The Archaeology of African Burial Ground National Monument, New York City, NY

References cited in the draft recommendations.

Chapter 1 of the draft report: Through the survival of the African Burial Ground in the heart of New York City, the past reaches across time to teach the present. The lives of those interred “outside the wall” of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New York City remind the living of the ever present struggles for human freedom and dignity. Examination of the human remains reveals how resolutely the burial ground occupants resisted injustice, even when faced with the inhumanity of forced...

Chapter 2 of the draft recommendations: The African Burial Ground is a deeply buried archeological site in Lower Manhattan, New York City, the remains of a cemetery used for free and enslaved Africans primarily during the eighteenth century. The site covers approximately seven acres bounded by Duane Street on the north, Chambers Street on the south, Centre and Lafayette Streets on the east and Broadway to the west. It is located in Block Numbers 153, 154 and 155 in the Borough of Manhattan in...

Chapter 3 of the draft recommendations: Effective public participation was required to accomplish the tasks assigned to the National Park Service by the interagency agreement between the GSA and the NPS.

Chapter 4 of the draft recommendation: This chapter serves as the foundation for those that follow. It includes a suggested mission statement for use by the managers of the site, the reasons for the African Burial Ground’s national significance, the basic elements and values of the site, suggested primary interpretive themes, and other factors that influence planning and operations. These underlying elements, as a whole, are suggested as the touchstone for future management policies and...

Chapter 5 of the draft recommendations: his chapter sets forth suggested mission goals (those goals to be achieved by managers) for the African Burial Ground. Mission goals broadly articulate the ideals the manager will strive to attain at the burial ground. They are expressed as the desired conditions for resources, visitor experience, facilities and visitor use, and partnerships. Mission goals and the methods for achieving them will shape the look and feel of the site and the way it will...

Chapter 6 of the draft recommendations: This chapter examines alternative futures for the African Burial Ground. It describes four possible management scenarios, along with facilities and staffing requirements. Expanded programming from that currently offered is assumed in all alternatives, and estimated costs are discussed for each. Costs include facilities and associated staffing, and are expressed in 2005 dollars. The NPS technical assistance team conducted a charrette with architects,...

Chapter 7 of the draft recommendations: A long-range interpretive planis a framework for an effective interpretive program. It identifies appropriate services and desired experiences for audiences, and it addresses management challenges.

First two pages of the management recommendations report.

Front pages plus table of contents for the draft recommendations report.

This illustration is a large map of the project area (Figure 1.7). It displays the excavated area and feature outlines.

This report is one of three disciplinary reports on the African Burial Ground Project. One report focuses on the skeletal biological analysis of the remains recovered from the site (Blakey and Rankin Hill 2004). A second report focuses on the documentary history, from a Diasporic perspective, of Africans who lived and died in early New York (Medford 2004). The present report, consisting of four volumes, presents the archaeological research on the African Burial Ground. General background on the...

Coffin remains (wood and hardware) were by far the most ubiquitous artifacts recovered from graves at the African Burial Ground. In this chapter we report on the distribution of coffins among demographic and temporal groups and examine the historical context for coffin use. We then provide descriptive information on the shapes, sizes, material, construction, and decoration of coffins represented at the excavated cemetery. Finally, we describe the material remains that were recovered from...

It is our assumption that for those interred at the African Burial Ground preparation of the body included some form of covering, whether winding sheet, shroud, or clothing. Where remnants of such dressing has not survived, we cannot know how the body was treated, though it seems most likely these cases had cloth that had been wound about the corpse or sewn or tied shut. Due to preservation conditions, textile and fiber fragments recovered from graves at the African Burial Ground were only found...

This chapter discusses the evidence for clothing supplied by the buttons, cuff links, and aglets associated with the deceased. It begins with an overview of the burials from which these items were recovered. It then focuses on what black New Yorkers wore during the 18th century, and how clothing and buttons were acquired. The assemblage is then described. Information is provided about recovery, condition and treatment, chain of custody, and findings about manufacture, origin, and age. A synopsis...

In this chapter we take the measure of the beads and other personal adornment recovered in association with skeletal remains. We begin with a profile of the burials with adornment, and then consider where and how the items were acquired. Each of the assemblages inventoried in the chapter—beads, cowries, rings and other jewelry—is then described in detail. Information is provided about recovery, condition and treatment, chain of custody, methods of analysis, and where relevant, descriptive...

This chapter describes an array of items—coins, shells, pipes, nails and tacks, crystals, unique objects, botanical remains—that do not fit neatly into artifact assemblages organized around function and use, or material, manufacture, and age. The first part of the chapter provides a profile of the burials with these items. The items are described in detail in 14.B. Information is provided about recovery, condition and treatment, chain of custody, methods of analysis, and where relevant,...

The African Burial Ground, located in lower Manhattan, New York City and County, proved to be the largest excavated African cemetery from colonial America, and contained the largest sample of human skeletal remains ever studied from any African Diaspora cemetery, anywhere. The total number of graves identified in the excavated portion of the cemetery was 424, and the total number of individuals for whom skeletal remains could be inventoried numbered 419.

This chapter presents an overview of the African Burial Ground from two complementary points of view. Part one examines documentary evidence about the origin of the cemetery and the development of its immediate surrounds. It covers the mid 1600s to 1795, and includes a chronology of property transactions, petitions, surveys, ordinances, and key events directly relevant to the cemetery’s use. Maps of New Amsterdam/New York are reproduced in this chapter.

This chapter focuses on the archaeological site as such. We discuss the original landscape in the vicinity of the historic African Burial Ground, and then turn to the 1991-92 excavation site, which was a much smaller area, and show its location superimposed on historic maps. We look at physical impacts to the African Burial Ground that occurred during the active life of the cemetery, and then summarize the development of the site over the two hundred years between the closing of the cemetery and...

This chapter describes the rationale and methodology for dividing the burial population into temporal groupings. It is emphasized that the chronological sequence developed here is a relative one, the dates assigned to each grouping approximate. Burials are assigned to broad temporal groups on the basis of 1) location and stratigraphy relative to non-burial features at the site; 2) artifacts found in direct association with the deceased or in the grave fill; 3) coffin type; and 4) stratigraphic...

This chapter presents an overview of the archaeological evidence for population, burial practices, and spatial arrangements at the African Burial Ground. After providing a demographic profile of the population whose graves were disinterred, we turn to the overall evidence for burial practices, viewing the evidence from the site as the physical signature of the repeated performance of funerary ritual. Seven material aspects of mortuary practice are examined: coffins, grave orientation, body...

Burials are assigned to the Early Group on the basis of coffin type, relationship to site features, and stratigraphy (see Chapter 4; problematic assignments are noted below). Burials placed in this group appear to pre-date the use of the eastern part of the cemetery by nearby pottery factories, in place circa 1730, for dumping of kiln waste. Absolute dating is not possible, however. For convenience, we give the Early Group a hypothetical end date of 1735. A sketch of the town and its population...

Most burials in the archaeologically excavated portion of the African Burial Ground are placed in the main or Middle Group, by default, because they were not clearly assignable to earlier or later cohorts. Yet even though the temporal groupings are relative rather than absolute, it is likely that burials assigned to the Middle Group were indeed interred during the middle decades of the 18th century. For convenience, we describe the period of New York’s history from approximately 1735 to 1760,...

The Late-Middle Group comprises burials that have been distinguished from the main group because of stratigraphic relationships or because artifacts found with them are datable to the final third of the 18th century. It is possible that there is some overlap between the Late Middle and the Late Group, defined as post-1776. Nevertheless, in order to keep those burials that are most securely assignable to the later period (see Chapter 9) analytically distinct, we have separated out a Late Middle...

The Late-Middle Group comprises burials that have been distinguished from the main group because of stratigraphic relationships or because artifacts found with them are datable to the final third of the 18th century. It is possible that there is some overlap between the Late Middle and the Late Group, defined as post-1776. Nevertheless, in order to keep those burials that are most securely assignable to the later period (see Chapter 9) analytically distinct, we have separated out a Late Middle...

Late Group assignments are based on the dating of artifacts from grave shafts, on stratigraphic relationships, and, most importantly, on burial location, as discussed in Chapter 4. Reasons to place this group in the period from 1776 to the close of the cemetery include the destruction of the fence marking the cemetery’s north edge and likely usurpation of Rutgers property during the British occupation; and northward pressure caused by military uses of the ground to the south (for a fuller...

Front pages associated with the report.

Bibliography from Volume I of the New York African Burial Ground Archaeology Final Report.

Descriptions, drawings, and some photographs of Burials 1 through 50.

Descriptions, drawings, and some photographs of burials 101 through 150.

Descriptions, drawings, and some photographs of burials 151 through 200.

Descriptions, drawings, and some photographs of burials 51 through 100.

Descriptions, drawings, and some photographs of burials 201 through 250.

Descriptions, drawings, and some photographs of burials 251 through 300.

Descriptions, drawings, 6and some photographs of burials 301 through 350.

Descriptions, drawings, and some photographs of burials 351 through 400.

Descriptions, drawings, 6and some photographs of burials 401 through 435.

A.1. Memoranda of Agreement regarding the African Burial Ground A.2. National Historic Landmark Nomination for the African Burial Ground

Table of site datum points.

Table of basic burial data.

Blank copies of the site excavation forms.

Tables with non-skeletal material from graves. E.1. Inventory of Artifacts Catalog # -B Artifacts in direct association with skeletal remains Catalog # -CH[A, B, etc], -CW[A, B, etc.], -CL Coffin material, including hardware (H) and wood (W), and items from coffin lids Catalog # -GF Items from grave shaft fill Catalog # -SA[H, L], -SB, etc. Material recovered from soil samples, including heavy (H) and light (L) fractions E.2. Inventory of Shell and Coral E.3. Inventory of Seeds...

Ceramic analysis report from the burial excavations.

G.1. MACRO-BOTANICAL, PALYNOLOGY, AND PARASITOLOGY PILOT STUDY (New South Associates) G.2. POLLEN ANALYSIS (Gerald K. Kelso, Patricia Fall, and Lisa Lavold-Foote) G.3. MACRO-PLANT ANALYSIS (Leslie E. Raymer) G.4. HCI FLOTATION SUMMARY (William Sandy)

The database is in Microsoft Access, file name “Alldata.” The structure is very simple. In general, the tables can be easily joined by matching the Burial number (the “FEAT” field in most tables), or the Catalog number, when creating queries or reports. Fields are not coded. Lists of values for an individual field can be obtained by running a query selecting the field or by sorting the table by the field.

Figures related to the stratigraphy of related burials.

J.1. COFFIN SIZE DATA J.2. COFFIN NAIL COUNTS

Front pages for Volume 4, including cover and table of contents.

The unearthing of the colonial cemetery known historically as the “Negroes Burying Ground” in Lower Manhattan in 1991 has given both scholars and the general public the opportunity to study and comprehend the broad dimensions of the African-American experience. The African Burial Ground and the remains contained within it provide a unique vantage point from which to view New York City’s Africans and their descendants over two centuries. As the final resting place for thousands of enslaved and...

Title page, table of contents, acknowledgments, and introduction of the history final report.

History report related to the archaeological work at the New York African Burial Ground. The unearthing of the colonial cemetery known historically as the “Negroes Burying Ground” in Lower Manhattan in 1991 has given both scholars and the general public the opportunity to study and comprehend the broad dimensions of the African- American experience. The African Burial Ground and the remains contained within it provide a unique vantage point from which to view New York City’s Africans and their...

The unearthing of the colonial cemetery known historically as the “Negroes Burying Ground” in Lower Manhattan in 1991 has given both scholars and the general public the opportunity to study and comprehend the broad dimensions of the African- American experience. The African Burial Ground and the remains contained within it provide a unique vantage point from which to view New York City’s Africans and their descendants over two centuries. As the final resting place for thousands of enslaved and...

Bibliography for the skeletal biology report.

The New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) was “rediscovered” in 1989 in the process of preparation for the construction of a proposed 34-story Federal office building by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) at 290 Broadway in New York City (Ingle et al. 1990). The site for the proposed building was once part of the African Burial Ground (ABG) that extended “from Chambers Street on the south to Duane Street on the north and from Centre Street on the east to Broadway on the west”...

The present chapter investigates the prevalence of infectious diseases and nutritional inadequacies in the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) sample, as represented in bone. A broad range of skeletal indicators of pathology was assessed in the Cobb Laboratory. Diagnoses of specific diseases represented by skeletal indicators were usually attempted, as per the long-standing standards of paleopathologists. Data were also gathered in accord with the more strictly descriptive criteria of the new...

The types of bony changes studied in association with mechanical stress include: osteoarthritis, pressure facets, cortical thickness, fracture, and hypertrophy of tendinous and ligamentous attachment sites. While age is one component in the development of many of these markers, we believe that they mainly reflect the cumulative effects of mechanical stress rather than senile degeneration alone. This influence is supported by extensive experimental evidence of bone remodeling with increased...

Growth and developmental status is often used as an indicator of general health status at the population level. A brief review of literature regarding human skeletal growth and development indicates there are several methodologies for assessing these processes in human skeletal remains (Albert and Greene 1999; Flecker 1942; Goode et al. 1993; Gruelich and Pyle 1950; Hoppa 1992; Hoppa and Fitzgerald 1999; Hoppa and Gruspier 1996; Johnston and Zimmer, 1989; Livshits et al. 1998; Miles and Bulman...

The number of Africans imported into the New York colony between 1700 and the eve of the Revolutionary War has been estimated to range between 6,800 and 7,400. The higher estimates are based on under counting of captives due to smuggling from New Jersey, and possibly other states, to avoid tariffs. According to Lydon (1978:382-383), the minimum estimate, based on extant records for the eighteenth century, includes approximately 2,800 people or 41 percent brought directly from Africa and 4,000...

The explanatory frameworks of this study are heavily influenced by our understanding of the historical expediencies of European economic exploitation and power, and the ways these imperatives came to be played out in the condition of Africans in the Atlantic World. Of course, imperatives of safety, profit, moral legitimacy and so forth were negotiated as Europeans wrestled with conditions they could not entirely control, including the needs and responses of Africans themselves. The “hows” and...

This chapter surveys the full range of bioarchaeological studies conducted on African diasporic sites in the Americas, thus providing a comparative context for the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG). Skeletal data on people of African descent living under diverse conditions throughout the Americas are described to serve as a basis for comparisons with the burials that are researched in the African Burial Ground Project. (ABGP). These earlier studies used theoretical approaches different...

The approach taken to the organization and interpretation of data from the African Burial Ground (ABG) involves four main elements. The ways in which these elements have guided the research are discussed this chapter. These theoretic principles can be generalized and extended to a broader range of research projects than our study of the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG).

This chapter describes the organization of skeletal recordation in the laboratory. This work requires specialized personnel, task teams, and processes that convert fragile fragments of soil-encased bone into skeletal elements that reveal accurate anatomical structure and observable effects of physiological processes that can be assessed for genetic, demographic, and pathologic information. That information is then coded and entered into a computer database where all information on each...

Origins are central to understanding the past and present identity of a people. Origin studies provide, under optimal conditions, a context for all other assessments, such as archaeological, biomedical, and nutritional evaluations. Characterizing the phenotypic status and determining the origins of the eighteenth century New York African population and those individuals interred in the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) were among the project’s major goals. Towards that end, our...

Concerns about individual and group origins are central to the study of the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG). A key goal of the project is to provide scientific insights into the geographic origins of individuals. Enslaved Africans came from different regions of Africa. Can we determine more precisely the geographic area where individuals and groups come from and what were their ethnic affinities? At what ages were enslaved individuals forced to involuntarily leave their homelands? Which...

The origins of Africans in colonial New York, and some conditions encountered upon their arrival, have been explored in the two preceding chapters. The objective of the current chapter is to reconstruct who these diverse Africans became as a single population/community (that used a common cemetery) once in New York City. This chapter serves as both an historical demographic (based on documents) and paleodemographic (based on skeletal assessments) overview of the structure of the African...

Dental enamel hypoplasias are defects in crown development that appear as a transverse groove or series of pits that are partially or entirely around the circumference of the tooth. Hypoplastic defects, while they manifest in the teeth, result from metabolic disturbances of malnutrition and disease elsewhere in the body. Enamel hypoplasias thus provide evidence of general stress that may have been brought about by many different kinds of stressors. Like other “general stress indicators” such as...

The dentition is usually the best-preserved element of the skeleton. Hydroxyapatite, an inorganic calcium matrix, comprises approximately 97 percent of the chemical composition of enamel (Carlson, 1990). This crystalline structure makes dental enamel hard and dense and useful to resist the abrasive nature of mastication. Also, as a result of their hardness, teeth are often all that remains of a long-deceased individual. The abundant presence of dentition in archaeological contexts has led to the...

Cover page, table of contents, acknowledgments for volume one of the skeletal biology report.

First section with the Research Design Subcommittee Statement.

Appended report/statement per the title.

This is section two, the Anthropological Peer Review Panel Report

Scans of the excavation forms.

Explanation and table of preservation codes.

Title page and table of contents.

Descriptions and images from the skeletal biology report.

A collection of Park Service reports and supporting documents from archaeological work done at the African Burial Ground National Monument in lower Manhattan, New York, New York.