Another Look At The New York African Burial Ground Late Group Coffin-less Burials?

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) was the primary burial ground for free and captive Africans from the 17th to 18th centuries. During the excavation of burials north of the fence line assigned to the Late Group, 114 individuals were recovered of which seventy-nine had coffins and twenty-five were without, respectively. The burials north of the fence line date to the Revolutionary War and early Republic. Why were some burials coffin-less? The ABG archaeologists hypothesized that these individuals might not have had close associations and or might have been refugees, soldiers or laborers under British employ during its occupation of New York City from 1776 until 1783. However, there are other possibilities. In this paper, I explore the previously mentioned groups along with other groups including loyalist and patriot militias/irregulars and Continental soldiers using the limited material culture recovered from the burials and historical data of the previously mentioned groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology