The African Burial Ground was home to the graves of African
New Yorkers during the years between 1600 and 1796.
- Served as a place for Africans to bury and perform rituals for their deceased loved ones since Church cemeteries did not allow the burial of Africans
- Representation of African repression and treatment during the colonial era
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Site of African executions during the 1712 slave
rebellion and 1741 slave conspiracy
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“Doctor’s Riot” – an expression against medical
students who stole corpses from the burial grounds and used them for education
dissections
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Laws were passed to put into place strict
regulations for African funeral rituals
- 419 corpses have been unveiled but as many as 20,000 Africans are left to be discovered under the foundations of Lower Manhattan
It is very interesting that medical students would steal corpses from the burial grounds for medical research. This clearly depicts the amount of disrespect the african people endured and were presented with during that time.
ReplyDeleteYes, it definitely shows a lack of respect -- and according to the link below, the students from Columbia were located close to the African burial ground, so it was also a matter of convenience. A pretty ghoulish topic, eh?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1788_Doctors'_Riot
I feel like these burial grounds really speak to how much our country has progressed. 300 years ago African-Americans were being treated terribly and unfairly. I bet know one back then would have thought that 300 years later we would be honoring them long after their deaths with a special area like this.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing how a city so beautiful and diverse could have such a dark past. NYC city was literally built off the corpses of the dead slaves who did the manual labor. 20,000 Africans have yet to even be discovered, and many who were buried were less than two years old. Just a really sad testament to the pass, hopefully we can brighten with the future.
ReplyDeleteWhat year did New York City expand its boundaries to include the burial ground as part of Manhattan? Also when the burial ground became part of New York City, was there any controversy wether or not they would allow to to be part of the City?
ReplyDeleteI find it very moving that there is a dedication site to honor the many deaths of African Americans. As a part of honoring the many deaths, many African American "perform rituals." Did majority of the African Americans follow a religion or form a spiritual community? If many did follow a religion, which religion did most of them follow? How did that religion connect the community of Africans?
ReplyDeleteBecause slaves came from such a wide variety of places in Africa and the Caribbean, there were many different faiths, as the symbols at the memorial were meant to represent ...we will be reaing about the rise of free black churches after the war, and so many former slaves joined these churches, including the African Methodist Church.
DeleteAfter doing my own research on the memorial aspect of the African Burial grounds I found it worrisome that there are still more skeletons that we haven't discovered. Although we have already payed respect to them it seems to be an incomplete job. Recently they found another burial grounds in the Bronx, which shows us that this wasn't just one isolated area. Talking about the cruel treatment the Africans got this shows us how widespread the problem was. Like Jack said I think its amazing how much our city has grown so that 300 years later we can respect the Africans for what they went through, and dedicate a memorial to them.
ReplyDelete