African American Burial Site

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 the late 1700s. 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

Thousands of Africans were forced to make the long journey across the Atlantic to provide unpaid labor. Slavery in New Amsterdam developed without clearly defined laws. Once the British took over in 1664, they expanded the slave trade. By the middle of the 1700s, New York’s African community made up 20% of the population. At that time, New York had the second-largest number of slaves in the nation after Charleston, South Carolina. Individuals who grew up in Africa and were later enslaved had healthier childhoods than those born into slavery in New York. Those who survived the voyage to North America had to routinely haul 80-100 pounds on a daily basis. This kind of grinding labor made enslaved Africans worn before their time. Once enslaved, malnutrition and disease were common. Death would typically come between 30 and 45 years, and women usually died at a younger age than men. European men and women at the time lived to an old age up to 10 times more often than

This prohibition prompted the African Americans to establish their own cemetery, marked on maps at the time as “Negros Burial Ground”. The burial ground was first recorded was being used around 1712. This burial ground was located on what was then the outskirts of New York City. The area was a part of a land grant to Cornelius van Borsum for his wife’s services as an interpreter for the city and the Native American tribes in the area. The land remained in van Borsum’s wife’s estate until the late 1790s and then the city divided up the land and put it up for sale. As time went on, the burial ground became lost in history until its rediscovery in 1991. It remains unknown exactly what had occurred in this site from its closing in the 1790s to its rediscovery prior to the development of the Ted Weiss Federal Building, aside from the division and sale of that