Professor Larson and a group of Honors Program students visited the African Burial Ground National Monument in Lower Manhattan. In 1991, during the construction of a federal office building at 290 Broadway, workers found remains of human beings buried at this site from 1626 through the late 1700s. City records revealed that the burial ground was closed in 1794, and the land was divided into lots for sale. Over the next two centuries, New York City’s growth concealed the graves. The burial ground was covered with layers of buildings and fill material, which actually protected the remains until rediscovery in 1991.
The rediscovery of the burial ground is recognized as one of the most important archeological finds of the 20th century. Construction was stopped and a national effort began to preserve the site and honor the contributions of New York’s first Africans who worked as enslaved laborers.
Enslaved male laborers brought skills from their homelands, now known as Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Madagascar, and worked alongside free people and European indentured servants to clear farmland, fill swampland, and build city improvements such as Broadway and The Wall. Enslaved African females worked in their owners’ homes, carrying large water vessels, cooking from raw ingredients over a fire, boiling water for laundry, and caring for their owners’ children. Enslaved children also labored alongside their parents.
For more information, please visit: http://www.africanburialground.gov/ABG_Main.htm
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