was an innovation, which came relatively late, and was a product of diffusion. With these two hypotheses as our only reference points, we are limited in our knowledge of metallurgy as well as its role in the lives of African people. Anthropologists often find themselves in the predicament of being presented with a small number of precedent theories, which shape and direct further studies.