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October 4
The African Burial Ground is a 5- or 6-acre cemetery that was used between the late 1600s and 1796, and originally contained between 10,000 and 20,000 burials. The discovery of the African Burial Ground occurred in June 1961. Earlier that month, construction workers began to dig the foundation for a new $300 million federal government building in lower Manhattan. It all stopped when they dug into a burial ground, where they found wooden coffins and human remains. Investigators discovered that this was a colonial burial ground used to bury Africans who were not permitted to be buried in church cemeteries, even if they had converted to Christianity. Although these African people had been treated harshly in colonial America, the 427 remains, which were finally recovered from the site more than 200 years later, were buried with great care and love on this date. They were wrapped in linen shrouds and methodically positioned in well-built cedar or pine coffins, sometimes with beads or other treasured objects, occasionally with ornamentation on the coffin. The African Burial Ground is a reminder of the contribution of African people, both slave and free, to the building of New York City. Many Americans were not aware that New York was a slave state in the early days of the nation. New York had the largest number of enslaved people in North America except for Charleston during the 18th century. It is estimated that Africans made up between 14-20 percent of New Yorkers during those days. The two-day event of the Rites of Ancestral Return commemorative ceremony began with a Departure Ceremony at Howard University. They were then celebrated as contributors of African Americans as their ancestral remains from the African Burial Ground were returned from Washington, D.C., to New York City. Dr. Kofi Asare Opoku, a religious scholar from Ghana, poured a libation of water from a small gold bowl onto the ground and prayed in his native tongue. The remains were given a permanent resting-place at the African Burial Ground Memorial Site. Reference: The Associated Press permissions 450 W. 33rd St., New York, NY 10001. American Legacy The Magazine of African-American History & Culture New York, N.Y. 10010 The African Burial Ground
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The African American Registry®, The African American Registry® Copyright 2005, 2006
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