18th Century New YorkAfrican Burial Ground

African Burial Ground Burial # 6

Plan view of burial sites at the New York African Burial Ground showing the location of

excavated burials (419)

Research questions: culture & power, not race(see Perry and Blakey pp. 49-50)

• What are the cultural and geographical roots of the individuals interred in the African Burial Ground?

• What biological characteristics and cultural traditions remained unchanged and which were transformed during the creation of African American society and culture?

• What was the physical quality of life for Africans enslaved in New York City during the colonial period and how was it different from the quality of life in their African homeland?

• What were the modes of resistance and how were they creatively reconfigured and used to resist oppression and to forge a new African American culture?

Cluster Diagram based on concentrations of

trace elements found in teeth and other sources

suggests many adults were African born while children were American

Strontium isotopes

Burial 101

Burial 340 waist beads

Detail of Southeast section of the New York African Burial Ground showing the location of

excavated burials

371

377

375

383

365

335 & 356

340

Burial 375

African Labor

Promotional Illustration for New Amsterdam, 1623

Skeletal Traumas

• Dental enamel hypoplasia

•High Lead levels

• Hypertrophy/ Enthesopathies

• Lipping (sexed)

Burial 25: gunshot trauma

Burial 323: Autopsy Victim

1788 Doctor’s RiotsUsually, the students had contented themselves with ripping open the graves of

strangers and negroes, about whom there was little feeling; but this winter they dug up respectable people, even young women, of whom they made an indecent exposure.

Plan view of burial sites at the New York African Burial Ground showing the location of

excavated burials in color

African Burial Ground Research and Recommendation Reports

http://www.africanburialground.gov/ABG_FinalReports.htm

Changes in the burial of Africans in Early New York

‘That after the Expiration of four weeks from the dates hereof no Negroes be buried within the bounds & Limits of the Church Yard of Trinity Church, that is to say, in the rear of the present burying place & that no person or Negro whatsoever, do presume after the terme above Limited to break up any ground for the burying of his Negro, as they will answer it at their perill’

Trinity Church Vestry Minutes, October 25, 1697 (cited in Perry et al 2006:42)

St. Paul’s colonial cemetery in modern New York City

Plan view of burial sites at the New York African Burial Ground

Common burial position at African Burial Ground

Copper alloy straight pins

replicas