Many Find Meaning In Burial Ground

By Nick Pinto
POSTED NOVEMBER 2, 2007

Engraved on the black granite passageway in the newly opened African Burial Ground National Monument on Duane Street, east of Broadway, are these words: “For all those who were lost/For all those who were stolen/For all those who were left behind/For all those who were not forgotten.”

Kathleen Goodin, an elderly Manhattan resident of Jamaican descent, stood silently before the passageway, rereading those words. “I first came the day after it opened,” she finally said, “but I wanted to come back again. Every time I think about that statement I cry.”

The African Burial Ground, a memorial to the estimated 15,000 African Americans buried in Lower Manhattan between the late 1600s and the early 1800s, opened last month on a day packed with ceremony: dramatic readings, speeches and spirituals, drumming and a candlelight procession.

In the quieter days and weeks that followed, the monument has drawn visitors and school groups to learn about the city’s legacy of slavery and to celebrate its forebears, often neglected by historians. For many, it was a long awaited public acknowledgment of one of the ugliest chapters in the city’s history, and visitors showed a range of emotions, from grief and anger to pride and relief.

William and Laverne Floyd of the Bronx, visiting the memorial for the first time, said they were pleased to see a public acknowledgement of Africans’ early presence in the city.

“People don’t think of New York as a slave state, but it was,” Laverne Floyd said. “There was a major slave market here, and this was the area many of them lived in. People think black people’s history in New York started in Harlem, but it goes much further back.”

“This monument brings tears to my eyes,” said 70-year-old Billie Black, who came to the memorial on a quiet Saturday afternoon and spent most of her visit  in contemplation on a nearby bench. Near where she sat, seven low grassy mounds mark the tombs of the 419 bodies found at the site.

Black grew up in Virginia, the daughter of an illiterate tobacco sharecropper.

“It wasn’t slavery, what we lived in, but it was close,” Black said. “Sitting here looking at these burial mounds, that’s what really locks me in. These are actual graves. This is our history. This is what we have to remember.”

It is believed that 15,000 to 20,000 African Americans—both enslaved and freed—were buried between the late 17th and early 19th century in an expanse of 6.6 acres that stretched from the present day Broadway to Church Street between Chambers and Duane Streets.

The burial ground was outside the settlement of New Amsterdam; African Americans were not allowed to be buried within the city’s walls.

Examination of the recovered remains by Howard University archaeologists provided unsettling insights into the life of New York’s earliest African American residents. Many died young. Virtually all were malnourished. More than half of the remains recovered belonged to children under the age of 12.

The memorial is comprised of a dark narrow passageway, representing the Africans’ path to captivity, and a circular courtyard.

The wall of the courtyard is inscribed with traditional West African symbols and the paving stones are engraved with the ages and genders of some of the bodies found at the site.

Etched into the courtyard’s floor is a map of the world, showing the routes of the slave trade. In the center of West Africa, where most of the slaves began their bondage, is a libation hole into which visitors can pour water in symbolic tribute to those buried nearby.

Discovery of the burial ground in 1991, during foundation work for the Federal Building at 290 Broadway, sparked a furious debate over whether to proceed with construction or to further excavate the site. Escalating protests led to an agreement by local and federal officials to conduct a full archaeological exploration of the site. The building was ultimately redesigned to accommodate a memorial.

In addition to the memorial, there is a visitor center with educational displays and a classroom on the first floor of the Federal Building next door. The center is closed on weekends.

The monument is the vision of Manhattan architect Rodney Leon, who won the commission in a design competition.

“Our intention was to mark this as a sacred place,” Leon said at his presentation before the contest’s judges. “People in Lower Manhattan should no longer be able to walk past it without knowing the importance of the spot and the contribution that African Americans made to New York City.”

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