African Burial Ground

You are standing on a place New York forgot for nearly two hundred years. From the late 17th century until 1794, this ground, then on the outskirts of town, was where Africans, enslaved and free, were buried, since they were barred from the church cemeteries. Maps of the period label it the «Negros Burial Ground».

1A city built with enslaved labor

It is easy to forget that colonial New York depended on slave labor. For much of the 18th century, close to one in five people in the city was enslaved. The burial ground eventually covered about 6.6 acres, and historians estimate that between 10,000 and 20,000 people were buried here. Later it was filled in, divided into lots and built over.

2The 1991 discovery

In 1991, while digging for a new federal building at 290 Broadway, workers found intact burials. The remains of 419 people were excavated. A Howard University team led by the anthropologist Michael Blakey studied them for years: the bones showed grueling labor from childhood.

In 2003 the remains were returned to the earth in wooden coffins carved in Ghana.

In 2006 the site was declared a national monument. The memorial you see, designed by Rodney Léon, was dedicated in 2007.

3What to look for

• The Ancestral Chamber, in dark granite, with the heart-shaped Sankofa symbol, which invites us to look to the past.
• The Circle of the Diaspora, with a map of the Atlantic and West African symbols.
• The seven grassy mounds where the remains lie.