THE

NEW YORK
AFRICAN
BURIAL
GROUND

U.S. General Services Administration

VOL. 4

Prepared by Statistical Research, Inc.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology and History of the New York African Burial Ground:
A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

THE NEW YORK AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND:

Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York

Volume 4

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology and History

of the New York African Burial Ground:
A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3
Prepared by Statistical Research, Inc.

ISBN: 0-88258-258-5

9 780882 582580

HUABG-V4-Synthesis-0510.indd 1

HOWARD
UNIVERSITY

5/27/10 11:17 AM

THE NEW YORK AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND:

Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York

Volume 4

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the

New York African Burial Ground:
A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3
Prepared by Statistical Research, Inc.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

WASHINGTON, D.C.
2009
Published in association with the United States General Services Administration

The content of this report is derived primarily from Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of the series,
The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York.
Application has been filed for Library of Congress registration.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. General Services
Administration or Howard University.
Published by Howard University Press
2225 Georgia Avenue NW, Suite 720
Washington, D.C. 20059
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN 0-88258-258-5
978-0-88258-258-0
Howard Universitys New York African Burial Ground Project
was funded by the U.S. General Services Administration under
Contract No. GS-02P-93-CUC-0071
Report preparation by Statistical Research, Inc., Michael Heilen.
Layout and design by Simpson & Convent.
Typeset and printed in the United States of America.
Printed on acid-free paper.
Cover Images:
Detail of the Maerschalk Plan (Francis Maerschalk, 1754)
Artifacts from the New York African Burial Ground (Photographs by Jon Abbott):
Enameled cuff link face, Burial 371, Catalog No. 1875-B.001.
Bead Type 12, Burial 340, Catalog No. 01651-B.79.
Oval turquoise enamel face, Burial 211, Catalog No. 1186 -B.001.
Pins, Burial 12, Catalog Nos. 253-B.001, .002.
Ring, copper alloy with glass insets, Burial 310, Catalog No. 1486-B.001.
Bead Type 9, Burial 340, Catalog No. 01651-B.78.
Bead Type 15, Burial 340, Catalog No. 01651-B.75.
Button, bone, turned. Burial 171, Catalog No. 931-B.002.
Cast silver pendant, Burial 254, Catalog No. 1243-B.001.
Burial 335 (Photograph by Dennis Seckler)
Cover design by Star Bullock + Associates, Mark A. Bartley

Contents

List of Figures............................................................................................................................................................................IX
List of Tables........................................................................................................... ................................................................XIII
Foreword................................................................................................................................................................................... XV
Editorial Method................................................................................................................................................................... XVII
Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................................................................XIX
1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................................................................1
Content and Organization...............................................................................................................................................................3
Research Context.............................................................................................................................................................................5
2. Project History.......................................................................................................................................................................9
Fieldwork......................................................................................................................................................................................12
The July 27, 1992, Subcommittee Hearing....................................................................................................................................16
Howard University and John Milner Associates, Inc.s Research Design..........................................................................................18
The Federal Steering Committee...................................................................................................................................................19
Landmark Status Designation.......................................................................................................................................................20
The Office of Public Education and Interpretation.........................................................................................................................22
The Analytical Phase of the New York African Burial Ground Project.............................................................................................22
Transfer of Human Remains to Howard University....................................................................................................................22
Skeletal Laboratory Analysis.....................................................................................................................................................22
Nonskeletal Laboratory Analysis...............................................................................................................................................26
Historical Research....................................................................................................................................................................28
Reinterment..............................................................................................................................................................................33
3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context......................................................................37
A Publicly Engaged Biocultural Approach to Research...................................................................................................................37
Slavery in New York.......................................................................................................................................................................38
New York and the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans......................................................................................................42
New York Settlement....................................................................................................................................................................45
Landownership, Development, and the African Burial Ground...............................................................................................46
Calk Hook Farm...................................................................................................................................................................46
The Van Borsum Patent.......................................................................................................................................................47
Land Development in the Vicinity of the African Burial Ground...........................................................................................47
New York African Landownership, the Common, and the African Burial Ground...........................................................................47

IV Contents

New York African Landownership.......................................................................................................................................53

The Common......................................................................................................................................................................56
The Establishment and Use of the African Burial Ground....................................................................................................58
Closing of the African Burial Ground...................................................................................................................................61
Archaeological Evidence for the Presence and Lives of Enslaved African New Yorkers....................................................................66
Recent Bioarchaeological Investigations in the Vicinity of the African Burial Ground....................................................................68
Conclusions...................................................................................................................................................................................71
4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity..........................................................................................................75
Defining the Identity of Enslaved Laborers....................................................................................................................................75
The Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans..................................................................................................................................76
Processes of Enslavement..............................................................................................................................................................79
Supply Methods............................................................................................................................................................................80
Regional Processes........................................................................................................................................................................81
Senegambia...........................................................................................................................................................................81
The Gold Coast........................................................................................................................................................................83
The Bight of Benin..................................................................................................................................................................85
The Niger Delta.......................................................................................................................................................................87
West Central Africa.................................................................................................................................................................87
Southeast Africa.....................................................................................................................................................................87
The West Indies.......................................................................................................................................................................89
Bioarchaeological Approaches to African Origins..........................................................................................................................91
Research Questions.................................................................................................................................................................92
Dental Modification................................................................................................................................................................92
Elemental-Signature Analysis and Strontium Isotope Analysis...............................................................................................93
Lead Poisoning in Colonial New York.....................................................................................................................................100
Craniometry.........................................................................................................................................................................101
Dental Morphology...............................................................................................................................................................102
Genetic Analysis...................................................................................................................................................................104
Diasporic African Identities in the New World.............................................................................................................................105
Nations and Group Identity...................................................................................................................................................108
Identity in Models of Behavioral Interactions and Culture Change........................................................................................110
African Survivals in African American Archaeology...............................................................................................................112
Identity Formation at the African Burial Ground...................................................................................................................113
The Use of Artifacts to Infer Identity.................................................................................................................................114
Conclusions.................................................................................................................................................................................119
5. Diet and Disease ...............................................................................................................................................................125
Ethnographic and Historical Evidence of Diet, Disease, and Health.............................................................................................126
The Middle Passage.................................................................................................................................................................126
The West Indies.......................................................................................................................................................................127
Diet in the West Indies..........................................................................................................................................................127
Disease and Environment in the West Indies.........................................................................................................................128
New York City..........................................................................................................................................................................129
Diet in New York Compared to That of West and West Central Africa.....................................................................................129
The New York African Burial Ground

Contents V

Disease and Environment in New York..................................................................................................................................131

Factors that Compromised the Daily Health of the New York African Burial Ground Population............................................131
Bioarchaeological Evidence for Stress, Disease, and Malnutrition at the New York African Burial Ground....................................133
Childhood Health and Dental Development............................................................................................................................133
Enamel Defects at the New York African Burial Ground...........................................................................................................133
Dental Enamel Hypocalcification..........................................................................................................................................137
Dental Pathologies as Indicators of Disease, Diet, and Nutrition...........................................................................................137
Dental Pathologies at the New York African Burial Ground................................................................................................137
Skeletal Indicators of Disease, Diet, and Nutrition...................................................................................................................140
Periostitis..............................................................................................................................................................................140
Periostitis at the New York African Burial Ground..............................................................................................................142
Other Infectious Processes....................................................................................................................................................142
Treponemal Infection...........................................................................................................................................................142
Treponemal Infection at the New York African Burial Ground............................................................................................144
Porotic Hyperostosis and Cribra Orbitalia..............................................................................................................................145
Porotic Hyperostosis at the New York African Burial Ground..............................................................................................146
Possible Causes of Porotic Hyperostosis and Cribra Orbitalia.............................................................................................149
Interaction of Nutritional Deficiency and Infectious Disease.................................................................................................151
Subadult Growth and Development........................................................................................................................................151
Subadult Growth Status at the New York African Burial Ground............................................................................................152
Conclusions.................................................................................................................................................................................155
6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality....................................................................................157
Forcible Labor and Its Effects.......................................................................................................................................................157
Labor in West and West Central Africa.....................................................................................................................................157
Labor in the West Indies..........................................................................................................................................................160
Labor in New Amsterdam and New York.................................................................................................................................161
Variation in Work among Men, Women, and Children...........................................................................................................164
The Musculoskeletal, Arthritic, and Traumatic Effects of Work.....................................................................................................165
Osteoarthritis and Osteophytosis............................................................................................................................................166
Vertebral Joint Degeneration at the New York African Burial Ground......................................................................................167
Appendicular Joint Degeneration at the New York African Burial Ground................................................................................169
Schmorls Nodes......................................................................................................................................................................171
Spondylolysis..........................................................................................................................................................................172
Musculoskeletal Stress Markers...............................................................................................................................................172
Family Life...................................................................................................................................................................................174
Family Life for the African Burial Ground Population...............................................................................................................176
Historical Demography and Paleodemography...........................................................................................................................177
Limitations on Demographic Reconstruction..........................................................................................................................178
New York African Burial Ground Paleodemography.....................................................................................................................179
Mortality and Fertility.............................................................................................................................................................179
Sex Ratios................................................................................................................................................................................183
Child-to-Female Ratio.............................................................................................................................................................185
Comparison with Trinity Church Records..................................................................................................................................185
Mean Age at Death..................................................................................................................................................................186
The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

VI Contents

Survivorship and Life Expectancy............................................................................................................................................187

Conclusions.................................................................................................................................................................................190
7. The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity..................................................................................................193
Concepts of Slavery and Enslaved Status in Africa and New York.................................................................................................195
New York Slave Codes...........................................................................................................................................................197
Christianity and Slavery..........................................................................................................................................................199
Resistance...............................................................................................................................................................................202
Social Gatherings..................................................................................................................................................................202
Rebellion..............................................................................................................................................................................203
Arson....................................................................................................................................................................................204
Theft.....................................................................................................................................................................................205
Insubordination....................................................................................................................................................................206
Runaways.............................................................................................................................................................................206
Resistance during Gradual Emancipation................................................................................................................................209
Bioarchaeological Indicators of Domination and Resistance........................................................................................................209
Discussion...................................................................................................................................................................................211
8. Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground......................215
Problems and Issues in Mortuary Studies....................................................................................................................................216
Burial Practices at the African Burial Ground...............................................................................................................................218
Coffins..................................................................................................................................................................................218
Decorated Coffins..............................................................................................................................................................222
Coffin Use in Africa and the Diaspora................................................................................................................................223
Burials Without Coffins.....................................................................................................................................................224
Shared Coffins and Graves.................................................................................................................................................224
Shrouding.............................................................................................................................................................................224
Body Placement and Orientation..........................................................................................................................................226
Grave Markers.......................................................................................................................................................................228
Graveside Deposits and Memorialization..............................................................................................................................230
Mortuary Material Culture....................................................................................................................................................231
Clothing and Ornamentation............................................................................................................................................231
Beads and Cowries........................................................................................................................................................233
Clam and Oyster Shell and Coral....................................................................................................................................234
Rings, Cuff Links, and Other Adornments......................................................................................................................238
Other Material Culture......................................................................................................................................................241
The Spiritual Significance of Items of Material Culture......................................................................................................245
Preparing the Dead for Burial, Mourning Rites, and Associated Ceremonies.........................................................................248
Multiethnic Influences on Burial Practices...................................................................................................................................250
Native American...................................................................................................................................................................250
Islam....................................................................................................................................................................................251
Christianity...........................................................................................................................................................................252
African Belief Systems.................................................................................................................................................................254
West Central African Core Beliefs..........................................................................................................................................255
Divination and Healing.........................................................................................................................................................256
The New York African Burial Ground

Contents VII

Discussion...................................................................................................................................................................................257
The Impact of Field Methods on the Interpretation of Mortuary Practice..............................................................................259
Conclusions.................................................................................................................................................................................259
9. Significance of the African Burial Ground...................................................................................................................261
Research Directions.....................................................................................................................................................................262
Key Findings of the Research................................................................................................................................................263
African Diaspora Studies.............................................................................................................................................................267
The Discipline of Archaeology.....................................................................................................................................................269
Sociopolitics of Scientific Research.......................................................................................................................................269
Historical Archaeology..........................................................................................................................................................270
African Diaspora Archaeology...............................................................................................................................................271
Cultural Resource Management............................................................................................................................................273
Cultural Resource Management and the African Burial Ground........................................................................................274
National and International Significance of the African Burial Ground as a Cultural Property.......................................................276
National Park Service Listening Sessions..............................................................................................................................277
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act......................................................................................................277
World Heritage Sites.............................................................................................................................................................278
The UNESCO Slave Route Project...........................................................................................................................................279
Conclusions.................................................................................................................................................................................280
Appendix A: New York African Burial Ground Steering Committee Members.........................................................283
Appendix B: Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group..................................................287
References Cited....................................................................................................................................................................303
Contributors............................................................................................................................................................................337
Index.........................................................................................................................................................................................345

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

List of Figures

Figure 1. Sanborn Map (Manhattan Land Book 198485) of New Yorks civic center area, encompassing the historic African
Burial Ground at the time of the initial cultural resources investigation in 1989...........................................................................2
Figure 2. Plan map of the archaeological excavation area, showing former property lines, buried foundations, and the
site grid......................................................................................................................................................................................11
Figure 3. Backhoe clearing adjacent to temporary archaeological excavation shelter early in the fieldwork.................................12
Figure 4. Construction of the 290 Broadway Federal building proceeded during the archaeological fieldwork.............................15
Figure 5. Mayor David Dinkins, Peggy King Jorde (Mayors Liaison), and Howard Dodson (Chief, Schomburg Center) are
briefed on the excavation by Michael Parrington (Principal Archaeologist for HCI and John Milner Associates)..........................16
Figure 6. Night procession of The Ties That Bind ceremony marking the transfer of the New York African Burial Ground
ancestral remains to Howard University in November of 1993....................................................................................................23
Figure 7. Project Director Michael Blakey discusses organization of the database with Data Systems Manager Dougas Fuller
in the W. Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory at Howard University.................................................................23
Figure 8. Allison Davis and Keisha Hurst take anthropometric measurements; safety equipment used in unwrapping burials;
laboratory director Mark Mack conducts dental recordation.......................................................................................................24
Figure 9. Osteological Technician Assistant Joseph Jones involved in cleaning and reconstruction................................................24
Figure 10. Examples of the photographic record (Burial 95, a subadult aged 712 years)............................................................26
Figure 11. Sketch map of Burial 213, showing disturbance by a nineteenth-century brick-lined drain.........................................27
Figure 12. Western area of the New York African Burial Ground excavation...................................................................................29
Figure 13. West-central area of the New York African Burial Ground excavation............................................................................30
Figure 14. East-central and Lot 18 areas of the New York African Burial Ground excavation..........................................................31
Figure 15. Eastern area of the New York African Burial Ground excavation....................................................................................32
Figure 16. Mother Delois Blakeley heads the procession of the coffins from Wall Street to the African Burial Ground...................33
Figure 17. Wooden coffins, hand-carved in Ghana, held the ancestors remains for reburial at the New York African
Burial Ground.............................................................................................................................................................................35
Figure 18. The Market House, site of hiring and sale of enslaved Africans.....................................................................................44
Figure 19. The Lyne-Bradford Plan, printed by William Bradford in 1731 from a survey made by James Lyne, depicts
New York in 1730........................................................................................................................................................................48
Figure 20. The 1740 Carwitham Plan.............................................................................................................................................49
Figure 21. The Maerschalk Plan, surveyed by Francis Maerschalk in 1754 and published by Gerardus Duyckink in 1755...............50
Figure 22. Detail from the Maerschalk Plan (17541755), showing the African Burial Ground and nearby features.....................51
Figure 23. Detail from the Ratzer Map, 1767, surveyed by Bernard Ratzer....................................................................................52
Figure 24. Detail from a map of Dutch-era land grants, superimposed on a Manhattan street grid (ca.1835), showing the
approximate locations of patents issued to African men and women, Jan Jansen Damen, and Cornelis Van Borsum..................53

X List of Figures

Figure 25. Detail from New Yorker David Grims recollection of the city in 17421744, showing two of the punishments
meted out to Africans convicted of conspiring to set fire to the town.........................................................................................57
Figure 26. Detail from the British Headquarters Map (1782), showing the area behind the barracks used for interments
by the occupying British forces during the Revolution................................................................................................................58
Figure 27. Detail from the Manatus Map, a depiction of New Amsterdam in 1639, with a mark (F) showing the camp
(near present-day 74th Street) where the Dutch West India Company housed African workers..................................................59
Figure 28. The Castello Plan, cartographer Jacques Cortelyous street grid of New Amsterdam in 1660, showing the common
burial ground on the west side of the wagon road (Broadway), midway between the fort and the wall (Wall Street)...............59
Figure 29. Mrs. Buchnerds hand-drawn Plan of the City of New York in the Year 1735..................................................................62
Figure 30. Detail from a 1787 surveyors map showing the partition of the Calk Hook Farm into lots............................................63
Figure 31. Detail from the Taylor-Roberts Plan, 1797, drawn by city surveyor Benjamin Taylor and engraved by John Roberts,
showing the newly-laid street grid that crossed the African Burial Ground at the end of the eighteenth century......................64
Figure 32 . Detail from a 1795 surveyors map showing the locations of the lots assigned to Sara Roeloffs heirs.........................65
Figure 33. The Senegambia Region, West Africa............................................................................................................................82
Figure 34. The Gold Coast and Slave Coast, West Africa..................................................................................................................84
Figure 35. The Bight of Benin and Niger Delta, West Africa............................................................................................................86
Figure 36. West Central Africa, Kongo-Angola Region...................................................................................................................88
Figure 37. Example of dental modification of maxillary central incisors........................................................................................92
Figure 38. Longitudinal cross section of a permanent upper left first molar from Burial 35, an 810-year-old child....................96
Figure 39. A model of the relationships between recorded elemental concentration and elemental uptake, deposition,
diagenetic change, and sample preparation...............................................................................................................................96
Figure 40. ESA Cluster Diagram based on concentrations of five trace elements...........................................................................97
Figure 41. Broad geographic pattern of strontium isotope distribution.........................................................................................99
Figure 42. Strontium isotopes chart: ratio of 87strontium to 86strontium in samples of enamel and dentin of individuals
from the New York African Burial Ground....................................................................................................................................99
Figure 43. Lead Variation.............................................................................................................................................................100
Figure 44. New York African Burial Ground skull shape analysis using Mahalanobis Distance.....................................................102
Figure 45. Scatter Plot of Craniometric Distance..........................................................................................................................103
Figure 46. Photograph, sketch, and schematic of the possible Sankofa symbol on the coffin lid of Burial 101............................117
Figure 47. Photograph and sketch of the iron tack coffin decoration on the coffin lid of Burial 332.............................................118
Figure 48. Examples of dental pathology....................................................................................................................................134
Figure 49. Molar caries in a male aged 2635 years (Burial 101)................................................................................................138
Figure 50. Caries formation in a female aged 3540 years (Burial 107)......................................................................................138
Figure 51. Total number of carious teeth by sex...........................................................................................................................138
Figure 52. Osteological indicators of infection.............................................................................................................................141
Figure 53. Population comparison of periostitis presence...........................................................................................................143
Figure 54. Possible osteological indicators of syphilis..................................................................................................................145
Figure 55. Examples of porotic hyperostosis................................................................................................................................146
Figure 56. Population comparison of porotic hyperostosis presence............................................................................................148
Figure 57. Population comparison of cribra orbitalia presence....................................................................................................149
Figure 58. Co-occurrence of periostitis and porotic hyperostosis: comparison of populations.....................................................151
Figure 59. New York African Burial Ground stature estimates: males...........................................................................................153
Figure 60. New York African Burial Ground stature estimates: females........................................................................................154
Figure 61. New York African Burial Ground Stature estimates: subadults....................................................................................154
The New York African Burial Ground

List of Figures XI

Figure 62. Kongo woman laboring in agricultural field...............................................................................................................159

Figure 63. The 1730 Townsend MacCoun map with additional labels showing loci of forcible labor exploitation........................163
Figure 64. Ropewalk, a colonial industry where enslaved laborers worked.................................................................................164
Figure 65. Negro kitchen common in colonial households........................................................................................................165
Figure 66. Spinal pathology........................................................................................................................................................167
Figure 67. Osteoarthritis of appendicular joints..........................................................................................................................168
Figure 68. Hypertrophic bone development................................................................................................................................173
Figure 69. Mortality among the New York African Burial Ground population..............................................................................180
Figure 70. African adult sex and child sex ratio in eighteenth-century New York City..................................................................183
Figure 71. African child-woman ratio in eighteenth-century New York City................................................................................185
Figure 72. Adult mortality for New York African Burial Ground and Trinity Church.......................................................................186
Figure 73. Comparison of survivorship at the New York African Burial Ground to other samples.................................................188
Figure 74. Comparison of life expectancy at the New York African Burial Ground to other samples.............................................188
Figure 75. Execution of a New York African on the Common........................................................................................................194
Figure 76. Dancing at the market................................................................................................................................................205
Figure 77. Coffin shapes represented at the New York African Burial Ground...............................................................................219
Figure 78. Composite drawing of coffin handle based on the X-rays taken of the handles from Burials176 and 90....................222
Figure 79. Replicas of New York African Burial Ground pins created by artisans at Colonial Williamsburg...................................225
Figure 80. Burial of an 1820-year-old female in extended supine position with hands crossed over pelvic region
(Burial 122)..............................................................................................................................................................................226
Figure 81. Burial of a 3545-year-old man in extended supine position with hands placed at sides (Burial151).......................227
Figure 82. Orientation of burials with heads oriented to the west at the New York African Burial Ground...................................228
Figure 83. Position of the sun on the horizon at sunset in lower Manhattan over the course of a year, relative to the New York
African Burial Ground site grid..................................................................................................................................................228
Figure 84. Grave markers.............................................................................................................................................................229
Figure 85. Period clothing...........................................................................................................................................................232
Figure 86. Bead Types 1, 3, and 2 from the New York African Burial Ground................................................................................235
Figure 87. Bead Types 4, 5, and 715 from the New York African Burial Ground..........................................................................236
Figure 88. In situ photograph of Burial22, showing a fragment of hard-shell clam above the left clavicle.................................237
Figure 89. Detail of in situ photograph of shell and iron artifact from coffin lid of Burial365......................................................237
Figure 90. In situ photograph of stoneware vessel fragment, Burial328 (Catalog No. 1589-GF).................................................238
Figure 91. Coral (Siderastrea siderea) from Burial376 (Catalog No.1985-B)...............................................................................238
Figure 92. Button types at the New York African BurialGround...................................................................................................239
Figure 93. Buttons recovered with Burial 6..................................................................................................................................240
Figure 94. Rings recovered from the New York African Burial Ground..........................................................................................240
Figure 95. Cuff links recovered at the New York African BurialGround............................................................................................... 241
Figure 96. Cast silver pendant in Burial254, Catalog No.1243-B.001..........................................................................................242
Figure 97. Clay pipe in Burial340, Catalog No.1651-B.134.........................................................................................................242
Figure 98. (a)Detail of clay pipe bowl, showing IW mark, from Burial158 (Catalog No. 903-GF). Bore diameter
is 5/64inches; (b)Drawing of bowl shape..................................................................................................................................243
Figure 99. In situ photograph of clay pipe stem and bowl near the left forearm of Burial165 (Catalog No.919-B).....................243
Figure 100. Clay pipe stem and bowl from Burial165 (Catalog No.919-B)..................................................................................243
Figure 101. In situ photograph of knife handle (Catalog No.1191-B.005) and coin (Catalog No.1191-B.003) from the left pelvic/
forearm area of Burial214..........................................................................................................................................................244
The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

XII List of Figures

Figure 102. Knife handle of bone or antler and iron, from Burial214 (Catalog No.1191-B.005)..................................................244
Figure 103. X-ray of iron knife blade from Burial48 (Catalog No.620-CHC), shown at actual size...............................................244
Figure 104. In situ photograph of Burial135, showing copper coin (Catalog No.880-B.001) in left eye socket...........................245
Figure 105. (a)X-ray of coin (copper George II halfpenny, obverse) from Burial135 (Catalog No.880-B.001), (b)1749
George II halfpenny from the numismatic collection at the University of Notre Dame Libraries................................................245
Figure 106. Copper coin from Burial230 (Catalog No.1216-B.003).............................................................................................246
Figure 107. Textile from a possible shroud that had adhered to a coin from Burial 230 (Catalog No. 1216-B.002).......................246
Figure 108. Calcite crystal cluster in Burial55, Catalog No.0792-B.003.......................................................................................246
Figure 109. Rose quartz disk in Burial289, Catalog No.1321-B.004............................................................................................246
Figure 110. Mica schist disk from Burial 135 (Catalog No. 880-B)................................................................................................246
Figure 111. Glass sphere in Burial410, Catalog No.2082-B.001..................................................................................................246
Figure 112. Ceramic sphere with copper alloy band in Burial375, Catalog No.1886-B.001.........................................................247
Figure 113. Divining the cause of death, an African funeral rite practiced in Jamaica..................................................................249
Figure 114. Egunfemi Adegbolola, Chief Alagba of New York, commemorating the ancestors in a Yoruba ceremony at
the New York African Burial Ground..........................................................................................................................................282

The New York African Burial Ground

List of Tables

Chapter 1
No tables.
Chapter 2
Table 1. African American Affiliated Landmarks in Manhattan Identified as of 1992, Prior to the Designation of the
African Burial Ground as a New York Landmark..........................................................................................................................21
Chapter 3
Table 2. Land Grants Awarded to Blacks, 16431662...................................................................................................................55
Chapter 4
Table 3. Population of New York County, 16981800...................................................................................................................78
Table 4. Caribbean Islands from Which Enslaved Persons Were Imported into New York, 17271765...........................................90
Table 5. Africans Imported into New York, 17011765..................................................................................................................91
Table 6. African Dental Modification Patterns................................................................................................................................94
Table 7. NYABG Modification Patterns with African and African Diaspora Reference Populations..................................................95
Table 8. Molecular Genetic Affinities of Individuals in the NYABG................................................................................................106
Table 9. Shared Graves and Possible Shared Graves at the New York African Burial Ground........................................................120
Chapter 5
Table 10. African Diaspora Skeletons Series Discussed in this Chapter.........................................................................................135
Table 11. New York African Burial Ground Dental Pathology Mean Comparison with other Eighteenth- and
Nineteenth-Century Samples . .................................................................................................................................................139
Table 12. Porotic Hyperostosis, All Cranial Locations....................................................................................................................147
Table 13. Frequencies of Cribra Orbitalia in the NYABG Population..............................................................................................147
Chapter 6
Table 14. Demography of the Sample Used in Stress Marker Analysis.........................................................................................166
Table 15. Distribution of Moderate to Severe Vertebral Osteoarthritis by Sex..............................................................................169
Table 16. Distribution of Moderate to Severe Vertebral Osteophytosis by Sex..............................................................................169
Table 17. Distribution of Moderate to Severe Osteoarthritis in the Upper Limb...........................................................................170
Table 18. Distribution of Moderate to Severe Osteoarthritis in the Lower Limb...........................................................................171
Table 19. Regional Distribution of Schmorls Nodes.....................................................................................................................172

XIV List of Tables

Table 20. New York African Burial Ground Subadult Mortality.....................................................................................................181

Table 21. Population of New York County, 16981800................................................................................................................182
Table 22. New York African Burial Ground Adult Mortality...........................................................................................................182
Table 23. African Population by Age and Sex, Eighteenth-Century Censuses...............................................................................184
Table 24. NYABG and Trinity Church Subadult Mortality..............................................................................................................186
Table 25. New York African Burial Ground Female Life Table........................................................................................................189
Table 26. New York African Burial Ground Male Life Table...........................................................................................................189
Table 27. New York African Burial Ground Life Table....................................................................................................................190
Chapter 7
No tables.
Chapter 8
Table 28. Coffin Shape in the Early Group (pre-ca. a.d. 1735), by Age and Sex of Interred Individuals........................................220
Table 29. Coffin Shape in the Middle Group (ca. a.d. 17351760), by Age and Sex of Interred Individuals..................................220
Table 30. Coffin Shape in the Late-Middle Group (ca. a.d. 17601776), by Age and Sex of Interred Individuals..........................221
Table 31. Coffin Shape in the Late Group (ca. a.d. 17761795), by Age and Sex of Interred Individuals......................................221

The New York African Burial Ground

Foreword

In 1991 during the excavation phase for the construction of the Federal Building now seen at 290
Broadway, New York City, a cemetery was uncovered
containing human remains of Africansmost were
enslaved, some freewho existed, worked, and died
under inhumane conditions in colonial New York.
This discovery, the largest bioarchaeological site of its
kind, sparked heightened public awareness of African
heritage in the northern states of colonial America. An
outcome of this awareness was the publics desire for
amending and correcting the history of Colonial New
York during that period to reflect more accurately
the lives and culture of these forgotten Africans and
people of African descent, and their contributions and
roles in economic development. Several initiatives,
supported by the General Services Administration
on behalf of the American people, were launched to
accomplish this goal.
Following the excavation of the site, the initiative to
conduct historical and scientific studies of the remains
and artifacts was entrusted to Howard University.
There, Dr. Michael L. Blakey, now at the College of
William and Mary, designed and implemented a comprehensive, interdisciplinary research programthe
New York African Burial Ground Projectto address
questions in three main areas: history, archaeology,

and skeletal biology. As scientific director of the project, he assembled an international team of scholars,
professionals, graduate and undergraduate students,
technical staff members, and cultural specialists for
various parts of the study.
The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing
the African Presence in Colonial New York serves
as the culminating work of this project, reporting
the research findings. This multivolume series covers broadly a contextualized historical perspective,
details the archaeological discoveries, and contains
descriptions of the skeletal biology of the unearthed
human remains. The first three volumes document and
validate the lives of African Americans ancestors who
lived and worked in Colonial New York. This volume,
which was prepared by Statistical Research, Inc., is
intended to be a cohesive synthesis of the findings of
the African Burial Ground Project researchers.
O. Jackson Cole, Ph.D.
Howard University Executive-in-Charge of the
African Burial Ground Project
James A. Donaldson, Ph.D.
Dean
Howard University College of Arts and Sciences

Editorial Method

For the sake of consistency and because this was primarily an archaeological project, this volume of the
series The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York was

edited according to the conventions of the following style manuals: the style guide of the Society for
American Archaeology and The Chicago Manual of
Style, 15th edition.

Acknowledgments

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology and History of

the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of
Volumes 1, 2, and 3 is derived primarily from:
Volume 1. The Skeletal Biology of the New York
African Burial Ground, Michael Blakey and Lesley
Rankin-Hill, editors
Volume 2. The Archaeology of the New York African
Burial Ground, Warren Perry, Jean Howson, and
Barbara A. Bianco, editors
Volume 3. Historical Perspectives of the African
Burial Ground, Edna Greene Medford, editor
Statistical Research, Inc., prepared this volume for
Howard University. Dr. Michael Heilen played the
leading role in its preparation, with contributions by
three other SRI employees, Dr. Stephanie Whittlesey,
Dr. David Palmer, and Maria Molina, MFA.

An Advisory Review Board, which comprised

three specialists from each of the three African Burial
Ground research components: skeletal biology, archaeology, and history, was selected by Howard University and General Services Administration. Advisory
Review Board members Dr. Anne L. Grauer, Dr.
Thomas J. Davis, and Dr. Theresa Singleton comprised
the subpanel that read an early draft of this report and
provided comments and recommendations to Howard
University for its improvement.
O. Jackson Cole, Ph.D.
Howard University Executive-in-Charge of the
African Burial Ground Project
James A. Donaldson, Ph.D.
Dean
Howard University College of Arts and Sciences

Chapter 1

Introduction

The African Burial Ground, located in New York City

in Lower Manhattan, was used during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries by Africans and African
Americans for the burial and memorialization of
their loved ones. Forgotten for nearly two centuries,
the burial ground was rediscovered in 1991 during
archaeological excavation at 290Broadway, and the
individuals recovered from the excavated portion
were eventually studied by a team of researchers
assembled by Howard University. Research conducted
for the New York African Burial Ground Project is
vast and far reaching, not only because of what was
discoveredthe largest sample in the Americas of
a colonial African American burial populationbut
because of the kinds of questions that were asked, how
those questions were developed, and how researchers attempted to answer research questions. As such,
the New York African Burial Ground Project is one
of the most important projects in archaeology today
(Blakey 2009a).
The researchers sophisticated interdisciplinary
approach to studying the New York African Burial
Ground resulted in an unprecedented volume of
significant findings on the origins, identities, and
daily lives of enslaved Africans in New York. The
biological, anthropological, and historical research
reveals a rich history of the contributions, struggles, and accomplishments of Africans and African
Americans in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
New York that until recently was not widely recognized or acknowledged. New insights continue
to be developed as researchers continue to address
the many questions raised by the research. This
volume brings together the findings of Howard Universitys research, directed by Dr. Michael Blakey,
in the skeletal biology, archaeology, and history of
the New York African Burial Ground. Each of the
components of the African Burial Ground research is

presented in one of three technical report volumes

Volume1, Skeletal Biology of the African Burial
Ground (Blakey and Rankin-Hill, eds. 2009); Volume2, The Archaeology of the New York African
Burial Ground (Perry, Howson, and Bianco, eds.
2009a); and Volume 3, Historical Perspectives of
the African Burial Ground: New York Blacks and
the Diaspora (Medford, ed. 2009). All four volumes
are available online and as published volumes in the
series The African Burial Ground: Unearthing the
African Presence in Colonial New York. The material
presented in this volume is drawn primarily from the
technical volumes. In some cases, additional material
from published reports, peer-reviewed literature, and
project databases is provided.
This volume is intended to be a cohesive synthesis of the New York African Burial Ground Project
research as conducted by the Howard University
scientific research team; John Milner Associates, Inc.;
and members of the African Burial Ground descendant
community. Its intended audience is the professional
scientific community. The goal for this volume is that
the Project research findings can be used to inform
further investigations of the New York African Burial
Ground and similar sites; to add to the growing body
of information on sites associated with the African
Diaspora; and to inspire future research in the archaeology, biology, and history of the African Diaspora.
It is recognized that readers may or may not possess
specific technical expertise in the many analyses
conducted for the New York African Burial Ground
research. A general report will be written for a wider
public audience as part of this series.
The portion of the African Burial Ground that was
studiedlocated at 290Broadwaywas excavated
under contract with the GSA between May 1991 and
October 1992 in order to fulfill legal requirements
under the National Historic Preservation Act of

Figure 1. Sanborn Map (Manhattan Land Book 1984-85) of New Yorks civic center area, encompassing the historic
African Burial Ground at the time of the initial cultural resources investigation in 1989. Most of Block 154, bounded
by Broadway and Duane, Reade, and Elk Streets, was covered by parking lots. The map shows the historic Calk
Hook Farm (labeled in upper left corner) and its southern boundary running diagonally from Broadway across
the block. The historic edge of the Collect Pond is shown at the upper right. The small portion of the cemetery that
was excavated in 19911992 is outlined with a red line within the boundary of the African Burial Ground National
Historic Landmark (outlined with a thick black line). New York Citys designated African Burial Ground and the
Commons Historic District encompasses a larger area that includes all of City Hall Park as well as Foley Square (use of
1984-85 Sanborn Map 290 Broadway, New York, NY, reprinted/used with permission from the Sanborn Library, LLC)
(from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:Figure 28]).

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 1. Introduction 3
1966, as amended for the investigation, protection,
and management of cultural resources. For this
series, the archaeological site investigated during
this project is referred to as the New York African Burial Ground. The larger burial ground, of
which the archaeological site is a part, is referred
to as the African Burial Ground. The remains of
more than 400individuals, many of them enslaved
Africans, were recovered during excavation of the
New York African Burial Ground and analyzed at
Howard University under the expert care of Scientific Director Dr. Michael Blakey and W.Montague
Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory Director
Mark Mack.
Artifacts and other materials collected from the
site were analyzed in the World Trade Center at laboratory facilities provided by the GSA in the U.S. Customs House. The remains of individuals, associated
grave goods, and related materials were investigated
by a diverse team of experienced researchers
many of them experts in African Diaspora studies
and leaders in their respective disciplineswho
were affiliated with multiple institutions and organizations, including Howard University and John
Milner Associates, Inc. The recovered individuals and associated materials were reinterred and
memorialized during a sacred ceremony at the New
York African Burial Ground in October 2003, once
analysis of individual remains and associated grave
goods was complete. The African Burial Ground
was designated a New York City Landmark and a
National Historic Landmark in 1993, and in 2006,
the portion of the burial ground that was excavated
and analyzed as part of this project was designated
a National Monument (Figure 1). A memorial was
completed in September 2007, and construction
of an interpretive center at the site is underway. In
October 2009, the National Park Service assumed
stewardship of the site.
Perceptions about the project depend on what part
of the project is considered and the audience, either
public or private, considering it. Some aspects of
the project, particularly those involving initial GSA
actions, were considered insensitive and ignorant acts
of desecration. Other aspects of the research, such
as those that were developed by Howard University and John Milner Associates, Inc., are considered
groundbreaking and innovative although somewhat
controversial (see Chapter2). To some archaeologists,
the project is a model of community involvement
and innovative research (Epperson 2004). To oth-

ers, aspects of the project represent what not to do

(McCarthy 1996). As Blakey (2009a:11) states in the
skeletal biology volume, however,
The research teams combination of academic
and contract archaeology departs from previous contract work and represents a particular
trajectory in the practice of anthropology that
is necessarily critical of previously acceptable
standards. The New York African Burial Ground
Projects alternative approaches seek to represent new and better standards of anthropological practice. . . .[T]he team encountered many
colleagues who were either strongly opposed
or strongly in favor of its approach. The team
asserts that its alternative approach enhances the
scientific rigor, humanistic meaning, and societal significance of New Yorks African Burial
Ground research.

Content and Organization

The content of this volume is derived primarily from
the work of the project researchers and was prepared
by Statistical Research, Inc. This volume is organized
primarily around the themes developed in consultation
with the descendant community at the outset of the
analyses conducted by Howard University: origins,
identity, transformations, and resistance. Additional
material not provided in the technical reports has been
provided to amplify and contextualize the research
findings, but every effort has been made to maintain
the integrity and direction of the original research. It
must be recognized, however, that many aspects of
the New York African Burial Ground Project were
unprecedented. The very presence of a burial ground
for Africans enslaved in colonial New York has defied
common misconceptions about the scope of slavery
in the United States and revealed the reality about the
trade in enslaved Africans. The research conducted
at the New York African Burial Ground was groundbreaking in its intent and content. The research teams
objective, as the series title states, was to reveal a
population defined not by race but by origins, not by
enslavement but by the assertion of their dignity. To
meet this objective, accepted versions of history had
to be examined critically to uncover the contributions
of a heretofore unacknowledged African population.
A biocultural approach was adopted by the skeletal
biology researchers to ensure that social, historical,

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

4
and cultural information would be used along with
biological evidence to evaluate the origins and life
experiences of the individuals interred at the burial
ground.
Subsequent to the development of the themes
included in the research design and initial public
engagement, the perspective of the researchers has
evolved, particularly through periodic African Burial
Ground updates and regular Sankofa conferences,
which they convened during the course of the research
project. For instance, in the late 1990s, the New York
African Burial Ground researchers began to question the appropriateness of focusing too heavily on
resistance, asserting that models of domination and
resistance tend to frame interactions and behaviors
according to dyadic, oppositional interactions. They
ultimately concluded that many activities of the New
York African population cannot be described adequately as acts of domination or resistance when the
interactions involved were far more complex. Models
of domination and resistance, they noted, give the
impression that the behaviors and identity of enslaved
Africans were simply a reaction to domination. As
the project evolved, the researchers came to assert an
alternate view: that rather than reacting to domination,
the Africans in Colonial and Federal period New York
were instead asserting and maintaining something that
was fundamentally their owntheir human dignity.
This point of view thus became the thrust of the
history and archaeology volumes of this series. Those
volumes seek to establish that countless activities
such as the pursuit of family life, the development
of African American institutions, the struggle for
rights and freedom, and the performance of proper
burial ritualsalong with different kinds of resistance, reflect persistent efforts among the enslaved
and free Africans of New York and throughout the
African Diaspora to assert and maintain their human
dignity. The preservation of human dignity was not
a response to domination, these volumes assert, but
a fundamental aspect of life that enslaved and free
Africans in colonial New York fought to retain despite
efforts to control and oppress Africans and African
Americans.
This example illustrates how the development and
application of new method and theory and the long
time frame of the project have resulted in the evolution of perspectives, themes, and approaches over
the course of the project. As a result of the ongoing
discussions among the researchers, their perspectives
as well as the nature of some findings changed over
The New York African Burial Ground

time. New developments and new interpretations of

the data have emerged. An invited presidential session
presenting the final analysis was delivered at the 2006
American Anthropological Association meetings, for
instance. In some cases, new information or interpretive schemes could potentially contradict or modify
the results presented here or the technical volumes.
Attempts to incorporate disciplinary changes in perspective as well as new published information are
made in this volume when possible. In most cases,
however, the information presented in this volume is
based on that presented in the revised versions of the
skeletal biology, history, and archaeology volumes in
this series, published in 2009. The original versions
of the skeletal biology and history volumes were
first posted on the Web in 2004, and the archaeology
volume, in 2006.
This volume is organized around the major research
themes suggested by the descendant community
and presented in the research design. Chapters are
organized in three sections that present background,
findings, and discussions of significance. The first
section of the volume (Chapters13) presents general
background information on the site, project history,
methods, historic context, and theoretical frameworks. The second section (Chapters 48) provides
detailed discussion of studies in history, archaeology,
and bioarchaeology as they pertain to origins and
identity, daily life, the assertion and maintenance
of human dignity, and religious practice. The third
section (Chapter9) discusses the significance of the
New York African Burial Ground research to African
Diaspora studies, the discipline of archaeology, the
nation, and the world.
Chapter1 introduces the site and its investigation
and provides basic information on the volume and
volume organization. Chapter2 provides information
on project history, including how the site came to be
discovered and excavated; field methods; laboratory
methods; reinterment; and the disposition of excavated
materials that were not reinterred. Chapter3 provides
basic historical information on the deep involvement
of New York in slavery and the transatlantic trade
in enslaved Africans, the use and development of
the African Burial Ground, and the archaeology of
enslaved Africans in New York. The presentation of
this information provides a much-needed context for
understanding the formation of the African Burial
Ground, particularly in light of the fact that slavery
in New York and other northern colonies is often
forgotten, denied, downplayed, or overlooked in the

Chapter 1. Introduction 5
popular consciousness. The effect of this misrepresentation is that northern slavery and racism were
denied (La Roche and Blakey 1997:90). The African
Burial Ground is powerful evidence that contradicts
popular understandings.
Chapter4 provides information on the diverse origins and identities of Africans interred at the African
Burial Ground as can be determined from the historical, archaeological, and skeletal evidence presented
in the three technical volumes in this series. The
chapter pays particular attention to specific regions
in Africa from which enslaved Africans originated,
how enslaved Africans were forcibly migrated to
New York and other colonies, and how the diverse
origins of enslaved Africans guided the formation of
complex diasporic identities in the Americas. Chapters5, 6, and 7 document the contours of daily life
for enslaved and free Africans and African Americans. The New York African Burial Ground Project
researchers focused a tremendous amount of research
and generated many findings on these topics. Their
research provides important information on the life
histories and experiences of diasporic Africans buried
in Lower Manhattan. In combination with historical
and archaeological information, bioarchaeological
data developed by the researchers provides important new data on the effects of enslavement on the
health status of Africans and African Americans in
New York.
Chapter5 discusses how diet, disease, and environment affected the daily lives of individuals interred at
the African Burial Ground. Conditions in Africa, the
West Indies, and New York are examined. Chapter6
discusses differences and similarities in labor experiences, family life, and demography in Africa, the
Caribbean, and New York. Historical information is
compared to data on skeletal indicators of work and
demonstrates that enslaved Africans in Manhattan
were subject to hard labor at young ages. Basic aspects
of family life in New York are contrasted with family life and kinship in Africa in order to understand
how oppression and enslavement affected fertility,
childcare, and mortality. Information discussed in
Chapters5 and 6 is then used to interpret historical
and bioarchaeological information on demographic
trends in survivorship and mortality.
Chapter7 discusses how diasporic Africans and
African Americans in Colonial (16241775) and early
Federal period (17761827) New York asserted and
maintained their human dignity. Historical information is used to discuss European and Euroamerican

efforts at domination and control and the strategies

that enslaved and free Africans and African Americans used to assert their basic right to human dignity.
Because modes of resistance were identified as a
major theme, particular attention is focused on strategies of resistance as sets of strategies for asserting
and preserving human dignity. Chapter8 discusses
how belief, spirituality, and sacrality are manifest in
the burial practices performed at the African Burial
Ground. Historical and anthropological information
on ideology and belief systems, grave goods, body
practices, spatial relationships, and relative dating
of burials are used to infer mortuary practices at
the African Burial Ground and their relationship to
conditions in New York. In combination with historical and bioarchaeological information from the
history and skeletal biology volumes in this series,
interpretation of archaeological evidence makes clear
that most of the individuals interred were provided
standardized, proper burials (Perry, Howson, and
Bianco 2009:371). To the researchers, homogeneity in mortuary practices suggests that black New
Yorkers may have arrived at a provisional consensus
about how to deal with death (Perry, Howson, and
Bianco 2009:371).
Chapter9 examines the significance of the New
York African Burial Ground to multiple disciplines,
many publics, the nation, and, in fact, the world.

Research Context
Since the New York African Burial Ground was
discovered, there has been a surge in historical and
anthropological scholarship on the African Diaspora;
the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans; the emergence of the Atlantic World; race, racism, and racialization; and the economic and cultural foundations of
slavery in different Atlantic contexts including New
York City. As a result, perspectives on these complex
historical issues are in a constant state of change
and revision. The models of decades past are being
replaced by newer models, many of which question
the validity of earlier assumptions and conclusions.
The historical literature on the political economy
of slavery and slaving in the Atlantic World is vast.
This volume does not attempt to cover or summarize
the tremendous headway that has been made since the
early 1990s. The advances and amendments of recent
historical scholarship are still fresh, and there is no
real consensus on many issues. Nonetheless, it will

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

6
highlight a few important trends that transformed how
research in those fields is conducted and how scholars
attempt to answer current research questions.
First, the broad scope and complexity of problem areas addressed by the New York African Burial
Ground Project have fostered the cross-fertilization
of scholarship from diverse fields, including history,
anthropology, political science, economics, religion, art
history, literature, philosophy, biology, and law. History
and economy have tended to dominate many studies,
but anthropology and biology are proving undeniably
important. Research in other fields, such as folklore
and law, also provide much-needed perspective.
Second, historians today confront issues of central
importance to understanding the modern world that
require long overdue revisions or corrections to earlier
perspectives. History, as it is written, influences the
daily lives of people whose ancestors were woefully
oppressed and who still suffer in real ways from the
harsh legacy of that oppression. False impressions
are a threat to an accurate understanding of the past
and are a deep insult to the people whose history they
misconstrue. Recent historical scholarship critically
reexamines long-held beliefs and misunderstandings
and attempts to reinvestigate old problems from fresh
and sometimes painfully confrontational perspectives.
Third, recent scholarship encourages more pluralistic and multidimensional understandings of the
past. Although much of history and anthropology
continues to be performed by scholars of European
descent, scholars of African and Native American
descent are leaders in these fields. Scholars of diverse
backgrounds and life experiences are beginning to
challenge existing frameworks for understanding
history and anthropology; they offer new ways to
think, new ways to evaluate, and new ways to learn.
Following the leads of critical theory and American
Pragmatism, recent scholarship celebrates academic
and social pluralism and seeks to find balance through
the juxtaposition of multiple, competing perspectives.
As Blakey (1995:226) observed in his critique of
Afrocentrism, the inextricable multidimensionality
of our human cultures and our biologies is equally
characteristic of our philosophies.... To deny these
facts denies us humans a future as a better, more
coherent world community.
Finally, the dedicated work of increasing numbers
of scholars and the recent revolution in information
management has resulted in many new data. The
publication in 1999 of The Transatlantic Slave Trade:
The New York African Burial Ground

A Database on CD-ROM, for instance, has allowed

scholars to quantitatively examine an unprecedented
volume of data pertaining to the transatlantic trade. A
number of important publications have made extensive
use of the database, but much remains to be learned.
Some of the basic conclusions of earlier scholars will
be little changed by these and other studies, but the
contours of the trade and the way questions are asked
will undergo both subtle and radical revision. Further,
investigations at sites like the New York African Burial
Ground are producing important new data. As these
data are made available and compared with the growing database of information on other sites from around
the Atlantic World, scholars will have an opportunity
to examine the documentary, material, and biological manifestations of forced migration and slavery in
ways that were previously inaccessible to scientific
investigation. Archaeology has the unique capacity
to shed light on truths that escaped the written word.
The researchers juxtaposition and interrogation of
data from archaeology, history, biology, and other
fields could begin to provide new understandings of
how the Atlantic World formed and how it shaped the
modern world.
In summary, the New York African Burial Ground
research provides crucial information on several topics that are of central importance to understanding the
formation of the modern world, including the physical
and social impacts of northern slavery, the emergence
of race and racism, the formation of diasporic African
identities, and the contributions of diasporic Africans
to culture and economy. These themes are developed
and explored throughout this volume. It is hoped that
the reader will recognize how the lives, lifestyles, and
experiences of some of our ancestors are reflected in
the lives and lifestyles we lead today. In this report,
for instance, several terms are used to describe populations under study: African, Native American, European, African American, Euroamerican, black, and
white. Terms such as African American or black
are in some cases used interchangeably, although
they do not share precisely the same meaning. The
category black, for instance, could in seventeenthand eighteenth-century New York include individuals of African, Native American, or even European
(e.g., Portuguese) affiliation or descent. The usage
of a variety of terms to discuss the populations under
study reflects variation in the particular topics being
discussed, which sources of information are used,
and differing lexicons among disciplines. Usage of
the terms black and white to refer to African

Chapter 1. Introduction 7
and African American and European and European
American individuals, respectively, is common in
the recent literature on historical-period Africans
and African Americans in New York. Usage of these
terms is in part a reflection of the racial typologies
applied in historical sources, but it is also part of an
ongoing struggle to define, redefine, and juxtapose
historical and modern identities in a racialized world.
Following the work of recent scholars, terms such as
black and white are used on occasion so as to not
distort or misrepresent historical discussions. When
discussing anthropological or biological data, however, terms such as African or African American that

stress the descent or cultural affiliation of individuals

are preferred. It is hoped that the reader will recognize
that the use of terminology is rooted in an attempt to
maintain historical and scholarly accuracy and is not
intended to support the racial typologies the New York
African Burial Ground research helps to demonstrate
as false and inaccurate. Usage of the African Burial
Ground occurred at a critical time in world history, in
a historic context that became increasingly racialized
over time, and it is partly through the study of the
African Burial Ground and other diasporic contexts
that Americans can begin to learn how we became
who we are today.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Chapter 2

Project History

No presentation of the history of the New York African Burial Ground Project can be separated from the
political aspects of the research. The project was an
extraordinary and unprecedented undertaking that
involved numerous disagreements and confrontations as well as contestations of power and authority.
Multiple versions of this history exist in various
documents (Blakey 2009a; Cantwell and Wall 2001;
Cheek 2007; Frohne 2002; Howson, Bianchi, and
Perry 2009; National Park Service 2006; Pearce
1996). Additionally, two Ph.D. dissertations and
several published articles provide extensive discussion and analysis of the project history from political, sociological, and cultural perspectives (Blakey
1998a, 2001; Epperson 1996, 1999a, 2004; Frohne
2002; LaRoche and Blakey 1997; McCarthy 1996;
Mack and Blakey 2004; Pearce 1996). To varying
levels of detail, each project history provides its
own perspective. This chapter is an attempt to provide a balanced view that highlights major events
and turning points in the New York African Burial
Ground research. For further information, readers
are asked to consult the published reports in the
research volume series (available in both electronic
and print formats) and the supporting documents
cited in this chapter.
The New York African Burial Ground was discovered during archaeological testing of a plot of land
in Lower Manhattan. The land was purchased by the
GSA as part of a $276-million project to develop
office space for federal employees who work in the
city. The GSA provides federal employees with work
environments through building, leasing, managing,
and developing properties (Frohne 2002:16). On
March1, 1988, the GSA submitted a prospectus to the
Committee on Public Works and Transportation of the

House of Representatives outlining its plans for two

sites290Broadway and Foley Square (Cantwell
and Wall 2001:278; Frohne 2002; Howson, Bianchi,
and Perry 2009). The GSA planned to lease-purchase
and develop the two commercial sites, which, at the
time, were owned by the City of New York. On the
290Broadway site, where the New York African Burial
Ground is located, the GSA planned to build a 34-story
office building on Broadway and a 4-story pavilion
at the corner of Elk and Duane Streets (Cantwell and
Wall 2001). The buildings were intended to house US
Attorney offices, an Environmental Protection Agency
regional office, and the IRS district office (Frohne
2002:18). The GSA justified the project by citing a
lack of suitable office space in Lower Manhattan for
federal employees (cf. Pearce 1996). The GSA and
former Mayor Edward Koch signed a Memorandum of
Agreement (MOA) regarding the GSAs development
interests on March11, 1988, and the project prospectus
was approved by Congressional committee on May5
of that year.
The following year, on March15, 1989, the GSA
and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
signed an MOA detailing the GSAs Section106 and
Section110 responsibilities under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 (Howson,
Bianchi, and Perry 2009:3). Section106 responsibilities included developing a plan to involve the
public and the identification of consulting parties as
described below:
The Section 106 process seeks to accommodate
historic preservation concerns with the needs
of Federal undertakings through consultation
among the agency official and other parties
with an interest in the effects of the undertak-

10
ing on historic properties, commencing at the
early stages of project planning. The goal of
consultation is to identify historic properties
potentially affected by the undertaking, assess
its effects and seek ways to avoid, minimize or
mitigate any adverse effects on historic properties [36CFR800].
Section 110 responsibilities require federal agencies
to (1)identify, evaluate, and nominate historic properties for listing in the National Register of Historic
Places (NRHP); (2)manage and maintain historic
properties in a way that considers the preservation of their historic, archaeological, architectural,
and cultural values in compliance with section106;
(3)consider adverse effects on properties not under
agency jurisdiction; (4)consult with other Federal,
State, and local agencies, Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations carrying out historic preservation
planning activities, and with the private sector; and
(5)follow a series of other regulatory procedures
aimed at the preservation of nationally significant
historic properties (16U.S. Code470h).
The New York State Historic Preservation Office
(NYSHPO) did not sign the original MOA because
they concluded the document failed to address adequately the GSAs Section106 responsibilities. At the
time, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
did not realize that in addition to the Foley Square
Property, the existing MOA pertained to 290Broadway, where historical maps placed the African Burial
Ground. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation requested a new or amended MOA that reflected
this new understanding, but the GSA refused to draft
a new MOA or an amendment to the existing one
(Frohne 2002:22).
The GSA hired the firm Edwards and Kelcey in
1988 to draft an Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS). Edwards and Kelcey subcontracted Historic
Conservation and Interpretation (HCI)a cultural
resource management (CRM) firmto draft the
section on cultural resources for the EIS (Howson,
Bianchi, and Perry 2009:1), which included information on the historical-period location and use of the
African Burial Ground (Ingle etal. 1990). Published in
July 1990, the EIS speculated that much of the African
Burial Ground would have already been destroyed by
the construction of buildings with deep subbasements.
The EIS suggested that three portions of the project
area may have experienced minimal disturbance and
were more likely to contain intact archaeological
The New York African Burial Ground

depositsformer Lot12 (80 Duane Street); portions

of Lots20, 20, and 21 (60 and 6264 Duane Street);
and Republican Alley, an eighteenth-century alley that
was never built upon. Intact burials were considered
most likely in the Republican Alley portion of the
project area. The EIS recommended limited testing
of these areas to determine if any remains of the cemetery were extant (Cheek 2007:4; Howson, Bianchi,
and Perry 2009:3).
The GSA purchased the Foley Square and 290
Broadway properties for a total of $104million in
December 1990 (Frohne 2002:19). HCI began test
excavations in the Lot12 and Republican Alley
portions of the project area in May 1991 (Howson,
Bianchi, and Perry 2009:6) (Figure2). Test procedures included sample units, trenches, and borings.
Tests in the Republican Alley portion of the project
area were intended to test for remains of the African
Burial Ground, and those in Lot 12, for domestic occupations postdating the Revolutionary War
(Cheek 2007:45). Scattered human remains were
soon discovered in disturbed contexts that were the
result of prior construction activities (Cantwell and
Wall 2001:281). Cheek (2007:5) reported that on
May28 human cranial fragments were discovered
at 14.5feet below grade in the Republican Alley
portion of the project area. In situ human burials
were discovered buried under fill deposits as much
as 2530feet thick. As Howson, Bianchi, and Perry
(2009:3) have written, This fill had protected hundreds of graves, and the discovery of this level of
preservation came as a surprise. The New York Times
reported the discovery of human remains on June15,
1991 (Hays 1991:25).
Rather than first determining the horizontal and
vertical extent of buried remains through testing,
as is normally required, the GSA decided to fully
excavate the exposed burials (Howson, Bianchi, and
Perry 2009:3). Excavation quickly revealed that the
number of intact burials was large. HCI hired the
Metropolitan Forensic Anthropology Team (MFAT),
which had earlier identified and analyzed the skeletal
remains of formerly enslaved New Yorker Pierre
Toussaint (Cantwell 1994), to assist in the burial
excavations. MFAT was headed by James Taylor of
Lehman College. HCI also hired Michael Parrington
to direct excavations, as Parrington had a great deal
of experience in excavating burial sites in urban settings; he had been in charge of the excavations at two
nineteenth-century African American cemeteries in
Philadelphia (Cantwell and Wall 2001:282).

Figure 2. Plan map of the archaeological excavation area, showing former property lines, buried foundations, and the site grid (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, and
Perry 2009:Figure 2]).

Chapter 2. Project History 11

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

12

Fieldwork
Mechanical equipment was used to remove huge
amounts of overburden in order to expose deposits
immediately above those in which graves were found
(Figure3). Hand excavation began once the tops of
grave shafts or remnants of coffins had been exposed.
Access ramps, perimeter walls, shoring facilities, and
excavation shelters were constructed in excavation
areas according to OSHA requirements (Figure3).
The GSA prioritized the footprint for the tower build-

Figure 3. Backhoe clearing adjacent to temporary archaeological

excavation shelter early in the fieldwork. (photograph by Dennis
Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, and Perry
2009:Figure 3]).

ing as a Critical Area and, according to Howson,

Bianchi, and Perry (2009:8), pressured archaeologists
to clear that area faster than other areas. As a result of
rushed clearing efforts, some historical-period features
overlying graves were hastily removed or destroyed
without documentation. In most places, the opportunity
to identify the original ground surface was also lost.
According to Howson, Bianchi, and Perry (2009:8), the
eighteenth-century ground surface was only identified
in the Republican Alley portion of the project area,
where fill layers immediately above grave shafts were
removed by hand, rather than by machine. Excavation
areas in Lots1417 and 22 and in the southern quarter
of Lot20 were cleared by heavy equipment to the
approximate transition between the A horizon, the
eighteenth-century historic ground surface, and the
B horizon, where grave outlines would be exposed
(Cheek 2007:8). Vertical control was maintained with
reference to a site datum (DatumA) that was assigned
an elevation of 31.04feet above the Manhattan datum.
In addition to graves, a total of 69excavation units
were excavated in different areas of the site. ExcavaThe New York African Burial Ground

tion units were typically 5 by 5feet or 10 by 10feet,

but the size of excavation units varied depending on the
size of the resource under investigation (e.g., a house
foundation) and other factors. Excavation levels were
determined according to cultural strata or arbitrary
levels within cultural strata (Cheek 2007:8).
Burials were assigned consecutive numbers according to standard practice. A total of 436burial numbers
were assigned; some burial numbers corresponded
to discoveries that were determined not to be graves
or were later assessed to be parts of other graves.
Ultimately, a total of 424graves were identified, and
skeletal material from 419individuals was inventoried
in the laboratory by the Howard University team.
Fifteen burials were exposed but never excavated
and were left in situ when the excavation of the
burial ground was officially closed in October 1992.
Remains from a total of 391 individuals were sufficiently preserved to be subject to laboratory skeletal
or dental measurement and, in this sense, were the
individuals entered into the anthropometric record.
These are the individuals on which most scientific
observations are based and that ultimately form the
anthropometric sample from the New York African
Burial Ground (Mark Mack, personal communication 2007). Catalog numbers were also assigned
to excavated materials. Unfortunately, each burial
(except Burial1) was assigned only one catalog
number. Although the researchers could sometimes
use bag labels or drawings to reconstruct where items
came from within a grave, it was often impossible
to determine in the laboratory if a specific item was
recovered from the grave shaft or from above, alongside, beneath, or within a coffin. From a post-field
analytical standpoint, it was difficult to determine the
specific relationships of particular artifacts to mortuary behavior, as all materials from within a grave were
essentially assigned the same provenience designation
(Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:10).
Grave-shaft-fill deposits were excavated en masse
from above coffins and screened through a -inchwire mesh. Elevations of coffin lids were taken when
evidence of coffin material was exposed. Samples
of coffin wood were collected from the lids, sides,
and bottoms of coffins when possible. Excavators
attempted to locate the cranium and femurs of a given
individual first, followed by legs and arms, chest,
hands and feet, and finally the facial and pelvic areas
(Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:10). Artifacts
within the coffin area were recorded in situ when
possible, but fill deposits removed from the matrix

Chapter 2. Project History 13

surrounding skeletal material were also screened for
artifacts. Soil samples intended for macrobotanical,
palynological, and parasitological analyses were taken
from the coffin lid area, the stomach area, the thoracic area, the pelvic area, and the sacrum (Howson,
Bianchi, and Perry 2009:22). An additional control
sample was taken from grave-shaft-fill deposits in
order to reconstruct past environment and to assess
soil conditions. Although the specific locations of control samples were not recorded, the researchers were
sometimes able to use other information, such as when
a label was written, to infer more specifically where
the control samples were located. Once individuals
were fully exposed, an MFAT anthropologist assessed
individuals in situ for age, sex, and pathology.
Field recordation standards evolved over time and
varied between excavators. Field notes that documented site stratigraphy were apparently not made,
although descriptions of specific deposits were occasionally produced. Profiles and scaled plan maps
were drawn of each investigated feature, and profiles
were drawn for each wall of excavation units (Cheek
2007:9). Field forms specifically tailored to burial
excavation were adopted partway through the project,
and over the course of the project, different forms
were used by HCI, John Milner Associates, Inc.,
and MFAT. Plan maps were made of each burial in
situ. The earliest burial drawings were made by the
excavators of burials. Later burial drawings were
made by those among the field crew who proved to
be particularly skillful in mapping tasks (Howson,
Bianchi, and Perry 2009:23). Vertical and horizontal
measurements (in hundredths of feet) were taken
for the burial drawings, with depths below datum
typically taken at the cranium, shoulders, elbows,
innominates (hip bones), sacrum, knees, ankles, feet,
and central vertebrae (Howson, Bianchi, and Perry
2009:23). Burials were then traced onto site maps,
but according to the researchers, it was often difficult to determine the relative stratigraphic position
of overlapping burials using the site maps alone.
Photographs of each burialshowing burial number,
date, grid north, and a scalewere made on 35-mm
black-and-white negative and slide film (Howson,
Bianchi, and Perry 2009:23).
Archaeologists initially estimated they would discover approximately 50burials, but under pressure
from the GSA, HCI contracted with MFAT for the
treatment of only 10burials. As many as 30field
crew members worked 7days a week, 11hours a day
(Blakey 2009a:6). Coffin remains and artifacts recov-

ered from grave shafts were bagged and sent to the

HCI laboratory facility or space provided by the GSA.
Artifacts that were directly associated with human
remains were separately bagged and sent to the project
conservators South Street Seaport laboratory in lower
Manhattan (Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:10,
22). Excavated remains were wrapped in newspaper,
placed in cardboard boxes, and stored in a three-room
laboratory at Lehman College. Newspaper can damage materials stored with it because of its acidic content, although, at the time, the use of newspapers for
temporary storage of bones was a standard practice.
Members of the descendant community considered
the use of newspaperessentially trashto wrap the
remains to be enormously disrespectful.
Construction began on the site in October 1991
while the archaeological excavation was under way.
As excavation and construction proceeded, no research
design detailing research questions, reporting, or public involvement or the procedures for feature discovery, the recovery of human remains, curation, reburial,
or data management had been developed (Blakey
2009a:8). The lack of an adequate research design
became a major issue that, in the view of many observers, underscored the haste and disrespect of the GSA.
Ultimately, the lack of an adequate research design
was a tipping point that enabled African Diaspora
scholars to gain intellectual control of the project (La
Roche and Blakey 1997; McCarthy 1996).
By December, archaeologists had discovered hundreds of burials. The GSA reported that delays in the
construction schedule had cost $6 million (Cantwell
and Wall 2001:283). Frustrated by the pace of excavations, building project manager John Rossi complained
in a controversial December6, 1991, New York Times
article that burial excavations at the New York African
Burial Ground proceeded too slowly. In the article,
he suggested that in place of conventional archaeological excavation methods, the archaeologists adopt
a coroners method to speed excavations. David
Paterson, New York State Senator at the time, became
disturbed by suggestions to switch to more expedient
excavation techniques and on December16, 1991,
established a Task Force consisting of preservationists
and concerned citizens to oversee the project.
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation,
the GSA, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), who had earlier entered into discussion
regarding the excavations in September, signed an
amended MOA on December20, 1991. The original MOA was executed to provide measures in the

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

14
event that historic properties were encountered.
Once the burial ground was identified, the amendment was necessary to provide specific mitigation
for the impacts to the burial ground. The amended
MOA required the GSA to develop and implement a
research design for the project and made stipulations
regarding the sensitive removal, analysis, and reinterment of human remains and burial-associated artifacts
and the curation of research data and materials that
would not be reinterred (Perry, Howson, and Bianco,
eds. 2009b:AppendixA.1). The research design was
to document the testing, survey, and data recovery
methods used to date and to be used to complete work
on the Federal Building site and Courthouse site (U.S.
Congress Subcommittee 1992:119). In addition to
these measures, the amended MOA stipulated plans
for public involvement, the production of a documentary video, and the development of a memorial and
interpretive center (Perry, Howson, and Bianco, eds.
2009b:AppendixA.1). Over the next 15 years, the
amended MOA guided the GSAs subsequent activities for the project.
As excavation proceeded, community concern and
outrage grew. Many felt that the GSA acted in bad
faith and discriminated against African Americans.
Community members argued that excavation and
construction at the site were impermissible acts of
desecration (Blakey 2009a; La Roche and Blakey
1997:95). Scorn was heaped on HCI and MFAT for
their involvement, although many problems stemmed
ultimately from GSA actions. In general, community members wanted excavation to cease and the
deceased to be memorialized and reinterred on-site.
Community members were also concerned that no
African American archaeologists were working on
the project and that expertise in African Diaspora
studies was notably lacking. Members of the descendant community disagreed on other points. Some
community members wanted immediate reburial;
others wanted analysis of the remains. Many African
Americans felt a strong spiritual connection to individuals in the African Burial Ground; some could have
been lineal descendants of the deceased. An altar was
erected at the site for making offerings to the ancestors. Another altar was erected at Lehman College
(Frohne 2002:42). According to Cantwell and Wall
(2001:285), archaeologists were enormously committed to their work at the site, which many thought was
one of the most important they had ever excavated,
and felt that they were doing their best in a difficult
situation to perform a highly professional job. The
The New York African Burial Ground

situation, however, increasingly made archaeologists

uncomfortable working for the GSA.
Members of the African American community
voiced concern over how their ancestors were being
stored, prompting Dr.Blakey, former curator of the
W.Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory at Howard University, to insist that he inspect
the conservation techniques (Frohne 2002:33). In his
evaluation of recovered human remains, Dr.Blakey
reported that many intact remains had been damaged
as a result of rushed excavation methods. In addition,
storage of the remains did not meet acceptable conservation standards. A number of conditions, including
exposure to ultraviolet light, mold growth, acidic packing materials, uncontrolled variation in temperature
and humidity, and mechanical stress contributed to the
deterioration of the excavated human remains. Part of
the storage problem rested in the fact that, under pressure from the GSA, MFAT had only contracted for an
estimated 10burials, although HCI initially prepared
a contract for 50burials. As a result, MFAT was not
adequately prepared to properly conserve materials
from the much larger number of graves excavated. By
August 1992, the remains of more than 400individuals were stored in the lab space at Lehman College.
By September22, 1992, an LPC inspection of the
Lehman College facilities revealed that many of the
deleterious conditions witnessed by Blakey had been
corrected. Temperature and humidity were controlled,
and remains were stored in museum-quality cabinets
using acid-free packing materials (Frohne 2002).
Concurrent construction and archaeological excavation activities in overlapping areas of the site resulted
in unfortunate accidents and damage to some burials
(Figure4). Such accidents did not inspire confidence
that the GSA had acted in good faith. On February14,
1992, approximately 20burials were irreparably damaged as a result of a construction accident involving
a backhoe. A GSA representative claimed the accident resulted from their use of an out-of-date map,
but many observers simply did not believe him
(Cantwell and Wall 2001:284). LPC archaeologist
Dan Pagano was apparently prevented from making
his scheduled weekly inspection after the accident
(Frohne 2002:35). Pagano reportedly discovered HCI
archaeologists sorting through jawbones and leg and
arm bones outside of the excavation area when he was
photographing the site with a telephoto lens (Frohne
2002:35). Pagano was allowed to reenter the site on
February19, 1992, at which point GSA Regional
Administrator Bill Diamond halted construction in

Chapter 2. Project History 15

Figure 4. Construction of the 290 Broadway Federal building

proceeded during the archaeological fieldwork. The archaeological
excavation shelter is visible at the rear. The view is toward the
southeast (photograph by Dennis Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1
[Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:Figure 6]).

areas where archaeologists were working. Vandalism also occurred on the site. Although the site was
protected at night by a team of two security guards,
illness and inclement weather interrupted surveillance
of the site for approximately 14hours the evening of
March6, 1992. At some point during the night, 6burials were disturbed by vandals who entered the site and
damaged skulls and [stole] teeth and pelvic bones
(Frohne 2002:36).
The GSA submitted a research design (Rutsch
1992) in April 1992 to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, but it was found to be unacceptable. The research design was supposed to address
data recovery methods, public involvement, analysis,
curation, reburial, data management, and reporting.
Ideally, it should have been completed and approved
prior to excavations (U.S. Congress Subcommittee
1992). Unfortunately, HCI was under tremendous
pressure from the GSA to complete excavations, working overtime 7days a week. Edward Rutsch (1992)
regretted that he had no time to develop an adequate
research design. In a letter to Regional Administrator
William Diamond, the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation Eastern Office of Project Review Director Don Klima wrote that the Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation was extremely disappointed
with the content of the research design submitted by
the GSA (U.S. Congress Subcommittee 1992:125; see
also La Roche and Blakey 1997:86). Klima described
the research design as a hastily prepared and incomplete document which fails to outline the measures
which will be taken to ensure the proper treatment of
archeologically significant areas of the project sites

(U.S. Congress Subcommittee 1992:125). La Roche

and Blakey (1997:86, 88) characterize the research
design as providing inadequate treatment of African
or African American bioarchaeology and New York
black history and placing excessive emphasis on racial
identification. The Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation recommended that the GSA either hire
additional consultants experienced in urban archaeology and human remains or enter into a cooperative agreement with a Federal agency experienced
in urban development projects, i.e. the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers (U.S. Congress Subcommittee
1992:127). Further, the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation recommended a revised research design
be submitted July16, 1992, and that the GSA meet
with the LPC, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and community representatives to discuss
the research design (U.S. Congress Subcommittee
1992:127128). In May 1992, former Mayor David
Dinkins (Figure5) established a Mayors Task Force
of concerned citizens. Two months later, Mayor Dinkins requested (as he had the previous fall) that the
GSA suspend excavations. In commenting on the
Draft Research Design for Archeological, Historical,
and Bioanthropological Investigations for the African
Burial Ground and Five Points Area New York, NY,
the Minority Environmental Lawyers Association
argued that in keeping with Advisory Council on
Historic Preservations policy, the concerns of the
descendant community regarding the treatment of
human remains and grave goods should be addressed.
As Section106 responsibilities include involvement
of the public and invitation of interested parties to
consult, the GSA began holding regular public meetings where interested members of the public could
voice their concerns. Many participants felt, however,
that the GSA was not responding to their concerns or
allowing interested parties to consult in the decisionmaking process (Cantwell and Wall 2001:284).
Starting July1, the GSA hired John Milner Associates, Inc., of West Chester, Pennsylvania, a cultural
resource management firm with experience conducting large excavations of African American sites in
urban areas. John Milner Associates, Inc., was tasked
with managing excavations and producing a revised
research design. The GSA also hiredthrough a
separate contractDr.Michael Blakey to work with
John Milner Associates, Inc. in preparing the research
design (Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:3). By
July13, more than 400burials had been exhumed, and
it was estimated that 120unexcavated burials remained

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

16

Figure 5. Mayor David Dinkins (center), Peggy King Jorde (Mayors Liaison), and Howard Dodson (Chief, Schomburg
Center) (front) are briefed on the excavation by Michael Parrington (Principal Archaeologist for HCI and John Milner
Associates) (left) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Blakey 2009a:Figure 7]).

in the pavilion portion of the site. An unknown number

of unexcavated burials remained in the ramp area of
the site. John Milner Associates, Inc., reported that it
needed approximately 68weeks to produce a revised
research design.
On July 13, 1992, the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation advised the Mayors Advisory Committee that the terms of the amendment to the MOA were
not being adequately fulfilled. As a consequence, the
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation recommended that all work should be suspended until GSA
evaluates the feasibility of preservation-in-place for
remaining burials; decides how and where to reinter
exhumed burials; evaluates the significance of the site;
and, develops a plan for the curation and management of all archaeological remains (U.S. Congress
Subcommittee 1992:157). Community representatives
recommended that the building project be redesigned
to accommodate archaeological findings, but according to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation,
the GSA countered that without Congressional legislation, they [would] remove all human remains and
construct a building without a memorial or museum
commemorating the burial site (U.S. Congress Subcommittee 1992:157).
The New York African Burial Ground

The July 27, 1992,

Subcommittee Hearing
In July 1992, failure to produce an adequate research
design prompted U.S. Representative Gus Savage to
immediately convene a Subcommittee Hearing on the
African Burial Ground. Congressman Savage planned
for the hearings to be conducted in New York, so that
public comment could be elicited.
A crucial aspect of the hearings was that the subcommittee chaired by Congressman Savage was the
same subcommittee that had previously authorized
funding for the GSA project prior to Congressman
Savages chairmanship. In the beginning of the hearings, Congressman Savage warned that whatever
Congress authorizes, it can de-authorize. And if this
Subcommittee and its parent Committee is dissatisfied with how things are proceeding when we return
to Washington tomorrow, we will proceed to exercise
in whatever way necessary that authority (U.S. Congress Subcommittee 1992:6; also quoted in Frohne
2002:49). Congressman Savage was deeply concerned
with how the GSAs project was proceeding. Prepared

Chapter 2. Project History 17

testimony was provided by numerous key witnesses,
some of whom testified orally during the hearing.1
Others did not have an opportunity to testify before
the hearings were ended. In his prepared testimony,
Howard Dodson, Chair of the Mayors Advisory Committee and Director of the Schomburg Center, summarized the opinions expressed by many who opposed
the GSAs actions. Dodson wrote that the GSA had:
Knowingly initiated construction of the Federal
Building without apparently seeking an alternative
site as required by law
Conducted the excavation without benefit of an
approved research design in violation of the terms
of the memorandum of agreement
Damaged remains of up to 20burials through construction in an excavated site
Submitted an archaeologically unprofessional and
culturally insensitive draft research design that
reflected a general lack of appreciation for the
historical and cultural significance of the find
Refused to consider reinterring the human remains
in the Federal Building site
Refused to consider providing adequate space and
funding for an appropriate memorial museum in
the Federal Building
Refused to consider redesigning the pavilion to
accommodate some of these functions
Continued to excavate human remains over the protests of African Americans and concerned New Yorkers [U.S. Congress Subcommittee 1992:170].
For their prepared testimony, the GSA argued that
continued excavations were producing extremely
valuable scientific information on an eighteenthcentury African American community. According to
the GSA, John Milner Associates, Inc., had advised
against halting excavation of the exposed remains
because conditions resulting from partial excavation
Witnesses who provided testimony at the July 27 Subcommittee
Hearing included Dr.Michael Blakey (physical anthropologist, Howard
University), Dr.Robert Bush (executive director, Advisory Council
on Historic Preservation), Dr.John Henrik Clarke (African American
historian, Hunter College and Cornell University), Hon.David Dinkins
(Mayor, New York City), Milton Herson (Commissioner, GSA),
William Diamond (Regional Administrator, GSA), and Hon.David
Paterson (State Senator, 29th District of New York). Noel Pointer
(Chairman, Coalition for the Preservation of the African Burial
Ground), Kent Barwick (Municipal Art Society), Elombe Brath (Patrice
Lumumba Coalition), Robert MacDonald (Museum of the City of New
York), and Howard Dodson (Chair, Mayors Advisory Committee and
Director, Schomburg Center) were slated to testify but did not before
Congressman Savage ended the hearing (Frohne 2002:51).
1

would expose burials to further deterioration if reburied. The Professional Archaeologists of New York
City (PANYC), however, countered this argument by
suggesting that chemically similar clean fill be used
for reburial. Financial concerns also loomed large.
To the GSA, halting excavation and construction in
the pavilion area would result in a loss in excess of
$40million comprising of $10million in land acquisition costs, $25million in construction costs and
approximately $5million in interest payments (U.S.
Congress Subcommittee 1992:166). With the exception of GSA officials, most witnesses who testified
during the hearings or provided prepared testimony
objected to (1)how excavation and curation were proceeding, (2)the lack of an adequate research design,
and (3)the lack of descendant community involvement. Most witnesses recommended that excavation
be halted until these issues were addressed.
At the end of the hearing, Congressman Savage
concluded that the GSA was in violation of Section106 and the MOA. Congressman Savage recommended that (1)the Committee order the GSA to
provide an amended prospectus immediately and that
(2)no pending requests or lease renewals of the GSA
were to be signed by the subcommittee until we get
a more honest and respectful response to what we
have heard here today(U.S. Congress Subcommittee
1992:80). Congressman Savage concluded the hearing
by poignantly decrying,
dont waste time asking this Subcommittee for
anything else so long as Im Chairman, unless
you can figure out a way to go around me. I am
not going to be a party of your disrespecting
what people here have testified, what scholars
have called, the most important archaeological
discovery of the century. I dont know what the
African American community and other people
of conscience in this city must do, but Im going
to do, Gus Savage, everything in my power to
make you change your obstinacy and your disrespect for a sector of this City [U.S. Congress
Subcommittee 1992:80].
The following day, Congressman Savage met in
his office with GSA Administrator Richard Austin,
representatives of the development company (Linpro),
and members of the Congressional Committee. As a
result of the meeting, Austin agreed to cease excavation. After an agreement between government officials
at New York Citys mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, a Federal Steering Committee was established

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

18
to facilitate community involvement. The Federal
Steering Committee was funded by the GSA and
headed by Howard Dodson, director of the Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture (U.S. Congress
Subcommittee 1992:198).
Although excavation ceased, the Advisory Council
on Historic Preservation was concerned about potential impacts on burials that had been exposed but had
not been fully excavated. Following consultation with
the GSA, LPC, Mayors Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, and the Federal Steering Committee,
the remaining 11exposed burials were excavated by
John Milner Associates, Inc. After excavations were
complete, the LPC monitored the site on a weekly
basis. Flooding was discovered through LPC monitoring on August12, 1992. The site was stabilized with
clean-sand fill and drainage pipes on August27, 1992,
and burial locations covered by the fill were marked.
The New York African Burial Ground was officially
closed on October9, 1992. The pavilion portion of
the building project was removed from the design,
under pressure from stakeholders, and it was here that
the excavations were stopped. Only those remains
exposed at the time of the hearings were removed. The
building project was completed according to schedule
in December 1994, but building occurred only in
those areas where excavation had been completed.
Other areas of the site that had not been excavated
were not built upon. Stakeholder concerns, including
those of the descendant community, and subcommittee hearings were instrumental in getting the project
halted before all remains were removed.

Howard University and John Milner

Associates, Inc.s Research Design
A follow-up subcommittee hearing was held on September24, 1992, to check on progress since the July
hearing. During the hearings, Congressman Savage
questioned GSA decisions regarding the research
design as well as the need for John Milner Associates, Inc.s involvement. Congressman Savage wondered why the GSA paid John Milner Associates, Inc.,
$50,000 to identify and contract African American
researchers already identified by Blakey rather than
pay Blakey directly to do the work.
Blakey testified during the September24 subcommittee hearings that the Howard University/John Milner Associates, Inc., research design for analysis would
The New York African Burial Ground

result in the most sophisticated and comprehensive

skeletal biological project ever conducted and that
in Howard University and John Milner Associates,
Inc.s hands, the project would be a model for community engagement (U.S. Congress Subcommittee
1992:254). A week before, on September18, the GSA
had appointed Dr.Blakey to the position of Scientific
Director, giving him oversight over all aspects of the
research for the project. The research design included
input from 42scholars and was submitted on time on
October16, 1993. The research design argued that
the African Burial Ground was eligible for listing in
the NRHP based on its association with broad historic
trends and important events (Criteriona) and its ability
to yield important information on history or prehistory
(Criteriond) (Howard University and John Milner
Associates, Inc., 1993) (see AppendixB to Volume1,
Part 2 of this series, Skeletal Biology of the New York
African Burial Ground). Originally, the African Burial
Ground was identified as important under only Criteriond, which, according to the Minority Environmental Lawyers Association, made the site a removable
resource that was significant only for its information
potential. According to this logic, any adverse effect
[including the removal of all burials] can be mitigated
by scientific study (Epperson 1999a:96).
Howard University researchers regarded the descendant community as their ethical client and actively
incorporated methods for addressing questions and
themes of interest to them (Blakey 2009a:13; Mack and
Blakey 2004). A major component of the new research
model was the inclusion of Africanist and African
Americanist scholars in all levels of the research (La
Roche and Blakey 1997:86). The New York African
Burial Ground research team, headed by Scientific
Director Dr.Michael Blakey, celebrated the transfer of
intellectual power from a white-owned CRM firm to a
team of predominantly African American scientists and
humanists with backgrounds in African Diaspora studies (La Roche and Blakey 1997). Blakey (2009a:14)
has stated that many anthropologists expressed fears
that the project supported the notion that only blacks
could study black sitesa position never put forward
by the projectindeed, our research team consisted
of racially diverse scholars.
Issues that were of principal concern to the descendant community were developed through the process
of public engagement. These included developing
knowledge on: (1)The cultural background and
origins of the burial population, (2)the cultural and
biological transformations from African to African

Chapter 2. Project History 19

American identities, (3)the quality of life brought
about by enslavement in the Americas, and (4)the
modes of resistance to enslavement (Howson, Bianchi,
and Perry 2009:5). The first three questions were presented in Howard University and John Milner Associates, Inc.s (1993) original research design as major
research questions. According to La Roche and Blakey
(1997:8687), the fourth questionconcerning modes
of resistancewas added by team members in 1995.
These were the major issues that guided research
(Blakey 2009a:13). Numerous questions specific to
individual studies are presented in the technical volumes
as well as in subsequent chapters in this volume.
The GSA sent the research design out for comments
to a number of interested parties, including the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, LPC, Federal
Steering Committee, Office of the Mayor, and the
Senate Task Force. The Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation and LPC were concerned about the projects corrective, or vindicationist, approach to history
(see Chapter9), an African American intellectual tradition that emphasizes correcting the misrepresentations
and distortions of established history (see Chapter9).
Reviewers interpreted the research approach as ethnocentric and suggested that the project instead adopt
a multicultural approach (Blakey 2009a:14; La
Roche and Blakey 1997:91). The Advisory Council
on Historic Preservation was also concerned about the
lack of involvement of local anthropologists and the
limited attention paid to the spiritual significance of
the site (Blakey 2009a:14). MFAT sent the research
design out for comment to 120 colleagues. Many
comments made about the research design had to
do with racial assessment of individuals. Although
racial assessment is common in forensic studies, the
research team regarded racial assessment as inappropriate to bioarchaeological study. At least as early as
Hrdlickas (1918, 1928) work, racial assessment has
been used in racist attempts to falsely demonstrate
black inferiority or to justify prejudicial treatment of
African Americans (Blakey 2001, 2009a; La Roche
and Blakey 1997:89; see also Epperson 1994, 1996,
1999a, 1999b). Blakey (2001, 2009a:12) has argued
that racial assessment, although useful to forensic
analysis, falsely reifies social constructs of race as
biological realities. The research teams solution to
this dilemma was to not perform racial assessment.
Some comments applauded the research teams decision, but others were adamantly opposed (Blakey
2009a:11; Epperson 1999a). Some colleagues were
also disturbed by the researchers assumption that

most or all of the buried individuals were of African

descent (Epperson 1996). Based on field assessments,
MFAT estimated that on the order of 7percent of the
remains could be European. Blakey countered that
although some individuals of European or Native
American descent could be present in the sample and
others could have mixed African, European, or Native
American ancestry, the use of racial assessment served
only to uphold the structure of a racist society (Cook
1993:27). In place of racial assessment, Blakey and
his coauthors were interested in investigating whether
individuals could be tied to specific geographic subregions or macroethnic groups. The researchers felt
that those kinds of questions were more pertinent to
understanding the origins of people interred at the
African Burial Ground.
In addition to important research themes, the
engagement of the community also brought about
some direction regarding how slavery and enslaved
Africans in New York were to be discussed and the
kinds of investigative methods approved by members
of the descendant community. For one, the researchers were strongly urged to refer to the Africans in colonial New York as Africans or enslaved Africans,
rather than slaves (Blakey 2009b:44). Community
members argued that the term slave reinforces the
dehumanizing perspectives of enslavers, whereas
enslaved African more accurately reflects the forcible imposition of enslaved status on captive Africans.
The descendant community also suggested that the
historical naming of the Negroes Burial Ground
be changed to the African Burial Ground. The new
name is consistent with the historical-period naming
of African American institutions by African Americans, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church (est. 1796) and St. Philips African Church
(est. 1818) (Blakey 2009b:44; La Roche and Blakey
1997:84). Community members also recommended
that the temporal and geographical scope of the project be expanded to include the Dutch occupation of
New Amsterdam and consideration of events and
processes in Africa and the Caribbean. Community
members approved of the use of invasive methods,
such as genetic testing and isotope studies, to study
origins (Blakey 2009b:44).

The Federal Steering Committee

As a result of the subcommittee hearings, a Federal
Steering Committee was created in October 1992 to
represent the interests of the community and make

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

20
recommendations to GSA and Congress regarding the
present and future activities affecting the pavilion portion of the New York African Burial Ground (Jorde
1993:7). The Federal Steering Committee consisted
of 27 regular members including community activists,
theologians, anthropologists, historians, a journalist,
an attorney, a New York State senator, an architect,
and representatives of the Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture, the Smithsonian, the New
York City Mayors office, LPC, and the Museum of
the City of New York. The committee also included
10 committee alternates and a total of 18 senators
and congressional representatives. who by virtue of
the offices they held acted as ex-officio committee
members (see Appendix A). Under the chairmanship of Howard Dodson, Director of the Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture, and using the
amended MOA as a guide, the Federal Steering Committee recommended on August6, 1993, a series of
seven resolutions:
I.Establish a world class museum and research
center of African and African American history
and culture within the National Historic Landmark. II.Erect memorial(s) within the landmark
area. III.Instigate a signage program interpreting the history and culture of African peoples
in the landmark area. IV.Install memorial art
work and exhibit of the excavation in the lobby
of the office building. V.Reinter the remains in
the former Pavilion area. Construct a temporary
memorial during research and a permanent one
after reburial. VI.A sacred international service
accompanies the reinterment. VII.The three
million dollars be used towards the design and
realization of these projects [summarized by
Frohne 2002:67].
Most of these resolutions were fully met, with the
exception of the museum. From the outset, the GSA
stated that building a museum within the National
Historic Landmark would not be feasible or within
their mandate, and this recommendation was taken up
by others, resulting in the current National Museum of
African American History and Culture being planned
on the Washington Mall. The GSA committed instead
to creating an interpretive center for the African Burial
Ground. The pavilion was deleted from project construction plans, and the office tower and foundation
were modified to accommodate design changes. The
lobby of 290Broadway is literally covered with the
artwork recommended by the committee, including
The New York African Burial Ground

a map placed in the lobby floor and monumental artwork located along the Duane Street side of the lobby.
Reinterment was completed in October 2003 and
consisted of 3days of ceremonies, a vigil, and a procession. An amount of up to $3million was allocated
to the memorialization of the African Burial Ground
by the Senate Appropriations Committee through
the 1993 Treasury, Postal, and General Government
Appropriations Bill, a bill approved by former President George H. W. Bush. The memorial, designed
by architect Rodney Lon, an African American of
Haitian descent, was completed and dedicated in a
ceremony in October 2007.

Landmark Status Designation

During the 1992 Congressional Hearings on the Foley
Square Construction Project and the Historic African
Burial Ground, the chair of the New York City LPC,
Laurie Beckelman, provided a list of designated New
York City landmarks and historic districts relevant to
the history of African Americans in New York City
(U.S. Congress Subcommittee 1992). Landmarks and
historic districts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens,
Staten Island, and the Bronx were listed. Table1 provides a list of designated New York City landmarks
in Manhattan that were at that time affiliated with
African Americans.
Before the African Burial Ground was designated
a New York City Landmark, 30landmarks especially
significant to African American history in Manhattan
were listed. Most of these were places of worship
(n=12) or residences (n=8). Other landmarks were
places of entertainment (n=4), meeting places (n=2),
an armory, a hotel, and the New York Public Library.
The majority of designated landmarks were buildings
constructed during the twentieth century (n=19), and
most landmarks (n=25) were constructed after the
Civil War. Unlike the African Burial Ground, none of
the landmarks was established prior to the nineteenth
century. The designation of the New York African
Burial Ground as a landmark on New York State and
federal lists provides additional legal protection to
the site and restricts the potential for future negative
impacts on the site. The African Burial Ground and
the Commons Historic District was designated a New
York City Landmark by the LPC on February25, 1993
(Dunlap 1993:B3). The entire area that historically
contained the African Burial Ground was proclaimed
a National Historic Landmark on April19, 1993 (NPS
Archeology Program 2006).

Chapter 2. Project History 21

Table 1. African American Affiliated Landmarks in Manhattan Identified as of 1992, Prior to the
Designation of the African Burial Ground as a New York Landmark
New York Landmark

Construction Dates

Function

St. Patricks Old Cathedral

18091815

place of worship

St. Peters R. C. Church

18361840

place of worship

Oliver Street Baptist Church

18441845

place of worship

St. Georges Church

18461856

place of worship

17 East 128th Street

1864

residence

Langston Hughes House

1869

residence

St. Andrews Church

18721873

place of worship

Astor Row

18801883

residence

Metropolitan Baptist Church

18841885

place of worship

St. Martins Episcopal Church Complex

18871889

place of worship

Church of St. Mary-the-Virgin

18941895

place of worship

New York Public Library

19031905

library

Regent Theater

19051916

entertainment

St. Pauls German Evangelical Church

1910

place of worship

St. Philips Protestant Episcopal Church

1910

place of worship

Hotel Theresa

19121913

hotel

Apollo Theater

19131914

entertainment

Colonial Parkway Apartments

1916

residence

Roger Morris Apartments

1916

residence

Young Mens Christian Association Building

1918

meeting place

Town Hall

19191921

town hall

369th Regiment Armory

19211924

armory

Renaissance Theater and Casino

19211922

entertainment

Abyssinian Baptist Church and Community House

19221923

place of worship

Graham Court Apartments

19231937

residence

Mother Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church

19231925

place of worship

ANTA Theater

19241925

entertainment

Dunbar Apartments

19261928

residence

Young Mens Christian Association Building

19311932

meeting place

Harlem River Houses

19361937

residence

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

22

The Office of Public Education

and Interpretation
The Office of Public Education and Interpretation
(OPEI), headed by urban anthropologist Dr.Sherrill
Wilson, was opened by the GSA in Lower Manhattan on May20, 1993. The office was opened to fulfill
GSAs public involvement responsibilities as outlined
in the amended MOA for the project. The OPEIs purpose was to provide information to the New York community and the overall public about the burial ground
and the ongoing research. To carry out this mission, Dr.
Wilson and her staff created an educational program
for schoolchildren of all grade levels as well as adults.
These programs included site tours, slide presentations, and quarterly educators and public symposia.
The OPEI created a Public Archival Reading Room
of books, articles, and other sources about the burial
ground, African and African American history, and
other subjects, which was open to all visitors. In addition to operating an information desk in the lobby of
290 Broadway, the OPEI published a newsletter three
times annually, which included periodic updates on
the progress and results of the research. Between 1993
and 2006, the OPEI disseminated information to more
than 100,000people, including schoolchildren, church
groups, and community organizations. Additionally,
the OPEI administered a high school and collegelevel internship program, sponsored student writing
competitions and community events, and trained many
volunteers to help inform local communities of issues
and current events relating to the project (La Roche
and Blakey 1997:97). Formerly housed in the World
Trade Center, the OPEI was later moved to 290Broadway. The function of the OPEI was transferred to the
NPS with the development of an interim interpretive
center at 290Broadway in 2006.

The Analytical Phase of the New

York African Burial Ground Project
The GSA awarded the postexcavation analytical phase
of the project to Howard University. It included laboratory analysis and interdisciplinary studies in history,
archaeology, and skeletal biology. This phase of the
research was managed by Dr.O.Jackson Cole (Executive in Charge, Howard University) and Dr.JamesA.
Donaldson (Project Manager, Howard University).
As previously mentioned, Dr.Michael Blakey (then
The New York African Burial Ground

at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology,

Howard University) was the scientific director. Blakey
had responsibility for all project administration and
scientific design, research, and reporting as well as
public and client relations (Blakey, Mack, Shujaa,
etal. 2009:50).
Blakey assembled a diverse team of leading scholars in history, physical anthropology, and archaeology
from nine universities, including Howard University.
Many members of the research team were African
American scholars with backgrounds in African
Diaspora studies. Research team members were interested in applying a publicly engaged, biocultural
approach to study of the site (Blakey 2009a:12).

Transfer of Human Remains

to Howard University
Human remains excavated from the New York African
Burial Ground were brought to Howard University
between August and November 1993. The transfer was
overseen by a peer review panel and was discussed
at a public forum in City Hall. Religious ceremonies
surrounding the transfer included a candlelight procession at the New York African Burial Ground and a religious service at the Mariners Temple Baptist Church
(Frohne 2002:75). Blakey addressed participants at
the ceremonies by saying, our job [as scientists] is
to sit at the feet of those that were enslaved. Our job
is to restore them to who they were: their origins,
age, culture, and work, and to restore their identities,
which were buried and seemingly disguised from us
forever (quoted in Frohne 2002:7576). The arrival
of the remains was celebrated on November5, 1993,
at Howard University by an event called The Ties
that Bind (Figure6). The event included religious,
academic, and cultural ceremonies; musical performances; a scholarly seminar on the African Diaspora;
and a gala reception.

Skeletal Laboratory Analysis

Skeletal recordation was conducted in the W.Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory of
Howard University (Figure 7). The laboratory is a
large, state-of-the-art facility equipped with advanced
storage facilities, security, and environmental controls.
Mark Mack served as laboratory director, M.Cassandra Hill served as osteologist, and Reba Brewington

Chapter 2. Project History 23

Figure 6. Night procession of The Ties That Bind ceremony marking the transfer of the New York African Burial Ground ancestral
remains to Howard University in November of 1993 (photograph by Roy Lewis) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Blakey 2009a:Figure 8]).

Project Director Michael Blakey discusses

organization of the database with Data Systems
Manager Douglas Fuller in the W. Montague Cobb
Biological Anthropology Laboratory at Howard
University (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Blakey, Mack,
Shujaa, et al. 2009:Figure 11]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

24

Figure 8. (Top left) Allison Davis and Keisha

Hurst take anthropometric measurements;
(bottom left) safety equipment used in
unwrapping burials; (right) laboratory
director Mark Mack conducts dental
recordation (from Volume 1, Part 1
[Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, et al. 2009:Figures
15 (top left), 13 (bottom left), 27 (right)]).

Figure 9. Osteological Technician Assistant Joseph

Jones involved in cleaning and reconstruction
(from Volume 1, Part 1 [Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, et al.
2009:Figure 14]).

served as office manager and administrative assistant. Numerous individuals, including many Howard
University physical anthropology students, served
as osteological technicians, osteological technician
assistants, and research assistants (for descriptions
of specific duties, supervision, and personnel, see
Chapter4 of the skeletal biology volume of this series
[Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal. 2009]). Other positions
at the lab included medical photographer, data systems manager, botanist, conservator, and secretary
(Figure8).
The New York African Burial Ground

Many skeletons arrived in the laboratory encased

in blocks of soil. Skeletal material was carefully
cleaned of soil matrix and photographed regularly
throughout the cleaning process (Figure9). Most
skeletal elements were removed complete from soil
matrices. Fragmented skeletal elements were reconstructed when possible using polyvinyl acetate so
that more accurate measurements and assessments
could be made. All complete and incomplete skeletal
elements and dentition were inventoried for each
burial according to the Standards for Data Collection

Chapter 2. Project History 25

from Human Remains (Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994)
(detailed laboratory methods are provided in Volume1
of this series, Skeletal Biology of the New York African
Burial Ground [Blakey and Rankin-Hill, eds. 2009]).
Inventory information was used to assess the relative
state of preservation for each individual and to assess
amenability of observable skeletal elements for analysis (Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal. 2009:54). Dentition
was cleaned, identified, assessed, and curated separately by the laboratory director and his assistants
(Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal. 2009:60).
Inventoried individuals were tested for fungus
infestation and stored in airtight interior steel cabinets labeled with OSHA-required biohazard signs
(Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal. 2009:49). Twenty-five
skeletons were quarantined owing to fungus infestation, and several were isolated because of their proximity to one of the affected skeletons. Quarantined
skeletons were evaluated by project botanists, treated
with ethanol, and processed according to University
Biohazards Committee guidelines. Six individuals
remained quarantined due to infestation with pathogenic Blastomyces fungus or storage in close proximity to hazardous specimens (Blakey, Mack, Shujaa,
etal. 2009:5253).
Data collected during laboratory recordation
included on the order of 250,000 observations on
skeletal elements or dentition from 391individuals,
55,000medical photographs, 2,000X-ray radiographs, and a small number of cranial computed
tomography (CAT) scans. Numerous anthropological
measurements were made on cranial and postcranial elements. Damaged, warped, or incompletely
preserved elements were not measured if it was
deemed that an accurate measurement was unlikely.
Measurements for immature (<20years) and mature
individuals were made using separate forms. Two sets
of measurements were taken by different technicians
or on different dates in order to maintain quality control and assess the effect of intra- and inter-observer
variation on analysis. A third set of measurements
was taken when a variance of more than 5percent
from the average of two measurements was observed.
Variance more than 5percent was rarely observed,
and an average of the two measurements was used
for analytical purposes (Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal.
2009:55).
Sex was determined for each individual by taking the average of ordinal scores assigned for each
individual to cranial, pelvic, and other postcranial
dimensions. Each of 10cranial, 7pelvic, and 7other

postcranial characteristics were assigned a score on

a scale of 15, with 1 demonstrating typical female
configuration, 5 marking male morphology, and 3
being indeterminate (Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal.
2009:55). Sex was determined for most individuals
by taking the average score of all attributes. In cases
where individuals exhibited a combination of maleand female-associated characteristics, the most reliable
indicators of sex were used, and a rationale for the
determination was provided. Pelvic characteristics are
generally considered most reliable in sex determination. Other postcranial characteristics proved to be
more variable in the sample and were generally given
less weight than pelvic characteristics (Blakey, Mack,
Shujaa, etal. 2009:55).
Age at death was based on multiple characteristics of bones and teeth. The researchers attempted
to assign both an age range and a mean age at death
using composite scores for different indicators of
age, but in cases of poor preservation, only a minimal age was estimated. Age estimations were based
on different characteristics for mature and immature
remains. Composite age was determined for immature remains using indictors of dental development,
degree of fusion of epiphyses, primary centers of
ossification, and diaphyseal lengths of long bones
(Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal. 2009:57). Age-at-death
for mature remains was estimated by evaluating agerelated dental attrition, osteoarthritic change, cranial
sutures, sternal rib ends, morphological change in
pubic symphyseal faces, and age-related change in
auricular surfaces of the os coxae (Blakey, Mack,
Shujaa, etal. 2009:59). The researchers took into
account the fact that strenuous forcible labor could
delay development or cause premature degenerative
changes. When different indicators of age were in
close agreement, all indicators were used to calculate
a composite age range. Unusually broad ranges were
estimated when only one indicator, such as cranial
suture closure, could be used. For statistical analysis,
a mean of the composite age range was used.
Skeletal remains for each burial were also assessed
for pathologies, anomalies, and nonmetric genetic
traits in bone (Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal. 2009:61).
Skeletal elements were described according to classification schemes provided in the Standards for
Data Collection from Human Remains. Pathologies
included fractures, dislocations, arthritis, abnormalities in the shape or size of skeletal elements,
and abnormalities in bone loss or bone formation.
Particular attention was paid to vertebral pathology,

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

26

Figure 10. Examples of the photographic record

(Burial 95, a subadult aged 712 years) (from
Volume 1, Part 1 [Mack et al. 2009:Figure 65]).

periostitis, porotic hyperostosis, and musculoskeletal

stress markers. Dentition for each burial was inventoried, measured, and assessed for morphological traits, attrition rates, enamel defects, culturally
induced alterations, and pathological observations
(Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal. 2009:60). Particular
attention was paid to hypoplasias, tooth loss, and
caries formation. Photographs (Figure10) were taken
to document each individual, and radiographs were
taken of useful crania and long bones to discover
pathologies that were not readily apparent by visual
observation (Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, etal. 2009:62).
After all measurements, photographs, and assessments had been made, bone and dental tissue samples
were taken for histology, chemistry, DNA, histomorphometry, and curation (Blakey, Mack, Shujaa,
etal. 2009:63). In addition, samples of right femora,
humeri, fibulae, and ribs were taken according to
Standards protocol for sectioning (Blakey, Mack,
Shujaa, etal. 2009:63).

Nonskeletal Laboratory Analysis

At the close of fieldwork in September 1992, the
GSA provided laboratory space in the U.S. CustomsHouse World Trade Center Building No.6 for the
analysis and storage of nonskeletal material. John
Milner Associates, Inc., directed and staffed the laboratory, which was headed up initially by Project
Conservator Gary McGowan as laboratory director.
Nonskeletal materials were processed and analyzed
at the subbasement-level laboratory at 6World Trade
Center. In the laboratory, researchers developed provenience controls, implemented appropriate cleaning,
conservation, and storage methods for nonskeletal
materials; inventoried artifacts; and processed soil
samples (detailed laboratory methods are described
in Volume2 of this series, The Archaeology of the
New York African Burial Ground [Perry, Howson, and
The New York African Burial Ground

Bianco, eds. 2009a]). Conservation was conducted by

conservators Gary McGowan and Cheryl LaRoche of
John Milner Associates, Inc. Warren Perry (Associate
Director for Archaeology for the Howard University
team, Central Connecticut State University) supervised laboratory processing beginning in 1996, along
with Laboratory Director Leonard Bianchi of John
Milner Associates, Inc. Jean Howson became codirector of the laboratory in 1998. Selected artifacts were
photographed by staff of John Milner Associates, Inc.,
from 1992 through 1995.
The researchers used multiple lines of evidence to
infer formation processes, reconstruct the historicalperiod environmental context, document overall
site stratigraphy, assess preservation, develop a
relative dating scheme for burials, and document
variation in burial practices and material culture.
They also assembled historical information in order
to reconstruct a chronology of site use as well as to
identify historical-period African diasporic burial
practices that could have been implemented at the
African Burial Ground. In addition to human burial,
formation processes at the site included disturbance
processes, such as the construction of dwellings,
construction of municipal and industrial facilities, waste disposal, grave robbing, and landfilling
(Howson and Bianchi 2009a:7374) (Figure11).
Nonburial features and artifacts not associated with
burial features are discussed in a separate report
produced by John Milner Associates, Inc. (Cheek
and Roberts 2007).
Reconstructing overall site stratigraphy was complicated by limited documentation in the field of
stratigraphic profiles or the historical-period ground
surface. Change in the relative elevation of burials
across the site conforms to historically documented
change in the slope of the original ground surface,
but detailed stratigraphic information was generally
lacking (Howson and Bianchi 2009a:81). Preserva-

Chapter 2. Project History 27

Figure 11. Sketch map of Burial 213, showing disturbance by a nineteenth-century brick-lined
drain (drawn by W.Williams and M. Schur) (from Volume 2, Part 2 [Perry, Howson, and Bianco, eds.
2009c:292]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

28
tion was assessed based on the degree of damage to
burials, the presence or absence of skeletal elements,
and the degree to which skeletal elements were disarticulated or disturbed. Often, differential preservation
based on variation among burials in bioturbation,
hydrology, or soil chemistry could not be assessed,
owing to limited information. It was thus difficult
to assess the effects of differential preservation on
artifact distribution or burial attributes (Howson and
Bianchi 2009a:84).
A relative dating scheme was developed. Four
periods of site use were inferred using the location of
historical-period fence lines, variation in historically
documented landownership and land use, patterns in
animal-bone dumping from a nearby historical-period
tannery, patterns in pottery-waste dumping from a
nearby historical-period pottery (ca.17281765), artifact dating, burial stratigraphy, and variation in coffin
shape. Burials were assigned to one of four different
temporal groups: Early Group (preca.a.d.1735),
Middle Group (ca. a.d. 17351760), Late-Middle Group (ca. a.d.17601776), and Late Group
(ca.a.d.17761795) (Howson, Perry, etal. 2009:87
105; Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009a, 2009b, 2009c,
2009d) (see AppendixB; Figures1215). Materialculture studies focused on coffin attributes (Howson
and Bianchi 2009b), pins and shrouds (Howson 2009),
buttons and fasteners (Bianchi and Bianco 2009),
beads and other adornment (Bianco et al. 2009), and
rare items such as coins, shell, or smoking pipes (Perry
and Woodruff 2009).
On September11, 2001, the twin towers of the
World Trade Center were attacked and destroyed
by terrorists. The New York African Burial Ground
laboratory was left partially intact following the collapse of the towers and other surrounding buildings
(Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:28). Remarkably,
many documents and boxes of artifacts survived the
attack and were salvaged through the coordinated
efforts of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
and the GSA. Regrettably, some artifacts, samples, and
project records were destroyed during the collapse.
These are listed in Table6 of the archaeology volume
of this series. The OPEI was also in the World Trade
Center. Materials housed at the OPEI, such as artifact
slides, could not be salvaged (Howson, Bianchi, and
Perry 2009:Table6). All of the personal items found
with the individuals in the graves were not at the
Customs House laboratory on September11. These
artifacts had been removed to Artex, a storage facility for art objects, etc., in Landover, Maryland, in
The New York African Burial Ground

preparation for the reinterment that was being planned

at the time but not actually undertaken until 2003.
Salvaged materials are recataloged in VolumeIV of
John Milner Associates Inc.s report on the secular
use of the New York African Burial Ground (Cheek
and Roberts 2007:xxi).
The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis
District, Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections,
prepared the collection for curation at the Schomburg
Center. The collection includes the archaeological
materials that were not reinterred, digital images,
photographs, slides, videos, and documentation from
the entire project. The osteological samples are being
curated by researchers at the W. Montague Cobb
Laboratory at Howard University.

Historical Research
The historical component of the New York African
Burial Ground Project was led by Dr.Edna Greene
Medford, Howard University Associate Professor
of History and Director of History for the project.
Many prominent African Diaspora researchers and
Howard University history students contributed to the
historical research, which was much more expansive
and intensive than historical research for other CRM
projects. The first goal of the historical research
was to develop a historical context for interpreting
the origins, backgrounds, and experiences of individuals interred in the African Burial Ground. The
second goal was to provide a broader understanding of the daily life of enslaved and free people in
New York. Because of the broad scope of African
Diaspora studies and the diverse origins of individuals interred in the African Burial Ground, historical
research focused on three geographic regions: West
and West-Central Africa, the Caribbean, and New
York City. Historical information on disease environments, diet, work, and social customs and practices
was developed for all three regions. In addition, the
Africanist studies focused on the question of origins,
processes of initial enslavement in West and West
Central Africa, and the identification of specific
groups and ethnicities whose members were likely
to have been forcibly migrated to New York City.
Studies in the Caribbean focused on similar issues,
but included a special focus on activities and experiences of enslaved laborers on Caribbean plantations
prior to being forcibly migrated to New York City.
As Medford (2009:xviii) notes:

Figure 12. Western area of the New York African Burial Ground excavation (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Perry, et al. 2009:Figure 50a]).

Chapter 2. Project History 29

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 13. West-central area of the New York African Burial Ground excavation (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Perry, et al. 2009:Figure 50b]).

30

The New Yorkbased research focused on cultural practices; living conditions; resistance; the
variety and methods of labor from an age, gender, and seasonal perspective; and other factors
that would place the burial ground population
in a historical context. The wide range of documentary evidence that was consulted includes
The New York African Burial Ground

municipal and colonial office records, court

cases (both criminal and civil), laws, medical
logs, diaries and other personal papers, wills,
and newspaper advertisements that announce
sales of enslaved people and offer a glimpse
of the persistence of African peoples in their
resistance to slavery.

Figure 14. East-central and Lot 18 areas of the New York African Burial Ground excavation (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Perry, et al. 2009:Figure 50c]).

Chapter 2. Project History 31

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 15. Eastern area of the New York African Burial Ground excavation (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Perry, et al. 2009:Figure 50d]).

32

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 2. Project History 33

Figure 16. Mother Delois Blakeley heads the procession of the coffins from Wall Street to the African Burial Ground. Photograph by
Sherrill D. Wilson (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry 2009:Epilogue]).

Historical researchers included Allison Blakely,

Ph.D. (Boston University); EmilynL. Brown, MA
(Independent Researcher); SelwynH.H. Carrington,
Ph.D. (Howard University); Michael Gomez, Ph.D.
(New York University); Linda Heywood, Ph.D. (Boston University); Jean Howson, Ph.D. (Independent
Researcher); Edna Greene Medford, Ph.D. (Howard
University); Arnold Taylor, Ph.D. (Emeritus Professor,
Howard University); John Thornton, Ph.D. (Boston
University); and Jeanne Toungara, Ph.D. (Howard
University). Numerous graduate student researchers and undergraduate assistants provided research
assistance. Special assistance was provided by Sherrill Wilson, Ph.D., who directed the Office of Public
Education and Information for the project. Due to the
broad scope of the research, primary sources from
archives in Angola, England, France, the Netherlands,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Portugal, and
Wales were consulted. The results of this research
were published as Volume3 of this series, Historical
Perspectives of the African Burial Ground: New York
Blacks and the Diaspora.

Reinterment
According to the amended MOA, human remains and
artifacts directly associated with burials were to be reinterred. Reinterment took place at the New York African
Burial Ground in October 2003 (Figure16). As the
eighteenth-century ground surface was not documented
and the precise provenience of artifacts in grave shafts
was not recorded, it was not often possible to discern
which artifacts were placed on coffin lids or at the surface of graves. Artifacts that were determined to have
been placed on coffin lids, materials within coffins or
directly associated with skeletal material, and samples
of coffin wood were clearly associated with the burial
and were reinterred. Most of the materials discovered
within grave shafts were remnants of scattered trash,
including waste material from nearby industries such
as the historical-period pottery and tannery facilities.
To the researchers, most materials in the grave shaft
represent depredations on the cemetery that occurred
during the period of its use (Howson, Bianchi, and
Perry 2009:31). After discussions with members of

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

34
the public, Howard University, Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation, LPC, NYSHPO, and the NPS,
the project archaeologists decided that grave-shaft
materials would not be reinterred. To the researchers,
these materials were not deliberately placed with the
deceased, do not represent actions on the part of mourners, and lacked spiritual meaning at the time of interment (Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:31). Some
members of the descendant community felt, however,
that regardless of original intent, the presence of these
materials in the sacred ground of the cemetery over
the past 200300years had in fact imbued them with
a spiritual essence by virtue of their close contact with
the remains of the ancestors (Howson, Bianchi, and
Perry 2009:31). Nonskeletal materials that were not
reinterred were prepared for curation and transferred to
the custody of the Army Corps of Engineers, acting as
GSAs technical representative, on February27, 2006
(Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:31). Small samples
of human bone were retained for future analysis. On
the same day, President GeorgeW. Bush proclaimed
a 15,000-square-foot portion of the site as the African
Burial Ground National Monument (White House,
Office of the Press Secretary 2006).
The Schomburg Center, working in coordination
with the GSA, planned the reinterment ceremonies.
Four individualsan adult male, adult female, a male
child and a female childrepresenting the population
interred at the burial ground traveled from Howard

The New York African Burial Ground

University in Washington, D.C., to New York City,

with stops in Baltimore, Maryland; Newark, Delaware; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Newark, New
Jersey. Once at Wall Street, these individuals led the
procession of carriages up Broadway to the burial
ground for reinterment. The coffins were placed in
crypts, and a vigil was held until the following day,
when the crypts were lowered into the ground after
a final ceremony.
Colonial Williamsburg was contracted by the GSA
to replicate artifacts found in direct association with
individuals. It was determined that some items, like
beads and coins, for which actual or similar items
could be purchased, would not be replicated. From
the other artifacts, Colonial Williamsburg provided
input on what it could replicate and selected a number
of items, including metal, bone, and wood buttons;
the ear bob; rings; enamel cufflinks; straight pins;
and glass paste rings. Three copies of each item or
group of items were made by Colonial Williamsburg. All of the purchased items and one set of the
replicated artifacts would be used in the interpretive
center. The remaining sets of replicated items were
included in the archaeological collection curated
at the Schomburg Center (Howson, Bianchi, and
Perry 2009:31).The excavated individuals, along
with associated grave goods, were reburied in beautifully carved cedar and walnut coffins made in Ghana
(Figure17).

Chapter 2. Project History 35

Figure 17. Wooden coffins, hand-carved in Ghana, held the ancestors remains for reburial at the New York African Burial
Ground. Photograph by Anne and Jon Abbott (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry 2009:Epilogue]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Chapter 3

The African Burial Ground in Historical

and Archaeological Context
A Publicly Engaged Biocultural
Approach to Research
One of the strongest and most innovative aspects
of the New York African Burial Ground project has
been the project teams publicly engaged approach to
investigating the origins, lives, and deaths of African
New Yorkers within a broad biocultural and diasporic
context. With Blakey and John Milner Associates,
Inc.s research design, the scope of the project was
expanded to include not just the local or regional historic context, but also the broader diasporic context
of Africans in Africa and in the Americas for a period
that encompassed the formation, use, and closing of
the African Burial Ground.
Contextualizing the burial ground from a geographically, historically, and archaeologically broad,
diasporic perspective meant that the researchers had
to bring together traditions of scholarship that had
developed separately and had become segmented. The
research teams approach was without precedent in
American archaeology and required the intertwining
of African American intellectual traditions, including
vindicationist approaches to history, with the archaeology and bioarchaeology of the African Diaspora.
Blakey (2009c:18) has observed that
diasporic studies developed directly from the
history of African American and other diasporic
scholarship and rarely incorporated the tools of
archaeology and biology. Bioarchaeology developed from two anthropological disciplines that,
like biohistory, had evolved from Euroamerican
and other traditions of white scholarship that
rarely incorporated the social science, humanistic, and activist understandings of diasporic
studies... These segmented trends, fostered

by a racially segmented American society, have

recently been merged in our study of the eighteenth-century African Burial Ground in the
City of New York.
The New York African Burial Ground project thus
sought to resolve those differences with a synthesis
of the compatible aspects of diasporan and bioarchaeological theory and method (Blakey 2009c:26).
The theoretical approach employed by the researchers is fundamentally based in analyzing and interpreting documents, artifacts, features, and human remains
in terms of the appropriate historical, cultural, and bioarchaeological contexts. The descendant community
and project researchers felt that this synthetic diasporic
and biocultural perspective was most relevant and
essential to placing the African Burial Ground in
historical context. Given the diverse origins and life
experiences of enslaved African New Yorkers and
the sweeping transatlantic processes of enslavement
and forcible migration, the project research went far
beyond the geographic limits of Manhattan, the northeastern United States, or even North America. It was
imperative that the African Burial Ground be placed
in a broader historic context and compared to other
investigated mortuary sites of the African Diaspora,
such as those previously investigated in South Carolina, Maryland, Texas, Louisiana, Barbados, Jamaica,
Ghana, and Angola.
As Perry, Howson, and Bianco (2009:374) suggested, the African Burial Ground should be analyzed
within a worldwide context. This site did not exist in
a historical, geographic, or cultural vacuum... The
burial ground adds to a growing multidimensional
perspective on Africans during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, but it bears closer comparison to
other sites in Africa, North and South America, and the
Caribbean. In a similar vein, Medford (2009:xviii)

38
observed that in the place that was New Amsterdam,
and later became known as New York, [the people
interred in the African Burial Ground] fashioned an
existence shaped as much by global economic and
political interests as by local ones. The broad comparative context in which the African Burial Ground
is situated enabled the researchers to develop a much
richer and more complete understanding of the African
Burial Ground than could have been achieved with
a more restricted geographic, historical, and intellectual scope.
The African Burial Ground was the final resting
place for thousands of people made captive by processes of enslavement. As such, the New York African
Burial Ground Project sought to delineate the history
of slavery in New York City and place the City into
the larger context of slavery in the Americas and the
Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans. The researchers stress, that contrary to popular belief, slavery
was deeply rooted in the history of New York City.
Enslaved African labor formed the backbone of what
was to become one of the worlds greatest cities. From
the founding of New Amsterdam in 1624 and up to
the statewide emancipation of enslaved laborers on
July4, 1827, much of life in the settlement was organized around the exploitation and control of enslaved
African labor. The African Burial Ground was actively
used for burial from at least 1712 through 1795 and
could have been in use as early as ca. 1650. During
the period the burial ground was in use, no sector
of the economy or domestic life was unaffected by
slavery or the racial concepts that developed alongside
slavery in New York, as households and merchants
throughout the city sought economic gain through the
forcible labor of enslaved Africans.
Despite the deep involvement of enslaved African
New Yorkers in the political economy of New York
City, few archaeological contexts other than the New
York African Burial Ground have revealed new findings on the lives and lifestyles of African New Yorkers. Much work remains to be done in reinterpreting
earlier finds that could be related to New York African
activities and in investigating additional archaeological contexts where New York Africans were likely
to have worked and lived. The researchers publicly
engaged biocultural approach to investigating the African Burial Ground demonstrates the need to involve
the descendant community in deciding the direction
of research and expanding the scope of investigation beyond the local and regional context. With the
expressed interest of the descendant community to
The New York African Burial Ground

guide them, the researchers contextualized the site

broadly in terms of the history, culture, and biology of
the African Diaspora in West and West Central Africa,
the Caribbean, and New York. This chapter provides
a basic historic context for the African presence in
New York, relying especially on the myriad insights
and observations supplied by Volume3 of this series,
Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground
(Medford, ed. 2009) and the documentary evidence
presented in Volume2, The Archaeology of the New
York African Burial Ground, Chapter2 (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009). Information discussed includes
the role of New Amsterdam and New York in slavery
and the trade in enslaved Africans, the role of African
New Yorkers in settlement and in the formation and
use of the African Burial Ground, and the role and
visibility of African New Yorkers at contemporaneous
archaeological sites in Manhattan. Subsequent chapters place the project findings within a larger diasporic
context in terms of the projects main themes: origins,
daily life, transformations, and resistance.

Slavery in New York

The foundations of modern American life are based
in a deeply entrenched history of slavery. During
the period the African Burial Ground was in use, the
British and Dutch coloniesincluding Dutch New
Amsterdam and, later, British New Yorkwere heavily involved in slavery. New York was, in a sense, the
crucible of northern slavery. Of the northern colonies,
New York had the most enslaved laborers, was heavily involved in the trade in enslaved Africans (along
with Rhode Island and New Jersey), depended on
enslaved labor for its economic infrastructure, and
was embroiled in slavery for the longest period. In
short, slavery was integral to the development of New
York as a colony and growing commercial center
(Harris 2003; Hodges 1999; Lydon 1978; Matson
1998; McManus 1966).
For many people, historical-period slavery in North
America conjures images of enslaved Africans laboring in cotton fields on southern plantations. Cotton,
however, only became a major North American crop
in the nineteenth century, and slavery was by no
means confined to the southern colonies. Slavery
in the Americas assumed many different guises and
configurations and had much deeper roots than is generally acknowledged (Conniff and Davis 1994, 2003;
Davis 1979; Singleton 1995). Today, U.S. history

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 39

textbooks characterize slavery in the United States as
mostly a southern phenomenon associated with largescale plantation farming. Northern slavery is omitted
or glossed as a gentler, less conspicuous institution.
Prior to the discovery of the New York African Burial
Ground, few New Yorkers were cognizant of New
Yorks complicated and insidious historical involvement with slavery. Even now, public awareness of
the slavery that took place in New York is minimal
(Prince 2006). The discovery of the African Burial
Ground has heightened awareness locally on New
York, but in many parts of the country, slavery remains
synonymous with the South.
Although slavery in New York differed in important
ways from slavery on southern plantations, the horrors
and abuses of slavery were central components of New
York life for well over 200years, from shortly after
New Amsterdams founding in 1624 to well after the
official statewide emancipation of enslaved laborers in
1827 (Davis 1979). Enslaved laborers in the South were
generally far more numerous than in the North, and
on many southern plantations, enslaved laborers often
outnumbered owners or overseers. In New York City,
the population of enslaved Africans never exceeded a
quarter of the population, and many enslaved laborers performed multiple tasks other than farmwork
(Medford, ed. 2009; Rankin-Hill etal. 2009). At the
same time, enslaved laborers in the urban setting of
Manhattan lived at much higher population densities
than enslaved laborers who lived in more-extensive,
rural settlement patterns characteristic of southern
plantations (Davis 1984). During the British occupation, many households in Manhattan held enslaved
laborers (Medford, ed. 2009), with at times a rate of
involvement in the institution greater than that of whites
in South Carolina or Virginia (White 2005:168).
New York Citys involvement with slavery was
shaped by New York Citys role as an important
commercial port for the Atlantic shipping industry
and a major participant in the provisions trade with
the Chesapeake colonies and the West Indies. The
provisions trade involved the supplying of foods,
such as grain and livestock; lumber; and value-added
products, such as beer and snuff, to other colonies in
exchange for plantation products such as sugar and
rum, European goods, and enslaved Africans. New
Yorkers imported enslaved Africans to New York
(1)to contribute labor to diverse local industries (a
number of which were involved with adding value to
raw materials, such as grain and tobacco, that were
shipped to other regions); (2)to supply domestic labor-

ers to New York households; (3)to speculate on the

buying and selling of enslaved Africans in the trade
with other colonies; and (4)to support New Yorks
lucrative shipping industry (Matson 1998; Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009a). Initially, many tasks
performed by enslaved laborers in Dutch New Amsterdam (16241664) were farming and building tasks
that were necessary to build and sustain the growing
settlement. As New York City grew into a commercial port during the late-seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, many of the tasks performed by enslaved
laborers in New York were intimately tied to New
Yorks involvement with Atlantic maritime trade
coopering, sail making, porting, shipbuilding, and
sailing were principal occupations of enslaved laborers
(Medford, ed. 2009). For instance, Foote (2004:201)
has reported that by the eighteenth century, black
sailors were approximately 40percent of the British
merchant marine. Enslaved females and children supported many New York households, performing all the
domestic choressuch as sewing, cooking, cleaning,
caring for childrennecessary to run households and
to support household mercantilism. With the exception
of jobs like constable or lawmaker, enslaved Africans
performed almost every conceivable occupation performed in New York during the late-seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. To name a few, enslaved laborers
worked as blacksmiths, bakers, butchers, brewers,
bolters, barbers, tailors, farmhands, dockworkers,
jewelers, carpenters, rope makers, lumberjacks, and
builders (Medford, ed. 2009).
While the African Burial Ground was in use,
New York merchants, artisans, and households came
to depend heavily on enslaved labor. In 1703, for
instance, 40percent of New York households overall
held enslaved Africans with the rate and nature of
involvement varying across the city (Medford, ed.
2009). Of households in the citys five wards in 1703
(East, West, North, South, and Dock), more than half
in the East Ward held at least one enslaved African,
mostly adult males. Sixty percent of households in
the South Ward held at least one enslaved African,
many of them women forced into domestic service.
The rate of involvement was greatest in the Dock
Ward, where 70 percent of households, mostly those of
English and French merchants, held enslaved Africans.
The rate of household involvement was lowest in the
North and West Wards, where 20 and 30 percent of
households, respectively, held at least one enslaved
African. Outside the city, at farms in the Harlem
and Bowery neighborhoods, around 60 percent of

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

40
households, most of them Dutch, held enslaved Africans, three per household on average (Lepore 2005).
White (2005:168) has suggested that the rate of white
households involvement in slavery continued to be
high almost a century later, with 4 of 10 households
within a 1015-mile radius of New York City holding at least one enslaved African during the 1790s.
Within the city, over 20percent of white households
in 1790 used some form of African American labor,
and most of these (18 percent of white households)
depended on enslaved labor. By 1810, 10 percent of
white households were depending more on the labor
of free African New Yorkers, and enslaved labor
was used in smaller percentages (around 6percent)
of white households (White 1991:51, Table11). Part
of this decline in the exploitation of enslaved labor
probably resulted from the gradual emancipation of
enslaved laborers after 1799.
Slavery in New York began in 1625 or 1626, shortly
after the initial settlement of New Amsterdam by
Dutch fur traders in 1624. Slavery was fundamental to
New Yorks labor economy during multiple political
stagesthe Dutch settlement (16241664), British
rule (16641776), and after the Revolutionary War
(17761783), at which time New York joined the
federal constitutional republic of the United States
of America. Prior to statewide emancipation in 1827,
only during the Revolutionary War was there a partial
and incomplete hiatus in enslavement. Ironically,
most enslaved Africans in New York City were freed
from the shackles of bondage during this period not
to help the American freedom fighters but to support
the British troops who occupied New York to quash
the American Revolution (Hodges 2005; Medford,
ed. 2009). After the Revolutionary War, the British
helped more than 3,000 loyalist blacks emigrate to
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, England, and Sierra
Leone (Dodson etal. 2000:39; Foote 2004:217) (see
Chapter7). As Foote (2004:221) has lamented, for
New York African refugees of the Revolutionary War,
it was their relocation to the British side, not the long
march toward the fulfillment of liberal democracy in
the United States, that paralleled the passage from
slavery to freedom. In post-Revolutionary New York,
slavery in many ways returned to its former state. Just
5years after the close of the Revolutionary War, as the
New York legislature banned the export of enslaved
laborers from New York and granted freedom to those
who had been illegally sold (Dodson etal. 2000:50),
it also reaffirmed the 1730 slave codes (Hodges
1999:169, 2005).
The New York African Burial Ground

In New York City, religious and moral arguments

for the abolition of slavery were advanced by the mideighteenth century, but political and legal advances
only began to appear by the end of the century. Even
these were difficult compromises that prolonged the
suffering of those who would be free. For instance,
in the 1740s, a religious movement called the Great
Awakening elevated Africans, in the eyes of its Euroamerican adherents, to the same moral stature as
Europeans and questioned the morality of slavery
(Harris 2003). Unfortunately, this perspective was
not entirely universal, even among enslaved Africans.
In one rare case, the African-Dutch theologian Jacobus Eliza Capetein argued in his 1742 University of
Leiden dissertation that slavery saved Africans from
sin by exposing them to Christianity, and that there
was no explicit scriptural demand to free enslaved
Africans (Harris 2003:5152). The Society of Friends,
or Quakers, in 1770s New York and Philadelphia
began to eject slaveholders from their congregations (Harris 2003:5). Even then, New York Quakers were the last Quakers in the northern colonies to
divest themselves completely of enslaved laborers,
and despite moral opposition to slavery, Quakers never
invited African Americans to join their congregations
(Harris 2003).
In 1785, prominent members of the Church of
England and Quakers, such as John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, formed the New York Manumission
Society (Harris 2003:56; Hodges 1999). The society
offered legal aid, fought to protect fugitive Africans
from bounty hunting, and in 1787 established the
African Free School, a single-room school for boys
and girls at 245William Street (Dodson etal. 2000).
Because of economic and political concerns, members of the New York Manumission Society generally favored gradual, rather than rapid, abolition of
slavery. Consisting of elite members of Euroamerican
society, the New York Manumission Society was also
politically and economically conflicted in its motivation to combat slavery in New York. For instance,
in his 1774 Address to the People of Great Britain,
founding member John Jaywho later served as the
first Chief Justice of the United Statesaccused the
British government of political enslavement, even as
he himself was guilty of enslaving Africans (Dodson
etal. 2000; Harris 2003).
The transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans ended
before citizens agreed to halt enslavement and captivity in their own local communities. Internationally,
legal tides started to shift in opposition to slavery

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 41

during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. In
the 1772 Somerset decision, for instance, Lord Chief
Justice Mansfield decided that slavery could only
be supported by positive law, which England lacked
(Foy 2006:71). As a result, slaves through the colonies came to believe, as did many of their masters,
that if a slave reached Great Britain he or she would
be freed (Foy 2006:72). In New York, legal steps to
eliminate the trade in enslaved Africans and initiate
gradual emancipation began in the late 1780s and
1790s, concomitant with Britains initial efforts to suppress this form of trade. In 1785, the New York State
legislature passed a bill intended to abolish slavery,
but the bill was rejected by the Council of Revision
because of a number of extra clauses designed to
prevent black suffrage, interracial marriage, and the
right to testify against whites (Hodges 1999:168169).
That same year, the New York State legislature managed to lift the requirement in place since 1712
requiring masters to post a 200bond before freeing
a slave (Hodges 1999:169). In 1788, the New York
legislature made it illegal to buy or sell a slave with
the intent to export him and required owners to teach
enslaved laborers born after the act to read (Hodges
1999:169). All illegally imported enslaved laborers
were declared free, and the right to trial by jury [was
granted to enslaved laborers] accused of a capital
offense (Dodson etal. 2000:50).
The federal government, however, did little at
this time to improve the rights of enslaved laborers. For instance, in 1793, the federal government
passed the Fugitive Slave Act. The act empowered
slave catchers to enter northern states to retrieve
escaped bondpeople and required citizens to help
them (Hodges 1999:166). The act also required that
persons removing a fugitive slave from a state first get
a certificate of removal from a local, state, or federal
judge (Dodson etal. 2000:51). The problem posed
by bounty hunters seizing and removing Africans and
African Americans from New York was significant.
Organizations such as the New York Manumission
Society devoted many of their efforts to the legal
protection of blacks alleged to be fugitive enslaved
laborers hiding in the city (Dodson etal. 2000; see
also Medford and Brown 2009a).
Despite the changing political and legal tides of
the late-eighteenth century, some aspects of slavery remained unaltered. It took several decades for
enslaved laborers in New York to be emancipated
and even longer before the last vestiges of slavery
in the state disappeared (Davis 2009; Rael 2005). As

White (2005:151) has noted, measures to end slavery in New York were enacted at an almost glacial
pace. An emancipation law was finally passed in New
York State in 1799. The act specified a gradual end to
slavery, granting freedom to the children of enslaved
laborers after long periods of indentured servitude.
Under the act, the male children of enslaved mothers were indentured to their mothers enslavers for
28years. Female children of enslaved mothers were
indentured to their mothers enslavers for 25years
(Harris 2003:11). New York legislators were fearful that rapid and immediate abolition would cause
widespread civil unrest and economic depression.
Under the new law, the owners of enslaved laborers
were permitted to abandon newborns after 1year, at
which time the abandoned children would be cared
for by the state. Hodges (1999:170) has argued that
the abandonment clause was a hidden form of compensated abolition, as New York State agreed to pay,
even to former owners, $3.50 per month for the care
of abandoned children.
During the early-nineteenth century, widespread
international efforts at suppressing the trade in
enslaved Africans led to official bans against slaving
but did little to prohibit the use of enslaved Africans
in American labor markets. In the United States, the
importation of enslaved laborers was banned by federal law in 1808. That same year, the New York State
legislature passed An Act to Prevent the Kidnapping
of Free People of Colour (Dodson etal. 2000:5455).
Despite legal protection, illegal kidnapping of Africans and African Americans by slave-hunting posses known as blackbirders continued, and many
captured individuals were sent to Cuba and South
America (Dodson etal. 2000:55).
When the last enslaved laborers residing in New
York were finally freed on July4, 1827, no largescale celebrations were held, owing to fears of violent
conflict (Dodson etal. 2000:60). However, African
Americans celebrated Emancipation Day with quiet,
private celebrations on July4 and a peaceful march
of more than 2,000African Americans from Johns
Park to Zion Church on July5 (Dodson etal. 2000:60;
Hodges 1999). Although enslaved laborers held by
state residents were officially emancipated on July4,
1827, nonresidents were legally allowed to enter the
state with enslaved laborers until 1841 (Dodson etal.
2000:70) and continued to do so illegally for years
afterward (Davis 2009). Thus, it was long after formal
emancipation in 1827 that the last vestiges of slavery
in New York began to disappear.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

42
Even as the heroes of the Revolutionary War
decried British tyranny and likened British rule to
the enslavement of American people, they lived in
the midst of Africans and African Americans who
toiled and suffered in slavery. The abuses of slavery
in New York persisted more than a half-century after
the Revolutionary War. Like their southern contemporaries, New York inhabitants of European descent were
guilty of heinous crimes against humanity, pressing
Africans, African Americans, and Native Americans
into hard enslaved labor; severely restricting the rights
and freedoms of enslaved and free Africans; exacting
brutal and humiliating corporal punishments; and
creating a racialized political economy with effects
that continue to be felt today. Among those with a
modicum of money and power, few could be excused
from delivering the abuses of slavery, and everybody
who was free shared some degree of involvement
with the institution. Beginning as early as 1650 until
around 1795, when the African Burial Ground closed,
nearly all of those who suffered enslavement and
died in New York City would have been buried in the
African Burial Ground.

New York and the Transatlantic Trade

in Enslaved Africans
Research into the African Burial Ground shows that
many enslaved Africans, including those interred at
the African Burial Ground, were forcibly migrated
to New York through the provisions trade as well
as acquired directly from Africa. For most of the
individuals interred at the African Burial Ground,
enslavement brought them or their ancestors to New
York, where they lived out all or the remainder of
their lives and were eventually buried. The researchers
stress that in order to understand the African Burial
Ground, it is necessary to understand its place within
broad Atlantic-wide historical processes. Slavery in
New York was embedded in extensive international,
transatlantic processes that transformed the people
and places of the Atlantic World into the complex
demographic, cultural, and geographic mosaics of
the modern world.
The Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans began substantially earlier than the settlement of Dutch New
Amsterdam or the founding of the African Burial
Ground (Medford, ed. 2009) (see Chapter4). In
1444, the crew of a Portuguese ship attacked and
kidnapped Africans in the Senegambia region and
The New York African Burial Ground

forcibly migrated the captives to Portugal, where they

were later sold (Hall 2005). Enslaved Africans were
first forcibly migrated across the Atlantic to Haiti and
the Dominican Republic in 1502, just 10years after
Europeans first landed in the Caribbean (Dodson etal.
2000). The first enslaved Africans forcibly migrated
to continental North America were brought in 1526
by Spanish colonists who settled in the area of South
Carolina (Dodson etal. 2000). By the 1550s, the
Portuguese were importing large numbers of enslaved
Africans to Brazil, beginning processes of mass forcible migration that did not end for several centuries
(Medford, ed. 2009) (see Chapter4).
The Dutch became involved in the trade of enslaved
Africans with the formation of the Dutch East India
Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or
VOC, in Dutch) in 1602 (Dodson etal. 2000). The
first multinational corporation in the world, the VOC
was established to trade in Africa and Asia. Granted
a 21-year monopoly, the VOC focused its trading
efforts mainly on the Indian Ocean, East Africa, and
Southeast Asia, where it participated in a vigorous
and long-standing trade in enslaved Asians (Vink
2003). The Dutch West India Company, which was
awarded... a monopoly for trade in the Americas
and along the west coast of Africa, was founded in
1621 (Cantwell and Wall 2001:153). The West India
Companys Atlantic trading monopoly was maintained
until 1640, when the monopoly was lifted by the Dutch
(Harris 2003). In 1624, shortly after its founding, the
West India Company established New Amsterdam
as a trading post for the fur industry, and, in 1625
and 1626, imported the first 11enslaved Africans to
New Amsterdam (Dodson etal. 2000; Harris 2003;
Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009a:6; Moore
2005). Captured from Portuguese vessels and held
captive by the West India Company, the names of
the first enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam reflect
their association with West-Central Africa and Portuguese slaving: Paulo Angola, Big Manuel, Little
Manuel, Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, Simon Congo,
Anthony Portuguese Garcia, Peter Santomee, Jan
Francisco, Little Anthony, and Jan Fort Orange (Wilson 1994:37).
During the first two decades of settlement, settlers
produced little other than furs. In the early years
of settlement, settlers exported as many as 15,000
furs... annually, but the grain exports that later
came to characterize the colonys economy were
almost nonexistent (Matson 1998:15). In order to
settle New Amsterdam, the West India Company

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 43

introduced patroonships in 1629, large feudal estates
granted to company members who pledged to settle
50people within 4years. In New Project of Freedom
and Exemptions, the West India Company pledged
to supply each patroon with 12Africans captured as
prizes, but by 1636, the West India Company decided
to initiate the direct purchase of enslaved laborers.
The first West India Company voyages to the Kingdom of Kongo in West Central Africa began in 1638
(Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009a:7). The
following year, in 1639, the West India Company sent
vessels to West Africa, where various Dutch ships
loaded 688enslaved people purchased in Allada [in the
Bight of Benin region] to send to Brazil (Medford,
Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009a:7).
During the 1640s, New Amsterdam began to
develop a vigorous trade between the Chesapeake
and the West Indies, exporting manufactured goods,
beer, liquor, and cloth in exchange for dye woods,
sugar, tobacco, indigo, ginger, cotton, and enslaved
Africans. City wholesalers sent vessels
carrying European wares and cloth along with
some foodstuffs, to eager colonists along the
Delaware River or at the sugar plantations further south. They then took in peltry at the South
River; tobacco, cattle, and slaves at Virginia
and Barbados; and cotton wool, horses, and
dye-woods at Caribbean ports. On the return
trip, they stopped at New Amsterdam to drop
off cattle, horses, and slaves for the colony and
transferred peltry, specie, conch shells, and tropical luxuries to larger vessels... for the voyage
to Amsterdam [Matson 1998:17].
Merchants like Augustine Heermans, a bohemian
merchant from Prague, who in New Amsterdam built
a private warehouse next to the West India Companys
Pach Huys, teamed up to import goods on return voyages from Amsterdam [occasionally making] detours
via southern Europe for wine and slaves (Matson
1998:26; see also Cantwell and Wall 2001).
By the 1660s, New Amsterdam had become the
most important slave port in North America (Harris
2003:15) (Figure18). To Governor Peter Stuyvesant,
enslaved Africans had proven instrumental in building infrastructure and fighting Native Americans.
Stuyvesant recommended in 1660 that the West India
Company continue to import enslaved laborers, particularly those who were clever and strong (quoted
in Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009b:15). The
West India Company endeavored to meet the New

Netherlands demand for enslaved Africans. In 1644,

the Board of Accounts on New Netherland indicated
their intention to sell as many enslaved laborers as
could be afforded by the inhabitants of Pernambuco
in Dutch-occupied Brazil. That same year, when the
Tamandares cargo of enslaved Africans was insufficient to meet New Amsterdams demand, the company directors recommended they take care, that a
greater number of negroes be taken there (quoted in
Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009a:7).
Ten years later, in 1654, the Witte Paert (White
Horse) arrived in New Amsterdam with a cargo
of 300enslaved African men and women (Harris
2003:15; Matson 1998:76; Wilson 1994). In 1659, the
St. John arrived in New Amsterdam with a cargo of
300enslaved Africans and, later in the year, another
vessel carrying 331enslaved men, women, and children arrived in New Amsterdam (Wilson 1994:39).
Wilson (1994:39) has determined that the captives
from the latter shipment were sold for food products, specifically peas and pork. In 1664, the West
India Company ship Gideon arrived in New York
with a cargo of 291enslaved Africans from Guinea,
Angola, and Cayenne who had been transshipped to
New Amsterdam by way of Curaao (Heywood and
Thornton 2009a:29; Piersen 1996).
The year 1664 was crucial to the history of slavery
in New York; it marked a sea change in the oppression of enslaved laborers. In September of 1664, the
Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was captured by
the British. After this point, most enslaved Africans
that were forcibly migrated to New York were from
West Africa rather than West-Central Africa, the British became heavily involved in the trade in enslaved
Africans, and the oppression of enslaved Africans and
their descendants worsened (Medford, Brown, and
Carrington 2009:2627). After the British invasion,
New Amsterdam was renamed New York in honor
of James, Duke of York. In 1664, James, Duke of York,
was granted all of New England, including New York,
by his brother, King CharlesII. In dictating the terms
of surrender, the English recognized the legality of
all Dutch-claimed property, including slaves (Dodson
etal. 2000:27).
The researchers observe that as a major shareholder in the Royal African Company, James, Duke of
York, was a major participant in the trade in enslaved
Africans (Dodson etal. 2000; Medford, Brown, and
Carrington 2009:26). Founded in 1660, the Royal
African Company attempted to sell in Manhattan
large cargoes of slaves directly from Africa at fixed

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

44

Figure 18. The Market House, site of hiring and sale of enslaved Africans (from Bruce 1898) (from Volume 3 [Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009e:Figure 17]).

prices (Harris 2003:28). Between 1664 and 1737,

the Royal African Company sold 2,031 enslaved
Africans in Manhattan, amounting to an average of
27.8enslaved Africans per year (Harris 2003:28).
Promptly after the takeover, the notoriously restrictive Dukes laws, which essentially promoted slavery
and the trade in enslaved Africans, were established
by Governor Nicolls.
Under British law, the new codes restricted the use
of European indentured servants and promoted slavery
by granting port privileges and warehouse priority
to ships engaged in the slave trade (Dodson etal.
2000:27). Although the Royal African Company was
not as successful as anticipated by British factors, the
British effectively took over trade patterns established
earlier by the Dutch. In 1673, the Dutch conceded the
lions share of the West African slave trade and the
Caribbean staples trade to England (Matson 1998:44).
As economic relationships between British colonies
were restructured by the British, New York began to
take on a major role in distributing grain to the colonies and, as a consequence, increased its role in the
trade in enslaved Africans. In 1680, the Bolting Act
was passed by the provincial council, granting New
York City the exclusive right to bolt (sift) flour and
pack flour and biscuit for export (Rothschild 1990:11;
see also Matson 1998:103). The act further increased
New Yorks role in the trade in enslaved Africans by
substantially increasing the need for slave labor in the
Hudson Valley region (Dodson etal. 2000:29).
The New York African Burial Ground

Along with the Portuguese, the British were among

the largest importers to the Americas of enslaved
Africans between 1650 and 1800, while the African
Burial Ground was in use (see below; see also Chapter4). With the Treaty of Utrecht at the close of Queen
Annes War (17021713), England had acquired
Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Gibraltar, Minorca, and
Hudsons Bay, as well as the coveted asientothe
right to supply slaves to plantations in the Caribbean
and South American coloniesthat England won from
Spain, and that Parliament bequeathed to the newly
chartered South Sea Company (Matson 1998:123).
After Queen Annes War, New York Citys slave
trade from the Caribbean rose noticeably (Matson
1998:202). By 1720, the New York colony contained
more enslaved laborers5,470than any other northern colony. New Yorks enslaved population more than
doubled New Jerseys, which held 2,384enslaved
laborers. At the time, the largest numbers of enslaved
laborers were held in the southern colonies where,
with the exception of urban centers like Charleston,
South Carolina, they were spread across the countryside in rural plantations. For instance, in 1720 there
were 2.3times more enslaved laborers (n=12,499)
in Maryland and 4.9times more enslaved laborers in
Virginia (n=26,550) than the number in New York.
In the 1730s, economic recession caused many
residents to leave New York, and to make up the
labor deficit, importation of enslaved labor increased
(Foy 2006:57). In 1734, New Yorks merchant fleet

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 45

numbered 50, a substantial decline since 1700,
when New York boasted 124merchant vessels (Foy
2006:57). Despite a noticeable decline in merchant
shipping and economic recession, the largest number of enslaved Africans imported by New York
merchants were imported between 1725 and 1735,
averaging 150slaves a year (Matson 1998:203).
During the 1730s, a large number of New York
and New Jersey partners owned shares together in
the Catherine, Sally, and Little David, all of which
sailed to Africa for slaves or Madeira for wine (Matson 1998:199200). Between 1737 and 1771, the
Royal African company imported 4,394slaves into
Manhattan, a substantial increase on average over
the importation rates of the preceding 73years (Harris 2003:29). During this period, the Royal African
Company imported an average of 129.2enslaved
Africans per year, or 4.6times as many as during the
preceding period (16641737).
As with the Dutch, importation of enslaved laborers to New York under British rule was often a result
of the provisions trade with the West Indies (see
discussion in Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
[2009a:4347]). For instance, in the 1680s, Adolphe Philipses ships frequently brought Virginia
tobacco, Honduras dye-woods, and West Indian muscovado (raw sugar) and cotton to both London and
Amsterdam, as well as a few slaves per voyage to
New York City (Matson 1998:76). Similarly, New
Yorker Benjamin Faneuilthe son of a prominent
Boston merchant familyregularly sent vessels
to West Indian ports and brought in vessels direct
from Antigua, Martinique, Barbados, or St. Thomas
with rum, sugar, slaves, and European goods (Matson 1998:134). Although the bulk of the local trade
occurred in this way, large shipments of enslaved
Africans direct from Africa were also brought over.
In 1698, for instance, three vessels carrying enslaved
Africans arrived in New York. One carried enslaved
Africans from Guinea, and the other two returned
from Madagascar (Goodfriend 1992:112). Perhaps
referring to similar shipments, Lord Cornbury related
10years later that New Yorkers were occasionally
sending vessels to the Coast of Guinea for enslaved
Africans who were then sold in Maryland and Virginia, where there was more demand (Goodfriend
1992:113). Between 1715 and 1717, approximately
400enslaved East Africans were brought to New York
when the East India Company opened its East African slave trade to private traders (Harris 2003:29). In
1720, the Postillion and Crown Gallery made at least

six voyages that returned directly from the west coast

of Africa... with cargoes of more than one hundred
slaves each trip(Matson 1998:203). One-hundredseventeen captive Malagasy from Madagascar arrived
in New York in 1721 (Goodfriend 1992:113). Tragically, half of the captives on the 1721 voyage died
during the Middle Passage (Eltis etal. 1999).
The British were also eager to enslave Spanish
Indians and Native Americans whenever possible
(Harris 2003). In 1704, a Dutch privateer arrived in
New York with 30 prisoners captured from a Spanish prize. Owing to their dark complexion, Spanish
Indians on board the captured vessel were sold into
slavery in New York (Goodfriend 1992:114). In the
1730s and 1740s, captured dark-skinned Spanish
sailors were increasingly condemned to slavery.
To justify their reassignment, people that previously
would have been described as Spanish Indians now
came to be classed as Negroes (Foy 2006:64). The
situation worsened to the extent that, in 1740, the
Spanish government threatened to treat British subjects as enslaved laborers unless the British ended the
practice of selling dark-skinned Spanish prisoners of
war into slavery (Harris 2003:30). In New York, the
British permitted the enslavement of Native Americans from outside the colony but, to avoid insurrection,
prohibited the enslavement of native inhabitants of
the colony (Harris 2003:28).

New York Settlement

The first European to explore waterways in the vicinity of Manhattan was Giovanni da Verrazzano, a
Florentine, who in 1524 visited the Hudson River in
search of the Northwest Passage (Frohne 2002:144).
Eighty-five years later, in 1609, Henry Hudson sailed
his ship, the Half Moon, past the island Native Americans call Manhatta (Dodson etal. 2000:19). The
first Europeans to land at Manhattan were Dutch fur
traders on a voyage funded by the Van Tweenhuysen
Company (Rothschild 1990). Led by Adrian Block,
the Dutch arrived on three ships, the Tijger, captained
by Adrian Block...; the Fortuyn, captained by Hendrick Christiaensen; and the Nachtegael, captained by
Thijs Mossel (Cantwell and Wall 2001:150). After
a dispute, part of Blocks crew commandeered the
Nachtegael and abandoned Block, his captains, and the
rest of his crew to winter on Manhattan Island. Block
built temporary structures on Manhattan Island while
rebuilding his boat, the Fortuyn (Rothschild 1990:9).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

46
A member of Blocks party, the mulatto Jan Rodrigues, remained on the island and became Manhattans
first inhabitant of African descent. Later, Rodrigues
became fluent in Native American languages, and...
facilitated trade relations between [European explorers
and traders] and Native Americans (Harris 2003:13;
see also Dodson etal. 2000:19).
Within a decade of their first landing, the Dutch
elected to expand their presence into North America
by establishing a trading post in the Hudson River
Valley [in order to take advantage of] the very profitable fur trade, which they conducted with local native
groups (Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009a:5).
When New Amsterdam was first settled by the Dutch,
the local Native American Lenape had two seasonal
camps in the vicinityone at the southern tip of
Manhattan, which was called Kapsee, and the other
a short distance away, known as Werpoes (Medford,
Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009a:5). The Dutch traded
knives, axes, hoes, blankets, brass kettles, combs,
guns, and alcohol for pelts (Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009a:5). Six bouweries, or farms, were
established the following year along the eastern and
western shores of Manhattan Island, just north of the
settlement (Harris 2003:14), and the first 11enslaved
Africans in New Amsterdam, owned by the West India
Company, began to clear land for farms and construct
roads, structures, and fortifications (Dodson et al.
2000:19; Medford, ed. 2009).
In 1626, Manhattan Island was purchased by
New Netherland Director-General Peter Minuit from
local Native Americans who likely saw the purchase
as a friendly exchange that acknowledged temporary use-rights rather than the permanent transfer of
landownership (Dodson etal. 2000:20). Following
the purchase, Director Willem Verhulst aggregated
people scattered throughout New Netherland at New
Amsterdam (Frohne 2002:147). Using enslaved
labor, Fort Amsterdam, a sawmill, just over two
dozen cabins, and a gristmill were built (Medford,
Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009b:16; see also Rothschild
1990:10). Over the next two centuries, New York
saw tremendous development, with the construction
of taverns, markets, docks, churches, warehouses,
industrial parks, and other facilities. With the survey
and development of roads and new lots for commercial and residential development, the city expanded
ever northward, often swallowing up areas that once
formed its hinterland until, eventually, New York
grew into the massive, bustling megacity it is today
(Rothshild 1990).
The New York African Burial Ground

Landownership, Development,
and the African Burial Ground
The excavated portion of the New York African Burial
Ground, at 290Broadway in Block154 of Lower
Manhattan, was a small portion of the northeastern
quadrant of a much larger burial groundthe African Burial Ground. The New York African Burial
Ground researchers note that if the African Burial
Ground was approximately 6acres in size, the 0.62acre area investigated archaeologically represents
only 10percent of the burial ground, and the 0.22acre area in which burials were excavated represents
only 3.7percent of the burial ground (Howson and
Bianchi 2009a:73). Given the number of individuals
estimated from remains recovered during excavation
and assuming uniform density of burials throughout
the African Burial Ground, this figure would suggest that approximately 11,00015,000individuals
could have been buried there. During its period of
use, the African Burial Ground was contained mostly
within two privately held land parcels located near
the northern edge of the CommonCalk Hook Farm
Lot No.2 and the Van Borsum patent. Portions of
the African Burial Ground could have also extended
south into parts of the Common, such as in areas that
would later become City Hall Park.

Calk Hook Farm

The Dutchman Jan Jansen Damen received a patent in 1646 for the Calk Hook Farm, which he held
for 10years. Damens Calk Hook Farm extended
northward from the northwest corner of present-day
Block154 and skirted the west side of the Collect
Pond. After Damens death ca.1651, the Calk Hook
Farm was divided into four lots, Calk Hook Lot
Nos.14. In 1671, the southeastern lot, Calk Hook
Lot No.2, was deeded to Jan Vigne, the son-in-law of
Damens wife. This lot, which overlapped a portion
of the New York African Burial Ground, was placed
under the control of Vignes nephew, Gerrit Roos,
upon Vignes death in 1689. Ownership or control of
the land then changed hands several times until 1725,
when the Rutgers purchased the property. Peter Roos
oversaw the property beginning in 1697, as executor
of his fathers estate. The property was sold in 1708 to
Wolfort Webber. Calk Hook Lot No.2, along with Lot
Nos.1 and 3, was later acquired in 1725 by Anthony
Rutgers. Rutgerss heirs held on to the property for
the remainder of the eighteenth century, dividing it

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 47

into residential lots toward the end of the century
(Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:40).

The Van Borsum Patent

The majority of the African Burial Ground was
within the 6.6-acre Van Borsum patent. Dutchman
Cornelis Van Borsum acquired a patent in 1673
from Governor Colve for an area immediately to
the southeast of Vignes Calk Hook Lot No.2. Governor Colve, who had received the land during the
Restitution, granted it to Van Borsum in honor of
Sara Roeloffs (Van Borsums wife) service as a
translator between the government and local Native
Americans (Frohne 2002:168; Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009:47; Medford and Brown 2009b:3). The
grant was described as a
certain small parcel of land situate on the Island
of Manhattan about north-west from the Windmill, beginning from the north end of the road
which runs toward the Kalckhook, broad in front
on the road or west side, 24rods; in the rear on
the east side, the like 24rods; long on each side
as well along the Kalckhook as on the south side,
44rods each [Stokes 19151928:6:123, quoted
in Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:42].
Today, the edges of this parcel are roughly described
by a polygon enclosed by the intersections of Broadway, Duane Street, Centre Street, and Chambers Street.
A small portion of the parcel was located in the southern portion of modern-day Thomas Paine Park. Van
Borsum willed his entire estate to Sara Roeloff upon
his death in 1680 (Frohne 2002:169). Sara Roeloff
married her third husband, Elbert Stouthoff, 2years
later but retained ownership of the property through
a prenuptial agreement (Howson, Bianco, et al.
2009:42). Upon her death in 1693, Sara Roeloff willed
her estate to her children and named as executors her
son Lucas Kiersted and sons-in-law Johannis Kip and
William Teller (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:42). She
had seven living children by her first husband Hans
Kiersted1 and one by her second husband Cornelis Van
Borsum. As neither the [1673] ground brief nor the
1696 deed of confirmation mentions the cemetery,
In 1638, the 26-year-old Hans Kiersted came to New Amsterdam as
the West India Companys surgeon. Nine years later, Hans Kiersted
was granted a parcel of land at the corner of todays Whitehall and
Pearl Streets. In 1661, the city built one of two markets for trade
with Native Americans in front of the Kiersted house (Cantwell and
Wall 2001:173).
1

the first noticeable use of the African Burial Ground

for burial may have begun closer to 1700 rather than
1650 (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:42).

Land Development in the Vicinity

of the African Burial Ground
Around 1730, a stoneware pottery leased a piece of
land near the southeast corner of the Van Borsum
property; another pottery (the Crolius Pottery) was
located north of the burial ground on a parcel of land
owned by Abraham Van Vleck, the husband of Sara
Roeloffs granddaughter Maria. One or both of these
potteries is probably responsible for disposing pottery
waste materials at the African Burial Ground (Figures19 and 20). The Maerschalk Plan (1754) depicts
these potteries mid-century, as well as a palisade wall
that crossed the southern portion of the Van Borsum
property, a structure on Broadway, and a possible
fence line that may have formed the southern boundary
of the Calk Hook Farm (Figures21 and 22). During
the 1760s, three houses were built on the Van Borsum parcel along the east side of Broadway by Isaac
Teller, a descendant of William Teller. These houses
and their lots probably overlapped and disturbed
portions of the African Burial Ground. In May 1768,
Teller allegedly fenced a portion of the burial ground
and demanded payment for entry (Baugher and Lenik
1997:4; Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:48). Because
of residential development, Howson, Bianco, etal.
(2009:48) speculate that by the 1760s, it is likely
that no burials occurred within 100feet of Broadway,
the depth of a typical lot. Further, they suggest that
by the publication of the 1767 Ratzer Map, which
depicted structures and possible fence lines on all four
sides of the African Burial Ground, the physical area
available for interments was becoming increasingly
constrained by this time (Howson, Bianco, etal.
2009:52) (Figure23).

New York African Landownership, the

Common, and the African Burial Ground
Issues that are central to understanding the formation of the African Burial Ground are New York
African landownership and the development and
use of the Common. Like some domestic spaces
within the urban households of enslavers, the African
Burial Ground and New York African-owned farms
were spaces that Africans controlled to some degree.
New York African-controlled spaces, such as the

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

48

Figure 19. The Lyne-Bradford Plan, printed by

William Bradford in 1731 from a survey made
by James Lyne, depicts New York in 1730. The
general location of the African Burial Ground
is circled above. The structure encircled on the
detail at the right was the Crolius Pottery. The
large structure on the Common adjacent to the
ropewalk has not been identified. The dashed
line parallel to the ropewalk is a ward boundary
(Rare Books Division, The New York Public
Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
(from Volume 2, Part 1, [Howson, Bianchi, et al.
2009:Figure 15]).

African Burial Ground, were central to the formation of neo-African identities (see Chapter4). Many
enslaved Africans lived in the urban households of
city merchants and artisans, but free Africans formed
communities early on, including some in the vicinity of the African Burial Ground. Because of urban

The New York African Burial Ground

expansion and pressure from Euroamericans, these

communities shifted across the landscape through
time. The Common also changed through time, as
industries and public facilities were developed, and
portions of the Common were carved out to form
private parcels of land.

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 49

Figure 20. The 1740 Carwitham Plan. Named for its engraver John Carwitham, the plan provides more detail than the
Lyne-Bradford Plan (1731) on which it was based. The arrow on the upper left points to the Crolius Pottery, located just
south of the ponds, in what was probably the southeastern part of the African Burial Ground (Viscount Coke and the
Trustees of the Holkham Estate) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 16]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 21. The Maerschalk Plan, surveyed by Francis Maerschalk in 1754 and published by Gerardus Duyckink in 1755. The African Burial Ground is depicted west of the Collect Pond,
or Fresh Water (Collection of the New-York Historical Society, Accession No. NS4 M31.1.32) (from Volume 3 [Medford and Brown 2009b:Figure 2]).

50

The New York African Burial Ground

Figure 22. Detail from the Maerschalk Plan (17541755), showing the African Burial Ground and nearby features (Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress) (from Volume 2, Part 1
[Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 19]).

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 51

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 23. Detail from the Ratzer Map, 1767, surveyed by Bernard Ratzer. The general location of the African Burial Ground is circled. The hachures indicating relief suggest the
contours of the hillside sloping down from south to north through the area. Note structures on Broadway properties on the west side of the burial ground, the pottery buildings
on the southeast, the barracks (No. 26) to the south, the almshouse and gaol (No. 24 and No. 23) below the barracks, and the diagonal line that may have marked the northern
boundary of the Van Borsum patent (Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 20]).

52

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 53

Figure 24. Detail from a map of Dutch-era land grants, superimposed on a Manhattan street grid (ca.1835), showing the approximate
locations of patents issued to African men and women, Jan Jansen Damen, and Cornelis Van Borsum. Map prepared by R. H. Dodd from
translations of the original ground briefs (from Stokes 19151928:2:Plates 84Ba and 84Bb; on the creation of the map, see Stokes
[19151928:2:355357]) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 13]).

New York African Landownership

Free Africans were landowners early on in the Dutch
settlement of New Amsterdam (Medford, Brown,
Heywood, etal. 2009b:2122) (Figure24). At this

time, Europeans did not see as many differences

between themselves and Africans as those that later
came to define the strained relations between people
of African and European descent (Eltis 2002). In
seventeenth-century New Amsterdam, free Africans

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

54
legally purchased, sold, and willed land as well as
received land grants. In 1639, for instance, Anthony
Jansen van Salee, a free Moroccan, sold his Manhattan farm to Dutch baker Barent Dircksen, and
Governor Willem Kieft granted van Salee a 200-acre
farm on Long Island (Dodson etal. 2000:20; Moore
2005). The first geographically designated black
community in New York City was established north
of the city (in the area of Greenwich Village) in 1643
and 1644, when the Dutch granted half-freedom and
farm acreage to the first enslaved Africans brought
to New Amsterdam (Harris 2003:23; Moore 2005;
Wilson 1994:39). Between 1643 and 1662, the Dutch
granted parcels between 2 and 18acres in size to
28different black landowners (Table2).2 Many of
these parcels formed a loose arc around the northern
periphery of the Collect Pond and the Cripplebush, a
swampy thicket west of the Collect Pond (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009:38). Called the land of the blacks
in legal documents, Moore (2005:45) refers to this
community near the African Burial Ground as the
first legally emancipated community of people of
African descent in North America.
Between 1659 and 1660, Peter Stuyvesant relocated, for security reasons, some African farmers,
at least nine of whom were granted parcels of land,
to locations along Broadway near Stuyvesants farm
(Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:40). As an account by
Dutch traveler Jasper Danckaerts indicates, by the
1660s, a large number of landowning African families were living north of the city (Frohne 2002:157;
see also Goodfriend 1992:115). Much of todays
Washington Square Park was deeded to Big Manuel
(Manuel Groot); Paulo Angolas 6-acre grant extended
between Minetta Lane (also known as Minetta Creek
or the Negroe Causeway) and Thompson Street (Moore
2005). Domingo Antonys 12-acre parcel stretched
from near present-day Canal Street in the vicinity

Although these measures may have been partially motivated by

fears that enslaved Africans would join the Native Americans in
fighting against the Dutch, Swan (1998a, 1998b) has suggested that
the West India Companys measures were enacted to address the
problem of virtually nonexistent food production. To Swan (1998a,
1998b), Stuyvesant provided half-freedom and cultivable land to the
West India Companys enslaved Africans in order to produce food
without expense to the company... supply the garrison during an
enemy attack [and] produce pottage (a thick meat and vegetable soup
or stew transported in pots used to feed ships crews) at prices lower
than that obtained in New Netherland (Swan 1998a, 1998b). Another
reason for providing half-freedom and land north of the settlement
was to create a buffer zone that would insulate the city from attack
by hostile Native Americans (Moore 2005:43).
2

The New York African Burial Ground

of Broadway to the Collect Pond, which was near

present-day Franklin and Lafayette Streets. Simon
Congos 8-acre parcel centered on the intersection of
present-day Varick and King Streets (Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009:38). Twenty years after Stuyvesants relocation effort, Danckaerts noted that this stretch of road
was thickly settled by Africans, Europeans, and people
of mixed descent:
We went from the city, following the Broadway, over the valley, or the fresh water. Upon
both sides of this way were many habitations of
negroes, mulattoes and whites. These negroes
were formerly the proper slaves of the (West
India) company, but, in consequence of the frequent changes and conquests of the country, they
have obtained their freedom and settled themselves down where they have thought proper,
and thus on this road, where they have ground
enough to live on with their families [quoted in
Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:40].
New York Africans held onto their land, as well as
acquired more. In 1667, for instance, Solomon and
Lucas Pieters3 inherited a 6-acre farm from their father,
Pieter San Tom. In 1680, Solomon Pieters purchased
a 30-acre plot of land near Twenty-third Street and
Broadway (Dodson etal. 2000:29). Upon his death
in 1694, Solomon Pieters left his house, land, and
furnishings to his wife and his tools and weapons to
his sons (Goodfriend 1992:116). In 1674, Francisco
Bastien (or Franz Batiaensz), a free African, purchased
4acres of land in Gramercy Park from Judith Stuyvesant (Dodson etal. 2000:28; Goodfriend 1992:116)
and, 10years later, purchased a 15-acre plot of land
at Thirty-fourth Street and Sixth Avenue (Dodson
etal. 2000:28). In 1685, Anthony John Evertse, a free
African, purchased 100acres at the Great Kill from
Anna Hall (Goodfriend 1992:116), a property he
sold 12years later to Adrian van Schaick (Goodfriend
1992:253 n. 40).
Unfortunately, free African New Yorkers began to
lose their grip on landownership during the British
occupation, when new laws restricted black landownership and covetous whites pressured free blacks
for control of black-owned land as the city expanded.
By 1696, most African-owned land around the Collect Pond had been sold to people of European

Lucas, the son of a formerly enslaved African, achieved success as

the colonys first known black physician (Dodson etal. 2000:29).
3

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 55

Table 2. Land Grants Awarded to Blacks, 16431662

Landowner

Acreage

Year Granted

Catalina Anthony

1643

Domingo Anthony

12

1643

Cleyn (Little) Manuel

10

1643

Manuel Gerrit de Reus

12

1643

Manuel Trumpeter

18

1643

1643

10

1644

Simon Congo

1644

Jan Francisco

1644

Pieter San Tom

1644

Manuel Groot (Big Manuel)

1644

Cleyn (Little) Anthony

1644

Paulo DAngola

1644

12

1645

Anna DAngola

1647

Francisco DAngola

1647

Anthony Congo

1647

Bastiaen Negro

1647

Jan Negro

1647

Manuel the Spaniard

1647

Mathias Anthony

1655

Domingo Angola

1658

Claes Negro

1658

Assento Angola

1658

Francisco Cartagena

1658

Anthony of the Bowery

1658

Anthony the Blind Negro

1658

Manuel Sanders

1662

Marycke
Gracia DAngola

Anthony Portuguese

Note: This table is abstracted from data presented in Moore (2005:43).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

56
descent. As a result of laws passed following the
1712 Uprising (see Chapter7), African New Yorkers
freed after 1712 were prohibited from owning real
estate, and free Africans were required to forfeit real
estate to the British crown (Harris 2003:39; Wilson
1994:64). By 1716, after a half-century of British
rule, the last piece of land in Lower Manhattan
owned by an African New Yorker, Francisco Bastien, was sold by his heirs (Dodson etal. 2000:31).
The loss of New York African landholdings probably made the African Burial Ground all the more
important, as one of only a few African-controlled
spaces left in Manhattan.

The Common
For many European settlements, the Common was
an area on the outskirts of town that could be freely
accessed and used by townspeople for diverse purposes. Free, unrestricted use of finite, commonly held
resources, such as water, timber, or grazing lands,
often led to the overexploitation and destruction of
resources, or a situation Hardin (1968) has referred to
as The Tragedy of the Commons. In colonial New
York, the Common was located immediately north of
the city near the Collect Pond (aka Fresh Water, or
Kalkhook). The Common was used for many activities
that required open space, fresh water, pastureland, or
some degree of remove from the cityincluding grazing, hide tanning, beer brewing, livestock slaughtering, imprisonment, and human burial. In colonial New
York, the Common was the locus of the unwanted, the
smelly, and the unsightlynoxious industries, prisons,
poorhouses, military installations, and the burials of
Africans, urban poor, prisoners, prisoners of war, and
deserters. Like Hardins (1968) Common, New Yorks
Common eventually succumbed to overexploitation,
pollution, and urban development. By the beginning
of the nineteenth century, after more than a century
of overuse, pollution, and public health scares, parts
of the Common and the Collect Pond were filled in,
covered up, and put to new uses, such as residential
development.
During Dutch settlement, the Common was more or
less open space. Not much is known specifically about
how the space was used. With the British takeover
in 1664, the Common became property of the city
(Frohne 2002:168). The Common was again appropriated by the city in 1730 as part of the Montgomerie
Charter, which placed all of the waste, unpatented,
and unappropriated land under the control of city
The New York African Burial Ground

government (Frohne 2002:168). The city used the

Common to build a number of public institutions
as well as to host public events, most with negative
connotations, such as the execution of Africans persecuted for alleged participation in the purported grand
conspiracy of 1741 (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:44)
(see Chapter7). A powder house was built on the
Common in 1728 (Frohne 2002:168). The city built an
almshouse for the poor on the Common in 1734, and
in the 1740s, palisades, barracks, and a powder magazine were also constructed there (Frohne 2002:168;
Rothschild 1990:13). During the 1730s and 1740s,
public gatheringsincluding executionswere held
on the Common (Frohne 2002:168). Public executions of Africans may have occurred on the African
Burial Ground (see Chapter7) (Figure25). In 1775,
Bridewell, a city prison for debtors and vagabonds,
was built on the Common west of the citys Almshouse
(Frohne 2002:174; Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:52).
On the eve of the Revolutionary War, the Provincial
Congress ordered all free and enslaved Africans to
build fortifications in the area of the Common. Using
whatever tools they could muster, enslaved Africans
worked every day, and free Africans, every other day
(Harris 2003:55).
The Almshouse, prison, and barracks were all
located southwest (or near the southwestern edge)
of the African Burial Ground in what is now City
Hall Park. Portions of these city facilities have been
the subject of archaeological investigation. Conceivably, these city facilities could have encroached upon
early portions of the African Burial Ground and thus
disturbed burials in their construction. During the
Revolutionary War, deserters and prisoners of war
were buried behind the barracks on the Common in
an area that may have overlapped with the southern portion of the African Burial Ground (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009:52) (Figure26). The New York
African Burial Ground researchers have noted that
Revolutionary War burials probably occurred between
Reade Street and Chambers Street and were not part
of the excavated portion of the New York African
Burial Ground at Block154. Some Revolutionary
War graves may have been shallow, unceremoniously placed mass graves (Howson, Bianco, etal.
2009:52). No mass graves were discovered at the
New York African Burial Ground. Historical-period
burials have been excavated in City Hall Park, but
whether these burials are those of soldiers, prisoners,
Almshouse residents, or enslaved Africans has yet to
be determined.

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 57

Figure 25. Detail from New Yorker David Grims recollection

of the city in 17421744, showing two of the punishments
meted out to Africans convicted of conspiring to set fire to
the town. The stake at which some of the conspirators were
burned (No. 55) is set across from a tannery (No. 40). A box
representing the powder house (No.27) is near the scaffold
where the gibbeting took place (No. 56). Northwest of the
scaffold are the Remmey & Crolius Pottery (No. 44) and the
neatly laid gardens of the Rutgers estate (No. 45). Grim labeled
the small building to the southwest of the scaffold (No. 43,
abutting the palisade) as the Corselius Pottery (The Lionel
Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public
Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations) (from Volume 2,
Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 18]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

58

Figure 26. Detail from the British Headquarters Map (1782), showing the area behind the barracks used for interments by the
occupying British forces during the Revolution. The general location of the African Burial Ground is circled. The southern portion
of the African Burial Ground is stippled with crosses, a convention the mapmaker used to represent congregational, such as St.
Pauls churchyard, in the lower left corner, and common burial grounds (The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The
New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 21]).

The Establishment and Use of the

African Burial Ground
The formation and use of the African Burial Ground has
partly to do with variation in the availability of other
spaces for the burial of the settlements many Africans.
The New York African Burial Ground researchers note
that during the seventeenth century, many Africans in
Manhattan would have been buried in one of several
kinds of settings that were available for the burial of
Africans: (1)farm plots, (2)congregational yards,
(3)town cemeteries, or (4)the African Burial Ground
(Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009). The burial of Africans,
for instance, may have occurred in the yard of a chapel
constructed by Peter Stuyvesant for the residents of
The New York African Burial Ground

his Manhattan bouwerie. Similarly, enslaved African

burials may have also been permitted near the African
camp at the West India Companys lumber mill on
the Saw River (approximately 4.5miles northeast of
the African Burial Ground near present-day Seventyfourth Street) (Figure27). Africans may have also been
buried in one of the towns two cemeteries, although
this possibility has yet to be verified by historical
records. The first town cemetery (16491676) was
approximately three-quarters of a mile southwest of
the African Burial Ground, near present-day Morris
Street, north of Battery Park (Howson, Bianco, etal.
2009:35) (Figure28). The Dutch Reformed Church
oversaw the upkeep and use of the cemetery [as well
as] collected fees for the rental of the pall, straps,

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 59

Figure 27. Detail from the Manatus Map, a depiction of New Amsterdam in 1639, with a mark (F) showing the
camp (near present-day 74th Street) where the Dutch West India Company housed African workers (Geography
& Map Division, Library of Congress) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 10]).

Figure 28. The Castello Plan, cartographer Jacques Cortelyous street grid of New Amsterdam in 1660, showing the
common burial ground on the west side of the wagon road (Broadway), midway between the fort and the wall (Wall
Street) (I. N. Phelps Stokes Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York
Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 11]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

60
benches, and boards and for tolling the bell for the
dead (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:37). At least as
early as 1661, and probably earlier, records for all
burials were supposedly kept, but those records have
not been located (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:37). A
second public cemetery, which also could have allowed
African burials, was opened later just north of the citys
wall, near present-day Wall Street (Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009:35).
A fourth possible location for African burials was,
of course, the African Burial Ground. The first known
record of the African Burial Ground dates to 1712. In a
letter dated June23, 1712, Chaplain John Sharpe of the
Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts (SPG) wrote that Africans were buried
in the Common by those of their country and complexion without the office [of a Christian minister], on the
contrary the Heathenish rites are performed at the grave
by their countrymen (Sharpe 1881:355, quoted in
Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:43). The New York African
Burial Ground researchers hypothesize, however, that
the burial ground may have been in use much earlier,
perhaps as early as the 1640s (Howson, Bianco, etal.
2009:42). As stated above, parcels conveyed to halffree Africans during the 1640s hugged the northern
edges of the Collect Pond and Cripplebush. Further to
the south, some of the land encompassing what later
became known as The Negroes Burial Ground was
controlled by Dutch landowners.
The New York African Burial Ground researchers
note that, given the long-standing presence of African
residences in the general vicinity of the Collect Pond,
the earliest possible use of the African Burial Ground
could have been sometime between 1640 and 1660
and suggest a hypothetical date of ca.1650 when
Africans could have first interred their dead there.
The land was not particularly useful for residential or
agricultural development, leading the New York African Burial Ground researchers to suggest that Dutch
deed holders and the English colonial government
would have abided African burials there (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009:42).
One event that may have precipitated use of the
African Burial Ground occurred in 1697. In October
1697, the Anglican Trinity Church, which incorporated the second public cemetery into its church yard,
banned the burial of Africans in its cemetery (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009:35):
Ordered, That after the Expiration of four weeks
from the dates hereof no Negroes be buried
The New York African Burial Ground

within the bounds & Limits of the Church Yard

of Trinity Church, that is to say, in the rear of
the present burying place & that no person or
Negro whatsoever, do presume after the terme
above Limited to break up any ground for the
burying of his Negro, as they will answer it at
their perill [Trinity Church Archives, New York,
Minutes of the Vestry, October 25, 1697].
The English held a substantial proportion of enslaved
Africans in 1703 (Goodfriend 1992:76), leading the
researchers to suggest that the ban would have had
a noticeable impact on where Africans were buried during the eighteenth century (Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009:43). As burial records are not extant
prior to 1777, and churchyard headstones... may
not have been provided to blacks it remains possible that some African-descended communicants
were buried during the eighteenth century at Trinity
Church (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:37 n.1). Harris (2003:35) has reported 869baptisms of enslaved
Africans at Trinity Church between 1704 and 1764,
and Dodson etal. (2000:31) have written that in the
1720s, African servants regularly attended Sunday
catechisms there. Nonetheless, an extremely small
percentage of Africans who attended church services
were church members (Harris 2003:35). A small,
separate burial ground for Africans was established by
Trinity Church in 1773 on a lot bounded by presentday Church Street, Reade Street, and West Broadway
(Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:52). Less than a quarter
mile west of the African Burial Ground, the Trinity
Church burial ground for people of African descent
was in use until August 1795, but records for burials
have not been located.4

During the eighteenth century, other denominations may have

allowed the burial of Africans in their cemeteries, but records are
thin. For most churches, records are only extant for portions of the
eighteenth century and are not available for much of the period
when the African Burial Ground is hypothesized to have been used.
In addition, some burial records pertaining to the latter half of the
eighteenth century, such as the records of Christ Lutheran Church and
the United Lutheran Church, have yet to be examined (Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009:37 n. 3). Dutch Reformed Church records between 1727
and 1804 recorded five burials of Africans, and only one, Susannah
Rosedales in 1729, was opt de kirkhoff, in the cemetery (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009:37). Only two burials of Africans were recorded
during the eighteenth century for the Trinity Lutheran Church, and
these were a free African woman and an illegitimate mulatto child
(Mareitje van Guinea [d. 1745] and Abraham Beeling [d. 1747],
respectively). Church records for the second half of the eighteenth
century indicate that two Africans were buried in the Moravian Church
cemetery during the 1770s (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:37).
4

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 61

The researchers note, however, that the 1697 Trinity Church ban on African burials would likely have
prompted Africans to use areas of the Common for
burials and thus conclude that the African Burial
Ground was certainly in use by the beginning of the
eighteenth century. This scenario is plausible given
the fact that the first known cartographic reference
to the African Burial Ground did not appear until
two or more decades after its initial use, when Mrs.
Buchnerd created her hand-drawn plan of the city
sometime between 1732 and 1735 (Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009:44) (Figure29). Archaeological evidence
was not able to confirm or deny the hypotheses that
(1)the African Burial Ground was first used around
1650, (2)the African Burial Ground was first used
around 1697, or (3)the African Burial Ground was
first used around 1713. Archaeological evidence suggested that the earliest burials in the sample, which
may not have been the earliest burials at the burial
ground, predated the establishment of the pottery in
1730, providing a hypothetical end date of around
1735 for the time range of the earliest burials (Perry,
Howson, and Holl 2009a:130). No absolute terminus
post quem (or the date after which burials must have
occurred) could be established for the earliest burials,
however, leaving open to question when the first burials took place at the African Burial Ground.

Closing of the African Burial Ground

As noted previously, the researchers found that during the Revolutionary War, the British military buried
prisoners of war and deserters behind the barracks on
the Common, possibly in shallow mass graves. Most
were probably interred in the southern portion of the
African Burial Ground, between Chambers and Reade
Streets (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:52). The excavated
portion of the New York African Burial Ground was
farther to the north, probably explaining the absence
of these kinds of burials in the excavated areas. The
British also dismantled Tellers houses and the fence
that enclosed a portion of the African Burial Ground
(Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:52). After the Revolutionary War, Sara Roeloffs heirs were eager to develop
the Van Borsum patent. In 1784 and again in 1787,
HenryH. Kip and the other Van Borsum patent holders
petitioned the New York City Common Council (Common Council) to lay streets within the Van Borsum
patent, but the Common Council was slow to respond.
Around this time, to the north of the Van Borsum patent,
the Calk Hook Farm was surveyed into lots. Although

houses were not built immediately on these lots, lots

south of Anthony Street (present-day Duane Street)
may have had survey posts, or even fences, marking
their boundaries. As these lots (Lots517) (Figure30)
overlapped with the northernmost portion of the African
Burial Ground, the researchers suggest that by 1787,
burial was discouraged in the northernmost portion of
the burial ground (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:52).
In the late-eighteenth century, grave robbing for
the purposes of anatomical examination and medical
experimentation was common. In 1788, public concern
over grave robbing in New York City erupted into
the Doctors Riot. One of the cemeteries exploited
by doctors for grave robbing was the African Burial
Ground. The Almshouse cemetery on the Common
and a private cemetery on Gold Street were also looted
(Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:5253). Bioarchaeological evidence for possible grave robbing and medical
dissection was discovered in a burial excavated at the
New York African Burial Ground (Blakey 2009a:5)
(see Chapters7 and 8).
By the 1790s, use of the African Burial Ground was
increasingly constrained by development (Figure31).
As a result, African New Yorkers began seeking new
burial grounds for their dead. In 1794, a group of African New Yorkers petitioned the City to help purchase a
plot of land for a new burial ground (Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009:53). The following year, in 1795, the Van
Borsum plot was surveyed into lots (Figure32). The
67new lots were divided among Sara Roeloffs heirs,
including the Tellers, Van Vlecks, and Daniel Denniston, all of whom were descendants of the Kiersteds.
Chambers Street, Reed Street (now Reade Street), Ann
Street, and the 20-foot-wide alley that would become
Republican Alley were also surveyed at this time. That
same year, the Common Council located a parcel on
the former Delancey estate in the Seventh Ward as
a suitable location for a new African cemetery. The
Common Council agreed to contribute 100pounds
toward the purchase of the 10,000-square-foot (0.23acre) parcel that consisted of four contiguous lots on
Chrystie Street. Isaac Fortune and other members of
the New York African Society for Mutual Relief successfully petitioned the Common Council for the right
to develop the property, manage the burial grounds, and
collect burial fees (Howson, Bianco, etal. 2009:57).
The New York African Burial Ground researchers
hypothesize that around this time, in 1795, the African
Burial Ground ceased to be used regularly for interment. Meanwhile, areas of the African Burial Ground
continued to be filled in and developed. New York

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

62

Figure 29. Mrs. Buchnerds hand-drawn Plan of the City of New York in the Year 1735.
The words Negro Burying Place (circled) are legible on the central fold of the
manuscript, adjacent to the swamp on the south side of the Collect. This was
the first time the cemetery was labeled on a map (I. N. Phelps Stokes Collection,
Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New
York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations) (from Volume 2, Part 1
[Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 17]).

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 63

Figure 30. Detail from a 1787 surveyors map showing the partition of the Calk Hook Farm
into lots. The lots on the southern side of Anthony Street (present-day Duane), shown
abutting the Negroes Burying Ground, actually overlapped the cemeterys northern
edge. Broadway crosses at the top of the map detail. Ann (present-day Elk) Street crosses
at the bottom. Lot dimensions are shown in feet (courtesy of the Division of Land Records
[Liber 46:140]) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 22]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

64

Figure 31. Detail from the Taylor-Roberts Plan, 1797, drawn by city surveyor Benjamin Taylor and engraved by John Roberts, showing the
newly laid street grid that crossed the African Burial Ground at the end of the eighteenth century (The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map
Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 26]).

City responded to a 1799 yellow fever epidemic by

ordering lots bordering the Collect Pond to be filled in
(Milne 2000:25). At the same time, laws were passed
to improve cleanliness, and old meat and unwholesome dirt were removed, standing water drained, and
the practice of tossing garbage and waste into the
street was restricted (Milne 2000:25). Two thousand
New Yorkers, or 3.33percent of the Citys population,
The New York African Burial Ground

are estimated to have died from the epidemic (Milne

2000:25). Fearful that decomposing corpses contributed to spread of the epidemic, the city prohibited
burials within city limits but, of course, made exceptions for prominent Euroamerican churches. Several
hundred black New Yorkers who succumbed to the
epidemic were buried in the potters field at Washington Square, a little more than a mile north-northeast of

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 65

Figure 32 . Detail from a 1795 surveyors map showing the locations of the lots assigned to Sara Roeloffs heirs. D stood for lots
that would have fallen to the Tellers (descended from Rachel Kiersted), F for those of the Van Vlecks (descended from Catherine
Kiersted),and B for Daniel Denniston (whose wife descended from Lucas Kiersted). The alley laid out from Reed Street to Ann (later
Elm/Elk) Street would be shifted slightly and come to be called Republican Alley (courtesy of the Division of Land Records [Liber
195:405, Filed Map 76J]) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, et al. 2009:Figure 24]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

66
the African Burial Ground, outside what was then the
city. According to Milne (2000:25), at least 41New
York Africans were buried in either the African Burial
Ground or the new African cemetery on Chrystie Street
as a result of the epidemic. The Board of Health again
forbade burials within the city limits in 1806 and 1809.
Between 1802 and 1807, as many as 750burials were
interred in a vault beneath African Zion Church, which
lacked a burial ground. Originally located in a rented
house on Cross Street when it was established in
1796, the African Zion Church had moved in 1800 to
a new building on the corner of Church and Leonard
Streets (Dodson etal. 2000:5254). In response to this
crisis, African Zion Church successfully petitioned for
burial space in the potters field at West Fourth Street,
present-day Washington Square Park (Dodson etal.
2000:54; Milne 2000:25).
In 1803, continuing public health scares and the
spread of development spelled an end to the African
Burial Ground. The Collect Pond was drained, and the
African Burial Ground was filled in with as much as
25feet of fill in some areas (Dodson etal. 2000:53).
It would be almost two centuries before the African
Burial Ground was returned to public consciousness
and development interests again disturbed portions
of the African Burial Ground.

Archaeological Evidence for the

Presence and Lives of Enslaved
African New Yorkers
The New York African Burial Ground is one of several
large excavations focused on historical-period archaeology that have been conducted in Lower Manhattan
since 1979. Although relatively few artifacts were
found with the burials at the New York African Burial
Ground, burial contexts and the osteological information obtained from individual skeletons constitute an
unprecedented contribution to the sparse information
available regarding the bioarchaeology and material
culture of diasporic Africans in colonial Manhattan.
Before the discovery of the New York African Burial
Ground, only limited professional investigations of
historical-period sites had been conducted in the city.
Investigated cultural resources in Lower Manhattan
dating to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
include
Dutch New Amsterdams first state house, or Stadt
Huys (est. 1653);
The New York African Burial Ground

Kings House Tavern, a temporary seat of city hall

between 1697 and 1703 (Rothschild etal. 1987);
the kitchen of the citys first Almshouse (1736
1797) (Baugher and Lenik 1997:1);
primary and secondary context burials in the African Burial Grounds and the Commons Historic
District (Anderson 2000:24; Barry 1999; Crist et
al. 2000; Harris et al 1993; Hartgen Archeological
Associates 2003, 2004; Hildebrant 1994, 1995;
Himelfarb 1999; London 2004; Stone 1997);
100feet of a wharf system used to fill in and build
up lots along the East River waterfront during the
late-eighteenth century (Louis Berger and Associates 1991; Cantwell and Wall 2001);
the house and workshop of Daniel Van Voorhis,
a Dutch silversmith who advertised his work as a
jeweler and silversmith at 27Hanover Square in
the mid-1780s (Cantwell and Wall 2001);
privy pits from seventeenth-century Dutch outhouses on a parcel of land purchased in 1653 by
Cornelis van Tienhoven (Grossman 1985);
a privy pit abandoned during the 1680s or 1690s
on a parcel of land occupied by Sara Roeloffs
daughter, Blandina, and Peter Bayard, a nephew
of Peter Stuyvesant (Grossman 1985);
Augustine Heermanss warehouse (used from the
late 1640s to ca. 1665) (Grossman 1985);
a mid-eighteenth-century landfill at 175 Water
Street (Geismar 1983);
a complex of seventeenth-century residences at 7
Hanover Square (Rothschild and Pickman 1990;
Wall 2000).
A number of excavated sites have been associated with
historically documented seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury middle-class and upper-class residents of
New York or with historically known urban facilities
that were contemporaneous with use of the African
Burial Ground. Enslaved Africans likely contributed
substantially to the formation of nearly all of the
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sites that have
been investigated in Lower Manhattan. Although
archaeological evidence for the lives and livelihoods
of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New Yorkers is
increasing, few archaeological studies have produced
unequivocal evidence of African or African American
activities in New York City during the same period.
In Lower Manhattan, many sites may have deposits
affiliated with enslaved or free Africans, but the dis-

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 67

tinguishing characteristics of such deposits are subtle
and hard to recognize.
Wall (2000:2) has suggested two reasons to explain
why enslaved Africans are rarely identified in the
archaeological record of northern colonies: First,
European Americans living in the north have tended
to deny the importance of slavery in the history of the
region. Secondly, the nature of slavery in the north
makes it much more difficult to examine than in the
south. At southern plantations, enslaved Africans
typically lived in separate quarters where some dominion over private space could be achieved. By contrast,
most enslaved Africans in New York City lived under
the same roofs as their enslavers and thus are not as
clearly associated with spatially discrete domestic
spaces. The difference in household organization,
however, should not be taken to mean that enslaved
Africans did not control, at least partially, the use of
some spaces within urban households. Enslaved laborers in urban contexts lived in kitchens, garrets, and
cellars and likely influenced the nature of archaeological deposits in those and other domestic spaces.
The discovery and analysis of individuals and
burial contexts from the New York African Burial
Ground has contributed significantly to the body of
data gleaned from other sites with archaeological evidence of an African American presence. The burials
provide profound testimony of African origins, the
harsh conditions of daily life, and irrefutable evidence
of the lives and deaths of enslaved Africans who lived
and worked in the city. More work, however, needs to
be done to understand the material conditions characterizing African American life in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century New York. In this section, findings
at other contemporaneous archaeological sites in
Manhattan are examined in terms of their bearing on
the archaeology of African enslavement for the period
the African Burial Ground was in use.
Using historical documentation and recently developed knowledge on archaeological contexts, artifacts,
and features associated with enslaved Africans, Wall
(2000) revisited the currently known archaeological
record of New York City. She examined a number of
existing collections from sites excavated in New York
City between 1978 and 1984. These included the Stadt
Huys Block site (Rothschild etal. 1987), the 7 Hanover
Square site (Rothschild and Pickman 1990), the Broad
Financial Center site (Grossman 1985), and the Assay
site (Louis Berger and Associates 1991); possible
underground caches dating to the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries were discovered at the first three

sites. In most cases, these pits were lined with barrel,

brick, or basket material and, in some cases, could
have functioned as either drains or privies rather than
caches. At the Kings House Tavern at the Stadt Huys
block and at the house at 7 Hanover Square, the location of pits suggests that they may have been beneath
kitchen floors, locations where enslaved Africans probably worked. The locations of the other pits relative to
structures are uncertain because of disturbance.
The pit at Kings House tavern contained approximately 20wine bottles and several tobacco pipes and
is relatively easy to interpret as a cache of items sold
at the tavern. The other pits, however, contained a
variety of itemssuch as beads, knives, ceramic
disks, mica, stone flakes, shell, and coinsthat may be
interpreted as associated with enslaved Africans, given
other similar discoveries in diasporic contexts (e.g.,
Fennell 2000, 2003; Ferguson 1999; LaRoche 1994;
Leone and Fry 1999, 2001; Samford 1996; Singleton
1995; Wall 2000; Wilkie 1997). Similar items were
found with the burials at the New York African Burial
Ground; they are discussed in Chapter 8.
Wall (2000) has also mentioned the discovery of
a spoon with several Xs inscribed in its bowl (e.g.,
Ferguson 1999). The spoon was recovered in sediments associated with the construction of a 1790s
wharf at the Assay site. The spoon may have been
intentionally deposited in the East River after having
played a role in African American rituals performed
elsewhere (Wall 2000). The potential association of
underground caches and distinctive artifacts with
African New Yorkers is exciting. At the same time,
some associations are tentative, and the number of
interpreted features and artifacts is few.
Documentary evidence examined by Wall as of 2000
suggests that enslaved Africans did live on some of the
excavated properties she reexamined. Blandina Kiersted, a daughter of Sara Roeloff Kiersted, was willed
an enslaved laborer named Hans. Along with her
husband, Peter Bayard, Blandina is believed to have
lived at the property on Lot 14 when the underground
cache there was deposited. Another family that held
enslaved laborers, the van Tienhoven family, owned
the property at Lot8 of the Broad Financial Center site
where three underground caches were found.
More than likely, artifact-depositing activities
involving enslaved Africans were performed at all the
sites listed above. Despite the probable contributions
of enslaved Africans to historical-period deposits in
Lower Manhattan, interpretations of African American
contributions are scant. By contrast, the New York

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

68
African Burial Ground yielded material evidence that
the researchers were able to link to findings at other
African Diaspora sites and historically documented
African burial practices. In some cases, the findings of
the genetic and elemental analyses conducted by the
skeletal biology researchers combined with the presence
of items of West African provenance can be used to infer
the African origins of individuals interred in the burial
ground. In other cases, artifacts and other contextual
data can be used to infer the implementation of African
diasporic lifeways and spiritual practices. Investigation
of the New York African Burial Ground raises awareness
about the level of involvement of enslaved Africans in
historical-period daily life and the need to develop better models for discovering and interpreting the material
life of enslaved Africans in historical-period New York
City and other diasporic contexts.

Recent Bioarchaeological
Investigations in the Vicinity
of the African Burial Ground
A number of bioarchaeological investigations have
been undertaken in Lower Manhattan in the vicinity of
the African Burial Ground since the New York African
Burial Ground was excavated in 19911992. Several
of these projects occurred to the south of the New York
African Burial Ground in the African Burial Grounds
and the Commons Historic District (Crist et al. 2000;
Harris et al 1993; Hartgen Archeological Associates
2003, 2004; Hildebrant 1994, 1995; London 2004;
Stone 1997). Another recently completed bioarchaeological project was located north of the African Burial
Ground at the Washington Square Park Potters Field
(Geismar 2009). Although these investigations have
resulted in the observation of remains from many
individuals, the vast majority of those examined in
detail consisted of incomplete and scattered remains
found in secondary context.
Following the excavation of the New York African
Burial Ground, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (2002) issued guidelines for the proper and
sensitive excavation of burials in New York City. The
guidelines stipulated that burials were to be exposed
only to the extent necessary to determine depositional
context. Primary context burials were to be left in situ
after being examined by a trained bioarchaeologist
and protected from further disturbance with clean fill,
custom-made plywood frames, and concrete covers.
Human remains found in secondary contexts could
The New York African Burial Ground

be collected and analyzed in a laboratory setting by a

trained bioarchaeologist before being reburied.
For these later projects, the data from primary
context burials were often more tentative and less
complete than data developed for the New York African Burial Ground Project, for which the vast majority of burials were completely excavated and the
remains analyzed in a laboratory setting. As a result,
strict comparisons with the results of the New York
African Burial Ground project are difficult to make.
Because burials were not completely excavated for
these later projects, the number of burials with shroud
pins, coffin nails, or other artifacts, for instance, could
not be known; nor could it be definitively known how
many burials were stacked in the same grave shaft,
as excavation did not continue below the uppermost
primary context burial in a grave shaft. Much of
what was learned was the result of field assessments
of partially excavated primary context burials and
laboratory assessments of fragmentary remains. Moreover, the samples of human remains from these later
bioarchaeological projects were substantially smaller
than the New York African Burial Ground sample,
and intact or partially intact burials were rare.5 Along
At the Tweed Courthouse, 28 graves were found; MNI was estimated to be 39 individuals (Hartgen Archeological Associates 2003).
In a Consolidated Edison trench north of the Tweed Courthouse,
the remains of 12 individuals, including adults and children, were
found, but no intact burials were found; the remains were examined
by bioarchaeologists after construction workers had removed them
from the trench (Hildebrant 1994). Human remains removed from
another trench beneath Chambers Street represented approximately
6 individuals, including adult males, adult females, and children. No
intact burials were found, as the recovered remains all appeared to
come from highly disturbed secondary deposits. Interestingly, at least
5 elements from these remains appeared to have postmortem modifications suggestive of autopsy or dissection (Crist et al. 2000:13, 16).
Additional Consolidated Edison trenches north of Tweed Courthouse
revealed 10 graves that contained 11 individuals, including an adult
male, a probable male, a child, and an infant. Fragmentary remains
also discovered in the trenches came from at least 9 individuals,
including an infant, a child of unknown age, 2 older juveniles, 3 adult
females or probable females, and 3 adult males or probable males
(Hartgen Archeological Associates 2004). At City Hall Park, human
remains were found in 25 primary context burial features and 34
features with secondarily deposited human remains. The minimum
number of individuals was estimated to be 47; the maximum number
of individuals was set at 256 (Bankoff and Loorya 2008:396; London
2004:12). Individuals included infants, children, and male and female
adults, although 19 of 24 adults observable for sex were male (London
2004, Tables 4 and 5). At the Washington Square Park Potters Field,
10 intact burials and remains from a minimum of 16 individuals were
found. All human remains examined at Washington Square Park
Potters Field were from adults younger than their mid-forties. The
investigators attribute the lack of juveniles and older adults to a small
sample size rather than arguing that it reflects the demography of the
burial population (Amorosi 2009:52; Geismar 2009:42).
5

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 69

with small sample sizes and the effects of extensive
disturbance, the incomplete nature of age, sex, and
ancestry determinations in many cases prevented the
construction of a detailed demographic profile for
each project. The relative frequency of indicators of
pathology, such as the percentage of individuals with
periosteal lesions, was also difficult to determine due
to incomplete information.
Despite these limitations, recent bioarchaeological
investigations in the African Burial Grounds and the
Commons Historic District and at Washington Square
Park contributed important information on eighteenthand early-nineteenth-century mortuary practices and
quality of life of individuals of low socio-economic
status. To the extent possible, investigators determined the age, sex, and ancestry of some individuals;
estimated MNI from primary and secondary context
remains; and examined fragmentary remains and visible portions of primary context remains for indicators
of pathology.
Historic records describing the location, extent, and
use of burial grounds in the African Burial Ground and
the Commons Historic District are sparse and contain
little specific information (Harris et al. 1993). With
the exception of the New York African Burial Ground
individuals, it is difficult to determine whether burials
identified in the African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District were associated with the first or
second Almshouses, Bridewell prison, Revolutionary
War burials, or the African Burial Ground. A lack of
associated artifacts also limited the ability to infer
the temporal association of many burials, although
it seems likely based on historical records that many
burials in the African Burial Grounds and the Commons Historic District were placed in the eighteenth
century and those in Washington Square Park Potters
Field in the early nineteenth century. A clear association with a specific burial ground was ascertainable
only for the Washington Square Park Potters Field
investigations. It is possible that at least some human
remains in the African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District came from burials placed originally within the historical limits of the African Burial
Ground, rather than in the other burial grounds listed
above. This is particularly the case for burials found
underneath or close to Chambers Street, as Chambers
Street coincides roughly with the estimated location of
the southern boundary of the African Burial Ground.
Burials identified in Washington Square Park were
associated with the early-nineteenth-century potters
field at that location, but they do not appear to be

associated with the portion of the cemetery used by

African Zion Church.
Of the few individuals in the African Burial Grounds
and the Commons Historic District whose ancestry
could be assessed and who were located outside the
New York African Burial Ground, all were assessed as
likely of European ancestry.6 It must be kept in mind,
however, that these were preliminary field assessments
that were based on morphoscopic characteristics and,
for any given project, were made on relatively few
individuals using limited information. Also, ancestry
assessments of the type made are primarily forensic-type identifications that do not always take into
account the biohistorical context of human morphology. In none of these bioarchaeological projects did
artifacts or evidence for body practices or mortuary
treatment provide clues to the biological ancestry
or cultural origins of the deceased. As a result, it is
not clear whether any of the above bioarchaeological projects in the vicinity of the New York African
Burial Ground discovered the burials of African New
Yorkers.
Bioarchaeological investigations have made it
abundantly clear, however, that although many burials
have been extensively disturbed, burials and scattered
human remains can still be found in many locations
on the former Common. For most projects conducted
after the New York African Burial Ground Project,
many human remains were found to be in secondary
context and in highly fragmented condition as a result
of prior disturbance, which made the number of intact
or partially intact burials in some of these project
areas surprising. For instance, Hartgen Archeological
Associates (2003:159) note that for excavations in the
Tweed Courthouse project area
considering the extensive disturbance of the
area, the fact that any intact burials remain in
At the Tweed Courthouse, the few cranial elements from primary
context individuals and secondary deposits were all suggestive of
European ancestry (Hartgen Archeological Associates 2003:143). In
one investigation of remains from a water main trench on Chambers
Street, skeletal and dental remains that could be assessed for ancestry were assessed as European in ancestry (Crist et al. 2000:12). In
City Hall Park, individuals who could be assessed for ancestry were
assessed as being of European ancestry, some of them specifically
corresponding to known traits seen in Colonial or Historic period
European individuals (London 2004:1314). Individuals in burials
examined at the Washington Square Park Potters Field also appeared
to be of European ancestry, but again, the ancestry assessments are
tentative. In some cases, no assessment of ancestry was made, due
to a lack of suitable osteological materials, such as complete crania
(e.g., Hildebrant 1994).
6

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

70 Statistical Research
this area is astonishing. The location of burials
that remain fully or partially intact is completely
random, and there really is no method for predicting where they may be located until the
soils are disturbed. The only accurate prediction concerns identifying where there definitely
are not burials, i.e. within recent construction
trenches including those excavated during this
project and other utility trenches which contain
clean sand fill.
It is also clear that the same kinds of trash that were
prevalent on the New York African Burial Ground
were also prevalent in other areas of the Common.
Based on archaeological investigations in City Hall
Park, trash from potteries and tanneries appears to
have been dumped in many areas of the Common
where it found its way into the burial deposits of the
poor (Bankoff and Loorya 2008). Presumably, trash
was deposited as a result of routine disposal processes
and periodic efforts to grade and fill lots.
A few similarities and differences between burials from the New York African Burial Ground and
those from other areas of the Common can be noted.
Unlike the findings from the New York African Burial
Ground, grave shafts and coffin remains seem to have
been observed less often in the more recent excavations. Because only a partial view of the feature was
obtained, however, coffin hardware and remnants of
coffin wood could have remained hidden in sediments
that were not excavated. Also, extensive disturbance
could have obliterated or obscured grave outlines or
portions of coffins in some excavated areas. Thus,
it is difficult to tell what factors led to the lack of a
clear grave shaft outline in plan view or the lack of
evidence for a coffin.
For both the Hartgen Archeological Associates
(2003, 2004) investigations, around 50 percent of
burial features had evidence for a grave shaft, and 50
percent of burials had evidence for coffins. At City
Hall Park, many of the burials appear to have included
a coffin, as evidenced by the presence of coffin nails,
wood, coffin handles, or staining suggestive of a
coffin outline, but the exact number is unclear. For
those few coffins with a discernible shape, one was
identified as tapered and two as hexagonal. Grave
shafts, however, were observed less often during the
City Hall Park excavations. As with other investigations, disturbance may be responsible for this pattern,
as some burials were discovered immediately below
asphalt, suggesting that for some features much of the
The New York African Burial Ground

grave shaft and portions of the burial were previously

removed (Bankoff and Loorya 2008). At Washington
Square Park, evidence for coffins was observed, but
grave shafts were not. The investigators suggest the
the lack of discernible grave shafts . . . may reflect
burials in large pits rather than individual graves
(Amorosi 2009:51). An alternate explanation for the
lack of apparent grave shafts is that sandy sediments
and frequent disturbance prevented the recognition
of distinct feature outlines.
Mortuary treatment seen in burials outside the New
York African Burial Ground is somewhat more variable than the highly standardized treatment observed
at the New York African Burial Ground. Some burials
were placed with the head facing the west, as were
most burials at the New York African Burial Ground,
but many were placed instead according to other orientations. For instance, of the 10 burials discovered
by Hartgen Archeological Associates (2004) under
the eastbound lane of Chambers Street, orientations
included head to the southwest, head to the west, and
head to the south. At the Tweed Courthouse, 26 burials
were placed along an east-west alignment, and 2 were
placed along a north-south alignment. All single interments were placed with the head to the west, whereas
multiple burials in a single feature included both head
to the west and head to the east orientations (Hartgen
Archeological Associates 2003). The City Hall Park
burials were predominantly head to the west, followed
by head to the south (Bankoff and Loorya 2008). At
Washington Square Park Potters Field burials were
basically north to south, although it is not mentioned
whether burials were placed with the head to the south,
north, or both directions (Geismar 2009:42). Some
investigators have suggested that differences in burial
orientation may reflect a temporal shift from head
to the west to head to the south or north, but limited
temporal data from burials prevents confirmation of
this hypothesis.
Another difference between burials in the New York
African Burial Ground and others in the Common is
that some burials in the Common appear to be mass
graves. At the Tweed Courthouse, one ossuary-like
deposit of disturbed remains was found (Hartgen
Archeological Associates 2003). Two ossuary-like pits
were also found during the City Hall Park excavations;
one pit had the remains of 18 adults and 3 children, and
the other had 1 male adult and 23 children (Bankoff
and Loorya 2008; London 2004). Neither mass graves
containing multiple primary context burials nor secondary deposits of reburied remains from multiple

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 71

individuals were observed at the New York African
Burial Ground.
The available evidence suggests that some of the
same burial attire that was seen at the New York African Burial Ground may also have been afforded to
eighteenth-century burials in other areas of the Common as well nineteenth-century burials at Washington
Square Park. Many individuals appear to have been
buried in shrouds, as evidenced by either the presence
of shroud pins or green, cupric staining on skeletal
elements. One individual at Washington Square Park,
for instance, had cupric staining on lumbar vertebrae,
hips, and forearms, which the investigators interpreted
as having resulted from the use of shroud pins (Amorosi 2009:51). At City Hall Park, cupric staining was
found on many cranial elements in a mass grave as
well as on individual elements redeposited in other
features. Actual shroud pins were found in several
burial features (Hartgen Archeological Associates
2003).
Few other artifacts were found in association with
human remains for any of these projects, including
buttons associated with clothing, personal adornments,
or coffin hardware. At the New York African Burial
Ground, such items were found but were rare. We do
not know in most cases, however, whether the lack
of such artifacts for these later projects is partly the
result of the nature of the samples (which are small,
heavily disturbed, and partially excavated), factors of
preservation, or a tendency not to deposit such artifacts
in burials. Whether the remains examined were from
enslaved laborers, Almshouse residents, prisoners, or
executed prisoners of war, all would have been poor
and with few possessions. A lack of kin or friends to
contribute to or oversee a funeral may have meant that
personal possessions or offerings rarely were placed
into the burials examined during these excavations.
Given the lack of buttons or other clothing fasteners,
many individuals may have been covered only with
shrouds and buried without street clothes.
Collectively, bioarchaeological investigations of
burials in the African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District and in the Washington Square
Park Potters Field suggest that people of lower socioeconomic status in eighteenth- and early-nineteenthcentury Manhattan were buried according to mortuary
treatments that were in some ways similar to those
observed at the New York African Burial Ground.
A clear picture of mortuary treatments is lacking,
however, due to extensive prior disturbance, small
samples, and incomplete excavations. Most burials

both within and outside the New York African Burial

Ground appear to have been of individuals placed
in supine position with hands placed at the sides or
crossed at the waist. Burial along an east-west alignment with head to the west was overwhelmingly
common at the New York African Burial Ground.
The same orientation was also fairly common for
other bioarchaeological investigations in the African
Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District
and in the Washington Square Park Potters Field,
but burials oriented with head to the south, head to
the north, head to the east, or head to the southwest
were also observed. Differences in orientation could
represent a temporal shift in mortuary practice, but
this is unclear from the available evidence. Coffins,
including tapered and hexagonal forms, were used in
burials outside the New York African Burial Ground,
but may have been used less often than they were
at the New York African Burial Ground. Evidence
for clothing or personal adornment was extremely
rare in burials outside the New York African Burial
Ground. Artifacts interpreted as personal adornment
were found in a few cases at the New York African
Burial Ground, where burial in street clothes was also
observed, particularly among adult males who may
have died during the Revolutionary War. Shrouding
appears to have been the most common form of burial
attire, as was the case at the New York African Burial
Ground. Mass graves containing many individuals as
well as secondary ossuary-like deposits were observed
at Tweed Courthouse and City Hall Park, but neither
scenario was witnessed at the New York African
Burial Ground. Overall, the available evidence suggests the possibility that little care and attention was
provided to the burial of the Citys prisoners, prisoners of war, and abject poor, perhaps due to a lack of
kin to oversee burial or to the oversight of municipal
or military authorities who placed greater emphasis
on expedience, health concerns, or cost savings in
providing for burials.

Conclusions
The New York African Burial Ground research has
provided the world with evidence that thousands of
Africans were forcibly migrated to New York and
enslaved there. Although there is still little awareness
of the presence of slavery in Colonial period and Early
Federal period New York, historical research demonstrates that many Africans were forcibly migrated to

Volume 4. The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis

72 Statistical Research
New York as a result of the provisions trade or were
forcibly migrated directly from Africa. Some enslaved
Africans were brought from parts of West Africa, West
Central Africa, and Southeast Africa. Others were
born in New York, the West Indies, or other parts of
North America. Still other enslaved laborers in New
York were Native Americans or Spanish prisoners of
war. The majority of the individuals interred at the
African Burial Ground, or perhaps their ancestors,
were brought to New York City between 1624 and
1795 as enslaved laborers and endured the harsh conditions of slavery until they were buried. Others may
have arrived in New York City as runaways during
the Revolutionary War (17761783). Although the
individuals buried at the African Burial Ground were
probably not afforded many choices in their daily
lives, many may have been buried by kin in Africancontrolled spaces according to rituals that befitted
their diverse origins (see Chapter8).
Although New Yorks deep economic and political
involvement in slavery has been largely forgotten or
overlooked in the popular consciousness, the exploitation of enslaved labor was fundamental to development of the early Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam
and later, as a major port city of the British colonies.
African labor literally built and sustained the city.
Despite the onus of slavery, many free and half-free
New York Africans acquired farm acreage early on in
the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. Initially at
the outskirts of the settlement, African-owned areas of
Manhattan later became prime real estate. Landowning
New York African families contributed substantially
to feeding the settlement as well as to protecting the
Dutch from attack, but New York African landowners were eventually pushed out of their landholdings
because of prejudice, greed, and fear.
Restrictions placed on the locations of New York
African burials may have prompted the formation of
the African Burial Ground as a local African American religious institution. The African Burial Ground
could have had its beginnings as early as 1650 and
was almost certainly fully operational by the early
1700s. The African Burial Ground was largely contained within private land during the period of use,
but it also overlapped in space with activities and
facilities that were located on the Common. As such,
portions of the African Burial Ground were subject
to numerous disturbances and desecrations over time.
Also, as a result of development, areas available for
interment were subject to increasing attrition over
time. At first, African Americans were able to freely
The New York African Burial Ground

use the African Burial Ground partly because of its

remote location as well as the limited residential or
agricultural utility of the land. As the city expanded,
however, development encroached on the African
Burial Ground. Urban crowding and public health
scares pushed African burials farther toward the
outskirts of the city. Eventually, multiple processes
conspired to put an end to further burial at the African
Burial Ground.
African New Yorkers responded proactively to this
threat. By the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth
centuries, free African New Yorkers associated with
local institutions such as the New York African Society
for Mutual Relief (est. 1808) and African Zion Church
(est. 1796) were instrumental in securing new areas for
New York African burials. The researchers note that
as the African Burial Ground was filled in and new
urban development covered the cemetery, it was not
forgotten by descendants (Perry, Howson, and Bianco
2009:374). African American community members
probably kept a watchful eye on the areas where their
loved ones were buried, even as the area was developed
and the original land surface was removed from sight.
The researchers consider that, as an African American
institution that had thrived for over a century, the
African Burial Ground did not die out, even as it was
covered up. Instead, the legacy of the African Burial
Ground lived on through the development of new
African American institutions in Manhattan, such as
the citys first African American churches.
Many studies of contemporaneous sites in Lower
Manhattan provide information on the occupations
and daily lives of Euroamericans and the kinds of
artifacts and features expected at contemporaneous
sites. Few have yielded unambiguous evidence concerning the activities of enslaved Africans, despite the
prevalence of enslaved laborers in New York during
the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
This problem arises partly because of inherent difficulties in identifying and interpreting archaeological
patterns associated with enslaved Africans as well
as biases in historical documentation. Another part
of the problem may stem from a lack of awareness
among archaeologists concerning the level of African
American involvement in historical-period daily life
as well as a lack of appropriate methods for identifying African American deposits or inferring African
American behavioral inputs. The lack of contemporaneous African American landmarks underscores the
unique importance of the New York African Burial
Ground and the need to focus more investigation on

Chapter 3. The African Burial Ground in Historical and Archaeological Context 73

African American archaeology in Lower Manhattan.
At the same time, the problem also underscores the
relevance of the projects broad diasporic perspective,
which entailed interpreting the African Burial Ground

within the context of the history, culture, and biology

of the African Diaspora. The relevance of the project
findings to broader diasporic contexts are explored in
the chapters to follow.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Chapter 4

Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity

A major research theme of the New York African

Burial Ground research design and an important
theme in African Diaspora studies is that of origins.
New York African Burial Ground researchers studied
where seventeenth- and eighteenth-century enslaved
laborers in New York came from, how they were
brought to the colonies, what they retained, what
they lost, and what they created. To this end, New
York African Burial Ground analyses linked artifacts,
mortuary practices, body practices, and individual life
histories to specific geographic areas or macroethnic
groups.
To recover and disentangle information on the origins of individuals interred in the New York African
Burial Ground, the researchers conducted multiple
studies of history, material culture, and bioarchaeology. These included historical investigations into
the African roots of enslaved Africans; examination
of structural, demographic, and economic aspects
of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans; and
consideration of identity formation in New York
and other colonies. Artifact and feature types and
archaeological patterns discovered at the New York
African Burial Ground were interpreted in terms
of how the people expressed identities and forged
continuities with African heritages. Skeletal biology
studies examined aspects of cranial morphology and
tooth morphology to assess phenotypic affinities, and
isotope and elemental-signature studies documented
variation in the migration and life histories of individuals. Finally, ambitious and innovative genetic
studies were initiated to discern the genetic heritage
of enslaved laborers in seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury New York City.

Defining the Identity of Enslaved

Laborers
The geographic and ethnic origins of seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century enslaved laborers were diverse.
Most enslaved Africans exported to the Americas were
forcibly migrated on thousands of vessels at numerous
ports along a 3,000-mile stretch of African coastline,
from Senegal in the north to Angola in the south
(Posnansky 1999), with smaller numbers exported
from Southeast Africa.
A pioneer in the study of African survivals in the
Americas, Herskovits (1941:295, quoted in Greene
2000:86) has been criticized for defining the civilizations of the forested coastal belt of West Africa and
the Congo... as forming one of the major culture
areas of the continent. In this rendering, the diverse
cultural backgrounds of enslaved Africans are considered more similar to each other than they are different
(Greene 2000; Mintz and Price 1992). Greene (2000)
has argued that, as a first approximation, Herskovitss
(1924, 1941) claim of West African similarities has
some merit, as there are some unifying characteristics
of West African groups. The tendency to lump diverse
groups from West and West Central Africa into a single
designation, however, has recently met with considerable criticism. Africa is a huge continent consisting of
diverse environments, culture histories, ethnic groups,
religions, economies, and political organizations.
Reliance on Anglophone literature and dependence
on the thesis that enslaved African ethnicities were
fragmented and randomly redistributed through processes of enslavement has led to the conclusion that

76
specific ethnic identities were not reconstructed or
maintained in the Americas. More-recent research,
however, demonstrates the value of investigating
the experiences of enslaved Africans according to
subregional ethnic affiliations and finer geopolitical
distinctions. Such affiliations are relevant to social
organization and identity formation of enslaved and
free Africans in the Americas, particularly at the New
York African Burial Ground.
Historically, there was considerable uncontrolled
variation in how enslaved Africans were ethnically
identified by captors, making the historical reconstruction of enslaved African ethnic identities a difficult
and somewhat speculative task (Posnansky 1999:25).
Because of historical ambiguity and the enormous
complexity of historical processes, previous research
tended to dismiss ethnic labels for enslaved Africans
as European impositions that were ascribed independently of real African-derived identities. More
recently, investigators have deciphered patterning and
social meaning in the use of ethnic labels to understand the variable cultural backgrounds of enslaved
Africans and to study diasporic identity formation in
the New World. Toward these ends, the New York
African Burial Ground research expanded the scope of
research in African American archaeology to include
consideration of broadly scaled processes and trends
occurring on both sides of the Atlantic basin. In this
way, the researchers were able to develop a more
nuanced and historically accurate portrait of the origins and identities of the individuals buried in the
New York African Burial Ground and generate many
hypotheses for future testing.

The Transatlantic Trade

in Enslaved Africans
Increasingly, investigators conceptualize the experience of enslaved Africans in the Americas in the
context of a broadly defined, transnational, and transatlantic zone of interaction and exchange (e.g., Gilroy
1993; Vlach 1998). Enslaved Africans were part of a
protracted and complex African Diaspora that resulted
in the dislocation and transplantation of more than 11
million Africans to the Americas (cf. Curtin 1969;
Eltis 1990, 2001; Lovejoy 1982, 1989). As a result
of the trade in enslaved Africans, more Africans were
forcibly migrated to the Americas than the Europeans
who brought them (Davis 2000). Also, far more African women were migrated to the Americas during the
The New York African Burial Ground

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than European

women. The number of Africans that were killed in
wars that articulated with the trade in enslaved Africans or who were enslaved in Africa is even larger.
In terms of its human costs, the transatlantic trade in
enslaved Africans was the most vicious, longestlasting example of human brutality and exploitation
in history (Hall 2005:8). Enslaved laborers were
part of a giant and complex system of transatlantic
and regional trade that involved interactions between
people in Africa, Europe, and the Americas and the
frequent long-distance movement and exchange of
people, vessels, manufactured items, staple foods,
technologies, genes, cosmologies, and lifeways (Law
and Mann 1997; Morgan 1997).
The British, Portuguese, and to a lesser extent,
the Dutch were heavily involved in the transatlantic
trade in enslaved Africans. Trade began with the Portuguese during the mid-1400s (Hall 2005; cf. Fergus
2008; Medford, ed. 2009) with the establishment of
conquest states along the coast of West Central Africa,
where enslaved laborers were acquired through warfare and alliances with African polities. By the late
1500s, the Portuguese had established military and
political footholds along the coast of West Central
Africa. In 1575, they established the Reino de Angola
between Bengo and the Kwango in areas formerly
controlled by the Ndongo and Kongo states. In the
early 1600s, they established the Reino de Benguela
south of Luanda in areas controlled by Imbangala
and Ovimbundu polities (Heywood and Thornton
2009b:9). Under Portuguese influence, large numbers
of enslaved Africans worked as soldiers in Portuguese
military campaigns or on African plantations run by
missionaries or were exported to Brazilian plantations
(Heywood and Thornton 2009b:11).
The Portuguese trade was substantial, exporting
45.9percent of all enslaved Africans between 1519
and 1867. They effectively book-ended the trade,
with huge exports between 1519 and 1650 and again
between 1801 and 1867. Between 1490 and 1521,
the Portuguese forcibly migrated on the order of
2,3004,800 enslaved Africans per year from the
Mauritanian Coast, Upper Guinea, Gulf of Guinea, and
West Central Africa (Elbl 1997). The total estimated
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans between 1450
and 1521 was more than 150,000 individuals (Elbl
1997:Table7). Between 1519 and 1600, Portugal
forcibly migrated around 264,000 enslaved Africans,
controlling 99percent of the export trade, and between
1600 and 1650, they forcibly migrated almost 440,000

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 77

enslaved Africans (Eltis 2001:Table1). Between 1617
and 1621 alone, the Portuguese forcibly migrated
from the port of Luanda as many as 50,000 captives
to Brazil (Heywood and Thornton 2009b:11).
The British were also quite active, securing a
28.1percent share of the trade between 1519 and
1867. After the Dutch and English began to take over
Spanish American markets for enslaved Africans
around 1650, Portugal forcibly migrated its enslaved
Africans almost exclusively to Brazil. The British
dominated the trade between 1651 and 1800, the
period during which the African Burial Ground was in
use. During this period, there were five British voyages
for every four Portuguese voyages. Although Dutch
participation in the trade in enslaved Africans was
largely contemporaneous with British participation,
the Dutch tended to control less than 10percent of
the trade at any point in time. Still, the Dutch forcibly
migrated a large share of enslaved Africans (27percent of 239,800 enslaved Africans) between 1651
and 1675, which would have included importations
to New Amsterdam prior to the British takeover in
1664. In other periods, the Dutch forcibly migrated
much smaller shares of the market in enslaved Africans (Eltis 2001).
Information on vessels leaving the Caribbean
or mainland North America is less complete than
records for European vessels. This problem has
required some speculation regarding the actual volume of the Caribbean and North American trade.
Eltis (2001) has estimated that between 1714 and
1807, around 2,000vessels carrying approximately
220,600enslaved Africans outfitted their voyages from
ports in mainland North America, with an estimated
mortality rate of 6.8percent. Around 550voyages left
from ports in the Caribbean during the same period,
carrying around 59,400enslaved Africans, with an
estimated mortality rate double that of the U.S. ships,
or 13.8percent. Overall, between 1519 and 1867,
a minimum of 11,062,000enslaved Africans were
forcibly migrated to the Americas by European or
American factors, with an estimated overall mortality
rate of 13.2percent (Eltis 2001). Many more than 11
million individuals could have been forcibly migrated
to the Americas, if the many undocumented aspects
of the trade, including illegal trade to avoid tariffs,
and an incomplete documentary record are taken
into account.
Enslaved Africans disembarked at many different
ports in North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Regions of disembarkation included

mainland British North America (including

Mississippi), the British Windwards and Trinidad together, the British Leewards, Jamaica,
Barbados, all the Guianas together, mainland
Spanish America, the Spanish Caribbean, Brazil
north of Bahia, Bahia, Brazil south of Bahia,
the Dutch Caribbean, the French Windwards,
St. Domingue, and finally, all other Americas,
90percent of which comprises the Danish islands
[Eltis 2001:31].
Eltis (2001) has estimated that between 5 and
10percent of recent arrivals were quickly transshipped
to other ports as part of the intra-American trade. New
York, Guadeloupe, and the Mississippi region, for
instance, received most of their imports from other
parts of the Americas rather than directly from Africa
(Eltis 2001; Medford, ed. 2009).
Eltis (2001) has estimated that if 10percent of
enslaved Africans originally shipped to the Caribbean
were later transshipped to mainland North America,
around 400,000 enslaved Africans were imported into
mainland North America. Numbers provided by the
Transatlantic Slave Trade Database indicate that less
than 4percent of enslaved Africans imported into the
Americas were brought to mainland North America.
An even smaller percentage would have ended up in
New York. Despite this, at different times during the
eighteenth century, African New Yorkers, most of
whom were enslaved, typically represented 821percent of the population (Medford, Brown, Carrington,
etal. 2009a; Rankin-Hill etal. 2009) (Table3). The
population density of enslaved Africans in New York
was large by North American standards. Of the northern colonies, New York was the most heavily involved
in the trade in enslaved Africans, and, as an urban
context, New York was second only to Charleston,
South Carolina, in terms of the number of Africans
enslaved there (Davis 1979, 1984).
In the historiography of the transatlantic trade,
a common perception regarding the age and sex of
enslaved Africans forcibly migrated to the Americas
is that most enslaved Africans were adult males. There
is some historical basis for this supposition, as some
traders reportedly sought to obtain two males for every
female (data cited in Thornton [1992:167 n. 80]).
However, adult females also appear to have been more
highly valued than adult males by internal African
markets. At the same time, there was considerable
spatial and temporal variation in the sex ratios and in
the proportion of enslaved Africans imported as chil-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

78
Table 3. Population of New York County, 16981800
Year

Total

Black

White

Percent Black

4,937

700

4,237

14.2

1703

4,391

799

3,592

18.2

1712

5,861

975

4,886

16.6

1723

7,248

1,362

5,886

18.8

1731

8,622

1,577

7,045

18.3

1737

10,664

1,719

8,945

16.1

1746

11,717

2,444

9,273

20.9

1749

13,294

2,368

10,926

17.8

1756

13,046

2,278

10,768

17.5

1786

23,614

2,107

1698
a

1790
1800

31,225
57,663

21,507

8.9

28,133

9.9

51,796

10.2

3,092
5,867

Note: From Foote (1991:78) and White (1991:26) (from Volume 3 [Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009a:Table 2]).
a
The 1703 figures are taken from the census of households in New York City.
b
Includes 1,036 free and 2,056 enslaved blacks.
c
Includes 3,333 free and 2,534 enslaved blacks.

dren (Eltis 1990, 2000, 2001). During the trade, there

were times and places where females predominated
or where children formed a much larger percentage
of enslaved Africans. Over time, for instance, some
plantation systems saw the value in increasing the proportions (as well as improving the treatment) of adult
females so as to promote natural population growth
(Hall 2005). These kinds of changes were observed in
colonial New York. Early on, many enslaved Africans
were adult males, but many females were later brought
in for domestic service. Children also predominated at
times because of their value to learning trades and providing domestic service as well as the reduced threat
they imposed upon enslaving populations (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:6263).
Sex ratios and proportions of children varied not
only because of variation in demand and labor markets but also depended on demographic and economic conditions at places from which enslaved
Africans were derived. Variation in the age and sex
structure of enslaved Africans forcibly migrated to
colonies in British America would have likely had
significant and varied demographic and economic
effects in both Africa and Americas (Medford, ed.
2009). For instance, although adult captives forcibly
The New York African Burial Ground

migrated to major British colonies were more often

male, females were slightly more common than males
among enslaved Africans imported to British colonies
between 1658 and 1713 from the Bight of Biafra.
Similarly, although the vast majority of enslaved
Africans imported to the British colonies during the
same period were adults, a substantial percentage
of enslaved Africans from West Central Africa were
children (Eltis 2000:Tables9.3 and 9.4).
The British colonies, New York included, were
major consumers of enslaved African labor. Although
more than 40percent of all enslaved Africans were
forcibly migrated to Brazil, 29percent of enslaved
Africans imported to the Americas ended up in the
British Americas. Fewer enslaved Africans, by contrast, were brought to Spanish America (14.3percent)
or the French Caribbean (12percent) (Eltis 2001).
As alluded to above, different industries placed
different demands on enslaved labor. Also, variability
in the backgrounds and skills of enslaved Africans
sometimes affected the kinds of tasks they performed
and which markets they were sold into. The sugar
industry in Brazil, Mexico, and the Caribbean appears
to have created the greatest demand for enslaved
labor. Tobacco farming in the Chesapeake and Bahia

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 79

and rice cultivation in the Carolinas had smaller
markets. Although cotton is often associated with
enslaved labor in the United States, cotton became
a major crop in the United States only during the
nineteenth century and was not the impetus for earlier
labor exploitation. Gold and silver mining demanded
a fair amount of enslaved labor in Spanish America
and Minas Gerais, Brazil, but mining booms were
also associated with large imports of free and indentured European labor (Eltis 2001). The ethnicity and
special skills of enslaved African laborers sometimes
determined the tasks that they would perform in the
New World. For example, the vaqueros on Hispaniola
estates were Africans from the Wolof, Mandinka, or
Malinke, and Fula areas, which had strong pastoral
traditions (Thornton 1992:135). Given the experience of many enslaved Africans in soldiering and
warfare, settlers throughout the New World found
enslaved Africans invaluable to military campaigns,
particularly where colonists were threatened by
Native Americans. Other enslavers may have taken
advantage of African skills in ironworking or textile
manufacture. Certainly, smithing and sewing were
common occupations for enslaved laborers in New
York City (Medford 2009:xix; Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c:55). In short, the transatlantic
trade in enslaved Africans was enormously complex,
varying along multiple historical, political, economic,
and demographic dimensions. At the same time,
there are important regularities that investigators are
beginning to discover; these regularities help to better understand the origins and identities of enslaved
Africans in the Americas, including the individuals
interred at the New York African Burial Ground.

Processes of Enslavement
In addition to understanding the origins of enslaved
Africans interred in the New York African Burial
Ground, the researchers also endeavored to understand how African New Yorkers came to be enslaved.
Enslavement took place according to multiple processes in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century West
and West Central Africa. At different times, people
from diverse cultures and geographic areas were captured and enslaved by different factions who operated
in different areas and engaged multiple strategies for
enslavement. Varying conditions in West and West
Central Africa had substantial impacts on the contours
of the trade. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

were times of tremendous political fragmentation

and consolidation, warfare, and lawlessness in many
parts of West and West Central Africa. Many Africans who were ultimately enslaved in the Americas
were captives of raiding and warfare associated with
widespread political and civil unrest or victims of
related processes (Heywood and Thornton 2009a:29),
which makes it difficult to summarize the complex
political history of the areas where Europeans acquired
enslaved Africans.
A major debate in the historiography of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans involves consideration of whether African or European interests drove
trade in enslaved Africans (Medford, Carrington,
etal. 2009:3536). One perspective emphasizes that
African agency played a major role in driving the trade
in enslaved Africans. In this view, Africans captured
and enslaved other Africans in the process of warfare,
expansion and state-building, and internal conflicts;
Europeans traded valuable goods for enslaved laborers
in a trade largely controlled by Africans (Thornton
1992). Variation over time with regard to the locations
from which most enslaved Africans were purchased
and in the distribution of enslaved Africans according to age and sex implies to some investigators that
African agency played a role in structuring the trade
(Eltis 2000, 2001; Richardson 2001).
An opposing perspective argues that European
demand for enslaved laborers and other commodities motivated political unrest and conflict in Africa.
Indeed, the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans
had profound demographic and economic effects on
Africa (Lovejoy 1989; Rodney 1982). In this view, the
supply of European weapons and demand for enslaved
laborers facilitated or encouraged violent conflict and
enslavement, and kidnapping and banditry became
rampant in Africa because of European demand for
enslaved Africans (Hall 2005; Inikori 1982).
Bailey (2005:62, 65) has argued that although African agency is apparent in the trade in enslaved Africans, that does not imply that Africans and Europeans
were equal partners in enslavement. African polities
had little influence outside their own continent, and
motivations for engaging in the trade in enslaved
Africans were very different among Africans and
Europeans. Moreover, differences in local political
and economic conditions and variation in the size
and organization of kingdoms engendered a great
deal of variation in how rulers and their agents were
able to influence and direct the trade in enslaved
Africans. Recent work has examined the ways in

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

80
which Africans responded to the threat of enslavement, by developing defensive structures and settlements, by attacking slaving vessels, or by becoming
involved in the trade in enslaved Africans to protect
their own people from enslavement (Diouf 2003).
Medford, Carrington, etal. (2009:37) observe that
these studies show that Africans responded to the
slave trade in complex, multidimensional ways that
varied with societies individual circumstances and
collective abilities.
Processes of enslavement included armed conflict,
raiding and kidnapping, purported criminal activity, and debt resolution. In some cases, people were
kidnapped and enslaved while working their fields
or traveling between villages (Medford, Carrington,
etal. 2009:37). In other cases, people were accused
and convicted of adultery or theft and, as punishment,
were sentenced to enslavement. Criminal charges
that led to enslavement escalated as the demand for
enslaved Africans grew (Medford, Carrington, etal.
2009:37). In still other cases, people were captured
as prisoners of war during military campaigns and
enslaved (Handler 2002; Medford, ed. 2009). Wars
of expansion resulted in the enslavement of large
numbers of people and allowed the conquerors to
grow large surplus crops, increase revenue, and build
armies and personal wealth. Enslaved laborers also
were used to centralize authority and build loyalty
(Thornton 1992).
In the late-sixteenth century, systematic raiding by
militaristic bands known as Imbangalas had virtually
depopulated whole provinces (Heywood and Thornton
2009b:10). Some of the first enslaved Africans acquired
by the Portuguese may have been captured during
Imbangala raids. Numerous civil wars that occurred
between 1615 and 1640 in the Kingdom of Kongo
also resulted in many captives forcibly migrated into
the trade in enslaved Africans (Heywood and Thornton
2009b:11). The Portuguese themselves also captured
and enslaved Africans in conflicts on African soil as
well as used African agents, called pumbeiros, to purchase captives at the close of conflicts and at markets
in Ndongo and the Kingdom of Kongo.
In West and West Central Africa, enslaved Africans
were often transported after being captured from their
homelands to coastal ports to be traded for European or
American commodities (Medford, ed. 2009). Thornton
(1992:11) has argued that exports tended to be drawn
from those slaves who were recently captured and had
not yet found a place in the society of their enslavers.
Enslaved Africans came from large and small polities
The New York African Burial Ground

with varying degrees of exposure to European lifeways

and urban environments. States like Kongo or Ndongo
consisted primarily of commoners led by minorities of
ruling elite. It is suspected that most captives brought
to the Americas were non-elite members of societies
that had both free and enslaved labor statuses. According to Posnansky (1999), many of the West African
coastal communities from which captives were traded
were newly established. At coastal trading centers, the
Akan-Asante civilization may have contributed mainly
non-Asante captives captured by the Asante, rather
than the Asante themselves. Many enslaved Africans
were from smaller, interior, stateless societies that
were devastated by political and economic conflict
(Posnansky 1999:24). Politically and militarily weaker
societies that supplied most enslaved laborers have
received far less ethnographic and historical attention
than the larger polities which captured them. The rural
areas, not urban centers, were most negatively affected
by processes of enslavement.

Supply Methods
European traders operating along the coast of West and
West Central Africa acquired enslaved Africans by two
different supply methodsshipborne trade and the
factory system (Medford, Carrington, etal. 2009:36).
Shipborne trade, or coasting, did not involve established trading posts. Captives were instead acquired
in coastal towns and cities when and where they were
available. According to this method, European slave
ships traveled along the coast of West Africa or West
Central Africa and assembled cargos of enslaved
Africans along the way. Trade along the West African
coast was initially conducted entirely from ships, and
this remained the predominant pattern along some
coastal areas (DeCorse 2001a:12). During the eighteenth century, shipborne trade was more common in
the Ivory Coast, Liberia, the Niger Delta, and Sierra
Leone (Medford, Carrington, etal. 2009:36). Theoretically, a single vessel on a single voyage could have
loaded enslaved Africans from many different ports.
In practice, slaving vessels usually made only one or
two stops. Eltis (2000:248) has noted that of 15,548
voyages recorded in The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Database, only 1,785 of these, or 11.5percent, are
recorded as trading at two or more places and only
812 voyages, or 5.2percent, traded at another place
of trade outside (emphasis in original) the region in
which the first trade occurred.

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 81

The number of stops made by Europeans seeking enslaved Africans varied geographically. In the
zone European geographers called Lower Guinea
the area encompassing the western Ivory Coast to
Cameroonit was fairly common for British, French,
and Dutch ships to draw enslaved Africans from two
stops, according to the process referred to as coasting (Thornton 1992:192193). In the Senegambia
region and on the Angola Coast of West Central Africa,
the one-stop approach was more common (Thornton
1992:193). The ship trade was especially important
to the French, who were never able to establish forts
along the coast (DeCorse 2001a:25).
According to DeCorse (2001a), shipborne trade
in enslaved Africans was a direct outgrowth of trade
in gold. It is not coincidental, he has written, that
two of the regions of West Africa that saw the most
intensive European activity were areas that afforded
comparatively easy access to the gold-producing
areas of the interior (DeCorse 2001a:12). Interior
trading posts were established along rivers that were
navigable by ship. During the seventeenth century,
enslaved labor replaced gold as the primary export
from the Gold Coast.
In contrast to shipborne trade, the factory system
involved established, fortified supply points where
enslaved laborers were held prior to sale. Europeans
built approximately 60 forts along the Gold Coast for
the trade in enslaved Africans (Medford, Carrington,
etal. 2009:36). Some of these forts were small; others,
such as Elmina on the Ghana coast, were commanding edifices. The Portuguese used these forts to deter
other Europeans, to accumulate and store goods, and
to confine captives prior to a ships arrival. Major forts
that have been studied archaeologically are Elmina
(DeCorse 1992, 2001a) and Savi (Kelly 1995, 1997;
Kelly etal. 1999). Such forts were crucial trading
outposts and the focus of European rivalries. At forts,
enslaved Africans from multiple areas of the interior
were held in cramped conditions awaiting sale. Forts
acted as choke points where enslaved Africans from
vast areas were funneled. As a result, embarkation
points were remarkably fewer in Africa when compared to the number of corresponding disembarkation
points in the New World.
Enslaved Africans were often associated (through
naming conventions) with the ports where Europeans acquired them. For example, Elmina, variously
listed as Mina, Amina, Aminra, and Aminer, became
a trope for Akan-speaking people from the Gold Coast
(DeCorse 2001a:27). Many enslaved Africans were

transported to ports from other areas, however, and, as

such, were probably ethnically affiliated with nonlocal
groups. The colonial European practice of assigning
geographic surnames to enslaved Africans, such as
Angola, Kongo, or Kormantine, partly reflects the
ports from which they were forcibly migrated. There
is some reason to believe, however, that individuals
imported from the same regions during certain periods were ethnolinguistically, if not politically or economically, similar (Chambers 2000, 2001; Thornton
1992). Thornton (1992:194195) has argued that wellestablished trade relations among African societies
created enduring trade routes that served local traffic
and transatlantic economies. Therefore, virtually all
slaves exported from a port would be from the cultural
zone that was already united by commerce in other
goods (Thornton 1992:194).

Regional Processes
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
enslaved Africans were acquired from multiple regions
in West Africa, West Central Africa, and Southeast
Africa as well as transshipped from the West Indies
(Medford, ed. 2009). Below, brief information is presented on the regions where many enslaved Africans
who ended up in New York were obtained: Senegambia, the Gold Coast, the Bight of Benin, the Niger
Delta, Southeast Africa, and the West Indies (Heywood
and Thornton 2009a:29). In each of these areas, economic, religious, political, and legal factors affected
enslavement processes in varied ways. This discussion
makes clear that there was no single trade in enslaved
Africans. Instead, the trade in enslaved Africans varied
according to geographic region, political processes,
religious factors, and supply and demand. The trade
also changed dramatically through time (Heywood and
Thornton 2009b; Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al.
2009a; Medford, Carrington, et al. 2009).

Senegambia
Trade, politics, and Islam were factors predisposing
Senegambia to participate in the trade in enslaved
Africans. Senegambia was, like some other regions,
unified by navigable river systems that linked coast
and interior (Figure33). Centering on the Gambia and
Senegal river basins, the greater Senegambia region
included the modern nations of Senegal, Gambia,
Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea, along with parts of Mali
and Mauritania. Trade along the major rivers predated

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 33. The Senegambia Region, West Africa. (Adapted from Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 15001800, John Thornton, 1999, UCL Press.
Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Books UK.) (From Volume 3 [Heywood and Thornton 2009a:Figure 7].)

82

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 83

European incursions and later fed Euro-African trade.
In Senegambia, frequent incursions from the desert
Arabs and the Moroccans... often created major political and military upheavals (Heywood and Thornton
2009a:29). When civil wars troubled the Senegambian
states in the late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
rulers seeking power sought European weapons, often
by selling captives, creating what Thornton calls the
gun-slave cycle (Thornton 1992:125).
Although Islamic peoples never fully controlled the
region, they did at times force tributary relationships
on African polities, such as the Senegal polity of Futa
Tooro in the second half of the eighteenth century
(Heywood and Thornton 2009a:29). The Moroccans
were instrumental in the establishment of regional trade
networks but were never able to control trade networks
connecting the Senegal river systems to the Atlantic.
Frequent political fragmentation and upheaval during
the eighteenth century complicated Islamic involvement with the Atlantic trading system. Nonetheless,
Islamic trading networks helped to integrate the Senegambia, as traders went from one part of the region
to another carrying goods and transporting people for
sale (Heywood and Thornton 2009a:31).
During the seventeenth century, the Portuguese,
Dutch, British, and French all vied for control of trading posts in the Senegambia region. Originally settled
by the Dutch in 1621, Gore Island, for instance, was
taken by the Portuguese in 1629 and again in 1645,
the British in 1667, and the French in 1677. The
French settled the island of Saint-Louis in 1659, near
the mouth of the Senegal River. At the mouth of the
Gambia, the British established a trading post at Fort
Saint James in 1651. In the late-seventeenth century,
the French monopolized trade along the Senegal with
the establishment of Fort Saint-Joseph in Gajaaga. The
British controlled trade along the Gambia River, which
was navigable year-round, with the establishment of
Fort Saint James and additional trading posts farther
upriver. The Dutch lost a strong foothold in the region
beginning in 1677, while the Portuguese, British and
Dutch competed for control of the rivers south of the
Gambia (Boubacar 1998). Boubacar (1998:72) notes
that in the eighteenth century, spheres of influence
established earlier generally remained unchanged.
Senegambia remained under French, British, and
Portuguese control, with the Dutch mounting sporadic
incursions on the Mauritanian coast. The French
controlled the Senegal River Valley, the British controlled the Gambia River Valley, and the Portuguese
controlled the southern rivers. Thornton (1992:194)

has written that each port served a distinct hinterland: the Senegal Basin, the Gambia Basin, the creek
and lagoon network of the Rivers of Guinea, and the
coastal waterways and river routes of Sierra Leone.
During the eighteenth century and the latter half of
the seventeenth century, Senegambia was a major
source for enslaved Africans shipped to the Americas, although exact numbers are difficult to establish.
Boubacar (1998) estimates that during the eighteenth
century somewhere around 6,000 enslaved Africans
were shipped each year to the Americas from Senegambia, most of them by the British or French.
While the African Burial Ground was in use, as many
as half of enslaved African New Yorkers would have
been from the Senegambian region (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009a:48). Many Senegambian New
Yorkers would have been shipped directly to New
York from Africa by the British and thus may have
often come from the Gambia River Valley.

The Gold Coast

Gold was the prime mover in trading operations along
the Gold Coast in the seventeenth century and the initial lure for European activities in the region. The lust
for gold set the stage for trade in enslaved Africans,
but political struggles were also significant. Extending
from Assine in the Ivory Coast to the Volta River in
modern Ghana, the Gold Coast was also known as
Mina, or the Mine (DeCorse 1992:164). The Portuguese interest in gold was so great that they imported
enslaved laborers to the Gold Coast region in exchange
for gold (Elbl 1997; Kea 1982; Rodney 1969; Vogt
1979). Africans of diverse origins took refuge from
conflicts taking place elsewhere in Africa in the many
independent sovereign states of the Gold Coast region
(Figure34). Migration into the Gold Coast region
resulted in the coexistence of displaced people from
different areas and the development of multilingual
and multicultural interactions in the region.
By the first half of the eighteenth century, the many
independent sovereign states of the region began
to consolidate and centralize political power into
larger, more powerful polities such as Denkyira,
Akwamu, Akyem, and Asante (Heywood and Thornton 2009a:32). The Asante emerged as the most powerful state, using large armies and state-constructed
roads to control the region and deter the competition.
The Asante also consolidated their power by forming
alliances with neighboring states (Bailey 2005:70).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 34. The Gold Coast and Slave Coast, West Africa. (Adapted from Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 15001800, John Thornton, 1999, UCL Press. Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis
Books UK.) (From Volume 3 [Heywood and Thornton 2009a:Figure 8].)

84

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 85

The Asante were traders of cotton, salt, oil, pottery, and gold (Bailey 2005:83). They also played
an important role in the trade in enslaved Africans.
Salaga in northern Ghana was founded in the sixteenth century and overrun by Asante forces in 1744,
who subsequently took over neighboring states and
incorporated them as tributary states into the kingdom. Consequently, the Asante maintained control
of the important Salaga market in enslaved Africans,
Dagbon, and regions to the north (Bailey 2005:84).
Kumasi, the center of Asante control, was also central
to known slave-trade routes. Cormantines from the
Gold Coast region were considered a powerful force
in the New York region. Based on records compiled
by the researchers (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
2009a:48-49, Tables6 and 7), around 17 percent of
documented imports of enslaved African New Yorkers whose region of origin could be determined were
from the Gold Coast region, more than half of those
documented shipped direct from Africa. Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. (2009a) explain that captives
from the Gold Coast region would have been common
between 1701 and 1730 when the British were especially active in the region and that people identified
as Coromantee would have included Asante, Ardra,
Yoruba, Adja, Fon, Popo, and Gur peoples.

The Bight of Benin

Owing to its early and intense involvement in the trade
in enslaved Africans, the Bight of Benin was often
referred to during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the Slave Coast. Although the label shifted
through time as the trade fluctuated, the Slave Coast
ran from the Volta River east to the Lagos channel,
about 200 miles, incorporating the Gulf or Bight of
Benin. It corresponds to modern southeastern Ghana,
the Republics of Togo and Benin, and a small section
of Nigeria (Law 1991:13). Early on, the Bight of Benin
region was neither politically nor ethnically unified.
Polities in the Bight of Benin region included the Ewe,
whose coastal polity Anlo was known to European
traders; the Hula (or Pla), whose major settlements
were known to Europeans as Fulao and Popo; Hueda,
with its capital at Savi; Ouidah; and the kingdom of
Allada. The interior kingdoms of Fon and Dahomey
had capitals located on rivers (Law 1991:1517) (Figure35). Despite political fragmentation, the region
was reasonably united linguistically.
Geography influenced the development of the region
as a trading center. The so-called Benin gap, a major

interruption of the belt of tropical rain forest, facilitated

communication between the coast and the interior and
encouraged the concentration of European slaving
activities there. The grasslands were a major resource
for the Oyo Empire, whose military power rested principally in cavalry (Heywood and Thornton 2009a:33).
The coastal lagoons also provided a navigable system
of waterways running parallel to the coast (Heywood
and Thornton 2009a:33; Law 1991:1922).
During the seventeenth century, areas extending
along the coast of the Bight of Benin region were
largely integrated into a single polity, the empire of
Benin. With the faltering of Benins power, other
smaller local powers, such as Allada and Ouidah,
gained control of segments of the coast. During the
late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries, Alladas power began to wane as a result of internal disorder, conflicts regarding European trade, and banditry
(Law 1991). By 1720, the Kingdom of Dahomey
began to consolidate power. Dahomey seized control
of Allada in 1724 and Ouidah in 1727 (Heywood and
Thornton 2009a:33; Law 2004). Over the course of
the eighteenth century, Dahomey created a highly
centralized political power whose king had substantial
legal powers to distribute land, oversee commerce, and
determine who could and could not conduct business
in certain commodities (Heywood and Thornton
2009a:33). Dahomeys political power in the region,
however, was kept in check by the Oyo Empire, a
northern Yoruba polity that drew power from great
cavalry armies (Heywood and Thornton 2009a:33).
Widespread trading networks were well established
in the coastal region. Salt and fish from the coast were
traded over great distances along the coast through the
lagoon system and into the interior. Imports included
cotton cloth, which was sold to Europeans as well
as worn locally; gum; and gemstones used to make
beads (Law 1991:4546). Basic foodstuffs were also
traded. Trade was state-controlled and was monetized
through the currency of cowry shells, brass manillas,
and iron bars (Law 1991:48, 50).
The Portuguese developed a regular trade with
Allada and Popo. Enslaved Africans were purchased
for use on the plantations of So Tom and Brazil,
along with ivory, cloth, and provisions. The Dutch
interest in trading for enslaved Africans, which was
initially minimal, accelerated with the takeover of So
Tom and Pernambuco in Brazil and was sustained
with the development of sugar cultivation in the Caribbean. The West India Company began purchasing
enslaved Africans for Brazilian plantations in 1635,

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 35. The Bight of Benin and Niger Delta, West Africa. (Adapted from Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 15001800, John Thornton, 1999, UCL Press. Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis
Books UK.) (From Volume 3 [Heywood and Thornton 2009a:Figure 9].)

86

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 87

and one of their supply areas was the Benin coast,
particularly Allada. The French, by contrast, focused
on Ouidah. The Royal African Company began trading at Ouidah in 1681, and, for a time, the English
emerged as the victors in the competition to control
Ouidah (see discussion in Law [1991]). Ships logs
recorded only a small proportion of African New
Yorkers as coming from the Bight of Benin, and all
of them via the West Indies, but the researchers note
that the number could have been substantially higher
given the large number of enslaved Africans forcibly
migrated to Jamaica and Barbados, Caribbean islands
from which many Africans were shipped to New York
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009a:48).

The Niger Delta

At the southern tip of the Bight of Benin was the Niger
Delta region, also referred to as the Bight of Biafra
region, which included the eastern coast of modern-day
Nigeria and the northern coast of modern-day Cameroon (see Figure35). Thornton (1992:19) has pointed
out that the Niger River provided a corridor that ultimately added the Hausa kingdoms, the Yoruba states,
and the Nupe, Igala, and Benin kingdoms to a hydrographic system that was ultimately connected to the
Atlantic. Creeks and rivers in the Niger Delta made
navigation easy and connected the region widely
(Heywood and Thornton 2009a:33). Canoe men from
the Christianized kingdom of Warri, a major port south
of Benin, traveled far and wide on trading missions
(Heywood and Thornton 2009a:34). In the Niger Delta,
the mouths of major waterways were controlled by
city-states such as Elem Kalabari (New Calabar), Ibani,
and Ndoni. Europeans never ventured upstream past
the city-states, where the Igbo occupied numerous
independent villages, but the majority of enslaved
Africans forcibly migrated from the Nigerian Delta
region were likely Igbo from the interior (Heywood
and Thornton 2009a:34). The researchers note that Igbo
from this region arrived in New York in large numbers
during the 1740s and 1750s, when the British increased
trade in the region. Around 18 percent of arrivals with
documented origins came ultimately from the Bight of
Biafra region, via the West Indies (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009a:4849).

West Central Africa

Prior to the eighteenth century, the Portuguese and
Dutch acquired enslaved Africans along the coast of

West Central Africa in areas where Africans and Europeans had long interacted. Later, in the eighteenth century, many enslaved Africans were brought to coastal
markets from areas in the interior. Enslaved Africans
from the interior were transported along three major
trade routesacross Kongo to the Mpunda region
(located some 200miles from the Atlantic coast),
east of the Kwango to Kongo ports and Luanda, and
from the Benguela hinterland (Medford, Carrington,
etal. 2009:40). To the British, the northernmost of
these trade routes, the route that tapped population
sources from the Kongo, Teke, Dembos, and Loango
hinterland, was the most important (Medford, Carrington, etal. 2009:40). Along these trade routes,
African traders (vilis or mubires) transported enslaved
Africans from the interior to the ports of Loango Bay,
Malemba, and Cabinda, where British slavers were
located (Medford, Carrington, etal. 2009:40) (Figure36). Africans from the interior had less exposure
to European lifeways than their coastal neighbors and
brought with them cultural heritages that differed from
people enslaved earlier by the Portuguese and Dutch
(Medford, Carrington, etal. 2009:4041).
West Central Africans constituted 92.8percent of
enslaved Africans imported to the Americas between
1601 and 1650. After 1650, West Central Africans
constituted around 40percent or less of the Atlantic
trade. In absolute numbers, importations of West
Central Africans steadily increased from 1650 to
1800. Over a quarter of the 3.1 million West Central
Africans imported into the Americas were imported
between 1776 and 1800 (Medford, Carrington, etal.
2009:Table1; Miller 2002). West Central Africans
would have been less common in New York City than
individuals from West Africa, particularly during the
eighteenth century, but nonetheless constituted around
12 percent of enslaved African New Yorkers whose
origins were recorded in ships logs (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009a:4849).

Southeast Africa
As the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database and other
sources indicate, a substantial number of enslaved
Africans in New York were not from West Africa
or West Central Africa but instead from Southeast Africa. From the 1670s to around 1721, some
enslaved laborers imported into New York were
Malagasy from Madagascar. The Malagasy could
be traded for around 10 shillings worth of English
goods as compared with the 3- to 4-pound cost for

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 36. West Central Africa, Kongo-Angola Region. (Adapted from Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 15001800, John Thornton, 1999, UCL Press. Reproduced by
permission of Taylor & Francis Books UK.) (From Volume 3 [Heywood and Thornton 2009b:Figure 3].)

88

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 89

Africans on the West Coast (Medford, Brown, and
Carrington 2009:25).
Malagasy laborers were acquired through illegal
trade with pirates, some of whom were stationed at
St. Marys Bay, Madagascar, and were supplied with
food, rum, gunpowder, and other commodities by
New York merchants. The ship Fortune is believed to
have made yearly voyages to Madagascar to acquire
enslaved laborers (Berlin 1998; Lydon 1978; Medford,
Brown, and Carrington 2009:25; Platt 1969).

The West Indies

Many enslaved laborers were forcibly migrated to
New York from islands in the British West Indies
particularly Jamaica, Antigua, and Barbados. Smaller
numbers were imported from St. Kitts (British and
French), Montserrat and Nevis (British), Curaao
and St.Eustatius (Dutch), St. Thomas (Danish), and
Hispaniola (French) (Medford, Brown, Carrington,
etal. 2009a:44) (Table4). Enslaved laborers from
the West Indies arrived on vessels involved in the
provisions trade between Caribbean islands and New
York. Typically, a few enslaved laborers, along with
other diverse nonhuman cargo, arrived on any particular vessel. By contrast, enslaved Africans who
arrived direct from Africa typically arrived in larger
shipments that sometimes numbered in the hundreds.
The history researchers (Medford, Carrington, etal.
2009:41) argue that, during the eighteenth century,
limited exposure to European lifeways and the diverse
origins of enslaved Africans brought to New York
directly from Africa conditioned their responses to
both European slavery and to each other.
During the eighteenth century, commerce in New
York, Boston, and Philadelphia all depended on the
West Indian trade (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
2009a:44). To the West Indies, the British exported
staves, lumber, shingles, hoops, bread, corn, beef,
pork, oats, soap, and candles (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009a:46, Table4). New York merchants
accepted small parcels of enslaved laborers as partial
payment for provisions supplied to planters in the West
Indies. Between 1701 and 1765, around three-quarters of enslaved Africans brought to New York were
shipped from the West Indies. Shipments of enslaved
Africans from the West Indies were also much more
frequent than those direct from Africa (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009a:43) (Table5).
As such, many enslaved Africans in New York had
ethnic backgrounds and experiences that were similar to

those of enslaved Africans in the West Indies. Captives

on particular West Indian islands also shared similar
backgrounds owing to the regularization of trade and
the forcible migration of captives from a limited number
of sources. Between 1658 and 1713, almost four-fifths
of the slaves arriving in Barbados, the principal market
for slaves in this period, and three-quarters of those
coming to Jamaica, the second most important British
market, came from adjacent African regions of the
Gold and Slave Coasts and the Bight of Biafra (Eltis
2000:245). Similarly, between 1658 and 1713, most
enslaved Africans in the British colonies of Nevis and
Antigua were from the Gold Coast, Slave Coast, or
Bight of Biafra. Enslaved Africans from West Central
Africa, in the region of Angola, represented 10percent
of enslaved Africans in Barbados and 20percent of
enslaved Africans in Jamaica. In Montserrat, Senegambians constituted almost 22percent, and Southeast
Africans, almost 20percent of enslaved Africans. In
the Chesapeake, most enslaved Africans were either
from the Bight of Biafra (44.0percent), Senegambia
(34.2percent), or the Gold Coast (16.5percent) (Eltis
2000:245, Table9.1). Of the major British colonies
Chesapeake, Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua, Montserrat,
and NevisChesapeake and Montserrat were the only
colonies where Senegambians formed a large percentage of the enslaved population between 1658 and
1713. In New York, data for voyages disembarking in
New York during the eighteenth century also suggest
a predominance of Senegambians (Medford, Brown,
Carrington 2009a:4849).
When enslaved laborers from unspecified areas
of Africa are removed (n=4,032, or 76.3percent),
most enslaved Africans officially imported into New
York were from Senegambia (53.5percent), Southeast
Africa (19.2percent), the Gold Coast (15.7percent),
or West Central Africa (11.7percent). The distribution
of African regional origins for New York during the
eighteenth century is similar, but not identical to, the
pattern for Montserrat during the late-seventeenth and
early-eighteenth centuries (Eltis etal. 1999).
Enslaved laborers arrived in Dutch New Amsterdam and later in British New York according to multiple pathways. Some enslaved laborers were directly
acquired from ports along the coasts of West and
West Central Africa (and to a lesser extent, Southeast
Africa and Madagascar), some were brought from
the West Indies, some were captured from Spanish
and other European-affiliated privateers, and some
arrived in New York through regional trade or movement between North American colonies. Sources for

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

The New York African Burial Ground

93

50

48

13

16

24

12

1729

1730

1731

1732

1733

1734

17351736

1737

17381739

1740

1741

17421743

17481750

1754

1763
5

24

44

22

40

12

16

Barbados

12

Bermuda

16

12

11

Curacao

37

22

88

30

115

25

131

75

47

42

31

86

157

Jamaica

Hispaniola

Montserrat

Nevis

11

22

32

St. Kitts

15

St. Eustatius

16

20

St. Thomas

Note: Donnan 1969:3:462511. The table does not include individuals from the following places or combination of places: Antigua and Bermuda (1), Jamaica and Bermuda (2),
St. Lucia (1), St. Thomas and Jamaica (1), Jamaica and Hispaniola (1), Turks Island (1), Spanish Town and St. Thomas (18), Tortola and St. Thomas (4) (from Volume 3
[Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009a:Table 5]).
a
These were listed as New Negroes.

30

1728

17641765

1727

Antigua

Year

Table 4. Caribbean Islands from Which Enslaved Persons Were Imported into New York, 17271765

90

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 91

Table 5. Africans Imported into New York, 17011765
Year

West Indies

Africa

1701

36

1702

165

1703

16

1704

1705

25

1710

53

1711

55

1712

77

1714

53

1715

14

38

1716

16

43

1717

61

266

1718

433

70

1719

84

1720

66

1721

85

117

1722

91

1723

98

1724

52

1725

145

59

1726

144

1727

218

1728

114

1729

194

1730

173

1731

163

130

1732

138

1733

156

100

1734

51

17351736

134

85

151

1740

56

1741

48

17421743

19

17481750

13

1754

65

1763

103

35

1737
17381739

17641765

Note: From Donnan (1969, vol. 3) (from Volume 3

[Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009a:Table 3]).

enslaved laborers varied through time according to

national policies and trading patterns, international
conflicts, and local perceptions about the behavior or
utility of enslaved laborers from different sources. For
instance, Coromantees were highly esteemed as laborers, whereas enslaved Africans from Angola, Gambia,
and the Bight of Biafra were not highly recommended
among planters (Eltis 2000).
At times, so-called seasoned enslaved Africans
from the West Indies were more highly prized by
colonists in New York than unseasoned captives
direct from Africa. Seasoned enslaved Africans
were more familiar with European languages, required
less training, and had survived the initial stresses of
enslavement, including new disease environments,
psychosocial trauma, and hard labor (Berlin 1998:48;
see also Medford 2009:xixxx). At some times and
places, the association of seasoned enslaved Africans
with rebellious tendencies made them undesirable.
When fearsome Coromantee males were associated
with revolts, enslavers focused on importing enslaved
Africans they felt would be less dangerous, warlike,
and rebellious, such as women, children, and unseasoned enslaved Africans who had not been exposed
to West Indian climates of rebellion (Lydon 1978).
Many enslaved laborers shipped to New York from
the West Indies also were considered by planters to
be too rebellious or in poor physical shape (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:81, 2009c:58).

Bioarchaeological Approaches
to African Origins
The researchers applied a battery of scientific techniques and approaches to identify and disentangle
the diverse origins of the individuals buried in the
New York African Burial Ground. These included
genetic studies, craniometry, dental-morphology
studies, isotopic analysis, and elemental-chemistry
analysis (Goodman etal. 2009; Jackson etal. 2009).
At the time this research was initiated, a number of
these studies were pioneering applications of newly
developed techniques in genetics and isotope analysis.
As a result, many of the studies were preliminary or
exploratory, designed to feed into ongoing research
that has yet to be reported.
In many cases, the researchers believed that existing frames of reference were inadequate to answer
the kinds of subregional and population-level questions in which they were interested. Available genetic,

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

92

Figure 37. Example of dental modification of maxillary central incisors (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Blakey, Mack, Barrett, et al.
2009:Figure 63]).

skeletal, and isotopic frames of reference had not been

established at a level of detail that allowed for the
identification of subregional or macroethnic origins.
To help resolve this problem, the researchers invested
in the development of reference collections, databases,
and collaborative research programs that promise to
inform current and future bioarchaeological studies
of African diasporic populations. Other life-history
studies were designed to reconstruct the health status
and quality of life of people buried in the New York
African Burial Ground (see Chapters 5 and 6).

Research Questions
In attempting to reconstruct the origins of individuals buried in the New York African Burial Ground,
the researchers posed four major research questions
intended to test whether continental, subcontinental, and sex-linked variation in origins could be
detected. Specifically, the researchers (Jackson etal.
2009:7172) asked:
1. Is it possible to differentiate between continental
groups (Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans as a subset of Asians) at the genetic and/or
phenotypic levels?
2. In the New York African Burial Ground sample, is
it possible to differentiate genetically and/or phenotypically among the ancestral Africans, ancestral
Europeans, and ancestral Native Americans coming
from various historically relevant geographical
areas and germane ethnic groups within a specific
continent?
The New York African Burial Ground

3. Is it possible to differentiate sex-linked differences in ancestral origins and biological affinity

among those interred in the New York African
Burial Ground?
4. Most importantly, is it possible to differentiate
among the Africans, who most likely contributed
disproportionately to the ancestral backgrounds
of those interred in the New York African Burial
Ground, from various regions of Africa and between
different macroethnic groups of Africa?
In the following sections, the methods used to
answer these questions are presented along with
the results of multiple studies, including studies of
dental modification, elemental-signature analysis,
and strontium isotope analysis. The implications of
craniometry, dental morphology, genetic analyses,
and evidence for lead poisoning in assessing origins
are discussed.

Dental Modification
When seen in the teeth of an enslaved laborer in the
Americas, dental modification is considered to be a
relatively unambiguous signature of African origins
(Handler 1994) (Figure37). At various times in the
past, dental modification has been practiced in many
areas of the world, including Africa, Britain, India,
China, Southeast Asia, Japan, the Malay Archipelago
(including the Philippines and New Guinea), Australia, Oceania, the Americas, Hawaii, Grenada, and
the Virgin Islands (Goodman etal. 2009:105, citing
Milner and Larsen 1991). Dental modification was

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 93

fairly common among men and women in parts of
Africa but was rare or absent in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century Americas. It was not practiced by
contemporary Europeans nor does it appear to have
been a feature of contemporary Native American body
practices. It was, however, commonly practiced in prehistoric Mesoamerica. Therefore, dental modification
is believed to have been common in historical-period
New York only among forcibly migrated Africans.
Handler (1994; see also Handler etal. 1982) has
hypothesized that African practices of dental modification were not performed in the Americas as a result
of the tremendous cultural disruptions caused by the
diaspora. Traditionally, dental modifications were
performed in ritualized community contexts (e.g.,
puberty rituals) (Van Reenen 1964, 1986) to which
enslaved Africans in the Americas no longer had
access. Because many enslaved Africans had been
removed not only from their communities but also
from their families, widespread social disruption and
the inability to perform some community-organized
traditions may have prohibited the practice of dental
modification in the Americas. As a result, New York
African Burial Ground researchers interpret dental
modification as an indication that an individual was
probably born in Africa (Jackson etal. 2009).
Dental modification has been observed at other
burial sites associated with enslaved African populations. Individuals from a wrecked Portuguese slaving
vessel, the Paquet Real, which sank in 1818 off the
coast of Cape Town, South Africa, also exhibited
dental modification of four types which Cox and Sealy
(1997:216) felt could be linked to the body practices
of specific groups in Africa.
Following Gould etal. (1984), the New York African Burial Ground researchers listed 17different types
of dental modification, including deliberate extraction
(Table6). As they point out, dental modifications often
are not culturally or geographically restricted and thus
are not particularly reliable in identifying geographic
or ethnic origins.
Of the 295 New York African Burial Ground individuals with preserved dentition, almost 9 percent
(n=26) had modified teeth. There is a great deal of
variation in the specific types of dental modification
and in which teeth were modified. The presence of
dental modification is one line of evidence for the
African birth of some African Burial Ground individuals. Morphological and locational variation in
modification further testify to the diverse African
cultural origins of individuals buried in the African

Burial Ground. Many of the observed patterns are

associated with practices in West Central Africa and
have also been observed in reference populations in
Cuba and Barbados (Table7).
Some tentative conclusions can be reached regarding
the affiliation of specific modification techniques with
macroethnic groups or geographic areas. Observed
variations correspond to those seen in Southeast Africa
(Makua, Maravi, Yao), Kongo (Bakongo, Loango),
Gold Coast (Asante), Angola (Owampo, Ngumbi)
and Namibia (Damara), but more comparative work
is necessary to more finely resolve African origins
using dental-modification patterns and other lines of
evidence.

Elemental-Signature Analysis and

Strontium Isotope Analysis
To test the hypothesis that dental modification in
the African Burial Ground sample implies African
birth, Goodman etal. (2009:96) chemically tested
the teeth of young individuals and individuals with
culturally modified teeth. This is possible because of
the characteristic patterns in which dental calcification is laid down during growth. Teeth are made of
three hard tissuesenamel, dentin, and cementum.
Enamel covers the exterior of tooth crowns, dentin
forms layers in the interior of the crown and roots,
and cementum covers tooth roots (Figure38). Whereas
enamel forms during childhood and is not replenished
in later life, dentin forms mostly in childhood, and
cementum is deposited annually. Incremental growth
lines in enamel are seen in the Stria of Retzius. In
dentin, incremental growth lines are called contour
lines of Owen.
Strontium- and oxygen-isotope studies have shown
that different geographic areas have unique elemental and isotopic signatures, and these signatures are
fossilized in the hard tissues of teeth during calcification (Ambrose 1991; Blum etal. 2000; Ericson
1985, 1989; Larsen 1997; Price, Grupe, etal. 1994;
Price, Johnson, etal. 1994; Schwarcz etal. 1991;
Schwarcz and Schoeninger 1991; Sealy etal. 1991,
1995; White etal. 1998). Therefore, different areas of
an individual tooth, as well as different teeth from the
same individual, can be used to build a chronology
indicating the places where a person lived at different
times during his or her life. Patterns in tooth enamel,
for instance, can be used to infer where individuals
lived as infants or subadults. Change in characteristics

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

94
Table 6. African Dental Modification Patterns
A. Filing mesial maxillary central incisors
(Guinea, Togo, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania)
B. Filing mesial and distal of maxillary central incisors
(Guinea, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola)
C. Filing six maxillary anterior teeth to pointed shape
(Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe)
D. Filing four maxillary and four mandibular incisors to pointed shape
(Guinea, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo)
E. Horizontally filing maxillary central incisors
(Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
F. Centrally notched incisors
(Sierra Leone)
G. Serrated incisors
(Mozambique)
H. Mesial triangular notch cut in gingival one-third of central incisors
(Republic of the Congo, Sudan)
I. Concave filing of maxillary incisor, convex filing of mandibular incisors
(Tanzania, Mozambique)
J. Extracting maxillary central incisors
(Zambia)
K. Extracting mandibular central incisors
(Uganda, Kenya)
L. Extracting primary mandibular canines
(Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda)
M. Extracting four maxillary incisors
(South Africa)
N. Extracting four mandibular incisors
(Sudan)
O. Extracting four maxillary and four mandibular incisors
(Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda)
P. Extracting single lateral incisor a
(South Africa)
Q. Artificial prognathism with facially flared maxillary central incisors
(Senegal, Kenya)
Note: From Gould et al. (1984) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Goodman et al. 2009:Table 11]).
a
Maxillary in diagram.

of primary enamel and dentin can elucidate change

during early life; cementum records annual changes.
New York African Burial Ground researchers argue
that tooth chemistry may be able to resolve who grew
up in the New York area, somewhere in Africa, or in
a third location, such as the Caribbean (Goodman
etal. 2009:97). The researchers also suggest it may be
The New York African Burial Ground

possible to estimate the age at which enslaved Africans

were forcibly migrated to New York using patterns in
tooth calcification and isotope values.
The researchers tested the hypothesis that individuals with modified teeth might chemically cluster
differently than individuals who died in the first decade
of life and are assumed to be New York born using

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 95

Table 7. NYABG Modification Patterns with African and African Diaspora Reference Populations
Burial
Number(s)

Referenced Population(s)

Wave (incisors and canines)

47

none

Wedge (central incisors)

23

Cuba via Congo (Bakongo);

SW Angola (Ngumbi); Cape
Town via SE Africa (Makua,
Maravi and Yao)

Mesial filing (incisors)

6, 114, 326,
366, 377

S Angola (Owampo) and

N Namibia (Damara);
Virgin Islands

Distal chipping/filing
(incisors)

101, 241,
367, 397

Barbados

I1, I2 mesial, distal chipping/

filing

68, 194,
243, 403

Grenada; Cuba via Congo

(Loango)

I1, I2 mesial, distal with C1

mesial chipping/filing

115, 384

none

Point (incisors)

9, 106,
151, 192

Blunt point (incisors)

266, 270,
340

Southern Dem. Republic of

Congo

Hourglass (incisors)

281

Dem. Republic of Congo;

Barbados

General (occlusal) chipping/

filing (incisors)

165

none

Modification Pattern

Reference(s)

none
Cox and Sealy 1997; Ortiz 1929;
Wentzel 1961

Buxton et al. 1938; von Ihering 1882

Handler et al. 1982

Ortiz 1929; Stewart and Groome
1968
none

Barbados; Cuba via Congo

AMNH; Ortiz 1929; Stewart 1939
(Calabar); Gold Coast (Ashanti,
Aksin)
Torday 1919
Handler et al. 1982; Lignitz (1919
1920)
none

Key: AMNH = American Museum of Natural History; C1 = upper canine; I1 = upper first incisor; I2 = upper second incisor
Note: Modified from Blakey (1998b) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Goodman et al. 2009:Table 12]).

elemental-signature analysis (ESA) and strontiumisotope analysis (Goodman etal. 2009:105). ESA analyzes nutritionally nonessential elements incorporated
into enamel. These elements are present in sediments,
food, and water and enter the body through food preparation and consumption. In the body, trace elements
are circulated in the bloodstream and deposited in
bones and teeth. After death, taphonomic processes
acting on an individuals remains may further affect
the concentration of trace elements in bones and teeth
(Figure39). Distributions of different elements can be
used to assess the relative geographic relatedness of
individuals. Cluster analysis on five trace elements
rubidium (Rb), strontium (Sr), lanthanum (La), cerium
(Ce), lead (Pb)was applied to 40teeth (Goodman
etal. 2009). The sample included 37teeth from New
York African Burial Ground individuals, including

teeth taken from 14adults with culturally modified

teeth and 19subadults with unmodified teeth; teeth
from 2skeletons derived from excavations in coastal
Ghana (DeCorse 2001a); and a pig tooth associated
with Burial137, which initially was presumed to reflect
local New York values. The Ghanaian individuals were
included for comparative purposes, as they were known
to be of African birth (Goodman etal. 2009).
The analysis yielded four clusters of sampled teeth
(Figure40). ClusterA was represented by a single
individual, Burial165, an adult individual of undetermined sex with general chipping and filing of the
teeth. The coffinless burial was assigned to the Late
Group (ca.a.d.17761795). ClusterC1 was mixed,
containing primarily subadults without dental modification but also four individuals with modified teeth
(Burials6, 47, 101, and 106). This cluster included

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

96

Figure 38. Longitudinal cross section of a permanent upper left first molar from Burial 35, an 810-year-old child. The dental tissuesenamel,
dentine, and cementumand the pulp cavity are labeled. The green arrow indicates the general orientation of crown formation. Enamel
formation and calcification begin at the enamel-dentine junction (or EDJ) near the dentine horn (indicated by the red arrow) and continues
outward and downward until the crown is complete. As a result, early forming layers are buried within the crown, whereas the last layers are
completed at the surface, near the root (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Goodman et al. 2009:Figure 41]).

Figure 39. A model of the relationships between recorded elemental concentration and elemental uptake,
deposition, diagenetic change, and sample preparation (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Goodman et al. 2009:Figure 40]).

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 97

Sex

Age (y)

Modif.
Pattern

47 LLM1

3545

Wave

7 LRM1

35

N/A

55 URM1

35

N/A

43 LRM1

2.54.5

N/A

180 ULM1

1113

N/A

405 URM1

N/A

35 ULM1

810

N/A

101 LLM3

2635

*DCF

101 LRI1

2635

*DCF

106 LRM1

PF

2535

Point

6 LLM1

2530

MesFil

167 LRM1

8.512.5

N/A

126 LLM1

3.55.5

N/A

236 LLM1

45

N/A

266 URM1

2535

BPoint

281 ULM1

16+

HGlass

340 LRM3

39.364.4

BPoint

115 LRM1

30

MesFil

270 LLM1

16+

BPoint

367 ULM1

2535

*DCF

PigMolar

N/A

9 LRM3

3545

Point

366 LLM1

3462

M/DFil

9 LLM1

3545

Point

23 URM1

2535

Wedge

47 LRM3

3545

Wave

Burial/Sample

C1

CREGEG

C2

10

15

20

25

A: Burial 165 (modified)

B1: non-African birth (non-modified)
C1: mixed (modified and non-modified
C2: African birth (most modified and Ghanaian)

N/A

CREGDO

B1

N/A

340 LRM1

39.364.4

BPoint

22 LRM1

2.54.5

N/A

160 LM1

3.55.5

N/A

286 LLM1

4.58.5

N/A

45 LRM1

2.54.5

N/A

138 URM1

35

N/A

169 LRM1

5.59.5

N/A

244 LLM1

59

N/A

39 LRM1

57

N/A

304 LRM1

35

N/A

219 LRM1

45

N/A

165 LLM1

16+

GCF

Figure 40. ESA Cluster Diagram based on concentrations of five trace elements: Rb, Sr, La, Ce and Pb. BPoint (blunt point); DCF (distal chipping and
filing); GCF (general chipping and filing); HGlass (hourglass filing); M/D Fil (mesial and distal filing); MesFil (mesial filing) (from Volume 1, Part 1
[Goodman et al. 2009:Figure 47]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

98
the individual in Burial101, an adult male who was
buried in a coffin with the possible Sankofa symbol
tacked to the lid and whose teeth were modified with
distal chipping and filing. ClusterC2 consisted of New
York African Burial Ground adults, all but one with
dental modification, the Ghanaian skeletons, and the
pig tooth. Finally, ClusterB1 included nine individuals, all of them less than 8years old and none of whom
had dental modifications (Goodman et al. 2009).
Cluster B1 was interpreted to represent children who
were born in New York, and ClusterC2 was thought
to represent people who were born in Africa. Most of
the individuals with modified teeth clustered together
in ClusterC2, suggesting that ESA signatures correctly
identified African birth. Four individuals with modified
teeth, however, clustered with nine subadults in ClusterC1 who were assumed to have been born in America.
In addition, Burial165 from ClusterA had modified
teeth but was nearest to Cluster B1, a cluster thought
to represent locally born individuals. Finally, Burial47
was represented by two teeth that were assigned to different clusters: the first permanent molar was assigned
to Cluster C1, and the third permanent molar was
assigned to ClusterC2 (Goodman et al. 2009).
The surprising clustering of the pig tooth with the
presumed African-born individuals and the Ghanaian
burials might indicate that the pig was transported by
ship from Africa as a food source during the voyage.
Alternatively, the tooth could have been brought to the
Americas from Africa as a spiritually endowed object.
The formation processes that led to its deposition in
the fill of a New York African Burial Ground burial
are unknown. There are other anomalies, such as the
Burial47 teeth representing two different clusters, the
clustering of Burial22 (a young child) with dentally
modified individuals, and the clustering of Burial 101
and three other individuals with modified teeth with
children lacking dental modification. Possible hypotheses for these patterns include that a first molar may
partly reflect the chemistry of the mothers environment
if the mother loses bone apatite during breast-feeding
or, alternatively, that dental modification continued to
be performed in colonial New York or other American
contexts (Goodman etal. 2009:108, 110).
Turning to the strontium-isotope analysis, the
researchers used the ratio of 87Sr to 86Sr as a second
method to assess the birthplace of individuals. They
selected a sample of 30 individuals from the New York
African Burial Ground, including 11 individuals with
unmodified teeth, mostly subadults, and 19 individuals
with dental modification, all adults. In addition, the
The New York African Burial Ground

researchers also analyzed the 2 skeletons from Ghana,

the pig tooth, and a sample of water from a Ghanaian
well. The researchers proposed that local Manhattan
values of 87Sr/86Sr would range between about 0.711 and
0.712, based on prior geological studies and the clustering of subadults in the analysis. The 87Sr/86Sr values
for other areas where enslaved African New Yorkers
had been born or had resided would likely differ from
New York values, based on known variation in the
distribution of 87Sr/86Sr values (Figure41). Subadults
and one adult without dental modification clustered
between 0.710 and 0.714, with one exception that was
a bit lower (Burial323, the only adult in this group).
The Ghanaian well water and the Ghanaian individuals
had ratios between 0.715 and about 0.735, with the well
water showing the highest ratio. About half of the New
York African Burial Ground individuals with modified
teeth had ratios that were similar to the individuals
without modified teeth, and the remainder had enamel
ratios well above the Manhattan range (Figure42). For
many of these individuals, however, the dentin value
was considerably lower than the enamel value, suggesting migration during life (Goodman et al. 2009). The
researchers hypothesize that the downward movement
of dentin 87Sr/86Sr values resulted from postmortem
diagenesis, the incorporation of vital secondary dentine,
or changes in primary dentin chemistry during life
(Goodman etal. 2009:115) (but see below). The pig
tooth exhibited a ratio around 0.715, within the range of
the modified-tooth cluster and lower than the Ghanaian
samples (Goodman et al. 2009).
As Ezzo and Price (2002) have explained, dental
enamel records the conditions that obtained for an
individuals early life, whereas dentin is remodeled
and thus records changing conditions. As African- or
Caribbean-born enslaved individuals began to eat local
New York foods, their active calcified tissues would
begin remodeling according to the local strontiumisotope signature. These individuals lived in New
York long enough for their active hard tissues to
remodel. The individuals whose teeth had high enamel
87
Sr/86Sr ratios but lower dentin ratios included Burials6, 9, 106, 241, and 367; these persons may have
been forcibly migrated and remained in New York
for someyears. By contrast, Burials165 and 266 had
similar enamel and dentin ratios that are relatively
high. This pattern could suggest that these persons
were not in New York long enough for their tissues to
remodel before they died (Goodman et al. 2009).
An intriguing question raised by Goodman etal.s
(2009) research is: Did dental modification persist

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 99

Figure 41. Broad geographic pattern of strontium isotope distribution. Data from Dasch (1969), Allegre et
al. (1996), Goldstein and Jacobsen (1988), Palmer and Edmond (1992), and Huh and Edmond (1996) (from
Volume 1, Part 1 [Goodman et al. 2009:Figure 45]).

Figure 42. Strontium isotopes chart: ratio of 87strontium to 86strontium in samples of enamel and dentin of individuals from the
New York African Burial Ground. Two individuals from Ghana, water from Ghana, and an intrusive pig molar recovered with Burial
137 are shown at right (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Goodman et al. 2009:Figure 48]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

100

Figure 43. Lead Variation. Ranking of intensities of lead in teeth studies for ESA. Teeth from individuals with dental
modifications (dark bars) tend to have low lead levels compared to individuals without dental modifications (white bars)
(from Volume 1, Part 1 [Goodman et al. 2009:Figure 49]).

amongst some enslaved Africans in the Americas?

Most researchers have assumed that dental modification was not practiced by enslaved Africans in the
Americas (Handler 1994). The individual in Burial101
had culturally modified teeth and was buried in a
coffin with a symbol interpreted by New York African Burial Ground researchers as an Akan-Asante
Sankofa symbol (Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009).
Burial101s 87Sr/86Sr in enamel, which should indicate
something about birthplace, was similar to the 87Sr/86Sr
of individuals considered to have been born locally.
The unexpected and apparently local 87Sr/86Sr signature in Burial101s teeth suggests the possibility that
Burial101 was not born in Africa but was instead born
locally. If so, dental modification may have persisted,
albeit to a limited degree, amongst enslaved Africans
in the Americas. Alternatively, Burial101 could have
been born in an area that had 87Sr/86Sr values close to
those found in New York (such as in South Africa) or
postmortem diagenesis possibly could have altered
87
Sr/86Sr values in Burial101s enamel (Goodman et
al. 2009). Burial101 also had saber shin, a condition
possibly indicative of congenital syphilis (see Chap-

The New York African Burial Ground

ter5) or yaws. Although syphilis or yaws could have

been contracted in Africa, the West Indies, or New
York, both diseases were rampant in the West Indies
(Goodman et al. 2009).

Lead Poisoning in Colonial New York

As part of the ESA analysis, lead content was assessed.
The researchers plotted the lead content of teeth and
were surprised to find that it varied significantly, from
near zero to toxic levels. Most individuals with culturally modified teeth exhibited levels that were lower
than individuals whose teeth were not modified (Goodman etal. 2009) (Figure43). Previously, it had been
shown that high lead levels in the colonial Americas
were in some contexts more common among elites
than among enslaved laborers (Aufderheide et al.
1981, 1988; Corruccini, Aufderheide, etal. 1987).
Differential access to and use of pewter containers
with high lead content was considered a proximate
cause of variation in lead poisoning.
In the New York African Burial Ground sample,
however, lead levels were extraordinarily high for

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 101

subadults, suggesting that lead pollution may have
been a silent epidemic among enslaved Africans
in New York (Goodman etal. 2009:117). High levels
of lead have been associated with rum consumption
on sugar plantations in the New World (Corruccini,
Aufderheide, etal. 1987:236237; Handler 1994,
1996:7779; Handler etal. 1986). Because the highest
lead levels among African Burial Ground individuals
were found in children, this hypothesis probably does
not hold for New York. Pewter containers, serving
dishes, and utensils used in New York households
are one possible source of lead contamination, but
further work is necessary to discover the source(s)
and demographic impacts of Colonial period lead
poisoning.

Craniometry
New York African Burial Ground researchers designed
craniometric research sensitive to the concern that the
study of cranial elements is racialized (Jackson etal.
2009:75). Today, forensic anthropologists use cranial
and postcranial skeletal elements to type specimens
according to race. Although useful in forensically
identifying unknown individuals in the modern era,
such as victims of crimes, the researchers believe that
racializing craniometric methods reifies racial typologies as bounded biological entities. Many anthropologists today agree that race is a social construct, and
its typological assumptions are belied by continuous
multidimensional genetic and phenotypic human variation (American Anthropological Association 1998;
American Association of Physical Anthropologists
1996). To this end, Blakey (2009c) makes fundamental distinctions between the assumptions, methods,
and goals of forensic anthropology and biocultural
research.
Analysis was restricted to cranial elements from
adult individuals due to a lack of studies on subadult
crania (Jackson etal. 2009). The researchers employed
between 5 and 12 variables, with the number of observations made depending on the completeness of the
crania. These variables were statistically compared
to the craniometry of other populations, including
populations from Europe; West Africa, Central Africa,
South Africa, and East Africa; Native Americans; and
one burial population from Guadeloupe in the French
West Indies.
Craniometric data from the above populations
were statistically compared to the New York African

Burial Ground sample using stepwise discriminant

function analysis. Individual crania were plotted in a
hyperspace consisting of the same number of dimensions as variables and distances between points were
calculated using the Mahalanobis metric, a scaleinvariant, Euclidean-distance metric that accounts for
auto-correlations in the data set.
In the analysis, African, European, and Native
American crania plotted as distinct but slightly overlapping clusters (Figure44). The New York African
Burial Ground sample overlapped with the African
cluster and generally confirmed African descent for
the analyzed individuals. At the same time, New York
African Burial Ground crania are fairly dispersed
within the African-affiliated cluster, indicating phenotypic heterogeneity. In addition, four individuals
plotted closer to the sample of Europeans, although
still within the overlapping ranges of Africans and
Europeans. Apparently, only one individual plotted
within the Native American sample range.
Clearly, the morphology of studied New York African Burial Ground crania indicate diverse African origins. The researchers also compared New York African
Burial Ground craniometric data to data from West,
Central, and South African populations. The New York
African Burial Ground crania were more often metrically similar to West Africa and Central African crania
and less often similar to South African crania (Jackson
etal. 2009) (Figure45). The Guadeloupe sample crania, also representing enslaved Africans, were metrically similar to the New York African Burial Ground
and African crania. The investigators concluded that
the analysis can demonstrate the African origins of
individuals interred at the New York African Burial
Ground, but it cannot identify the specific geographic
areas narrowly, nor can it identify specific African
ethnic groups (Jackson etal. 2009:75).
A separate analysis conducted by Keita and Shujaa
(in Jackson etal. 2009) analyzed 26male crania to
assess population affinities of individuals interred at
the New York African Burial Ground. Using 10 standard cranial measurements, they compared New York
African Burial Ground male crania to materials from
Howells worldwide cranial-series study; measurements taken by Keita on crania from Gabon, Africa;
and measurements taken by Shujaa on crania from
the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).
Measurements on 10 variablesmaximum breadth,
biauricular breadth, basibregma height, maximum
length, upper facial height, nasal breadth, nasal height,

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

102

Figure 44. New York African Burial Ground skull shape analysis using Mahalanobis Distance
(from Volume 1, Part 1 [Jackson et al. 2009:Figure 34]).

bizygomatic breadth, basion-prosthion length, and

basion-nasion lengthwere statistically compared
using canonical discriminant functions. To the New
York African Burial Ground researchers, centroid
values place the New York crania nearest series from
the Akan-speaking Ashanti (Asante) and Gold Coast
series of the AMNH which form the modern nation
of Ghana (Jackson etal. 2009:77).
With the exception of some comparative data
collected by the researchers, most data for African
skeletal series involve the construction of racial composites from geographically and culturally diverse
populations. Apparently, a similar situation pertains
to European groups because the researchers had to use
skeletal series from Scandinavia in place of colonial
English and Dutch populations. New York African
Burial Ground investigators argue that there is a
clear need to collect metric data on culturally specific,
The New York African Burial Ground

historically relevant comparative populations in order

to fully examine the range of New York African Burial
Ground origins (Jackson etal. 2009:74). Further, they
suggest that future research should include analysis of
skeletal series exclusively from the regions of Africa
that contributed most heavily in the seventeenth
through eighteenth centuries to the Africans who
were captured and enslaved in New York (Jackson
etal. 2009:78).

Dental Morphology
Variation in dental morphology can be used to assess
the origins and affiliations of different populations.
Using 23crown and root traits, Scott and Turner
(1997) compared dental morphology from different populations using hierarchical cluster analysis.
Although techniques for determining the validity

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 103

Figure 45. Scatter Plot of Craniometric Distance (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Jackson et al.
2009:Figure 35]).

of cluster solutions are not yet developed, Scott and

Turner (1997) arrived at essentially the same dendrograms no matter what combination of a standard-distance measure and clustering algorithm
they employed (Jackson etal. 2009:80). Scott and
Turners analysis revealed five distinct clusters in
worldwide populations: Western Eurasia, Africa,
Sunda-Pacific, Sahul-Pacific, and Sino-American.
The African cluster consists of subgroups from West
Africa and South Africa.
Using the same 23 traits studied by Scott and Turner
(1997), the researchers compiled dental-trait frequencies for 200 New York African Burial Ground individuals and compared them to Scott and Turners (1997)
data using hierarchical cluster analysis and Euclidean
distance. Interestingly, the New York African Burial
Ground teeth clustered most closely with the South
African teeth. Together, South African and New York

African Burial Ground teeth clustered closely with

teeth from Western Europe, Northern Europe, North
Africa, and New Guinea. Teeth from West African and
San populations did not cluster closely to the sample
of New York African Burial Ground teeth (Jackson
etal. 2009:Figure37).
When the same analysis was used to compare only
African and Western European populations, the New
York African Burial Ground population clustered
most closely to North and South Africa and then
to Western Europe (Jackson etal. 2009:Figure38).
The West African and San samples distanced farther
than in the previous analysis. When only African
populations were compared, the New York African Burial Ground sample compared most closely
to North Africa, followed closely by South Africa,
and was farthest from West Africa (Jackson etal.
2009:Figure39).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

104
The researchers point out that Scott and Turners
(1997) geographical classification of African populations is misleading and that the South African category
is composed of populations from South, East, Central,
and West Africa. The investigators conclude that the
individuals from the New York African Burial Ground
sample are most biologically similar to individuals
in West, Central, North, and South Africa (Jackson
etal. 2009:81). Although these results are generally consistent with what is historically known about
the origins of enslaved Africans in New York, the
researchers repeatedly note that arbitrary lumping of
diverse populations prevents the inference of affinities
with specific ethnic groups or regions. The researchers also suggest that the measurement of dental traits
according to grades, rather than presence or absence,
would allow a more comprehensive understanding of
how to interpret patterns of trait expression (Jackson
etal. 2009:84).

Genetic Analysis
At the time the New York African Burial Ground
research was initiated, many techniques in genetic
analysis were still in their infancy. The extraction and
amplification of archaeological DNA, for instance,
was experimental and under development. Reviewers of the New York African Burial Ground research
design questioned the validity and usefulness of DNA
analysis. The researchers believed, however, that
genetic studies were particularly apropos to tracing
the origins of New York African Burial Ground individuals, and genetic studies should be pursued, if even
at a rudimentary level. Principally, the researchers
pursued genetic analyses to understand the population origins and demographic structure of the New
York African Burial Ground sample (Jackson etal.
2009:85). To this end, M.George and R.A. Kittles
performed a small feasibility study on ancient DNA
(aDNA) from the New York African Burial Ground
in 1995. The goals of the study were to (Jackson
etal. 2009:85):
1. Isolate nucleic acids from bones and/or hair samples
2. Amplify specific mtDNA sequences via the [polymerase chain reaction]
3. Sequence the amplified products
4 Clone the amplified sequences for further study and
provide a reservoir of these fragile sequences
The New York African Burial Ground

5. Perform a phylogenetic analysis of the sequences

to determine possible kinships and sites of origins
for a small number of these individuals
New York African Burial Ground researchers
extracted and isolated nucleic acids from an initial
subsample of nine hair and bone samples from eight
New York African Burial Ground burials. Nucleic
acids could not be extracted from an additional six
samples. Four samples of the nine aDNA samples
were successfully amplified but were not successfully cloned and were not subjected to phylogenetic
analysis (Jackson etal. 2009:86).
A second subsample of seven bone samples from
seven burials was analyzed according to an updated
methodology. The researchers concluded that the
second subsample indicated a strong West and/or
Central African ancestral presence in the studied New
York African Burial Ground individuals (Jackson
etal. 2009:87). Three mtDNA samples exhibited
unknown molecular variants of mtDNA, but, at the
time, the background database was in an early stage
of development (Jackson etal. 2009:87).
A third subsample of 48 bone, hair, or tissue samples was analyzed. Analysis of the third subsample
was completed in 1999 and involved comparison of
African Burial Ground mtDNA to a database of 1,800
mtDNA sequences from around the world. Slightly
fewer than half of the database mtDNA sequences
were specific to African populations (n=849), and a
majority of those were specific to West and Central
African populations (n=520). Of 48 sequenced New
York African Burial Ground mtDNAs, three sequences
were unknown but the other 45 evidenced mtDNA
haplogroups found in West and Central African populations and their recent descendants (Jackson etal.
2009:88).
A high level of genetic diversity was indicated by
the subsample (Jackson etal. 2009:8889; cf. Salas
etal. 2005), which is common for populations of
African descent (Vigilant etal. 1991; Watson etal.
1997). As of 1999, multiple studies identified at least
three mtDNA haplogroups in African populations: L1,
L2, and L3 (Jackson etal. 2009:89). The researchers observed all three haplogroups in the sample,
but the majority of haplotypes (69.5percent) were
identified as members of Haplogroup L2, some of
whom also shared genetic affinities with modern-day
Fulbe, Hausa, Mandinka, or Yoruba peoples (Table8).
The researchers report that Haplogroup L2 is common among the Niger-Kordofanian speakers from the

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 105

Senegambia and Gold Coast regions of West Africa
(Jackson etal. 2009:89). The L2 haplogroup may
represent descendants of migrant of Bantu speakers
into West Africa, according to the researchers. In
addition, 21.7percent of haplotypes were members
of Haplogroup L3, a haplogroup associated with East
Africa but that also occurs in appreciable frequency
in West Africa, particularly among Afro-Asiatic speakers (Jackson etal. 2009:89). The L1 haplogroup
is observed in the least sampled geographical area
of Africa and thus may be more widespread than
reported.
In 2000, the Bioanthropology Research Laboratory at the University of Maryland evaluated the
results of the above analyses. The laboratory identified four problem areas: (1) inadequate database of
contemporary and archaic African populations, (2)
high genetic diversity of African populations, (3)
complex historical demography, and (4) problems
in the extraction of skeletal aDNA. A number of
specific directives were implemented to address
these problems.
First, an International Advisory Board consisting of
senior geneticists from major American universities
was established. Second, regional experts who could
provide specific historical or anthropological expertise
were recruited to work with New York African Burial
Ground scientists. Third, a National African DNA
Bank was established. The bank was established under
the direction of Dr.Fatimah Jackson in collaboration
with scientists from the Coriell Institute for Medical
Research in Camden, New Jersey, and the University
of Yaounde I College of Medicine, Cameroon. As of
2004, the bank had collected and extracted DNA
samples from over 400 West and Central Africans
(Jackson etal. 2009:91). An additional 183 DNA
samples were collected from University of Maryland
students, faculty, and staff.
In 2002, Dr.Fatimah Jackson began discussions
with technical experts at Affimetryx Corporation to
develop a DNA microarray that would provide rapid
assessments of African regional markers (Jackson
etal. 2009:91). Geographical regions considered
major sources for genetic polymorphism for eighteenth-century New York were identified and have
been targeted to provide baseline data for an African Burial Ground ancestral template (Jackson etal.
2009:92). These regions include Central Africa, Bight
of Biafra, Mozambique, Senegambia, Upper Guinea,
Bight of Benin, and the Gold Coast (Jackson etal.
2009:92).

Diasporic African Identities

in the New World
The New York Africans who used the African Burial
Ground constructed unique, situationally complex,
vibrant identities. Identity is about how people represent themselves or are represented by others. To some
investigators, identity is ongoing and emergent. Identity involves using the resources of history, language,
and culture in the process of becoming rather than
being (Hall 1996:4, quoted in Leone etal. 2005:589).
Identity is a complex, multifaceted, dynamic social
construct. Individual identity is based on multiple
intersecting and intercontingent identities that include
gender, class, race, ethnicity, and religion (Stavney
1998; Wilkie 2001). Current discussions of enslaved
African identities often focus on ethnic or racial identities to understand (1) where enslaved Africans came
from, (2) how enslaved Africans defined themselves
in relation to each other, (3) how enslaved Africans
defined themselves in relation to their enslavers, or (4)
how African American identities changed over time.
Definitions of identity are politically, economically,
and socially motivated and historically contingent.
Eltis (2000) has argued that in comparison to diasporic
Africans, Europeans had fundamentally different
ways of assigning identities at the subcontinental
level. Europeanswhether Irish, English, Dutch, or
Frenchsaw themselves as Europeans. According to
Eltis (2000:224),
Europeans defined as insider anyone brought
up as European. Africans drew the insider line
around an area somewhat less than subcontinental in scope. Without such marked differences
between these two self-concepts, slavery would
not have been confined exclusively to Africans.
Europeans thus entered the [slave trading] era
with a conception of self that included some recognition of the subcontinent in which they lived
as a defining entity. For Africans, no comparable
perception existed and, initially, the terms Africa
and Africans had meaning only to Europeans.
This is not to say that Europeans during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw no essential
differences between Europeans of different national
or ethnic affiliations. The Irish, for instance, were
reviled by the English and were often considered
to be physiologically and behaviorally similar to

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

106
Table 8. Molecular Genetic Affinities of Individuals in the NYABG
Burial No.

Tissue Site
Sampled

right radius

mtDNA Haplo- Geographical, Country, and Macroethnic

group
Genetic Affinity

L2

West/Central African

L2

West Africa, Benin (Fulbe peoples)

not indicated

L3

West Africa, Niger

right radius

L2

West Africa, Benin (Fulbe peoples)

11

right ulna

L2

West/Central African

12

not indicated

L2

West/Central African

16

right ulna

L2

West/Central African

20

right fibula

L2

West/Central African

25

right ulna

L3

West/Central African

L3

West Africa, Niger

32
37

right fibula

L2

West/Central African

40

right fibula

L3

West Africa, Niger

47

right ulna

L2

West Africa, Benin (Fulbe peoples)

49

right fibula

L2

West/Central African

51

right fibula

L2

West/Central African

56

right radius

L3

West Africa, Niger

58

not indicated

L2

West/Central African

63

not indicated

L2

West/Central African

67

right radius

L2

West/Central African

L2

West/Central African

71
73

right radius

L2

West Africa, Nigeria (Yoruba peoples)

76

right fibula

L3

West Africa, Niger

89

right ulna

L1

West/Central African

97

right ulna

L2

West Africa, Nigeria (Fulbe peoples)

101

not indicated

L3

West Africa, Niger

105

not indicated

L1

West/Central African

107

right fibula

L2

West Africa, Nigeria (Hausa peoples)

115

right fibula

L3

West Africa, Niger

122

right ulna

L2

West Africa, Nigeria (Hausa peoples)

135

right fibula

L2

West//Central African

138

right fibula

L2

West Africa, Senegal (Mandinka peoples)

144

not indicated

L2

West/Central African

151

right ulna

L2

West/Central African

154

right fibula

L3

West Africa, Niger

158

right fibula

L2

West Africa, Senegal (Mandinka peoples)

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 107

Table 8. Molecular Genetic Affinities of Individuals in the NYABG (contd.)
Burial No.

Tissue Site
Sampled

mtDNA Haplo- Geographical, Country, and Macroethnic

group
Genetic Affinity

171

right ulna

L1

West/Central African

176

not indicated

L2

West/Central African

180

right radius

L2

West Africa, Senegal (Mandinka peoples)

194

not indicated

L2

West Africa, Nigeria (Fulbe peoples)

219

right fibula

L3

West Africa, Niger

226

not indicated

L2

West/Central African

242

right fibula

L2

West Africa, Nigeria (Fulbe peoples)

310

right rib

L2

West/Central African

335

right ulna

L2

West/Central African

340

not indicated

L2

West Africa, Nigeria (Fulbe peoples)

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Jackson et al. 2009:Table 7).

Africans. Jewish people were likewise considered

separate and were often subjected to restrictions that
were not imposed on other Europeans (Eltis 2000).
Such was also the case in colonial New York (Dodson etal. 2000; Rothschild 1990). Eltis (2000) has
argued that without the European distinction between
Europeans and Africans, the association of Africans
in the Americas with enslavement would have been
less clear, and the racialized contexts of slavery in
the Americas may not have developed in the same
manner (cf. Hall 2005). Archaeological evidence from
the New York African Burial Ground, however, may
counter aspects of Eltiss (2000) argument. To Perry,
Howson, and Bianco (2009:373), the interment of
artifacts directly from Africa or symbolic of Africa
suggests that people were declaring to one another
that their people were African.
Past discussions of the identity of enslaved Africans tended to focus on how African identities were
constructed by European others. They also tended to
search for a monolithic and singular African American identity. Such discussions focus mainly on the
ways in which outsiders (Europeans) ascribed identity
to insiders (Africans) rather than to the ways that
Africans constructed their own identities within the
context of forced migration and slavery (Eltis 2000).
As Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. (2009e:69)
point out,
Slavery . . . altered the characteristics of African culture. Separation from the homeland and
the demands and restrictions imposed on their
new lives required that enslaved Africans cre-

ate traditions shaped by their new reality. The

steady stream of imports into the West Indian
islands . . . served to renew the African heritage
of those long removed from their homelands or
those born in the Americas. Hence, Africans in
diaspora enjoyed certain cultural continuities
that contributed to their sense of self. Through
religion, language, dance, song, folklore, relationship to their elders, and burial, they fashioned
an existence for themselves that circumvented
their bondage.
In colonial New York, enslaved laborers had multiple intersecting identities that manifested in different
ways depending on context. Enslaved laborers had the
class identity of slave status, a virtually indelible
status that only under rare and special circumstances
could be upgraded or removed. Depending on special
skills or the kinds of tasks they performed, enslaved
laborers might have also had professional identities such as barber, baker, cooper, goldsmith, sailor,
or porter. They had a racial identity (i.e., Negro or
black) that was based on their complexion or their
purported biological heritage. Most often, enslaved
Africans (and even some non-Africans) were classified as Negro but could also sometimes be considered Mulatto or ascribed some other more nuanced
racial distinction (Foote 2004:196). Enslaved Africans
also had diasporic ethnic or meta-ethnic identities
corresponding to their cultural, geographical, and
linguistic backgrounds. They were women and men,
girls and boys, parents and children, mothers and
fathers, brothers and sisters. Enslaved Africans also

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

108
embraced different religions and were Christian, Muslim, practitioners of traditional African religions, or
practitioners of hybridized diasporic belief systems
(see Chapter8). Many enslaved West Central Africans
had some exposure to Catholicism in Africa owing to
the long-standing presence of Portuguese factors in
their homelands and might have identified themselves
as Catholic (Thornton 1984, 2001). Enslaved laborers
also had identities that served the community; they
were conjurers, priests, doctors, diviners, dancers,
storytellers, musicians, or leaders. In short, enslaved
laborers filled many religious and secular roles that
informed and mediated how they formed their own
complex identities (Hodges 1999; Hodges and Brown
1994; Medford, ed. 2009).

Nations and Group Identity

Early assessments of the transatlantic trade in enslaved
Africans assumed that complex processes of enslavement in West and West Central Africa, the concentration of enslaved Africans from diverse areas at coastal
ports, shipborne trade, and disembarkation at multiple
ports in the Americas resulted in the rapid and random
mixing of enslaved Africans of diverse backgrounds
and the complete disruption of the ability of enslaved
Africans to regularly interact and affiliate themselves
with enslaved Africans of similar backgrounds. This
model of culture change resulted in many conclusions
about acculturation and identity formation that suggested African-derived identities were rapidly lost in
the New World as enslaved Africans were acculturated
to European-derived cultural norms and practices. The
random mixing hypothesized by earlier scholars, however, does not appear to have occurred. More recent
reassessments of the transatlantic trade in enslaved
Africans indicate that the distribution of Africans in
the New World was no more random than the distribution of Europeans (Eltis 2001:34). Most colonies
tended to import a low diversity of enslaved Africans
early in the process, and people from new or different
areas tended to arrive in sequence rather than at the
same time. Moreover, enslaved Africans from certain
areas were often specially designated to specific markets, such as the Spanish American market. As such,
Eltis (2001:35) has surmised that the African migrant
populations in the Americas were no more mixed than
peoples of European descent in the Americas.
In some cases, enslaved Africans were repeatedly
exported from the same areas of Africa and imported
to a limited number of locations in the Americas. Eltis
The New York African Burial Ground

(2000:248) has noted, for instance, that for the 556

voyages to the British Americas for which specified
embarkation points have survived, an astonishing
86percent sailed from only 6 ports. Almost a quarter
of those were from Ouidah, and the others were from
Gambia River, Old Calabar, Offrah, New Calabar,
and the Cape Coast Castle (Eltis 2000:Table9.2). In
essence, two-thirds of enslaved Africans who arrived
in Barbados or Jamaica came by way of points along a
200-mile stretch of coast between Cape Coast Castle
and Ouidah (Eltis 2000).
This clustering of locales where enslaved Africans
embarked in Africa and disembarked in the Americas
(Eltis 2000, 2001; Hall 2005) resulted in the aggregation of enslaved Africans with similar ethnic backgrounds and facilitated the construction of neo-African
ethnic identities. Enslaved Africans recognized similarities and distinctions in the backgrounds of other
enslaved Africans and formulated their alliances and
identities accordingly. The history researchers (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009e:70) stress that
despite the diversity of
the beliefs and practices of those societies from
which New York Africans arrived . . . upon
arrival in the colonial city, they drew upon these
traditions to forge bonds with each other as
well as to cope with the myriad troubles attending their enslavement. Social networks forged
between the native and African born, and a sense
of shared circumstances fostered cultural continuities and identity in the black community.
In many colonies, including New York, enslaved
Africans with a wide variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds were, to some degree, mingled
indiscriminately through processes of enslavement
and labor exploitation. Many enslavers deliberately
mixed enslaved laborers of different origins to hinder
attempts at rebellion (Thornton 1992:195). Nonetheless, Africans affiliated themselves with other Africans
of similar origins whenever possible. In New York,
enslaved Africans often had the ability to travel widely
throughout the city, a situation that enabled enslaved
Africans to interact regularly with other Africans with
similar cultural backgrounds, even if they did not live
or work together.
Throughout the Americas, including plantation
estates and urban areas like New York, enslaved Africans were frequently observed to affiliate themselves
with ethnolinguistically defined nations. Broadly
defined, nations were an important layer of identity

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 109

formation for enslaved and free Africans (and their
descendants) in the Americas (Chambers 2000, 2001;
Hall 2005). The evidence for the formation of nations
is substantial:
Sources include slave-traders accounts and
planters papers, official colonial and ecclesiastical records, fugitive slave advertisements and
ex-slave narratives, collective memories embedded in slave-derived institutions such as secret
societies/brotherhoods and folk religions, and
vernacular performance (songs, dances, orature),
as well as numerous contemporary reports and
investigations (especially of slave conspiracies
and revolts, and of tribal backgrounds) [Chambers 2001:3334 n. 1].
Such conditions resulted in the dominance of a
single ethnic group in many situations and facilitated
interaction and identity formation for ethnically similar
peoples (Posnansky 1999:25). In New York, Coromantees were prominent, but other group identities
formed as well. Rather than considering them a rapidly
homogenized and acculturated group, archaeologists
and historians have begun to view enslaved Africans
through the lens of ethnicity and increasingly attempt
to link behaviors and material correlates for behavior to
specific macroethnic or meta-ethnic groups in Africa.
Because diasporic nations did not correspond to African polities, Chambers (2001:27, 33) has expressed a
preference for the terms emergent ethnies or nascent
ethnic-groups over countries or nations. Chambers (2001:33) likens these ethnies to common traditions [constructed] out of loosely shared ancestral
ones; the ethnicity of these neo-African named groups,
therefore, were invented traditions, which combined
the familiar with the functional.
Although a bewildering variety of group names
were used in the African Diaspora, most Africans
in any American region identified with a more limited set of diasporic ethnonyms, and did so in a way
that suggests they were ethnic groups (Chambers
2001:26). For instance, in Jamaica, 94percent of
1,145 advertisements for fugitive enslaved Africans
(17911814) identified enslaved Africans according
to only one of nine nations: Mandingo, Coromantee,
Chamba, Papa, Nago, Eboe, Moko, Mungola, Congo
(Chambers 2001:37 n. 27). Moreover, only two or
three diasporic ethnonyms were associated with any
particular region of embarkation, and these ethnonyms
remained remarkably stable over time (Chambers
2001:26). Rather than African survivals or European

stereotypes, nations were likely similar to language

communities or koins, diasporic creolisms (Chambers 2001). The most famous of these groups were
the Coromantee (Akan) from the Gold Coast region
(Chambers 2000; Thornton 1998).
In essence, enslaved Africans forcibly migrated to
the Americas arrived with definite identities and rich
cultural backgrounds; they knew who they were, how
they did things, and with whom they were affiliated,
even if others did not. Africans recognized similarity
and difference in other enslaved Africans, and they
felt comfort and affinity with Africans who shared
an ethnic or meta-ethnic heritage and a common
language. Necessarily, enslaved Africans constructed
new or revised identities in the New World, identities
that accommodated the conditions of enslavement to
their own individual backgrounds and experience. The
history researchers (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et
al. 2009e:74) observe that these new identities drew
on African heritage and tradition:
Marginalized by a society that defined them as
property, Africans and people of African descent
created a world in which they found respite from
the drudgery of labor as they pursued their own
social and cultural interests. Despite numerous
laws that attempted to restrict their behavior,
enslaved people enjoyed a variety of secular cultural expressions within the environment of New
York City. . . . These daily cultural expressions
revealed the strength of the continued reliance
of New York Africans on an African heritage.
Music and dance had been central in the lives
of Africans in the societies from which black
New Yorkers were plucked, as it accompanied
rites associated with birth, initiation, marriage,
healing, war, and even death.
African diasporic nations sang and danced together,
shared food, stories, and memories and, in some cases,
reconstituted religious, mercantile, or military organizations from their homelands. In different places and
at different times in the New World, enslaved Africans
reconstituted themselves as diasporic Igbo, Coromantee (Akan), Nago or Lucum (Yoruba), Congo or
Angola (western Bantu), Arada or Popo (Gbe), and
so forth (Chambers 2000:57). The collective identity of enslaved Africans was thus expressed through
shared foodways, powerways, dances, orature, religious practice and other aspects of daily life (Chambers 2000:57). In frolics and large festivals in New
York, such as Pinkster Day, enslaved Africans often

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

110
assembled in nations, and in large plantations, such as
Remire in French Guiana, residential and marriage patterns were organized according to national affiliation
(Conniff and Davis 1994). Some maroon communities
also were organized according to nations (Eltis 2000).
The possibility exists that individuals of reconstituted
African nations also buried their dead together. Some
burial arrangements in the New York African Burial
Ground, such as clusters of individuals buried together,
therefore might represent national affiliation.
African dance, music, and art were paramount
in gatherings of enslaved and free Africans in New
York City. By the eighteenth century, New York City
had the reputation as a center of African dance and
music, with popular dances such as the circle dance,
double-shuffle, and breakdown regularly performed
(Stuckey 1999:164). As Hodges and Brown (1994:xxi)
have observed, enslaved Africans used every opportunity to flock to the city on the weekends and holidays
where taverns, markets and dance contests alleviated
the tedium of home life. New York City was the center
of slave culture in the region (Hodges and Brown
1994:xxi).
An especially important aspect of nation formation is that nations cut across plantation boundaries
and could serve to organize potentially large numbers of people (Conniff and Davis 1994:54). Over
time, nations developed formal organizations that
included elected ritual royalty who presided morally
and symbolically over their subjects. Nations even
formed a shadow government in New England and
other areas (Conniff and Davis 1994:57). Because
nations were relatively broad ethno-linguistic configurations that did not correspond exactly to African
political organizations, people who may have come
from competing localities or states found common
allegiances that transcended political relationships in
Africa (Conniff and Davis 1994). As an organizing
principle of emerging African American collective
identities, the nation was a social organization that
could facilitate the circulation of information, the
planning of rebellions and escapes, and help resolve
conflict and maintain the essential Africanness of
enslaved African identities.
African American life in colonial New York was
full of contradictions; it was also cosmopolitan. Africans and African Americans in New York were often
multilingual, speaking combinations of Dutch and
English, Welsh and English, French and English, and
Spanish and English along with African tongues
(Berlin 1998:59). During the seventeenth and eighThe New York African Burial Ground

teenth centuries, the ethnic origins of enslaved Africans imported to New York changed over time with
shifts in the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans.
As noted by the history researchers, between 1701
and 1730, enslaved Africans from the Gold Coast and
the Bight of Benin included Akan speakers, Ardra,
Yoruba, Adja, Fon, Popo, and Gur (Kruger 1985).
Later, between 1740 and 1750, large numbers of Igbo
were imported from the Bight of Biafra. In the 1760s
and 1770s, Mande were imported from the Ivory Coast
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009a:49).
Owing to limitations on their size, many plantation estates were represented by only small numbers
of nations. In rare cases, as many as 20 nations were
represented in a single colony. In the urban environments of colonial New York, multiple nations were
represented. As many English imports to the West
Indies and the northern colonies were predominantly
Coromantee (Akan) and Kongo (Angola), these nations
were prominent in New York (Conniff and Davis 1994).
Possible evidence for Coromantee (Akan) identity was
recovered at the New York African Burial Ground, but
the influence of other nations at the burial ground is
also possible although not yet confirmed.

Identity in Models of Behavioral

Interactions and Culture Change
In archaeology, African American identity has generally been studied according to three models of culture
contact and change: acculturation, creolization, and
domination and resistance (Howson 1990; Singleton
1998). According to acculturation models of culture change, identity is a fixed entity that is gained
or lost through processes of assimilation or acculturation. Identity, however, is never fixed; identity is
something that is constantly renegotiated (Thomas
2002:144). Identity is an ongoing, dynamic process
that is intimately connected to real struggles (Thomas
2002:149). Perry and Paynter (1999:306) have identified two approaches to ethnicity in African American
archaeology. First, ethnicity is considered a primordial notion in which some cultural or inheritable
essence lies at the root of social identity. Second, ethnicity is a relational notion in which social identities
form and dissolve in the context of interactions with
others. The latter approach, embraced by New York
African Burial Ground researchers, recognizes that
internal relations are rarely homogenous; boundaries
are rarely unambiguous; identities are rarely stable

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 111

over extended periods of time (Perry and Paynter
1999:306).
Creolization models have also been developed to
explain culture change and identity formation among
enslaved Africans. As an anthropological concept,
creolization can in general be defined as the process of creating and maintaining distinct cultures
and societies in the Americas (Lovejoy 2000:13).
The terms creole and creolization have acquired
many meanings in the literature, hence reducing the
precision of these terms and increasing the diversity
of perspectives on creolization.
Variation in definitions of creole and creolization reflect where investigators place the loci of
culture change: who could become creole, where
and under what circumstances, and how creole culture differed from donor and parallel traditions (e.g.,
Berlin 1998; Braithwaite 1971; Conniff and Davis
1994; Lovejoy 2000). One model of creolization
posits that creolization occurred early and rapidly
among enslaved Africans in the Americas. In this
rendering, creolization occurred immediately upon
arrival, because the diverse origins and experiences
of enslaved Africans and their vigorous mixing in
American settings disrupted historical and cultural
continuities and prevented the retention of shared
behaviors (Mintz and Price 1992).
Other renderings of creolization envision the preservation and reformulation of distinctively African
ethnic identities. Chambers (2000:55), for instance,
has provided an African-centric form of creolization
he calls diasporic ethnogenesis, or the creation of
new African-derived identities outside the continent.
Chambers (2001:33) has referred to this process as
historical creolization... a group phenomenon
enacted out of shared roles as captives and forced
migrants, rather than the supposedly random and ad
hoc experimentation of crowds of cultural strangers
(Chambers 2001:33). Hall (2005:23) has stressed the
need for concrete and contextualized reconstructions
of enslaved African ethnic backgrounds and identity
formation. To Hall (2005:23), creolization is a highly
variable process grounded in historical and cultural
context: There was no single pattern of creolization
either in Africa or in the Americas. Brown (2004) has
suggested that cultures like the Gullah and Geechee of
the Carolina Lowcountry are examples of ethnogenetic
communities that commonly emerged in the Americas,
despite their apparent uniqueness today. Ethnogenetic
communities also could have also formed in colonial
New York.

Today, many anthropologists favor models of domination and resistance when considering identity. Some
investigators have attempted to modify models of
domination and resistance by allowing for the possibility that some interactions among enslaved or free
Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans accommodated, rather than resisted, the interests or activities of other groups. These models are referred to as
resistant accommodation models (Garman 1998). Over
time, the researchers began to conceive of a model that
emphasizes the assertion and maintenance of human
dignity. Strategies for resistance can still form a part
of this new emphasis, but in this conception, identity
formation is not simply the result of resistance to
attempts at domination (see Chapters 1 and 7).
In the northern colonies, most enslaved African
Americans acquired cultural elements from their own
heritage, from recent African and West Indian immigrants, and from the EuroAmerican farmers under
whose direction they worked on a daily basis (Garman
1998:135). According to a model of resistant accommodation, African Americans were able to maintain
elements of African and West Indian identity while
taking on certain cultural aspects demanded by their
Yankee masters (Garman 1998:135136; cf. Orser and
Funari 2001). The infusion of African-born people,
especially after the mid-eighteenth century, kept traditional African beliefs fresh in the minds of the enslaved
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009e:73). Models
of resistant accommodation suggest that enslaved African Americans maintained multiple identities that were
continuously formulated through the contestation and
negotiation of power (Garman 1998:136).
The dominant class (i.e., Europeans) designated
enslaved laborers as slaves and often gave them new
names upon arrival. Enslaved Africans constructed
their own identities, however, within the context of
their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds, life
experiences, family relationships, skills, and personal
preferences (Epperson 1990). Foote (1991:249), for
example, has observed that enslaved African New
Yorkers might have kept numerous names and layers
of identity, depending on with whom they interacted.
For instance, some blacks were called by one name
in the masters house and by another or several other
names in the tavern, street, and market life of the
blacks (Foote 1991:249). Enslaved Africans accused
of participating in the alleged conspiracy of 1741 in
New York, for instance, went by traditional Akan day
names such as Cuffee, Quacko, and Quashi (Davis
1971; Medford and Brown 2009c:95).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

112
In seventeenth and eighteenth century Manhattan,
variability in origins and genetic mixingin many
cases, miscegenationproduced a wide variety of
complexions. Apparently, racial typologies applied
in Manhattan accommodated a variety of skin tones:
there could be light-skinned blacks and dark-skinned
whites as well as ebony blacks and tawny blacks.
Nonetheless, skin color was one of several physical
characteristic[s] used to fix racial identity and condition of servitude (Foote 1991:254) (see Chapter7).
This was particularly true in British New York.
Singleton (2001b) has argued that status and identity
of enslaved Africans cannot be adequately understood
by itself. Instead, identity has to be understood in relationship to other identities. Hence, Singleton (2001b)
has recommended an examination of identities of
people that interacted with enslaved Africans, such as
free Africans, elite Europeans, and poor Europeans. In
New York, enslaved Africans and Native Americans,
free Africans, indentured servants, and poor Europeans
regularly interacted at work, in taverns and tippling
houses, and at public gatherings during holidays and
other free time. Interactions between Africans and
Europeans was made easierparticularly in the
Middle Coloniesby the fact that many white men
and women were also servants, the legal property of
a master who could sell, trade, and discipline them
at will (Berlin 1998:59). Enslaved Africans also
interacted with their enslavers, temporary employers, and officials. In all likelihood, these interactions
took on a full spectrum of qualities from interactions
that were jovial, light-hearted, or uplifting to those
that were brutal, hostile, or demeaning. Epperson
(1999a:91) has observed that events such as the 1712
uprising (Epperson calls it the 1712 Rising) in New
York need to be understood in the context of enslaved
African identities as well as European identities, as
the 1712 Rising occurred at a critical moment in the
invention of whiteness.

African Survivals in African American

Archaeology
African American archaeology has, to some extent,
been preoccupied with the search for African survivals, or Africanisms. In terms of artifacts, this equates
with a search for ethnic markers, a notoriously difficult and problematic task (Singleton 1999, 2006).
Artifacts, features, or archaeological patterns considered to be somehow connected to an African heritage
The New York African Burial Ground

are especially sought after: cowry shells, blue beads,

Colono Ware ceramics, and house patterns, among
others (Thomas 2002:147). Archaeologists have
come to associate distinctive material expressions of
Africanness as the sine qua non for African American
identity. Yet, as Thomas (2002:148) has asked, does
the fact that we cannot distinguish [1930s] whiteoccupied tenant farm sites from those occupied by
African Americans mean that when that black farmer
got on the bus to ride into town, he was not painfully
aware of his identityand how it determined where
on the bus he was supposed to sit?
People with distinct ethnic identities can have ethnically distinct ways of interacting with people and
materials. It is often difficult, however, to equate a
particular kind of object with a particular ethnicity. A
more refined approach to interpreting artifacts in terms
of identity views artifacts as symbols of group identity that, rather than being static containers of ethnicity,
are free to be manipulated by conscious human actors
(Orser 1999:662; Praetzellis etal. 1987). As discussed
above, some aspects of cultural heritages persisted,
commingled, and developed amongst enslaved laborers in the New World, despite the dislocating and
dehumanizing effects of the Atlantic trade in enslaved
Africans. Enslaved Africans used some of the same
tools and facilities as their Euroamerican enslavers,
modified existing tools to meet cultural preferences
or new uses, and made some of their own tools using
available materials and technological knowledge
from multiple sources. Nevertheless, it is often difficult to establish a specific cultural provenance for
many African American practices (Singleton 1999:8,
2006). Moreover, African practices reproduced in the
Americas would likely have differed from African
expressions, because they were embedded in American
social systems that differed substantially from their
African progenitors (DeCorse 1999; Singleton 1999).
The New York African Burial Ground researchers
share this view, noting that although some artifacts
at the African Burial Ground can be affiliated with
West or West Central Africa, most cannot at this time
be concretely affiliated with specific places or groups
(Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009).
Thomas (2002) has argued that historical archaeologists find comfort and reassurance in discovering
Africanisms at African Americanaffiliated sites.
Perhaps this is because archaeologists who study
African Americanaffiliated sites are often frustrated
by the lack of clearly distinguishable ethnic markers
(Singleton 2006). Certainly, elements and patterns

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 113

of preexisting behaviors persisted and evolved in
behaviors of enslaved Africans and found new forms
of expression in New World contexts, but the discovery of Africanisms as an end in itself should be
avoided. In contrast to essentialist notions of culture
that assume culture is definable according to fixed,
immutable elements, culture can be conceptualized as
a dynamic, fluid construct that is continually defined
and redefined according to changing fields of social
interaction (Singleton 2006). As Perry and Paynter
(1999:300) have stated: Establishing an African
presence through the identification of Africanisms
is hardly necessary. By itself, the search for Africanisms involves the pursuit of a non-problem
(Perry and Paynter 1999:300), namely that African
Americans were here. Instead, the discovery and
interpretation of archaeological patterns associated
with African cultural heritages should seek contextualized understanding of the conditions under which
cultural patterns were expressed and how archaeological patterns in artifacts, features, and deposits
can inform on African American life experiences
(Singleton 2006).
The problem of identifying Africanisms lies in
assuming that artifacts unequivocally express a fixed
ethnic identity. In reality, ethnically disparate people
may appear indistinct in terms of the artifact types they
use and discard. It is not the artifact that signals ethnic
identity. Rather, it is the context and the associations of
the artifact that could correspond to ethnic identity.
DeCorse (1999:144) has reported, however, that identification and interpretation of distinct slave patterns
have remained unsatisfactory. A particularly vexing
problem to archaeologists is that there is considerable
overlap in patterns associated with enslaved Africans,
overseers, and individuals who presumed to own
Africans. This overlap in material culture prevents the
unambiguous isolation of discretely bounded enslaved
African patterns. The lack of a definitive pattern, as
DeCorse (1999) has noted, should not be a surprise
given the diverse origins and experiences of enslaved
Africans in the Americas and the intimate material
connections between the enslaved and their enslavers. The problem of identification is compounded in
urban contexts because the coresidence of enslaved
Africans, overseers, and holders resulted in refuse
being discarded in the same priveys, wells, or trash
pits (Singleton 1984:41, 2006). This problem is
alleviated somewhat at the New York African Burial
Ground, as historical evidence suggests that enslaved
and free Africans buried their dead according to their

own ceremonial traditions (see Chapter8). It can be

assumed with greater confidence, then, that mortuary
practices at the New York African Burial Ground were
predominantly those of enslaved and free Africans
and not those of Europeans or Euroamericans. A
reasonable working assumption is that archaeological patterns there, unlike elsewhere in the city (see
Chapter3), largely resulted from African and African
American spiritual beliefs and behavioral inputs and
were not mixed with those of Europeans.

Identity Formation at the

African Burial Ground
This section examines how identity may have been
expressed through mortuary treatment at the African Burial Ground. To the extent possible, mortuary
treatment is considered according to multiple layers
of identity discussed above: African identity, nations
or group identities, community-level identity, social
identity, occupational identity, filial identity, etc.
Many of the conclusions drawn can at this time only
be considered tentative, but the New York African
Burial Ground research demonstrates that intriguing
components of African and African American identity
can be inferred from multiple lines of evidence and
that further research may reveal more information on
relationships between interred individuals as well as
their unique and shared identities.
A surprising finding of the New York African
Burial Ground research was the apparent uniformity
of mortuary treatment (see Chapter 8). The researchers
expected that, given a century or more of use and the
continuous influx of enslaved laborers from different places and with different backgrounds, variation
in mortuary practices would be observed. Although
variation was observed, the researchers note that the
range of variation in mortuary treatment was narrow.
In a very basic sense, most individuals were treated
similarly. The uniformity of mortuary treatment, in
fact, led the researchers to hypothesize that African
Americans in New York arrived at a general consensus
on how to treat the dead. As no evidence has surfaced
indicating municipal or outsider oversight of mortuary treatment, the uniformity in treatment seems
all the more remarkable (Perry, Howson, and Bianco
2009:371). The researchers suggest the possibility
that African American sextons and grave diggers
could have influenced standardization of some burial
practices, but African American sextons and grave

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

114
diggers do not appear in the documentary record
until after the Revolutionary War (Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009). Owing to the uniformity of mortuary
treatment, the researchers suggest that a model of
a proper burial was in place by the time the graves
in the excavated portion of the cemetery had been
interred (Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009:371). In
support of this view, they suggest that the cemetery
provided a space where [mortuary] rituals could help
to forge a developing African American identity
(Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009:371).
Overall, there were few significant differences in
mortuary treatment among men, women, and children or across time. With few exceptions, individuals
buried in the New York African Burial Ground were
buried individually in coffins in supine extended
position with the head pointed to the west. The use
of shrouds also appears to have been common, given
the frequent presence of shroud pins as well as the
regularity of their location within burials. Men were
more likely to be buried with buttons and cuff links
and women and children with pins, but this difference
appears to relate to basic differences in how mens,
womens, and childrens clothes were fastened. Some
adults, particularly men, were buried without coffins.
The researchers attribute this condition to social and
demographic disruptions related to the Revolutionary
War, including the influx of large numbers of adult
males into the city. Children were almost always
buried in coffins, even when sharing a grave with
an adult. The researchers hypothesize that childrens
coffins may have often been made by mourners rather
than craftsmen and were made for all child burials.
Because infants and young children are typically
underrepresented in bioarchaeological assemblages
as a result of poor preservation, it could also be true
that children buried without coffins were less likely
to be preserved. There was some variation in grave
markings. Some graves in the southwest corner of the
site were marked with either arcs of smooth, stone
cobbles or upright rectangular stone slabs placed at the
head of graves. One grave in the northern part of the
site (Burial 194) may have been marked by a wooden
post. The researchers suspect that grave markers were
used in other areas of the site but were not preserved.
In essence, basic differences in mortuary treatment
appear to relate to variation in preservation, clothing
technology, and historical circumstances rather than
deliberate variation in mortuary treatment related to
layers of identity such as age, gender, diasporic ethnic
affiliation, or religious affiliation.
The New York African Burial Ground

The Use of Artifacts to Infer Identity

Some individuals were buried with items that can
tentatively be used to infer something about their
identities, the identities ascribed to them by mourners, or both. Such items included coral, beads, shell,
rings, cuff links, knives, smoking pipes, coins, crystals, and possible conjuring bundles. Many of these
artifact types have been discovered in other African
diasporic contexts and may relate to aspects of identity
formation that were distinctive of diasporic Africans.
These kinds of items, however, were discovered in
only a small percentage of burials. Perry and Woodruff
(2009:349) calculate that only twenty-five individuals, approximately 7percent of the excavated burials,
were directly associated with coins, shells, pipes, and
other items. Some individuals could have been buried
with important items that were not preserved, making
multiple lines of evidence, such as bioarchaeological
studies, all the more important to inferring aspects of
individual identity.
Perry and Howson (2009:109) suggest the rarity of
personal possessions in excavated burials may have
resulted from poverty. The researchers note that items
such as coins, knives, and pipes were more common
in the northern part of the site, where coffinless burials
of men were most frequent. They suggest that burial
practices in this area reflect both a shorter period of use
and a response to the demographic displacement and
social privation that accompanied the Revolutionary
War (Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009:370). If this
is the case, some items interred with these individuals may have been personal items possessed by the
deceased at or near the time of death.
A number of burials had rings, pendants, cuff links
or other jewelry buried with the deceased (Bianchi
and Bianco 2009; Bianco et al. 2009). These items
may have been personal effects of the deceased; others could have been bestowed upon the deceased by
mourners. Given their rareness, personal adornments
probably held special meaning for the deceased and
for their social relations as well. Personal adornments were likely multivalent in how they expressed
different aspects of individual identities. Personal
adornments, for instance, could speak to the relationships between people who shared or exchanged
adornments, draw symbolic or material connections
to real or fictive origins, provide protection from
malevolent forces, or express information about the
status of the deceased. After the Revolutionary War,
many African Americans in New York placed great

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 115

importance on dressing exceptionally well and on
co-opting and subverting material symbols of social
status (see Chapter7). Particularly because enslavers
often deprived enslaved laborers of suitable clothing
and, in some cases, stripped them of adornments, the
interment of adornments with the deceased could have
been an act of resistance against racial oppression
and a potent assertion of personal value and human
dignity (Bianco et al. 2009:328330).
In comparison to other burials, one burial (Burial
340) was particularly rich with grave goods and signs
of African origins. Burial340 was an Early Group
(pre-ca.a.d.1735) burial of a woman with modified
teeth who was between 39 and 64years old. ESA,
low lead levels, strontium-isotope analysis, and the
presence of dental modification all suggest the woman
in Burial 340 was probably of African birth (Goodman etal. 2009; Jackson etal. 2009). Artifacts also
suggest connections to Africa. The woman was buried with an unused kaolin smoking pipe, a strand of
beads and cowries around her waist, and a possible
bracelet of beads on her right wrist (Perry and Howson
2009:126). As the pipe was not used, Perry and Woodruff (2009:357) suggest that the pipe may have been
included as a talisman or a memento. The strand of
beads around her waist consisted of 112 glass beads,
1 amber bead, and 7 cowries. The possible bracelet
of beads may have consisted of a patterned set of
alternating yellow and blue-green beads, although the
researchers are uncertain as to whether these beads
formed part of the waist strand or a separate bracelet.
The researchers suggest that the cowries could have
originated in the Maldives of the Indian Ocean or
near Mozambique and Zanzibar along the coast of
East Africa (Bianco etal. 2009:341).
Most beads recovered from burials at the African
Burial Ground, including most of those interred with
Burial 340, were glass beads produced in Venice, Italy.
Burial187, a Late Group (ca.a.d.17761795) burial
of a child between 1.5 and 4years of age, had a string
of 22European-made black beads encircling the hips
of the child. Some beads, however, were manufactured
in Africa. One Type15 translucent red amber bead that
was probably produced in Africa was discovered in
Burial340. Bianco etal. (2009:340) note that amber
beads of this type were traded in Europe and Africa as
well as shipped to New York (Alpern 1995:23; Breen
2004:62; Dubin 1987:101), but the New York African
Burial Ground example is the only one known from
an African diasporic archaeological context. Beads of
West African manufacture (possibly Ghana) were asso-

ciated with two burials, Burials434 and 226 (Bianco

et al. 2009:340). One opaque whitish-tan cylindrical powder-glass bead, probably produced in West
Africa, was discovered in Burial434. Only partially
excavated, Burial434 was assigned to the Middle
Group, but age and sex were not determined. Eight
opaque yellow oblate-to-donut-shaped powder-glass
beads, also probably produced in West Africa, were
discovered in Burial226. Burial226, an Early Group
(pre-ca.a.d.1735) burial of an infant, included a strand
of the beads placed near the neck that may have been
part of a necklace. Although buried in its own coffin, the
infant was buried within the grave shaft of Burial221,
an Early Group (pre-ca.a.d.1735) burial of a man
between 30 and 60years of age. Perry, Howson, and
Holl (2009a:143) suggest that the two individuals may
have been buried at the same time or close in time.
A variety of processes could result in the transportation of African beads to African diasporic contexts in
the Americas. Recently, Handler (2006) has argued
that the transportation of beads as personal possessions
from Africa to the Americas was unlikely because
enslavers typically deprived captives of all clothing
and adornment, including beads, during the Middle
Passage. Nonetheless, beads were treasured in African
diasporic contexts, and different kinds, colors, and
configurations of beads may have held special spiritual
significance. Some, such as those around the waist of
Burial340, may have been used to signify fertility.
Others, such as those around the neck of Burial226
or around the waist of Burial187, may have been a
form of protection. The beads found in burials at the
New York African Burial Ground, particularly those
of African manufacture, suggest symbolic and material connections with African locales and speak to the
social and spiritual identities of the deceased (see e.g.,
Otto 1984:75; Smith 1977:161; Stine etal. 1996).
An especially unusual and interesting artifact
was interred with Burial 375, a Middle Group
(ca.a.d.17351760) burial of a woman between 16
and 18years old. She was buried without a coffin in
an unusual position, with her arms crossed above
her head and her legs extended (Perry and Woodruff
2009:359). At her right hip was a small ceramic ball
(presumably a marble) with an embossed copper-alloy
band wrapped twice around its circumference (Perry
and Woodruff 2009:359). It is unclear what may have
accompanied the artifact, but the researchers cite possible evidence for a leather pouch. The researchers
infer that the artifact may have been part of bundle
containing other items.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

116
Evidence for possible conjuration bundles was
also discovered with Burials147 and 217. Burial147
had a cluster of approximately seven small copper
rings and four pins positioned next to his right arm.
These may have been part of a conjuring bundle
or talisman that was hidden on his person by pinning it to his clothing underneath his right arm. The
researchers note that concealing amulets on a person
is a modern and historically known practice in West
Africa (Perry and Woodruff 2009:360; see also Handloff 1982). Also, nineteenth-century Asante warriors wore armbands called kapo, which were akin to
bansare armbands worn in spiritual practice (Perry
and Woodruff 2009:360). Burial217, a Late Group
(ca.a.d.17761795) burial of a man between 17 and
19years old, had a peach pit deliberately buried with
the man. The researchers note that peach pits are common items in conjuration bundles documented in the
southern United States (Perry and Woodruff 2009:364;
see also Puckett 1926:437; Ruppel etal. 2003:326).
Possibly, individuals buried with evidence of conjuring bundles had in life been conjurers or diviners.
Some artifactual evidence may indicate something
about an individuals occupation. Burial6, a Late Group
(ca.a.d.17761795) burial, was of an adult male
between 25 and 30years old who appears to have worn
a jacket with one polished and four gilt buttons. Two
of the buttons were impressed with anchor designs.
The researchers state that although the buttons were
likely recycled from other jackets, anchor buttons were
commonly used on British naval officer jackets beginning in 1774. They suggest that although probably not
signaling the identity of naval officer, the motifs may
have signaled his occupation, whether as a sailor or a
member of the navy, but they also may have been chosen for aesthetic or other reasons (Bianchi and Bianco
2009:291). Many enslaved and free Africans worked
in maritime industries as well as performed many
occupations for the British during the Revolutionary
War. The man in Burial 6, whose teeth were modified,
clustered in the ESA with nine children without modified teeth and three adults with modified teeth. This
man had a high enamel strontium-isotope ratio, but a
substantially lower dentin value, suggesting migration
during life (Goodman et al. 2009:115). The large difference between enamel and dentin strontium-isotope
ratios, as well as relatively high lead levels, suggest
this individual may have spent a considerable portion
of his life in the Americas.
One of the most celebrated examples of an apparent Africanism at the African Burial Ground is the
The New York African Burial Ground

possible expression of the Akan Sankofa symbol

on the coffin lid of Burial101 (Figure46). The man
interred in Burial101 had teeth culturally modified
by distal chipping and filing and was between 26
and 35years of age. The strontium-isotope signature
in Burial101s teeth overlapped unexpectedly with
local New York signatures, suggesting the possibility
that Burial101 was not born in West or West Central
Africa (Goodman et al. 2009:116). The ESA assigned
this individual to a cluster consisting of individuals
with culturally modified teeth and with unmodified
teeth. Lead levels, however, were low, suggesting the
individual in Burial101 may not have lived in New
York long or had foodways different from those of
other New Yorkers of African descent. He was an
unusual individual in terms of mortuary treatment;
perhaps he had unusual origins. He could have come
from southern Africa or some area of the Americas
with strontium isotope signatures similar to those of
New York. The Coromantee (Akan) from West Africa
were especially powerful and active in the New York
area. It is possible that, if Burial101 was not from
West Africa, he could have affiliated himself with the
Coromantee (Akan) through kinship relations.
The heart-shaped design on Burial 101s coffin
lid had been created by hammering 187tacks into
the coffin lid. Perry, Howson, and Holl (2009c:186)
explain that Sankofa is an Akan or Adinkra symbol
that depicts a proverb, Se wo were fi na wo sankofa a
yenkyi which can be translated as It is not a taboo to
return and fetch it when you forget. It reminds people
of the need to [tie] the past with the present in order
to prepare for the future (Ofori-Ansa 1995:3).
Sankofa certainly seems a fitting symbol for
diasporic Africans in New York. Denbow (1999) has
noted that in the early-twentieth-century Loango Coast
of West Central Africa, the heart was the seat of the
soul, and heart shapes were common decoration on
grave markers.
To many, the discovery of the possible Sankofa
symbol represents a remarkable material and symbolic connection between the New York African Burial
Ground and diasporic ethnicity. Excitement over the
Sankofa symbol must be tempered by the fact that similar heart-shaped symbols, which included the initials
of the deceased and the year of death, were commonly
hammered into coffin lids for European burials in
New York (Howson and Bianchi 2009b). Rendered in
tacks, the possible Sankofa symbol on the Burial101s
coffin appears to enclose what may be initials for the
deceaseds name and the year of death, interpreted

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 117

Figure 46. Photograph, sketch, and schematic of the possible Sankofa symbol on the coffin lid of Burial 101
(photograph by Dennis Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [left and lower right] [Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009c:Figures
90 and 91]; [upper right] [Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009:Figure 286]).

as 1769 (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:239). If the

Sankofa symbol was being invoked with Burial101, it
may have been as a multivalent symbol that had distinct
European and African interpretations and was in this
sense representative of the dualism of W.E.B. DuBois
(1903) (Mack and Blakey 2004:15). The convenient
correspondence in general form between European and
African symbolism may have allowed diasporic ethnic
groups to covertly express a collective identity without
Europeans being alerted to the symbols true meaning
(Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009:372).

Investment in coffin decoration suggests special

importance for the man buried in Burial101, as his
was one of only five coffins excavated at the New
York African Burial Ground with clear evidence of
decoration (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:239). Historical records indicate that in comparison to enslaved
Africans, Europeans and Euroamericans in New York
were more frequently treated to more-expensive coffins,
which could also include special fixtures and coffin
decoration. Coffins provided by enslavers of deceased
enslaved New Yorkers were typically of the less expen-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

118

Figure 47. Photograph and sketch of the iron tack coffin decoration on the coffin lid of Burial 332
(photograph by Dennis Seckler; drawing by M. Schur) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [left] [Perry, Howson, and Holl
2009c:Figure 95]; [right] [Howson and Bianchi 2009b:Figure 128]).

sive sort (Howson and Bianchi 2009b). The coffin lid of

Burial332, a Late-Middle Group (ca.a.d.17601776)
burial of a man between 35 and 40years old, was
decorated with iron nails forming initials (HW) and
a number (38), presumably representing his age
at death, or possibly, part of a date (Figure47). The
researchers interpret this coffin decoration as representing the personal identity of the deceased. Tack designs
were also present on the coffin lids of Burials222 and
The New York African Burial Ground

176, although it is unclear whether these were purely

decorative or intended to convey some symbolic meaning. Regrettably, Burial222 was vandalized before
archaeologists had a chance to record the design on
the coffin. Burials101, 176, and 332 each had a child
or infant buried close by in separate burials with positions that suggest possible relationships between the
deceased. These burials with decorated coffins were
also all males or probable males assigned to the Late-

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 119

Middle Group (ca.a.d.17601776). The Late Group
(ca.a.d.17761795) burial of a subadult in Burial252
may have also made use of a decorated coffin. Further
investigation is required to discern if and what relationships existed among individuals with decorated coffins
and other individuals buried nearby.
Relationships between the deceased of the New
York African Burial Ground could also be tentatively
inferred from relationships between other burials. Possible shared graves were observed in 27instances at the
New York African Burial Ground (Table9). Although
individuals could have shared graves for a variety of
reasons, such as the circumstances surrounding their
deaths, some individuals who shared graves could have
been related. Also, graves that were near each other
could have potentially contained related individuals.
Additional studies, including genetic analyses, will
be required to infer how individuals were related, but
it seems likely that specific family relationships and
identities can be discerned by examining patterned
attributes of individuals buried in shared graves and in
clusters of graves. In two casesBurials335 and 356
and Burials12 and 14a mother-child relationship is
plausible, as in both cases a woman was interred with
a newborn or infant (Perry and Howson 2009:116).
These instances of shared graves could shed light on the
family roles played by Africans in New York City.

Conclusions
To date, New York African Burial Ground research has
developed valuable data on the origins of the New York
African Burial Ground burial population. Pilot genetic
studies, ESA, and isotopic studies provide support to
infer African origins of some individuals interred at the
New York African Burial Ground as well as highlighted
variation in life histories between individuals born in
Africa and those born in the Americas. Individuals born
in the Americas were more physiologically stressed
and suffered enhanced levels of lead toxicity. At this
time, the relationships between recorded lead levels in
blood and lead levels in bone has not been established.
Nonetheless, apparently high levels of lead in the bone
suggest that lead was a stressor for individuals who
were born or spent most of their lives in New York.
Lead likely complicated physiological systems that had
already been compromised by malnutrition, disease,
and overwork (see Chapter5).
Genetic research on individuals interred at the New
York African Burial Ground has produced promis-

ing results. At the same time, genetic research has

identified gaps in current knowledge and opened up
a number of avenues for interesting future research.
Genetic analyses have confirmed that continental and
subcontinental population affinities can be identified through genetic studies on aDNA. The studies
conducted to date have generally corroborated West
African and Central African origins for New York
African Burial Ground individuals, but also included
East African inputs, as expected based on historical
information compiled by the researchers. As reference
databases grow and analytical methods are refined, the
researchers are optimistic that further within-group
variation can be identified.
In the course of answering research questions,
many other questions have been raised. How do biological affinities relate to spatial proximity of interred
individuals? Were the individuals buried close to
each other also closely related? Were adults closely
related to infants or children buried with them? Were
the locations of interments arranged according to age,
gender, biological relationships, group identity, or
some combination of factors?
One problem repeatedly confronted by the researchers is the inadequacy of existing skeletal reference
collections and current biochemical frames of reference. The researchers were interested in teasing apart
variation between West African, European, and Native
American populations to understand how different
groups contributed biologically to the formation of
the New York African Burial Ground sample. Where
specifically in West or West Central Africa did individual Africans originate? Were individuals born in
Africa, the West Indies, New York, or somewhere else?
Although fairly straightforward, these are ambitious
questions that require the development of gene banks
for comparing DNA samples from diverse populations,
greater understanding of geographical and biological
variation in isotope ratios, better methods for extracting
aDNA, and more precise morphological data on bones
and teeth. Many previous studies have tended to lump
diverse populations into geographical or racial groupings that are too coarse or arbitrary to unravel the origin
stories that New York African Burial Ground researchers and descendant communities wish to learn.
The researchers caution that the precise identities
of individuals buried in the New York African Burial
Ground cannot be discerned. Interment records were
not kept. With the exception of some possible initials,
no personal identification was preserved. No maps
identifying burial locations as those of specific indi-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

120
Table 9. Shared Graves and Possible Shared Graves at the New York African Burial Ground
Burial No.

Map Location Comments

12 and 14

S 89.5, E 12 woman aged 3545 with a newborn; the infant appeared to

have been in its own coffin but within the coffin of the
woman; interred at the same time; Late Group

25 and 32

72, 83, and

84

S 87, E 20

Adult/
Child

woman in her early 20s stacked atop a man 5060 years

old; the woman had suffered trauma and had a musket ball
lodged in her rib cage; possibly interred at the same time;
Middle Group

S 87.5, E 34 possible shared grave; two very young children placed

above a young woman 1721 years old; burials were disturbed by a later foundation; Early Group

79 and 90

S 82, E 5

possible shared grave with an infant placed above the foot

end of a burial of a woman in her late 30s; soil intervened;
the womans coffin was hexagonal, the childs tapered;
not buried at the same time; Middle Group

89 and 107

S 90, E 48

possible shared grave; a woman in her 50s placed above a

woman in her late 30s, both in hexagonal coffins; the top
coffin was offset to the south but apparently in the same
grave; possible interval between burials; the younger woman had a cylindrical red bead near her ear; Late-Middle
Group

94 and 96

S 94, E 47

an infant centered precisely above a young man 1618 years

old; both in hexagonal coffins; possible interval between
interments; these burials were part of a cluster with additional child burials; Middle Group

121 and 202

S 86, E 70

a child 2.54.5 years old placed atop an adolescent (a

probable female) 1218 years old; both were in tapered
coffins; Early Group

a woman of 2530 years with an infant/newborn and a

child of 612 months placed directly atop her coffin; the
womans coffin was hexagonal and the two babies four
sided; Middle Group

146 and 145

S 73.5, E 74 an infant under 6 months old in a coffin placed atop an

empty adult coffin; located along south side of posthole
alignment; Late-Middle Group

X?

159 and 161

S 73.5, E 90 an infant or young child placed adjacent to the coffin (near

the foot end) of a woman 2535 years old; the grave may
also be shared with Burial 206, another infant or child grave
adjacent on the opposite side; all are in coffins, the womans
hexagonal, the childrens rectangular; Middle Group

S 88, E 90

The New York African Burial Ground

126 and 143 S 88.5, E 80.5 two children, one 3.55.5 and one 610 years old, shared
a single coffin, with the younger child placed atop the
elder; the coffin was hexagonal and deep in construction;
Middle Group
142, 144, and
149

Children Adults

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 121

Table 9. Shared Graves and Possible Shared Graves at the New York African Burial Ground (contd.)
Burial No.

Map Location Comments

Adult/
Child

Burials 224, S 77.5, E 97 three infants in a likely shared grave; Burial 224 was of a
231, and 234
child between 6 and 16 months old, Burial 234 of an infant less than 6 months old, and no age can be assigned for
Burial 231, but the coffin was infant-sized; all of the coffins were probably four sided, possibly tapering toward
the foot; Middle Group
219 and 235 S 71.5, E 123 possible shared grave; a child 45 years old placed above
a woman aged 2842 years, apparently in the same grave
shaft but with an interval of time between interments; both
in coffins; severe disturbance to the grave from construction; Late-Middle Group

Children Adults

225 and 252

S 64.5, E 95 an infant between 6 and 15 months old placed above a

child of 12 years; the upper coffin was offset slightly to
the north; Late Group

226 and 221

S 83.5, E 77 an infant of 2 months or less placed atop a man of 30

60 years, both in tapered coffins; the infant had a string of
fired-glass beads at the neck; Early Group

255 and 265

S 82, E 120 two infants, one less than 2 months old and one 612 months
old, in coffins placed one atop the other in a shared grave;
poor skeletal preservation; Middle Group

263 and 272

S 88.5, E 74 infant burials placed one atop the other in the same grave;
both were in four-sided coffins; probable Early Group
based on stratigraphy

268 and 286

S 75, 126 E infant of 6 months or less, placed above a child between 4

and 8 years old; both in coffins, probably hexagonal; Middle Group

293 and 291

S 82.5, E 94 an adult man (age undetermined) and child 35 years old

may have shared a grave; the burials were disturbed by a
later grave, and some skeletal remains of the adult and
those of the child were displaced into the later grave shaft;
Middle Group

311 and 316

S 88.5, E 99 an infant 39 months old placed in the corner of the grave

of a woman 1820 years old; the womans coffin was hexagonal, the infants tapered; not buried at the same time;
Late-Middle Group

314 and 338

S 82, E 134 possible shared grave, with a man of 4050 years and a
woman 3365 laying side by side, both in hexagonal coffins; Late-Middle Group

318 and 321 S 79.5, E 144 possible shared grave; bones of a child 714 years old, apparently in place, within the upper part of the grave of a
child 12 years old; possibly isolated from other burials;
Middle Group

320 and 334

S 89, E 251 possible shared grave; child of 24 years and another

young child, in immediately adjacent, aligned coffins;
disturbed by construction; Middle Group

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

122
Table 9. Shared Graves and Possible Shared Graves at the New York African Burial Ground (contd.)
Burial No.

Adult/
Child

Map Location Comments

326 and 374 S 75.5, E 135 an infant of 3 months or less was placed adjacent to left
side of a man of 4555 years, near the head, in the same
grave shaft; they appear to have been buried at the same
time; both in coffins; Middle Group

335 and 356 S 84.5, E 248 a woman 2535 years old and a newborn buried together
in a hexagonal coffin; infant lay within the womans
flexed right arm; Middle Group

Children Adults

341 and 397 S 87.5, E 229 a man of undetermined age and a woman 3040 years old;
the mans coffin had been placed atop the womans in a
shared grave; cuff links were found with the man; the
womans teeth were modified by distal chipping; Middle
Group
393 and 405

S 84, E 211 an infant or newborn placed with a child 610 years old;
both in narrow coffins of undetermined shape; not buried
at the same time; Middle Group

Note: From Volume 2, Part 1 (Perry and Howson 2009:Table 19).

viduals have been recovered. In essence, the names,

family relationships, or personal backgrounds of
many individuals buried in the New York African
Burial Ground will never be known. Targeted studies in material culture, bioarchaeology, and history,
however, can recover some information about the
origins of enslaved Africans, the people with whom
they were affiliated, and how they saw themselves
in relation to others. In the case of colonial New
York, and also in other colonies, enslaved Africans
from Senegambia, Sierra Leone/Liberia, the Bight
of Benin, the Gold Coast, West Central Africa, and
Southeast Africa retained, reconstructed, and redirected aspects of their past African identities. These
identities were not the same as African or European identities, but a new syncretic form that was
based on ethnolinguistic heritages shared between
some Africans but foreign to Europeans and Native
Americans. Among other things, enslaved Africans
shared dances, music, food, drink, conspiracies, and
prayers with people they considered to be similar to
themselves. They gathered and interacted in new,
African-derived, ethnogenetic diasporic communities
known historically as nations. More than likely,
burial parties reinforced these Afro-Atlantic identities each time a person was buried in the African
Burial Ground.
Aspects of the African Burial Ground speak to
multiple layers of identity. The removed location
The New York African Burial Ground

of the New York African Burial Ground suggests

something about the racial, ethnic, and class statuses of individuals buried there. Enslaved and free
Africans were restricted from other burial grounds
and forced to bury their dead outside the city in an
area that became home to noxious industries, executions, military installations, poorhouses, and prisons. Although the area was desecrated with refuse
from potteries and slaughterhouses, to Africans and
African Americans it was sacred ground. To Perry,
Howson, and Bianco (2009), the institution of the
New York African Burial Ground was important to
forming the identity of the local African American
community, and the apparent uniformity in basic
aspects of mortuary treatment may reflect the expression of a community-level identity. This finding
is particularly interesting given recent historical
research on the formation of distinct diasporic identities, which in a sense could have been subsumed
under an overarching and emergent African American identity. Identities associated with particular
diasporic nations may have also been expressed
in various ways at the New York African Burial
Ground. One possible expression of a diasporic
ethnic identity is the Sankofa symbol on the coffin of
Burial101, a symbol that may signify a Coromantee
(Akan) identity for the deceased (Perry, Howson,
and Holl 2009c:186). The possible Sankofa symbol
and other evidence for special treatment may even

Chapter 4. Processes of Enslavement: Origins and Identity 123

signify a special status for Burial101, as it is now
well known that specialized African organizations
and royal hierarchies were reconstituted in diasporic
contexts (Conniff and Davis 1994).
The researchers caution that, in terms of the larger
burial ground, which could have included more than
15,000burials, the New York African Burial Ground
is only a small sample that may not be representative
of the entire burial ground (Howson and Bianchi
2009a:73). In addition, genetic, isotope, and elemental
studies have to date only been completed on small
numbers of the 395 individuals available for study. It
is conceivable that the African Burial Ground could
have been subdivided according to various layers of
identity, such as nations or religious affiliations, and
that the New York African Burial Ground sample
represents only a subset of one or a few of these
(Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009). Moreover, many
aspects of identities may not register clearly in the
archaeological record or may require intricate and
subtle analyses of multiple lines of evidence to be
recognized. The researchers intend to investigate
these possibilities in a geographic information system
using a combination of archaeological and skeletal
biological dimensions, including new genetic evidence
(Jackson etal. 2009).
On the other hand, some artifacts interred with
individuals (as well as body practices such as specific
forms of dental modification) could correspond to

specific diasporic identities, which will require more

information to identify and confirm. Artifacts interred
with the deceased appear to indicate symbolic and, in
some cases, material connections with Africa. These
symbolic and material connections could have their
origin in specific geographic areas of West or West
Central Africa or in specific macroethnic groups, but
the connections are difficult to establish archaeologically without other lines of evidence.
In a few cases, other layers of identity can be
discerned. In one case, personal identification in the
form of initials was registered on the coffin lid of
Burial332. An occupation in the maritime industry
may be indicated by anchor motifs on buttons. Other
occupational identities could possibly be inferred
by examining musculoskeletal indicators of work
in conjunction with other factors. Socioreligious
identities, such as that of a conjurer, might be indicated by the possible interment of conjuring bundles.
Family relationships can be tentatively inferred from
spatial relationships between individuals and could
be further investigated using genetic and other analysis. And, in a number of cases, spiritual affiliations
and diasporic origins can be inferred by examining
artifacts and artifact associations commonly found
at African Diaspora sites. Whether these types of
associations indicate African, New World African, or something more specific, however, requires
further investigation.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Chapter 5

Diet and Disease

One of the major research goals of the African Burial

Ground Project was to understand the biological and
cultural effects of enslavement on the daily life of
African New Yorkers. The researchers found that the
individuals interred in the New York African Burial
Ground were subject to myriad cultural, environmental, and biological stressors. Historical research
showed that the health status of many new arrivals was
already compromised by the harsh stresses of enslavement and the Middle Passage, and many already had
been subjected to hard labor and poor living conditions
on West Indian plantations. Enslaved laborers who
arrived in New York were sick, malnourished, dehydrated, poorly clothed, exhausted, and psychologically
traumatized. In short, enslaved laborers arrived in New
York in a state of moderately to severely diminished
health status and thus were in a difficult biological
position to survive conditions in the New World. As
the history researchers note,
Whatever their condition when they left their
homelands, by the time Africans arrived in the
Americas, the trek to the port of embarkation
and the several weeks or months of travel spent
traversing the ocean virtually guaranteed poor
health. Africans enslaved in the transatlantic
trade suffered physically and psychologically,
as they were forced to leave the familiar behind
and often walked great distances overland to
departing ships. Along the way, they experienced hunger and exhaustion and devastating
loss (especially when loved ones, too weak to
continue, were abandoned and left to die along
the side of the road) [Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:7778]
In New York, enslaved laborers were further subjected to difficult and inhumane working conditions,

excessive physical stresses, high disease loads, poor

diets, and malnutrition.
Understanding the conditions of daily life for
enslaved Africans interred in the New York African
Burial Ground was also a major research theme of
interest to the descendant community, a theme that
interdigitates with the imperative in African Diaspora
studies to understand the life experiences of Africans
in the diaspora. New York African Burial Ground
researchers carried out multiple studies to address
this theme, using bioarchaeological and historical
evidence to reconstruct the daily lives of individuals interred in the burial ground. In keeping with an
African diasporic perspective, the researchers paid
particularly close attention to conditions in West and
West-Central Africa, West Indies, and New York, as
these were places where many individuals buried in
the New York African Burial Ground would have
spent much of their lives (see Chapter4).
New York African Burial Ground research has
contributed greatly to understanding aspects of the
daily lives of enslaved Africans in New York and has
raised many questions for future study. To understand
the physical effects of daily life on those interred at
the burial ground, the researchers studied growth and
development, nutrition, disease, mechanical stress,
trauma, and paleodemography. As a result, New York
African Burial Ground research provides critical
frames of reference against which to compare other
skeletal samples of enslaved, formerly enslaved, and
free populations in the Atlantic World. This chapter
presents historical and bioarchaeological research
on diet, disease, and environment in West and West
Central Africa, the Caribbean, and New York as well
as during the Middle Passage. The following chapter
presents the researchers findings on how enslavement
affected the family life, labor, and demography of
individuals interred in the burial ground.

126

Ethnographic and Historical

Evidence of Diet, Disease, and Health
New York African Burial Ground research sought
to achieve a better understanding of the interrelated
effects of diet and disease on individuals interred in the
New York African Burial Ground. This section considers historical information on how diet and disease
varied during the Middle Passage, in the Caribbean,
and in colonial New York and Africa. Implications
for understanding environmental stressors, overall
health, nutritional status, and childhood development
are also discussed.

The Middle Passage

Surviving the journey from Africa to the Americas
the Middle Passagewas a psychologically and physically stressful experience for enslaved Africans. Prior
to embarking, many captives were forced to walk long
distances to the coast, suffering exhaustion, hunger,
and the traumatic loss of loved ones along the way.
At the coast, captives were kept in forts or holding
facilities where they were subjected to poor ventilation and inadequate nutrition and had little opportunity
for movement (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al.
2009b:78; Medford, Carrington, et al. 2009:38). Traditional diets were replaced with insufficient provisions
of dry bread or manioc (Cox and Sealy 1997:219).
The Middle Passage was a horrific and extremely
stressful experience for enslaved Africans. Thornton (1992:154) has written that the voyage was at
the very best extremely unpleasant, and for many it
was a slow and painful death. Conditions onboard
slavers were uniformly poor but also varied with
the slavers nationality and whether the ships were
royal vessels or privateers. For most of each voyage,
enslaved Africans were confined to cramped and
unhealthful conditions below deck. In some cases,
children were free to move about the vessel while
adults were chained below in agony and discomfort.
French merchants allowed adults on deck daily; men,
at limited times, and women, whenever they wished
(Thornton 1992:154155), but other carriers were
more restrictive. To control captive Africans and prevent insurrection, men and women were often beaten
with ropes, staves, broom handles, and a tail full of
Notches (Foote 2004:6869).
Onboard, the diet was grossly insufficient. Captives
were provided a small, nutritionally insufficient diet
The New York African Burial Ground

and very little water. Limited, rationed supplies of

water led to chronic dehydration among captives on
many slavers and the lack of adequate nutrition made
many captives weak and more susceptible to disease.
Seasickness, vomiting, and diarrhea increased the risks
of dehydration (Thornton 1992). Few ships carried
sufficient clean water for the crew, much less for captives. Burnside (1997:134) has written, Only recently
has dehydration been understood as the underlying
medical cause of the depression so often noted in the
African captives. Alonso de Sandoval observed that
on early-seventeenth-century slavers, slaves were
fed only once in every twenty-four hours, and then a
miserly meal composed of no more than a mediumsized bowl of corn or millet flour or raw millet gruel
(Thornton 1992:155156). Around the same time, a
Dutch commander noted in 1642 that enslaved Africans were given only a little palm oil and a bit of
cooked corn (Thornton 1992:156). He blamed their
high mortality rate on an inadequate diet and proposed
that captives be provided larger rations of maize meal
along with beans, dried fish, and elephant or hippopotamus meat. It is unknown whether his recommendations were followed by later Dutch slavers, however
(Thornton 1992:156). Some vessels stockpiled yams,
a traditional staple of many African peoples, in order
to keep the captive Africans in relatively good health
(Burnside 1997:116117). Regardless, the dangers of
malnutrition and dehydration were often extreme. On
some voyages, the enslaved sickened and died when
the yam supply ran out.
Dehydration and hunger led to a condition known
as fixed melancholy. Isaac Wilson, a surgeon on the
ship Elizabeth, described the sufferers of the condition as having lowness of spirits and despondency;
refusing their proper nourishment.... at length the
stomach gets weak, and incapable of digesting their
food; fluxes and dysenteries ensue; and, from the weak
and debilitated state of the patient, it soon carries him
off (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009b:78).
Captive Africans who refused to eat were punished
brutally (Burnside 1997:122).
Disease and unhealthful conditions were compounded by overcrowding on slavers, where merchants
packed as many enslaved Africans into the holds as
possible in order to increase their profits. Captives were
packed tightly, as if logs, with no room to stand or move
and no space for latrine buckets (Burnside 1997:122;
Medford, Carrington, et al. 2009). Not until the end of
the eighteenth century were regulations adopted that
governed the number of captives relative to a ships ton-

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 127

nage. For English ships, the number was five enslaved
persons to every 3 tonsan appalling, claustrophobic
vision. Captives were kept in poorly ventilated quarters in a humid and hot climate, facilitating the spread
of disease, and were prone to developing sores that were
susceptible to infection due to poor sanitation. Diseases
such as dysentery, smallpox, typhoid, and yellow fever
were carried onto the ships and were easily spread
onboard. Epidemics sometimes decimated everyone on
board, including enslaved Africans and crew. In other
cases, epidemics were spread in the ports at which the
ships called (Thornton 1992:157).
The Middle Passage was a dangerous and excruciating journey for Africans forcibly migrated to the Americas (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:78).
For eighteenth-century voyages to the North American
colonies, a sample of 93voyages averaged 73.94days
in length. During the same period, one of every six
captives destined for the North American colonies died
en route during a long and stressful voyage (Eltis etal.
1999). The history researchers note that conditions
on board ship (including quality and quantity of food
and water and sanitation), the behavior of the crew,
and weather had direct bearing on the survivability of
the captive Africans. Estimates of the rate of mortality
during this phase of the transatlantic trade range from
10 to 20percent, depending on the time and length
of the voyage (Medford, Carrington, et al. 2009:38).
Those who survived the longest voyages, such as to
Cartagena and Vera Cruz, were nearly starved to death
by voyages end (Thornton 1992:159).
Slaving vessels departed the coast of West Africa
in early summer and returned to New York in July or
August. This schedule allowed those who survived the
arduous conditions of the voyage some opportunity
to become acclimated to the new environment before
the onset of New Yorks cold winters (Foote 2004:69).
A hint of the conditions of slaving ships on arrival is
the oft-cited passage from a letter to Peter Stuyvesant in 1655 describing how slave ships arriving in
New Amsterdam could be recognized by their foul
smell (Thornton 1992:161). Once enslaved Africans
arrived in the Americas, after months of deprivation
and unhealthful living conditions, the accumulated
stresses and shock of the Middle Passage were compounded by the unhealthful conditions of holding
facilities. Substantial numbers of enslaved Africans
died shortly after arriving in the Americas. As such, it
was common practice to establish a waiting period to
ensure the health of enslaved laborers and for sellers
to guarantee the health of recent arrivals.

Some notion of how the Middle Passage was viewed

by Africans lies in the near-universal belief among
seventeenth-century Africans that the voyage was a
form of witchcraft, and when they arrived, they would
be made into oil and eaten. It was believed that ships
flags were dyed red with the blood of slain Africans
(Thornton 1992:161). The practice of a potential buyer
tasting a slaves sweat, thought to determine if he or
she was ill, no doubt reinforced this fear (Burnside
1997:115).

The West Indies

As discussed in Chapter 4, many enslaved Africans
were first brought to the West Indies before they
were transshipped to New York. There, they suffered
inadequate nutrition, hard forced labor, unsanitary
conditions, brutal treatment, sexual exploitation, and
the ravages of disease.

Diet in the West Indies

Foodstuffs in the West Indies came from several sources,
including plantation provisions and the enslaved laborers own gardens, but most of the enslaved persons
subsistence derived from what the plantations provided
(Handler and Lange 1978:89). Handler and Lange
(1978:86) have noted that by the lateryears of the
period of enslavement plantations sometimes provided a
cooked noonday meal for enslaved laborers as well as an
allowance of provisions, but enslaved people in the West
Indies generally prepared their own meals. According
to Edward Long in History of Jamaica, the diet of West
Indian enslaved laborers was varied, including pulse,
herbs, plantains, maize, yams... pork and fish, fresh or
salt; salted beef, herrings, jerked hog, or fowls (quoted
in Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009b:80). The
bulk of the plantations provisions consisted of maize,
however. Handler and Lange (1978:87) have estimated
that each adult received an average of 1.01.5pints of
maize per person per day; children and women that did
not work in the field received less, and drivers and other
privileged laborers received more.
A small portion of a plantations acreage often was
given over to the manager and the enslaved laborers
as a provision field, planted in maize, okra, yams,
sweet potatoes, and pigeon peas (Handler and Lange
1978:6667). Except for maize, foods grown in provision fields were rarely distributed (Handler and Lange
1978:87). Salt fish, usually imported cod or mackerel,
was second only to maize in terms of frequency of
distribution to adult enslaved laborers. Plantation

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

128
managers also distributed salt, rum, and molasses
(Handler and Lange 1978:88). Fresh or salted meat
was provided on special occasions. William Dickson,
quoted in Handler and Lange (1978:88), wrote in 1789
that when in health, the field-Negroes never do taste,
at least they are not allowed, butchers meat, milk,
butter, or any kind of fresh animal substance.
Enslaved laborers in the West Indies raised subsistence crops and occasionally cash crops, small
livestock, and poultry on small house plots (Handler
and Lange 1978:30). Although enslaved laborers were
allowed some personal time to work their own gardens, the timing of plantation and garden work often
conflicted. As a result, enslaved laborers were rarely
able to use all the time allotted them for provisioning (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:80).
Unfortunately, the adequacy of provisions was susceptible to variation in weather, the political situation,
or agricultural conditions. Hurricanes destroyed the
subsistence crops as well as the cane crops, leaving
little food for enslaved laborers to eat.
Legal barter and trade in stolen goods supplemented
the diet of enslaved laborers in Barbados. Enslaved
laborers circulated vegetables, animal fodder, firewood, and other subsistence goods in a vigorous marketing system (Handler and Lange 1978:3132). This
exchange system also provided an outlet for stolen
goods, including plantation food, and cash crops such
as aloes, cotton, cane, sugar, rum, and ginger. Enslaved
individuals exchanged or bartered baskets, hammocks,
wooden stools, pottery, rope, foodstuffs, rum, tobacco,
clothing, and copper coins. Given that enslaved persons were often hungry and malnourished, it is not
surprising that the theft of items that could be bartered
for food was rampant. Theft was often punished by
execution (Handler and Lange 1978:90).

Disease and Environment in the West Indies

Enslaved Africans brought to the West Indies entered
into a new disease environment. Many enslaved
Africans were exposed to colder and wetter climatic
regimes than those to which they were accustomed in
their homelands. Although much of the Caribbean is
temperate or hot and humid, the mountainous regions
of Jamaica and other islands can be cool and moist.
The New York African Burial Ground researchers
suggest that conditions such as malnourishment,
crowded quarters, long hours of labor, poorly constructed huts that opened to the elements and rested
on damp and wet terrain, and lack of [adequate saniThe New York African Burial Ground

tation] in the compounds made enslaved Africans

especially susceptible to local diseases (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:78). Damp and
unsanitary conditions led to the contamination of
food and water. During food shortages, consumption
of immature fruits and vegetables led to sickness
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:7879).
Diseases that afflicted enslaved Africans in the West
Indies included yaws, tuberculosis, leprosy, elephantiasis, amoebic and bacillary dysentery, fevers, lockjaw (trismus nascentium), and worms (Handler and
Lange 1978:98). Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
(2009b:79) observe that it was common for newly
arrived Africans to be quarantined to avoid infecting
the population. Children were particularly afflicted by
yaws and lockjaw. Lockjaw was generally thought to be
the greatest threat to newborns. Yaws was particularly
dangerous to people suffering from malnutrition or
other weakness. Survivors of yaws were afflicted with
secondary symptoms foryears to come, but Africans
in historical-period times made an effort to inoculate
children during outbreaks by exposing them to the
disease in the belief that people exposed to yaws were
less susceptible to other diseases later in life.
Hookworms, which typically entered the body
through the feet, were common in the dirty, damp,
and unsanitary conditions in which enslaved Africans
lived and labored. In the afflicted, hookworms caused
extreme hunger, lethargy, anemia, and stunted growth
and development. People afflicted with hookworms
sometimes resorted to geophagy to quell their bodys
yearning for food and nutrients (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009b:80).
The effects of disease and diet on enslaved laborers in the West Indies were devastating and included
high infant mortality, increased maternal mortality,
and prenatal developmental stress. West Indies plantations provided sick houses for their laborers that
varied greatly in their level of cleanliness. A surgeon or apothecary visited the laborers, and enslaved
female laborers were assigned as nurses and midwives
(Handler and Lange 1978:100). Plantation managers
paid the additional expenses of providing food and
medicine for sick laborers. Workers who suffered
from accidentsall too common in the mills or boiling housesor succumbed to illnesses were kept in
the sick houses until they recovered or died. Mortality from disease and accidents was high. Data from
Newton Plantation in Barbados indicate that the most
common causes of death among enslaved laborers
were consumption, dropsy, dysentery, leprosy, and

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 129

measles (Handler and Lange 1978:Table10). Africandescended doctors also practiced herbal medicine
and no doubt combined their folk pharmacopoeia with
traditional curing practices.

New York City

Prior to their forcible migration to New York City,
many enslaved Africans had already suffered a host
of indignities and stresses, and their health had often
been compromised even before experiencing the harsh
living conditions awaiting them. As previously mentioned, it was not uncommon for enslaved laborers to
die shortly after arrival or to harbor diseases that went
unnoticed by their buyers and sellers. The researches
report that in one case in 1726, 14 of 52 enslaved Africans exported from the coast of Guinea died shortly
after arriving in New York City (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, etal. 2009b:81). The incidence of death
was so high that in 1728, the House of Assembly
waived the importation fee for enslaved laborers who
died within 30 days of their arrival (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, etal. 2009b:81).

Diet in New York Compared to That of West

and West Central Africa
With the exception of elites diets, it can be assumed
that the diet of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
New Yorkers was poor and probably protein deficient.
According to Rothschild (1990:162), many of the
foods recognized as traditionally Dutch [cabbage and
koolsla, cookies, and oley koeks (doughnuts), bread
and cheese (Kalm 1960; Rose 1988)] did not involve
meat or, when they did... did not require special
cuts. Janowitz (1993) studied Dutch foodways using
materials from the Stadt Huys, and her conclusions
echo those of Rothschild (1990). She found that the
baseline diet in the New Netherlands included bread,
cheese, butter, fish, eggs, shellfish, vegetables, pancakes, and porridge.... while cheese and fish provided
the bulk of animal protein for everyone (Cantwell
and Wall 2001:178).
The New Amsterdam settlers continued European
foodways and also borrowed crops and food technology
from Native Americans, cultivating maize, beans, and
squash and taking advantage of abundant game, such as
deer and wild birds (Janowitz 1993). Fish and shellfish,
particularly oysters, were important, although the species differed from those available in Europe (Cantwell
and Wall 2001:179). Cantwell and Wall (2001:180)

have observed that maize was particularly important

in the colonial diet; cooks used it in many recipes as a
substitute for such favorite Old World grains as wheat
and barley. Maize was popular because it was grown
easily and produced a high yield.
Staple dishes were maize based and included samp
porridge (coarsely ground Indian corn boiled alone or
with salted meat or vegetables) and suppawn, a porridge made from corn meal and milk (Cantwell and
Wall 2001:180; Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al.
2009b:82). Suppawn was made the same way as wheat
or barley porridge was made in Europe. Fresh foods
were not common. Fresh meat was rare, and fruits and
vegetables were available only seasonally.
Although Africans who had originally lived in West
and West Central Africa were accustomed to a variety
of diets, the diet available to them in New York City
almost certainly would have been nutritionally deficient. Subsistence practices and diet in West and West
Central Africa varied geographically, seasonally, and
with variations in local climate and rainfall (DeCorse
2001a:104), such that generalization is difficult. Farming, livestock raising, fishing, and shellfish collection
were conducted to varying degrees by different groups
at different times. Coastal peoples and those living
near the rivers fished to feed their families and also to
trade with inland savannah dwellers who had limited
access to riverine resources. Lagoon fish were dried
and traded along the coast and inland (Kelly 1995:63).
Shellfish constituted an important component of late
Iron Age subsistence in coastal Ghana and continued
to be significant during the post-European-contact
period (DeCorse 2001a:105).
Most West African peoples became dependent on
agriculture beginning about 4,0005,000years ago
(Andah 1993; DeCorse 2001a:104; Williamson 1993).
Within territorial boundaries, however, rainfall and
temperature might vary sufficiently to make farming
more productive in one region than another. During
the historical period, important West African crops,
not all of which were indigenous, included millet
or so-called Guinea corn (Pennisetum glaucum),
plantains, bananas, maize, rice (Oryza glaberimma),
sorghum (Sorghum bicolor or S.vulgare), shea nut
(Butyrospermum parkii), oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), cassava (manioc), groundnuts (peanuts), cocoa
beans, and yams (Dioscoreaspp.). Cowpeas (Vina
unguiculata), peppers, sweet potatoes, citrus, sugar
cane, hackberry, and other crops also were cultivated. DeCorse (2001a:112) has listed a wide range
of imported crops that are farmed today. Few of these

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

130
foods would have been regularly available to forcibly
migrated Africans in colonial New York.
In other ways, agriculturists in West and West Central Africa consumed diets that were similar to those
of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century inhabitants
of New York. Many diets were rich in carbohydrates,
as they are today (DeCorse 2001a:104). The most
common traditional foods were porridge or meal
made from millet or maize flour boiled alone or with
milk (Kelly 1995:222; Nwanunobi 1996:52). Common dishes in the Kongo region were nfundi, made
from boiled corn meal, and wandu, a vegetable dish
made with pigeon peas (Medford, Brown, Heywood,
etal. 2009b:16). Meat was eaten rarely and was used
sparingly in sauces (Kelly 1995:224). Fufu, made
from pounded yams, cassava, or plantain, is a staple
through much of Ghana. It is commonly served with
slow-cooked stews of yams, legumes, okra, onions,
and peppers (Piersen 1996:18). DeCorse (2001a:104)
has noted that among the coastal Fante, kenkey, a
dish made from soaked and partly fermented corn, is
very common. These staple carbohydrate foods were
supplemented with meat, game, shellfish, and fish.
Palm oil provided necessary fats and other nutrients
(Piersen 1996:18). Africans also used maize and millet
extensively to brew beer (Law 1991).
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
the indigenous inhabitants of some parts of West
Africa were agriculturists who raised yams, millet,
sorghum, and oil palm and kept chickens, goats, and
sheep (Kelly 1995:62, 224). This diet was supplemented with wild plants, fish, and game. Following
Feinberg (1969, 1970), Mork writes that in other
areas, such as seventeenth-century Elmina, people
were not farmers. Rather, they subsisted mainly on
fish and relied on inland trade and supply ships to
provide additional grains, such as corn and millet, and
vegetables for the town (Mork 2002:6).
Diet certainly changed over time, both within
ancient African societies and as a result of contact
with Europeans. Kelly (2004:225) has stated that one
of the widest ranging, and probably most significant
transformations of African societies occurred with
the introduction of new food crops. Introduced food
crops included tomatoes, peanuts, papayas, bananas,
cassava, and maize. Maize, which could be cultivated
with less labor than indigenous crops, made the attainment of agricultural surpluses possible (Miracle 1966).
Firsthand historical accounts from the Bight of Benin
region speak of dense populations, where virtually
all of the landscape was cultivated, and where maize
The New York African Burial Ground

was already a significant crop by the beginning of the

eighteenth century (Kelly 2004:225). The existence
of these settlements has prompted the question, Were
the dense settlements due to the advent of maize?
(Kelly 2004:226). Some writers (e.g., Law 1991) have
suggested that maize was grown primarily to provision
ships involved in the trade in enslaved Africans and
discount the idea that maize rapidly replaced millet
as the staple food crop. However, archaeological
investigations of Savi, the capital of the Hueda kingdom (16601727), suggest that the period of Savis
growth and greatest extent were coincident with the
adoption of maize (Kelly 2001a). In southern Togo,
agricultural terraces originally constructed for yam
cultivation were abandoned when maize was adopted
(Kelly 1999, 2001b; Kuevi 1989). The degree to
which groups living in the interior were affected by
the adoption of maize, however, is unclear. Individuals from the interior who were forcibly migrated to
the Americas as enslaved laborers may not have had
the maize-dependent diets that came to characterize
people living in some areas along the Atlantic coast.
As mentioned above, maize, along with several other
foods, was also an important staple food in colonial
New York, but specific historical information on New
York African diets is sparse. Enslaved African diets
were probably similar, but less adequate, than those
provided the poor. In 1736, New Yorks poorhouse
residents were provided bread and beer, milk porridge, or beef broth and bread for breakfast; pork and
peas porridge or fish and peas porridge for dinner; and
bread and cheese, sappaan and milk, or beef broth and
bread for supper (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
2009b:82). In the late-eighteenth century, John Jea, an
enslaved African imported directly from Africa, was
fed Indian corn pounded or bruised and boiled with
water... and about a quart of sour buttermilk poured
on it; for one person two quarts of this mixture, and
about three ounces of dark bread, per day, the bread
was darker than that usually allowed to convicts, and
greased over with very indifferent hogs lard (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009b:82). Occasionally,
Jea was supplied a half pound of beef and a half gallon
of potatoes that were intended to last a week (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009b:82). In all likelihood,
enslaved laborers supplemented their diet whenever
possible by growing their own food in small plots,
hunting, fishing, collecting wild foods, stealing from
homes or markets, and trading in a vigorous underground market. It is known that fish and oysters were
important foods for New Yorkers of all classes (Yamin

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 131

2000), and enslaved men may have at times been able
to hunt, fish, and collect shellfish, given their relative
mobility. Game, fish, and shellfish would have been
particularly important sources of protein, vitamins, and
minerals that were otherwise missing from the diet.
A vigorous underground economy helped to mitigate the effects of a limited diet. Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. (2009c:63) note that enslaved persons
sold or bartered independently grown crops and livestock, wild foods (oysters and fish being particularly
prominent), and crafts. Laws passed to prohibit such
activity indicate the extent to which it was practiced.
In 1684, 1702, and 1715, laws were passed precluding
enslaved persons from selling commodities. Shortly
after the 1741 conspiracy, the council passed yet
another law. It stated in part:
[O]f Late Years great Numbers of Negros Indians
and Molatto Slaves have Made it a common
Practice of Buying, Selling and Exposing to
Sale, not Only in houses, out houses yards but
Likewise in the Publick Streets Within this City,
great Quantities of Boiled Indian Corn, Pears,
Peaches, Apples and other kind of fruit which
pernicious practice is not only Detrimental to the
Masters Mistresses and Owners of Such Slaves
in Regard they Absent themselves from their
Service: But is also productive of Encreasing if
not Occasioning many and Dangerous fevours
and other distempers & Diseases in the Inhabitants in the same city [New York City Common
Council 1905:4:497498, quoted in Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:63].
Prohibiting the sale of produce and foodstuffs not
only precluded the enslaved Africans from developing independent economic activities but also blocked
important sources of supplemental nutrition (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c:63).

Disease and Environment in New York

According to Cantwell and Wall (2001:170), the households in New Amsterdam and early New York could
be very complex. Living together under the same
roof might be a householder and his family members,
whom were usually of European descent; employees
who worked in the familys business, who might also
be of European descent; and enslaved people, some of
whom were Indians but most of whom were of African
descent. Living together in such cramped conditions,
enslaved laborers typically were assigned to the less
desirable spaces of New York dwellingscellars,

kitchens, attics, and lofts. Enslaved women, who often

resided as servants in New York households, spent
many of their days working in the so-called Negro
kitchen, a detached building where food was cooked
over a wood fire in large pots. Africans often resided
in or near this building (Medford, Brown, Carrington,
etal. 2009b:82; see also Wilson 1994:6465).
In most cases, living conditions for enslaved laborers were cramped, damp, dark, and drafty. Enslaved
Africans were more susceptible to the cold than their
European factors and were not always provided with
adequate clothing. Some enslavers provided suitable
clothing for enslaved laborers, but others did not,
forcing enslaved laborers to suffer New Yorks cold,
snowy winters unless they pilfered clothing or cloth
to protect themselves from the elements (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:8182).
Unsanitary urban living conditions, contaminated
food and water, and close quarters led to frequent outbreaks of disease (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al.
2009b:83). Epidemics of unidentified fevers, perhaps
typhoid or malaria, raged in New York in 1668 and
again in 1669 (Goodfriend 1992:280). Smallpox, yellow fever, and measles epidemics occurred repeatedly
throughout the eighteenth century, particularly in the
1740s and 1750s. A yellow fever epidemic broke out
in 1702 on the heels of an outbreak of smallpox. It was
so sweeping that residents who were able left the city
for country outposts in New Jersey and Long Island
(Goodfriend 1992:133). An estimated 570people, or
about 10percent of the citys population, died in this
epidemic (Goodfriend 1992:134). Measles broke out
in 1729, and another smallpox epidemic in 1731 killed
more than 500 of the citys 7,045European residents,
or at least 7percent of the population (Goodfriend
1992:134). Smallpox devastated the population again
in 1756 (Foote 2004:69). Diphtheria and influenza
were also common (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
2009b:83), and the very young and the elderly were
more likely to succumb to such epidemics (Goodfriend
1992:28). The fact that many individuals interred at the
New York African Burial Ground were young children
or infants could be partially explained by the frequent
outbreak of disease.

Factors that Compromised the Health of the

New York African Burial Ground Population
A number of factors, including genetic characteristics,
heavy alcohol consumption, and lead poisoning, could
have further complicated the effects of poor diets and

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

132
heavy disease loads. The genetic characteristics of some
African-descended peoples could have compounded
the nutritional inadequacies of New York diets. These
included lactose intolerance, which has been estimated
to be as high as 75percent and would have contributed
to calcium and protein deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency
may have been induced by deeply pigmented skin
(Kiple and King 1981; Kiple and Kiple 1977; NesbyODell etal. 2002; Sutch 1976). Alcohol was frequently
consumed by enslaved and free workers in New York,
who were in the habit of imbibing as much as a half pint
of liquor before eight oclock in the morning. Alcohol
was consumed throughout the workday as well as in the
evenings at dramshops, taverns, and tippling houses.
Work-related alcohol consumption was so open and
pervasive that expenses for work crews often included
provisions of liquor (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
2009b:84). Although alcohol could have sometimes
protected enslaved laborers against bacterial infection as well as supplied a fortifying effect against the
harsh conditions of daily life, rampant consumption of
alcohol could have also complicated the health status
of enslaved laborers in myriad ways.
Another major health concern for enslaved laborers
was lead consumption. Food and liquor consumed in
New York City were often contaminated with lead.
Lead-containing pewter tools and containers were
used in production of liquor and in the preparation and
storage of food (Handler etal. 1986; Medford, Brown,
Carrington, etal. 2009b:83). Lead poisoning can result
from a single dose of lead, but most often, it entails
the slow buildup of lead in the body over time. Lead
poisoning disrupts growth and development and thus
is particularly harmful for infants and young children.
Symptoms of lead poisoning include irritability, low
appetite and energy, hearing loss, headaches, slowed
body growth, anemia, constipation, and kidney damage
(Bleecker etal. 2005; Chen etal. 2005; Tong etal. 2000;
Wright etal. 2003). Reportedly, genetic background
and sunlight-induced vitamin D synthesis could play
a role in lead poisoning; lead-levels in urban children
increase during the summer months with increases in
solar exposure (Kemp etal. 2007). Iron deficiency can
also increase lead absorption (Wright etal. 2003).
Evidence of lead poisoning can be detected through
analysis of human remains (Aufderheide etal. 1981;
Aufderheide etal. 1985; Aufderheide etal. 1988;
Handler etal. 1986). Analysis of lead levels in hair and
bone samples, for instance, has led to the conclusion
that many of Beethovens health problemswhich
included irritability, abdominal pain, poor digestion,
The New York African Burial Ground

and depressionand his eventual death were the result

of lead poisoning (Weiss 2005). Skeletal biology studies of New York African Burial Ground individuals
(discussed below) suggest that the health status of
many enslaved laborers in New York may have been
substantially compromised by lead poisoning (see
also Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:83).
Lead poisoning has been observed in other enslaved
and free populations and was especially chronic in
sugar plantations of the West Indies (Aufderheide
etal. 1981; Aufderheide etal. 1985; Aufderheide etal.
1988; Corruccini, Aufderheide, etal. 1987; Handler
etal. 1986). Some New York African Burial Ground
laborers forcibly migrated to New York from the West
Indies may have also been exposed to high levels of
lead before arriving in New York.
Even medical care in itself was a potential hazard of
the time. Medical care in colonial New York was probably as likelyor more likelyto harm patients than
to help them. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
medical care included treatments such as bloodletting,
dietary restrictions, and the administration of purgatives. Populations already suffering from poor diets,
lead poisoning, unhealthful living conditions, and hard
labor were probably further debilitated by medical
treatments of the period. Medicine in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century New York was a nascent discipline.
Although some viable folk remedies may have been
available to enslaved Africans, such as some of those
provided by African doctors, other medical practices
could have stressed sick individuals to a lethal degree
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009b:84).
The historical data indicate that poor nutrition,
disease, lead consumption, and alcohol consumption were health hazards to which enslaved laborers
were particularly exposed. As is discussed below, the
researchers found that the New York African Burial
Ground skeletal remains exhibited abundant evidence
for nutritional deficiency and infectious disease. Skeletal analyses indicate that nutritional deficiencies were
prevalent among enslaved laborers. Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia indicate nutritional deficiencies
and exposure to unsanitary living conditions. Bonegrowth defects and suboptimal subadult stature could
have resulted from overall poor nutritional status and
environmental stressors. High frequencies of dental
enamel hypoplasias could indicate a high incidence
of malnutrition, disease, or both. Infectious disease
may have been responsible for the exceptionally high
levels of periostitis observed in the sample. Moreover,
malnutrition and disease may have interacted in ways

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 133

that were devastating to health. Malnutrition, exposure, infectious disease, and environmental toxins
compromised the ability of enslaved laborers in New
York to enjoy healthy lives and, in many cases, may
have contributed to their early deaths.

Bioarchaeological Evidence for

Stress, Disease, and Malnutrition at
the New York African Burial Ground
This section discusses dental and skeletal evidence
for the effects of enslavement on growth and development, disease, and nutrition. The discussion begins
with dental evidence, including analysis of deciduous
and permanent dentition for evidence of hypoplasias
and dental enamel hypocalcification, and patterns in
the occurrence of dental caries, dental abscesses, and
antemortem tooth loss. This is followed by a discussion
of evidence of skeletal pathologies, including porotic
hyperostosis, periostitis, and evidence for treponemal
infection. Finally, findings on subadult growth status
as developed through comparison of historical and
modern stature estimates are presented.

Childhood Health and Dental

Development
Early-childhood metabolic disturbances, such as episodes of disease or malnutrition, can be identified
through the analysis of hypoplastic defects in dental
enamel (Goodman and Rose 1990; Goodman etal.
1988) (Figure48). Deciduous dental enamel forms
beginning in the fifth month in utero to the first year of
postnatal life, and permanent enamel develops between
birth and 16years of age. In general, hypoplasia is a
condition of arrested development in which an organ
remains below normal size (Handler and Corruccini
1986:113114). Dental enamel hypoplasia involves a
deficiency in enamel formation on the growing tooth,
which temporarily retards its genetically determined
growth potential. It is evidenced by defects in crown
development that appear as transverse grooves or
series of pits that are partially or entirely around the
circumference of the tooth (Blakey, Mack, Barrett,
etal. 2009:143). Dental enamel hypoplasias occur
when enamel production, or ameloblastic activity, is
interrupted by physiological insult(s). Dental enamel
hypoplasias develop during childhood and adolescence

and can be interpreted in terms of the occurrence,

frequency, severity, and timing of episodes of physical
stress (Goodman and Rose 1990). Because defects
on different teeth and in different locations on teeth
represent stresses at differing ages during childhood
and adolescent growth, dental enamel hypoplasias
can be used to track life-history changes in the occurrence of physical stress (Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal.
2009:143). Frequently associated with premature birth,
low birth weight, infectious disease, or malnutrition
(Sweeney etal. 1971), the size of a hypoplasia can
be used to infer the severity or duration of metabolic
stress (Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. 2009:143).
Because hypoplasias typically indicate developmental periods of metabolic stress, they are often
interpreted to result from infectious disease or episodes of acute malnutrition (Cutress and Suckling
1982; Jontell and Linde 1986; Messer 1985; Pindgord
1982; Scrimshaw 1964; Shafer etal. 1983; Shaw and
Sweeney 1980). In a study of Guatemalan children
aged 23years, Sweeney etal. (1969) found that
slightly less than half (42.5percent) of all children
had enamel hypoplasias, which seemed to correspond to reported infections within the first month of
lifediarrhea, thrush, and conjunctivitis. In a second
study of Guatemalan children, Sweeney etal. (1971)
discovered that severely malnourished children had
a 73.1percent frequency of hypoplasia, whereas the
rate dropped to 42.9 percent among more mildly
malnourished children.

Enamel Defects at the New York

African Burial Ground
The researchers compared enamel-defect frequencies
among age groups, sexes, and individuals with and
without culturally modified teeth. They also compared the New York African Burial Ground sample
to samples from other diasporic contexts (Table10).
A major focus of these studies was to understand
the physical quality of childhood life for individuals
buried in the New York African Burial Ground and to
understand potential differences between childhood
development for enslaved laborers raised in Africa,
the Caribbean, and New York.
The New York African Burial Ground researchers
selected multiple samples of dentition corresponding
to multiple stages of childhood development between
the fifth month in utero and approximately 16years
of age. A sample of deciduous canines and incisors

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

134

Figure 48. Examples of dental pathology. (a)linear enamel hypoplastic lesions in the anterior maxillary permanent dentition in a female aged
2025 years (Burial1); (b)deciduous mandibular dentition with a single nonlinear hypoplastic pit in the right canine of a subadult aged 35
years (Burial7); (c)bands of discoloration caused by hypocalcification in the anterior maxillary permanent dentition in a 2432-year-old female
(Burial51); (d)diagenetic staining affecting dentition in a 5565-year-old female (Burial241) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Blakey, Mack, Barrett, et
al. 2009:Figures 57 (a), 59 (b), 58 (c); Mack et al. 2009:Figure 64 (d)]).

from 34individuals was selected to study hypoplasias

that developed between the fifth month in utero and
the first year of life. A second sample of permanent
canines and permanent incisors from 65 individuals
was selected to study hypoplasias that occurred during early childhood, between the ages of birth and 6.5
years. A third sample consisted of the permanent third
molars from 111 individuals, teeth corresponding to
late-childhood development (between 9 and 16years
of age). A fourth sample of canines from 23individuals was selected to study chronologies of stress during
early childhood. The purpose of this last sample was
to track at what ages between birth and 6.5years the
episodes of metabolic stress took place.
In the early-childhood study representing the ages
from birth to 6.5 years, the researchers found that 46
of 65individuals (70.8 percent) had hypoplasias. For
this developmental period, frequencies of individuals with hypoplasias were higher than the enslaved
populations of Catoctin Furnace, Maryland (Kelley
and Angel 1987), or Newton Plantation in Barbados
The New York African Burial Ground

(Corruccini etal. 1985) and lower than the freed

nineteenth-century Philadelphia First African Baptist
Church (FABC) cemetery sample (Blakey etal. 1994)
or enslaved African Americans buried in nineteenthcentury Charleston, South Carolina, 38CH778 (Rathbun 1987) (Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. 2009:147).
Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009) suggest that the
differences among burial samples may correspond to
whether individuals were born enslaved or born free.
The later samples from Philadelphia and Charleston
had the highest frequencies for hypoplasia in permanent dentition, suggesting to the investigators that the
condition of being born enslaved in the Americas carried higher physiological costs than those experienced
by children who were born in Africa and enslaved later
in life. Local environmental and dietary conditions
could also account for some variation in hypoplasias
between samples, as the compared samples are geographically and temporally diverse.
Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009) also examined
gender differences in hypoplasia frequencies for the

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 135

Table 10. African Diaspora Skeletons Series Discussed in this Chapter
Time Periods

Total Number of
Skeletons

Life Style

Reference

Newton, Barbados

16601820

104

plantation enslaved

Jacobi et al. 1992

New York African

Burial Ground

16971794

419
(358 assessed for pathology)

urban enslaved

St. Peter Street Cemetery, New Orleans

17201810

32

urban enslaved

Owsley et al. 1987

Catoctin Furnace,
Maryland

17901820

31

industrial enslaved

Kelley and Angel 1987

Waterloo Plantation,
Suriname

1793/
17961861

25

plantation enslaved

Khudabux 1991

FABC8th and Vine,

Philadelphia

18211843

144

ex-slaves/freeborn

Rankin-Hill 1997

38CH778, South
Carolina

18401870

36

plantation enslaved

Rathbun 1987

Cedar Grove
Cemetery, Arkansas

18901927

79

rural farmers

Rose and Santeford 1985b

Site/Location

Note: Adapted from Rankin-Hill 1997:47 (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Rankin-Hill et al. 2009:Table 21]).

sample of teeth corresponding to the ages between

birth and 6.5 years. Fifty-nine of the 65 individuals
could be sexed. More males than females had hypoplasias between birth and 6.5years of age. The
differences between males and females were not statistically significant (P2=0.9328, df=1, p<1), but
Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009) note that the New
York African Burial Ground results match a pattern
of elevated hypoplasticity among males in studies
of other enslaved populations (Blakey etal. 1994;
Khudabux 1991; Owsley etal. 1987; Rathbun 1987).
At Catoctin Furnace, Maryland, slight linear enamel
hypoplasias were more common among women, and
moderate to severe enamel hypoplasias were more
common among men, indicating more severe metabolic stress for enslaved male children in comparison
to enslaved female children (Blakey etal. 1994).
Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009) combined two
samples to study relationships between age at death
and hypoplasias: the sample of permanent incisors and
canines from 65individuals and the sample of deciduous incisors and canines from 34individuals. This
analysis indicates that individuals who lived longer
were less likely to have hypoplasias (Blakey, Mack,
Barrett, etal. 2009). The researchers interpret the
occurrence of hypoplasias in individuals who died as

children as reflecting high levels of stress experienced

by enslaved children while they lived in New York.
Hypoplasias were less frequent among individuals who
died at later ages, suggesting that these were individuals who were not born into slavery but were enslaved
and forcibly migrated to New York at a later age.
Late-childhood stress, as evidenced by hypoplasias
on third molars that developed between 9 and 16years
of life, was less frequent than early-childhood stress.
Nonetheless, there does appear to have been a relationship between the occurrence of hypoplasias and age at
death for this sample. Twelve of 27individuals who
died between 15 and 24years of age (44.4 percent)
had evidence for hypoplasias on their third molars,
whereas 9 of 84individuals who died at the age of 25
or older had evidence for hypoplasias on their third
molars (10.7 percent) (Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal.
2009:Figure62). In comparison to anterior teeth,
third molars are less sensitive to hypoplasia and may
indicate especially severe episodes of stress. It may
be the case that stress registered by hypoplasias on the
third molars of individuals between 15 and 24years
of age were contributing factors to the deaths of these
individuals. Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009:150)
suggest that the Middle Passage [was a] plausible
stressor, given that many of these individuals may

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

136
have been imported between the ages of 15 and 24.
The low percentage of hypoplasias on the third molars
of older individuals may also reflect low rates of survival for severe stresses in late childhood. In other
words, individuals who survived past the age of 25
may have been lucky enough not to have experienced
major episodes of physiological stress as children or
young adults. Individuals who died laterpast the age
of 25and had not developed hypoplasias between
the ages of 9 and 16 may have been enslaved later
in life, for instance. To the researchers, these may
have been individuals who were enslaved as adults
but who had otherwise enjoyed healthy lives before
their enslavement.
Age-related occlusal wear could limit the ability
to observe hypoplasias on individuals who died at
more advanced ages. To control for this problem,
Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009) removed individuals with severe or unscorable dental wear from
the early-childhood and late-childhood samples and
recalculated the incidence of hypoplasias for these
samples. The removal of problematic cases resulted
in a sample size of 48 (of 65) for the early-childhood
sample (birth to 6.5years) and 97 (of 111) for the
late-childhood sample (9 to 16years). With occlusal
wear controlled for, the same general patterns were
observed in both samples, but the relative frequency of
hypoplasias increased somewhat. Therefore, occlusal
wear thus does not appear to have artificially dampened the occurrence of hypoplasias in older individuals. This provides further support for the researchers
interpretations.
The researchers also selected a small sample
(n=23) of individuals for whom hypoplasia chronologies on canines could be built. For this study,
the total crown height was divided by 6 yearsthe
duration of mandibular canine developmentto calculate a yearly incremental growth index. This index
was used to estimate the age at which a hypoplasia
developed. The frequency of hypoplasias was then
compared for two developmental stagesbirth to
3.5years and 3.56.5years. For this study, only 5 of
the 23individuals exhibited hypoplasias that developed in the first 3.5years of life. By contrast, 20 of
the 23individuals, or 87percent, exhibited hypolasias
that developed between 3.5 and 6.5years of life. Only
4 of the 23individuals had evidence for hypoplasias
during both developmental periods.
Although these results suggest more frequent or
more severe stress between the ages of 3.5 and 6.5
years in comparison to younger ages, the researchers
The New York African Burial Ground

note that analysis is complicated by variation in the

sensitivity of different teeth to hypoplasia development
(Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. 2009). Physiologically,
incisors are more likely to display hypoplasias developed between 2 and 2.5years, whereas canines are
more likely to display hypoplasias developed between
5 and 6years (Goodman and Armelagos 1985). In the
New York African Burial Ground sample, the highest
frequencies of hypoplasia on canines correspond to
stress episodes that occurred between 4 and 5years
of age. Thus, high frequencies of hypoplasia development at older ages may simply result from hypoplasia
sensitivity factors. Because of this, Blakey, Mack,
Barrett, etal. (2009:153) hypothesize that this stage
was a vulnerable and stressful age for children who
survived early infancy and who died as adults... [but
how] much more stressful the fifth year of age was
compared to earlier ages... has not been confirmed
using enamel defects due to variation in hypoplastic
sensitivity across different parts of the crown.
Absent of sensitivity factors, Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009:153154) formulate two hypothetical
models to explain why enslaved children between the
ages of 3.5 and 6.5years might have experienced especially high levels of stress. The first model assumes
that children with especially high levels of stress were
born in New York. Because enslaved children were
often sold before the age of 6, children approaching the age of 6 years may have experienced trauma
related to separation from their parents, differential
nutrition provisions provided by nonparental custodians or slaveholders, or stresses and increased exposure
to disease from induction into domestic or other labor
duties (Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. 2009:153).
The second hypothetical model instead assumes
that children with exceptionally high levels of stress
were enslaved in Africa and imported around the age
of 9 or 10. Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009) postulate that high levels of stress occurring as children
approached the age of 6 could correspond to conditions
surrounding or leading up to their initial enslavement.
They suggest that episodes of childhood stress were
related to shifts in political power and socioeconomic
upheaval within the Atlantic slave trade networks
(Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. 2009:154). When all
the evidence on hypoplasia development is brought
together, Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009:154) offer
the working hypothesis that those born in Africa may
have had fewer childhood stressors and survived to
older ages at death in New York than those who were
born in New York City.

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 137

Dental Enamel Hypocalcification

Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009) also considered
age-related differences in dental enamel hypocalcification using a sample of 99individuals. Dental
enamel hypocalcification causes discoloration in the
rings of enamel laid down during episodes of physiological stress. Hypocalcification occurs during the
final stages of enamel deposition. Adults examined
for hypocalcification had permanent dentition, at
least one maxillary central incisor, and at least one
mandibular canine. Examined children had at least one
deciduous maxillary incisor, at least one mandibular
canine, and a second molar. Blakey, Mack, Barrett,
etal. (2009:Table37) found that 23 of 37children
under the age of 15 (62.2percent) had hypocalcification. Hypocalcification was less frequent among older
individuals, occurring in 2 of 20individuals aged
1524 (10percent) and in 10 of 45individuals aged
25 and older (22.2percent).
Although statistically significant, differences in
hypocalcification between deciduous and permanent
dentition may simply relate to differences between
primary and secondary dentition and have nothing to
do with stressor prevalence (Blakey, Mack, Barrett,
etal. 2009:150). Nonetheless, in combination with
the hypoplasia data, high frequencies of hypocalcification in deciduous dentition could indicate the
extremely high levels of stress experienced in utero
and during the first year of life among the New York
African Burial Ground children who died before the
age of 15 (Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. 2009:156).
Ultimately, Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. (2009:156)
conclude that data on dental development indicate
that the quality of life for Africans was greatly compromised upon entry into the New York environment
of enslavement through the processes of either birth
or forced migration.

Dental Pathologies as Indicators

of Disease, Diet, and Nutrition
Mack etal. (2009) investigated disease, diet, and
nutrition by examining patterns in the occurrence of
dental caries, dental abscesses, other dental pathologies, and antemortem tooth loss (Larsen 1997). Caries typically form through the action of acidogenic
bacteria that grow in plaque on the surfaces of teeth
(Figures49 and 50). Mack etal. (2009:158) define
caries as progressive tooth demineralization result-

ing from localized fermentation of food sugars and

carbohydrates by bacteria.
Caries are most common on the occlusal [chewing
or grinding] surface of multicusped teeth... where
plaque can adhere to a tooth surface and tend to concentrate on posterior and maxillary teeth (Goodman
and Martin 2002:45). Foods rich in carbohydrates,
particularly highly processed ones such as maize meal,
exacerbate caries formation. Although multiple factors contribute to caries formationsuch as hygiene,
pathogens, and environmentincreased frequencies
of caries in the prehistoric record is repeatedly associated with dietary change and increased dependence
on agriculture. Caries rates are low for foraged diets
(2percent), somewhat elevated for mixed diets (5percent), and both higher and more variable for agriculturally based diets (220percent). In prehistoric North
America, increased caries rates are associated with
increased maize consumption. Worldwide, increased
caries rates are linked to fundamental subsistence
changes, especially those involving intensification
of food production and changes in food preparation
(Caselitz 1998; Corbett and Moore 1976; Goodman
and Martin 2002; Hardwick 1960; Keene 1980; Larsen
1984; Martin etal. 1984; Moore and Corbett 1971,
1973, 1975; Mummery 1869; Perzigian etal. 1984).

Dental Pathologies at the New York

African Burial Ground
For the New York African Burial Ground study,
recorded pathologies included the number and surface of caries by tooth, the presence and location of
abscesses, molar agenesis (failure of molar to form),
and dental crowding. Differences between males and
females within the sample and differences between the
New York African Burial Ground sample and other
skeletal samples were evaluated. Only individuals of
known age and sex were used. As in other studies,
subadults were defined as younger than 15years of
age, and adults were defined as older than 15years
of age.
Dental caries were most frequently observed in
molars, followed by premolars and single-cusped incisors and canines (Mack etal. 2009:158). Abscesses
were also most frequent in molars. Females had higher
rates of carious teeth as well as higher rates of tooth
loss; 59 of 70 of females (84.3percent) and 70 of
96males (72.9percent) had at least one carious tooth
(Figure51). On average, females had 5.2carious teeth
as opposed to 4.0 for males. Similarly, females had an

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

138

Figure 49. Molar caries in a male aged 2635 years (Burial 101)
(from Volume 1, Part 1 [Mack et al. 2009:Figure 67]).
Figure 50. Caries formation in a female aged
3540 years (Burial 107) (from Volume 1, Part 1
[Mack et al. 2009:Figure 69]).

Figure 51. Total number of carious teeth by sex (from volume 1, Part 1 [Mack et al. 2009:Figure 66]).

average of 4.3lost teeth as opposed to 3.7lost teeth for

men. Overall, the high incidence of dental caries and
tooth loss is not surprising, given the carbohydraterich diets of the period. Dental care was evidently
lacking for the New York African Burial Ground
sample, as many abscesses went untreated.
Mack etal. (2009) compared dental pathology to
other eighteenth- and nineteenth-century samples
The New York African Burial Ground

and a twentieth-century forensic sampleCatoctin

Furnace, Remley Plantation, Belleview Plantation,
Charleston elites, the Philadelphias First African
Baptist Church, a sample of African American soldiers, samples of African Americans from Arkansas
and Texas, and the Rochester Poorhouse sample
(Table11; see Mack et al. 2009:Table 44 for Catoctin Furnace results). The number of carious teeth in

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 139

Table 11. New York African Burial Ground Dental Pathology Mean Comparison with other Eighteenthand Nineteenth-Century Samples (Rathbun and Steckel 2002)
Site/Sex

No. Teeth Lost

No. Carious Teeth

No. Abscesses

Male

1.5

Female

1.4

Male

0.5

Female

12

0.1

Male

Female

0.3

Male

0.3

Female

1.0

Male

1.0

Female

1.0

1.0

Male

0.6

Female

0.4

Male

0.1

Female

0.1

Male

1.0

Female

0.9

African Burial Ground, New York

Remley Plantation, South Carolina

Belleview Plantation, South Carolina

Charleston elites, Charleston, South Carolina

FABC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Black soldiers, South Carolina

Male
Blacks, Arkansas

Blacks, Texas

Rochester Poorhouse, Charleston, South Carolina

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Mack et al. 2009:Table 43).

these samples ranged from none to nine and were

highest for males and females of the First African
Baptist Church. Tooth loss was highest in the Remley
Plantation sample. The New York African Burial
Ground averages fell in the middle range for tooth
loss and the number of carious teeth for males and
females (Mack etal. 2009:Table43). Abscesses
were most frequent for the New York African Burial
Ground, leading Mack etal. (2009) to conclude that
enslaved New Yorkers had less access to dental

care than the other groups. Dental care as a whole

was poor in New York while the burial ground was
in use and became more common after the burial
ground closed.
Overall, odontological evidence suggests that
enslaved New Yorkers suffered fairly high rates of
dental pathologies. Dental pathologies likely resulted
from deficiencies in diet and dental hygiene as well
as infectious disease and may be linked, in part, to
the carbohydrate-rich diets and unhealthful living

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

140
conditions common to enslaved populations of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New York.

Skeletal Indicators of Disease,

Diet, and Nutrition
The researchers developed data on skeletal indicators
of pathology using Buikstra and Ubelakers (1994)
Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal
Remains, representing one of the first efforts to comprehensively implement these standards, which were
new when analysis began (Blakey 2009a). Pathology
codes modified from Buikstra and Ubelaker were
entered into a database. Of the 391individuals available for analysis, the researchers were able to analyze
358. The remaining individuals were not subject to
evaluation, because they were either too poorly preserved or in poor condition or had been pedestaled
in soil containing potentially harmful fungi and were
therefore quarantined. The sample of 358individuals
included 105subadults younger than 15years old,
237adults 15years old or older, and 16individuals
that could not be aged and sexed. Of the adults, 115
were males, 85 were females, and 37 could not be
sexed (Null etal. 2009).
Skeletal indicators of pathology were observed for
306 of the 358individuals described (85.5percent).
Null etal. (2009) investigated the prevalence of indicators of pathology and numbers of healed versus active
lesions according to age and sex. The pathology data
were also compared with other archaeological samples of formerly enslaved populations, rural farmers,
and enslaved populations from urban, industrial, and
plantation settings (see Table10). Samples compared
with the New York African Burial Ground included
Newton Plantation (Jacobi etal. 1992); the St. Peter
Street Cemetery, New Orleans (Owsley etal. 1987);
Catoctin Furnace (Kelley and Angel 1987); Waterloo
Plantation, Suriname (Khudabux 1991); the First African Baptist Church (Rankin-Hill 1997); Site 38CH778
(Rathbun 1987); and the Cedar Grove Baptist Church
Cemetery, Arkansas (Rose and Santeford 1985b).
The specific samples used for comparison with the
New York African Burial Ground varied with pathology indicators and the availability of comparable
data. Of particular note is that the New York African
Burial Ground sample is by far the largest of any of
the compared samples. To understand the effects of
disease, diet, and nutrition on health at the New York
African Burial Ground, the researchers evaluated the
occurrence of periostitis, osteomyelitis, evidence for
The New York African Burial Ground

treponemal infection, porotic hyperostosis, and the

co-occurrence of indicators for nutritional deficiencies
and infectious disease.

Periostitis
Periostitis refers to abnormal lesions or growth on the
periosteal surfaces of skeletal elements (Figure52).
Periostitis is a skeletal response to infectious disease or trauma. The two causes can be distinguished:
trauma-induced periosteal reactions tend to be small,
localized, and nondestructive, whereas infectious
diseases tend to be generalized and destructive, and
they usually affect multiple long bones (Goodman
and Martin 2002:34).
A common problem with interpreting periosteal
evidence of infection is what Wood etal. (1992)
have termed the osteological paradox. The absence
of bony reactions to infections could indicate either
especially healthy individuals whose immune systems
resisted infections or disease-sensitive individuals who
died prior to skeletal involvement. Healed lesions associated with older individuals could indicate healthy
persons whose bodies successfully resisted infection.
Interpreting periostitis, then, requires evaluation of
multiple factors, such as age at death and other evidence of skeletal pathology (Goodman and Martin
2002). The fact that rates of periostitis appear to be
associated with mortality in the New York African
Burial Ground sample could indicate that infectious
diseases contributed to mortality.
Typically, cases of periostitis are nonspecific, meaning that differential diagnosis of specific infections is
not possible. Microorganisms, including Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, are common causes of infectious disease leading to periostitis. In combination
with other evidence, periostitis can be tied to specific
diseases, such as treponemal infection or tuberculosis
(Goodman and Martin 2002; Ortner 2003; Ortner
and Putschar 1981). For the Cedar Grove Baptist
Church cemetery sample, Rose (1985:151) interpreted
the high incidence of active lesions (41.2percent)
among children dying between 3 and 20months as
the result of weanling diarrhea. Protein deficiency
induced when infants are weaned from breast milk
to amino-deficient food, such as cornmeal, results in
lowered disease resistance and a cycle of diarrhea and
infectious disease (Scrimshaw etal. 1968). Null etal.
(2009) interpreted periostitis as a general indicator of
infectious disease, unless additional evidence could
be used to support a more specific diagnosis.

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 141

Figure 52. Osteological indicators of infection. (a)active periostitis on left posterior ulna of a 3545-year-old male (Burial70) and
(b)magnified view; (c)healed, sclerotic periostitis on right lateral tibia of an adult male (Burial 69); (d)healed, sclerotic periostitis on left
lateral tibia of a 4550-year-old male, magnified (Burial 20); (e)osteomyelitis in the right anterior distal femur of a 5060-year-old male
(Burial32) and (f)magnified view (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Null et al. 2009:Figures 76 (a), 77 (b), 78 (c), 79 (d), 88 (e), 89 (f)]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

142

Periostitis at the New York African Burial Ground

Two hundred of the 358analyzed individuals (55.9
percent) had lesions indicative of periostitis. Of the
individuals with periostitis, over 90percent had multiple infectious loci. For subadults, infectious loci
occurred most frequently on femora, followed by
humeri and tibiae. For adults, infectious loci occurred
most frequently on tibiae, followed by femora and
fibulae. For their analyses, sample size appears to
have varied depending on the dimension considered
and the availability of data for that dimension.
Null etal. (2009) also analyzed how many individuals had at least one lesion characterized as clearly
present which they equate with the severity of the
lesion. Clearly present lesions were rare among
subadults, with only 3 of 44 (6.8percent) exhibiting
clearly present lesions. By contrast, almost half
(n=68, or 44.4percent) of adults with periostitis had
lesions described as clearly present. In addition,
males more often had clearly present lesions than
females, despite the fact that periostitis was equally
common among adult males and females. More than
half the males with periostitis (n=44, or 54.3percent)
had clearly present lesions whereas about one-third
of females (n=21, or 35percent) had clearly present
lesions (Null etal. 2009:Table 47). In essence, adults
and males were far more likely than subadults and
females to have at least one clearly present lesion.
Differences were observed between subadults and
adults in terms of whether they had active, healed, or
both active and healed lesions at the time of death.
Active lesions are not yet remodeled and generally
display a very fibrous and vascularized irregular new
layer of bone. Healed or remodeled lesions show
resorption and redistribution of new bone as the bone
is incorporated into the normal cortex (Goodman and
Martin 2002:34). Healed lesions indicate an ability
to respond and adapt to infectious disease. Almost
three-fourths of adults with periostitis had only healed
lesions, and about one-fifth had both active and healed
lesions. Only a negligible percentage of adults had
active lesions only. No significant differences were
observed between males and females in the occurrence of active or healed lesions, or both. By contrast,
subadults more often had active lesions, as opposed to
healed lesions. Healed lesions were not observed in
the nine individuals younger than 1 year old, but first
appeared in individuals between 1.0 and 4.9years of
age. Differences between subadults and adults were
statistically significant and indicate that in comparison
The New York African Burial Ground

to adults children were prone to dying during their

first active infection that was sufficiently severe to
leave bony evidence (Null etal. 2009:175).
The researchers compared periostitis rates among
the New York African Burial Ground, Philadelphia
First African Baptist Church cemetery (Rankin-Hill
1997), 38CH778 (Rathbun 1987), and Cedar Grove
Baptist Church cemetery (Rose and Santeford 1985b)
samples. The New York African Burial Ground sample
exhibited similar, although slightly lower, incidences
of periostitis in comparison to Cedar Grove (Figure53). When separated according to age and sex,
adult rates of periostitis at the New York African
Burial Ground generally fell between the Cedar Grove
and First African Baptist Church samples.
According to Null etal. (2009:178), the patterning
of periostitis in males and females in the New York
African Burial Ground sample mirrors their sexspecific mortality profiles. Evidence for periostitis
suggests that many New York African Burial Ground
individuals experienced infectious disease and that
poor nutrition may have increased susceptibility to
infectious disease. At the very least, infectious disease
would have diminished the quality of life for enslaved
Africans, and for some, especially the young, may
have contributed to an early death.

Other Infectious Processes

In addition to periostitis, New York African Burial
Ground researchers also observed evidence for meningeal reactions, osteomyelitis, and treponemal infections. A general diagnosis of a meningeal reaction was
made for six children younger than 6years of age and
one 2535-year-old female. Two adult females, two
adult males, and one individual of indeterminate age
and sex had osteomyletis, indicating possible bacterial
infection of bone or bone marrow in these individuals.
Three of the aged individuals were older individuals
past the age of 40, whereas the other aged individual
was 1721years in age. Systemic osteomyelitis was
observed in one individual, the 5060-year-old male
interred in Burial32 (see Figure52e and f).

Treponemal Infection
Traditionally, treponemal infections have been classified according to four different types or syndromes:
pinta, yaws, endemic syphilis (also known as bejel,
dichuchwa, njovera, treponarid, and nonvenereal syphilis), and venereal syphilis (Hutchinson and Richman

Figure 53. Population comparison of periostitis presence: (a)total sample; (b)subadult age groups: (c)males, by age; (d)females, by age (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Null et al. 2009:Figures 80 (a), 83 (b),
86 (c), 87 (d)]).

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 143

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

144
2006:544). Congenital syphilis refers to the disease
when contracted in utero and passed from mother
to infant. Treponemal diseases are caused by one of
four human pathogens, T.[Treponema] pallidum
subspecies pallidum (venereal syphilis), T.pallidum
subspecies endemicum (endemic syphilis or bejel),
T.pallidum subspecies pertenue (yaws), and T.carateum (pinta) (von Hunnius etal. 2006:559). All
four treponemal diseases affect the skin and are thus
sometimes referred to as skin diseases. Three forms
of treponemal diseaseyaws, endemic syphilis, and
venereal syphilisleave bone lesions and can thus
be identified through paleopathology (Hutchinson
and Richman 2006).

Treponemal Infection at the New York

African Burial Ground
A constellation of pathologies can occur as a result of
treponemal infection (Figure54). One of these, saber
shin, can result from either endemic syphilis or congenital syphilis. Saber shin is a sharp-edged, anteriorly
convex tibia. Null etal. (2009) initially identified saber
shin in 11of the 249individuals (4.4percent) with
tibiae that could be assessed. Ten of the 11affected
individuals were adult males. Null etal. (2009:182)
used a suite of additional descriptors to identify additional possible cases of saber shin, including the presence of periostitis, anterior bowing, medial-lateral
flattening (platycemia), and/or fusiform expansion of
the diaphysis/anterior crest. This search resulted in an
additional 29individuals who may have suffered from
a treponemal infection, raising the possible incidence
of treponemal infection from 4.4 to 16.1percent. All
affected individuals appear to have been more than
15years of age, and of the 35 that could be sexed, 28
were male. Affected males were typically between
30.0 and 54.9years of age; most affected females
were between 30.0 and 34.9years old.
To differentiate among different treponemal diseases, the researchers then examined patterning in
lytic and blastic lesions and considered which specific
diseases were most likely based on disease ecology.
Three-quarters of the 40individuals had only active
lesions, with the remaining 25 percent having active
or active and healed lesions. The researchers believe
that because endemic syphilis typically is found in arid
climates of the Old World, including parts of Africa
(Ortner and Putschar 1981; Steinbock 1976), endemic
syphilis can be ruled out. Pinta, which attacks only the
skin and occurs mainly in the New World, also was
The New York African Burial Ground

ruled out as a cause of the lesions. As a consequence,

Null etal. (2009) believe it was necessary only to
differentiate between yaws, venereal syphilis, and
congenital syphilis.
Very few individuals exhibited any of the classic
evidence for venereal syphilis. A possible stellate
scar, often associated with venereal syphilis, was
observed in only one individual, Burial 230 (Null
etal. 2009:184) (see Figure54b). A lytic lesion that
could be interpreted as a cloaca associated with venereal syphilis was observed in one individual, Burial
418. Otherwise, evidence for venereal syphilis was
lacking. Further, the presence of saber shin in many
adult individuals suggests onset of treponemal infection at an early age, which would also make venereal
syphilis less likely.
Having eliminated pinta, endemic syphilis, and
venereal syphilis as likely forms of treponemal infection in the New York African Burial Ground sample,
Null etal. (2009) suggest that either yaws or congenital syphilis were responsible. In either case, it is likely
that the onset of yaws or congenital syphilis occurred
prior to arrival in New York. Venereal syphilis was
rare in Africa during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Null etal. (2009:185) hypothesize that,
given the low rate of venereal syphilis evident in the
New York African Burial Ground sample, infection
by congenital syphilis... may be coming from an
affected external population. They posit that, given
the requirement of venereal transmission for congenital syphilis to persist, congenital syphilis would
have had to have been acquired where mothers were
exposed to venereal syphilis. Null etal. (2009) suggest
that the mothers of individuals with congenital syphilis
interred at the New York African Burial Ground may
have acquired the venereal disease in the Caribbean,
where venereal disease had spread into the enslaved
population.
An alternate model proposed by Null etal. (2009)
is that the treponemal infections they observed in
the New York African Burial Ground sample did not
represent congenital syphilis, but yaws. Yaws was
observed historically in the enslaved population of
New York and could have been maintained in the local
disease environment through continuous importation
of enslaved Africans. Genetic analysis, ESA, and isotopic analysis might possibly be used to tease these
alternative models apart (see Chapter4).
Further examination of these models is important
because of the close relationship between untreated
syphilis and high infant mortality as well as the social

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 145

Figure 54. Possible osteological indicators of syphilis: (a)left

femoral midshaft of Burial101 (2635-year-old male, top)
showing saber shin bowing in comparison to a healthy
femur from the Cobb collection (CC2, bottom); (b)a cranial
lesion (indicated by an arrow) in the left parietal of a 5565year-old female (Burial230). The lesion resembles a stellate
scar but lacks the billowing of its margins and other typical
characteristics of such scars and could instead represent
a depression fracture (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Null et al.
2009:Figures 90 (a), 91 (b)]).

implications of venereal disease in enslaved populations. Congenital syphilis can cause miscarriages,
premature births, stillbirths, or death of newborn
babies. Infants with congenital syphilis may suffer
from a host of disabilities: deformities, developmental delays, blindness, seizures, rash, fever, swollen
liver and spleen, anemia, and jaundice, as well as the
symptoms of late-stage syphilis, including osteological, cardiovascular, and neurological damage (U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services 2005).
Sexual abuse of enslaved African women may have
contributed to the spread of the disease.

Porotic Hyperostosis and Cribra Orbitalia

Ortner (2003:55) defines porotic hyperostosis as any
porous enlargement of bone tissue. The condition
is identified by porous, coral-like lesions associated

with thickening of the diploe (soft, spongy, or cancellous material between the inner and outer surfaces
of cranial bone) (Figure55). For decades, porotic
hyperostosis has been thought to result from irondeficiency anemia, but infection or other nutritional
disorders, such as scurvy and rickets, were considered
other possible causes. Porotic lesions on the superior
border of the eye orbits, referred to as cribra orbitalia,
are often interpreted as a result from the same disease process as porotic hyperostosis (Goodman and
Martin 2002; Ortner 2003; Stuart-Macadam 1987,
1989, 1992, 1998), but recent work (Walker et al.
2009) suggests separate, but overlapping, etiologies
for porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia.
Recently, Walker etal. (2009) have refuted irondeficiency anemia as a possible cause of porotic
hyperostosis or most cribra orbitalia lesions. These
authors also suggest that porotic hyperostosis and

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

146

Figure 55. Examples of porotic hyperostosis. (a)porotic hyperostosis in right posterior parietal of a 35-year-old child (Burial138);
(b)porotic hyperostosis of a 4.510.5 month old infant (Burial64); (c)thickened diploe of occipital adjacent to lambda of a 3545-yearold male (Burial151), compared with a normal specimen at the same location; (d)cribra orbitalia of the right orbit of a 57-year-old child
(Burial39) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Null et al. 2009:Figures 93 (a), 94 (b), 95 (c), 97 (d)]).

cribra orbitalia may not result from the same disease

process. Walker etal. (2009:119) conclude that porotic hyperostosis and many cribra orbitalia lesions are
a result of the megaloblastic anemia acquired by nursing infants through the synergistic effects of depleted
maternal vitamin B12 reserves and unsanitary living
conditions that are conducive to additional nutrient
losses from gastrointestinal infections around the time
of weaning. Walker etal. (2009:119) also conclude
that lesions identified as cribra orbitalia can be attributed to a greater range of causes than porotic hyperostosis, [including] subperiosteal bleeding associated
with a codeficiency of vitamin C and B12. Presciently,
the New York African Burial Ground researchers cautiously interpreted porotic hyperostosis as a general
indicator of nutritional inadequacy, rather than a
specific indicator of conditions like iron-deficiency
The New York African Burial Ground

anemia (Null etal. 2009:186).

Porotic Hyperostosis at the New York

African Burial Ground
A high incidence of porotic hyperostosis was observed
in the New York African Burial Ground sample. Evidence for porotic hyperostosis was present on almost
half of 275observable crania (n=130, or 47.3percent).
Porotic hyperostosis was more common among adult
males than adult females. Fifty-five of 95adult males
(57.9percent) and 32 of 73adult females (43.8percent) displayed porotic hyperostosis, a difference that
was significant at the 90percent confidence level. Also
statistically significant at the 90percent confidence
level, proportionally more adults than subadults had
evidence for porotic hyperostosis; 93 of 184adults

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 147

Table 12. Porotic Hyperostosis, All Cranial Locations
Age/Sex Category

Total (%)

Active (%)

Subadult

88

39.8

16.7

83.3

0.0

184

50.5

1.5

89.4

9.1

Female

73

43.8

0.0

94.7

5.3

Male

95

57.9

2.3

86.4

11.4

Totalc

275

47.3

4.8

88.1

7.1

Adult

Healed (%)

Both (%)

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Null et al. 2009:Table 52).

a
Equals number of individuals with observable cranial elements.
b
Status values represent the percentage of those in each group with evidence of porotic hyperostosis; cases
of thickened diploe have been removed.
c
Discrepancies in sample numbers are the result of individuals that could not be aged and/or sexed.

(50.5percent) and 35 of 88subadults (39.8percent)

exhibited porotic hyperostosis (Table12).
Active lesions may indicate nutritional deficiencies
that contributed to morbidity and mortality. At the
least, active lesions indicate functionally compromised
individuals who died in poor health. Healed lesions, by
contrast, indicate a capacity to respond effectively to
stressors. As with other lesions, subadults were more
likely to have only active cases. For porotic hyperostosis, active lesions were observed on 16.7percent of
affected subadult crania and 10.6percent of affected
adult crania, but the difference is slight and not statistically significant (Null etal. 2009:Table52). When
individuals with active or both active and healed
lesions are considered, males were around 3times
more likely than females to have had active lesions
indicative of porotic hyperostosis.

Rates were generally lower for cribra orbitalia than

porotic hyperostosis on the rest of the cranium. Cribra
orbitalia was observed in 54 of 228 (23.7percent)
assessed individuals (Null etal. 2009:186). Lesions
indicative of cribra orbitalia were observed more often
in subadults, in comparison to adults, and more often
in males, in comparison to females, but in neither comparison were the differences statistically significant
(Table13). Porotic hyperostosis in the New York African Burial Ground sample occurred at a high overall
rate compared to other samples of enslaved populations (Figure56). When compared to crania from
the First African Baptist Church (Rankin-Hill 1997)
and the Cedar Grove Baptist Church cemetery (Rose
and Santeford 1985b) samples, porotic hyperostosis
was found at the highest overall rate in the New York
African Burial Ground sample. This appears to be the

Table 13. Frequencies of Cribra Orbitalia in the NYABG Population

Age/Sex Category

Subadult

Total (%)

Active (%)

63

28.6

21.4

78.6

0.0

Adultc

164

22.0

2.9

91.4

5.7

Female

66

18.2

0.0

91.7

8.3

Male

86

26.7

4.5

90.9

4.5

Totalc

228

23.7

8.2

87.8

4.1

Healed (%)

Both (%)

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Null et al. 2009:Table 54).

a

Equals the number of individuals with observable eye orbits.

Status values represent the percentage of those in each group with evidence of cribra orbitalia; cases of
thickened diploe have been removed.
c
Discrepancies in sample numbers are the result of individuals that could not be aged and/or sexed.
b

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Figure 56. Population comparison of porotic hyperostosis presence: (a)total sample; (b)subadult age groups; (c)males, by age; (d)females, by age (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Null et al. 2009:Figures
98 (a), 102 (b), 105 (c), 104 (d)]).

148

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 149

Figure 57. Population comparison of cribra orbitalia presence (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Null
et al. 2009:Figure 99]).

result of high rates of porotic hyperostosis among

New York African Burial Ground subadults and adult
males. In comparison to the New York African Burial
Ground, porotic hyperostosis in subadults occurred at
comparatively low rates in the First African Baptist
Church sample and in adults occurred at comparatively
low rates in the Cedar Grove sample.
Among subadults, rates of porotic hyperostosis
were relatively high for the New York African Burial
Ground sample. Around 40percent of New York African Burial Ground subadults were affected. By contrast, only 5percent of the First African Baptist Church
subadults were affected (Null etal. 2009:Figure98).
Porotic hyperostosis was most common for New York
African Burial Ground subadults between the ages of
1 and 4.9 (Null etal. 2009:Figure101).
The researchers compared rates of cribra orbitalia
among the New York African Burial Ground, Site
38CH778, and Cedar Grove samples (Figure57). The
total incidence was highest for the Charleston Site
38CH778 enslaved population and similar between
New York African Burial Ground and Cedar Grove.
The subadult incidence (80percent) for Site 38CH778
was more than double than it was for the other samples.
Only the total population comparison was statistically
significant (Null etal. 2009:186).

Possible Causes of Porotic Hyperostosis

and Cribra Orbitalia
These patterns suggest that, in contrast to other samples
of enslaved populations, New York African Burial

Ground individuals experienced particularly high nutritional or pathogenic stress as subadults and as adults.
This raises the question of what specific conditions
may have contributed to the incidence of porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia among New York African
Burial Ground individuals. One possibility is that, in
comparison to Cedar Grove and First African Baptist
Church, the New York African Burial Ground individuals depended more on foods with low bioavailability of
iron, such as cornmeal mush. Maize was a staple part
of the diet of African New Yorkers, but Walker etal.s
(2009) work suggests that iron-deficiency anemia is not
a likely cause of either condition. Vitamin B12induced
megaloblastic anemia is now considered a more likely
cause of porotic hyperostosis. The etiology of cribra
orbitalia is somewhat complex and probably includes
megaloblastic anemia as well as vitamin C deficiency.
People with these orbital lesions probably were suffering from multiple nutritional deficiencies (Walker etal.
2009). Either condition in the New York Africans could
suggest that rations of fish and meat, which are major
sources of vitamin B12, were insufficient. Vitamin C
from fresh fruits and vegetables may have also been
rare in the diet, particularly during the winter season as
well as during ocean voyages. Historical information
on New York African diets suggests other nutritional
deficiencies were likely. Dietary deficiencies could
have also been exacerbated by gastrointestinal parasites and lead consumption.
The presence of indicators of scurvy was not investigated, but Null etal. (2009) did investigate patterns
in medial/lateral bowing of lower limbs as a potential

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

150
indicator of rickets. Rickets can be caused by vitamin
D deficiency or calcium deficiency and is sometimes
associated with porotic hyperostosis. Some New York
African Burial Ground individuals (n=34 of 285,
or 11.9percent) exhibited medial-lateral bowing of
the lower limbs, suggesting that rickets did occur in
the population (Null etal. 2009:195). The number of
individuals for whom the condition was clearly present, however, was considerably smaller (n=7 of 285,
or 2.5percent) than the number of individuals who
exhibited less clear indicators. Medial-lateral bowing
of the lower limbs was observed more often in adults
of both sexes in comparison to subadults, but the difference was only significant at the 85percent confidence
level and not significant for clearly present cases. There
were no significant differences between the sexes in the
occurrence of medial-lateral bowing of the lower limbs.
Only one individual in the First African Baptist Church
sample and a few individuals interred in the Cedar
Grove Baptist Church cemetery (Rose and Santeford
1985b) were diagnosed with rickets. By contrast, rickets
was quite common in the Catoctin Furnace sample,
where 50percent of females and 75percent of males
exhibited tibial bowing (Kelly and Angel 1987:206)
(Null etal. 2009:195). Although differences in measurement could play a role, Null etal. (2009) suggest that
vitamin D deficiency was more common in the Catoctin
Furnace sample than it was for individuals interred in
the New York African Burial Ground.
Gastrointestinal parasite infections can interfere
with vitamin B12 absorption or deplete vitamin B12
reserves, leading to megaloblastic anemia. Diphyllobothrium latum, for instance, a tapeworm often
found in salmon and whitefish, has an affinity for
vitamin B12, and infection can cause extreme anemia
(Reinhard 2000:393). Unsanitary living conditions can
cause diarrheal disease, which can deplete B-complex
vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and iron,
and thus has the potential to cause porotic hyperostosis or cribra orbitalia (Walker etal. 2009:115, citing
Long etal. 2007).
As Reinhard (2000) has observed, the pork consumed by many New Yorkers was host to Trichinella
spiralis (roundworm) and Taenia solium (tapeworm).
Some fish also carry tapeworm infestations. Animals and the lack of sanitary conditions in the urban
setting furthered the spread of parasitic infections.
Analysis of nineteenth-century privy sediments from
Five Points, an infamous neighborhood centered on
the intersection of Park, Worth, and Baxter Streets,
demonstrated that the residents were infected with
The New York African Burial Ground

Trichuris trichiura (whipworm), Ascaris lumbricoides

(giant roundworm), Entaris vermicularis (pinworm),
and a few other unknown species. No beef or pork
tapeworms were found, which Reinhard (2000:402)
related to thorough cooking. Given these findings
and what is known of sanitation in early New York
City, it can be expected that at least some New York
African Burial Ground individuals were affected with
intestinal parasites, although a study of 20soil samples
collected from the pelvic and stomach areas of burials
produced negative results. Given the expected prevalence of parasites in colonial New York, the absence
of parasitic ova in New York African Burial Ground
samples probably relates to the nature of the samples
that were taken, factors of preservation, or both.
Anemia caused by a discrete genetic trait is called
hereditary hemolytic anemia (Angel 1964, 1966, 1967;
Goodman and Martin 2002; Mensforth etal. 1978;
Zaino 1967). Null et al. (2009) argue that genetic
anemia, such as sickle-cell anemia, should be rare
in the New York African Burial Ground population.
Although sickle-cell anemia developed in Africa as
an evolutionary response to malarial infection (e.g.,
Kwiatkowski 2005), sickle-cell anemia occurs at
a rate of only 23percent in Afro-Caribbean and
West African populations (Serjeant 1981). Null etal.
(2009) posit that survival past adolescence would have
been rare for affected individuals without access to
modern medical care. High mortality would hold for
individuals homozygous for the mutated allele (HbA/
HbS), known as sickle-cell trait, who suffer from full
sickle-cell anemia and rarely live beyond adolescence.
Individuals that are heterozygous for the sickle-cell
trait have a low level of anemia and a greatly reduced
chance of malaria infection (Kwiatkowski 2005). The
disease could have persisted at low frequencies in the
heterozygous state among African-descended populations. Some of the infants interred in the New York
African Burial Ground, particularly those temporally
placed in the Early Group, may represent homozygous
individuals who succumbed to the disease.
Some of the questions regarding the causes of
porotic hyperostosis among enslaved laborers could
potentially be addressed with stable carbon isotope
and nitrogen isotope analyses (Ezzo 1993; van der
Merwe and Vogel 1978), which the researchers had
planned but were unable to conduct (Blakey, Mack,
Shuuja, etal. 2009; Goodman etal. 2009:102). Using
the 13C/12C mass ratio in the organic fraction of bone,
analysts can discern between the photosynthetic pathways used by the plants that were consumed. The

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 151

Figure 58. Co-occurrence of periostitis and porotic hyperostosis: comparison of

populations (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Null et al. 2009:Figure 106]).

C3-pathway plants, which include most temperateregion plants in North America and western Europe
except certain grasses and desert species, differ from
the C4 plants (OLeary 1981). Important cultivated
C3 plants include rice, manioc, wheat, oats, rye, and
barley, along with the majority of fruits and vegetables.
Plants that use the C4 photosynthetic pathway are primarily tropical and include maize, millet, sorghum, and
sugar caneall foods that were consumed to varying
degrees in Africa and the Americas. Eating large quantities of seafood leads to more positive 13C values (Cox
etal. 2001). When used along with 13C/12C, the 15N/14N
ratio can discriminate marine, terrestrial-meat, and
plant protein contributions to the diet (Krueger 1985;
Schoeninger etal. 1983; Sullivan and Krueger 1981).
Such analyses may allow researchers to determine the
contributions of seafood and terrestrial meat to the diets
of individuals buried in the New York African Burial
Ground, a particularly important question given New
Yorks function as a port city and the apparent role of
vitamin B12 deficiency in the development of porotic
hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia.

Interaction of Nutritional Deficiency

and Infectious Disease
Null etal. (2009) combined data on periostitis and
porotic hyperostosis to investigate potential interactions between nutritional stress and infectious disease.
A total of 275individuals could be assessed for both
conditions. Large numbers of New York African Burial
Ground individuals displayed both conditions; 94

of 275individuals (34.2percent) had both porotic

hyperostosis and periostitis. Further, nearly threequarters of 130individuals with porotic hyperostosis
also had periostitis. New York African Burial Ground
adults exhibited both conditions much more often than
Cedar Grove Baptist Church and First African Baptist
Church adults (Figure58). Cedar Grove subadults,
however, exhibited both conditions more often than
in the other two samples of subadults. First African
Baptist Church subadults rarely exhibited both conditions. High rates of both conditions in New York
African Burial Ground adults suggest that the conditions leading to periostitis and porotic hyperostosis
interacted more in New York African Burial Ground
adults than the two conditions interacted among the
other two adult samples. This could mean that unsanitary living conditions and gastrointestinal parasitic
infections played a substantial role in depleting or
preventing the absorption of essential nutrients in
African New Yorkers who probably had already suffered from inadequate diets.

Subadult Growth and Development

In general, growth status is considered to be a function of nutritional status. Low growth status has a
pronounced effect on quality of life and mortality
(Allen 1984; Bogin 1988; Eveleth and Tanner 1990;
Goodman and Martin 2002; McLaren 1976; Sinclair
1998; Sutphen 1985; Tanner 1978). Subadults with
compromised nutritional status can have subnormal
growth in height, weight, or robustness. Total calories,

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

152
protein, zinc, and vitamin A consumption are important nutritional factors that commonly affect growth
status. Growth status is most often evaluated using
measures of stature or weight. Other measures include
circumference of the arm, trunk, or head, skin-fold
thickness, or ratios of multiple growth indicators, such
as height to weight (Goodman and Martin 2002).
Examination of growth status in adults or subadults
indicates different aspects of growth and development.
Subadult-growth status is a measure of recent growth
conditions, whereas adult-growth status is a cumulative
indicator of more long-term conditions. Low adultgrowth status can indicate chronic growth dampening.
Genovs (1967), for instance, found a correspondence
between adult female stature and subsistence patterns
in prehistoric skeletal samples from Mesoamerica and
the U.S. Southwest. Studies of subadult-growth status
are considered particularly valuable to the identification of catch-up growth following periods of compromised growth (Bogin 1988).
Drawing on a number of recent reviews (Hoppa
and Fitzgerald 1999; Johnston and Zimmer 1989;
Saunders 2000), Goodman and Martin (2002) list
six limitations for studying variation in the subadult
growth status using skeletal samples: (1)small sample
sizes due to low mortality between the ages of 5 and
16; (2)problems in measuring bones with or without
epiphyses; (3)problems of selective mortality and
population instability (Wood etal. 1992); (4)unknown
relationships between growth status and dental-age
assessments; (5)inability to sex subadults, precluding
comparison of boys and girls; and (6)the fact that only
one longitudinal study of subadult long-bone growth is
currently available (Maresh 1955). Although a number
of these limitations complicate interpretation, the New
York African Burial Ground sample is comparatively
large, unlike other studies. Also, if the researchers in
the future are able to molecularly sex all individuals
as planned (see Chapter4), other problems could also
be mitigated.

Subadult Growth Status at the New York

African Burial Ground
Goode-Null etal. (2009) evaluated subadult growth and
development among New York African Burial Ground
individuals by examining patterns in the growth status of subadults and young adults. Because skeletal
growth typically is complete by 21years for males and
18years for females, Goode-Null etal. (2009) selected
a sample of 194 age-assessed individuals under the
The New York African Burial Ground

age of 25years that were represented by postcranial

remains. Different age-assessment techniques were
used to assign ages, depending on age groups. GoodeNull etal. (2009:228) used dental ages for infants
and younger subadults owing to the relatively high
correlation between dental and chronological age in
infants and younger subadults (Demirjian 1986; Lewis
and Garn 1960; Smith 1991). For older subadults and
adults, Goode-Null etal. (2009) used pelvic-age assessment or a combination of two age-assessment methods
when pelvic-age assessments were unavailable.
To evaluate growth status, Goode-Null etal. (2009)
used standardized long-bone measurements (Goode
etal. 1993; Sciulli 1994) and stature estimation. Standardized long-bone measurements were estimated
by dividing long-bone diaphyseal lengths by ageappropriate growth standards for long-bone diaphyseal lengths (Maresh 1970) to obtain the proportion
l. The standard used, and originally reported by
Maresh in 1970 (see also Scheuer and Black 2000),
is based on data collected between 1930 and 1967 for
the only longitudinal growth study currently available, a long-bone data series collected by the Child
Research Council, of Denver, Colorado, on living
children (Goode-Null etal. 2009:229). The data
series corresponds to 123males and 121females who
were measured from birth to at least 18years of age.
The study participants were predominantly middle- to
upper-class Euroamerican children living in a highaltitude environment.
When more than one long bone from an individual
could be measured, Goode-Null etal. (2009) took the
average to obtain lmean. Sciulli (1994) found that the
proportion l was influenced strongly by which long
bones contributed to composite measurements. The
radius and the ulna, for instance, have slower growth
rates than the tibia and the fibula. When compared to
the Maresh (1970) standards, long-bone growth rates
tend to follow a rank-size order of femur, tibia, fibula,
humerus, radius, and ulna. Sciulli (1994) concluded
that the fastest-growing long bones were likely the
most sensitive to stress.
Indeed, in the New York African Burial Ground
sample, the lowest values for the proportion l were
obtained on the femur, tibia, and fibula. Most lmean
individual values (35 of 48, or 73percent) were below
one. Thirty-eight of 48individuals (79.2percent) had
lmean values above 0.9. To Goode-Null etal. (2009),
the fact that most individuals had lmean proportions
between 0.9 and 1.0 indicates adequate, although
suboptimal, nutrition. Of course, the results could

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 153

Figure 59. New York African Burial Ground stature estimates: males (from Volume 1, Part 1
[Goode-Null et al. 2009:Figure 135]).

differ if they were based on standards derived from

other populations with different genetic heritages and
exposed to different health hazards.
Stature was estimated using regression formulas developed by Trotter (1970; cf. Ubelaker 1989)
for African American males and females (GoodeNull etal. 2009:224). Stature for fetal and neonatal
individuals was estimated using Fazekas and Kosas
(1978) regression formulae. Sex-specific formulae
were used for sexed individuals and composite regression formulae were used for individuals who could
not be sexed. Stature estimates were then compared
against the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and
the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
growth standards.
Stature estimates were made on 54 males, 34
females, and 41individuals (mainly subadults) of indeterminate sex. Stature estimates were then compared to
the twenty-fifth, fiftieth, and seventy-fifthpercentiles
of CDC/NCHS growth standards. Almost all males
were below the fiftieth percentile, and many were well
below the twenty-fifth percentile (Figure59). Females
were also typically below the fiftieth or twenty-fifth
percentiles, but almost one-third were close to or
above the fiftieth percentile (Figure60). Subadults
who could not be sexed were typically below the fiftieth percentile of the CDC/NCHS growth standards
for males or females (Figure61). Preliminarily, stature

estimates suggest that females had a better overall state

of health than males, but Goode-Null etal. (2009)
cautiously point out that selective mortality could
skew the picture. From the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries to modern times, stature generally increased
for many populations as knowledge of diet and nutrition became more widespread and improved medical
care became more available. Because the CDC/NCHS
standards were based on more-recent populations,
the significance of the difference between New York
African Burial Ground individuals and CDC/NCHS
reference population is difficult to assess without
reference to other Colonial period samples.
Goode-Null etal. (2009) examined rates of porotic
hyperostosis (cranial and orbital), infectious lesions,
abnormal long-bone shape (flattening, bowing, or flaring), craniosynostosis (premature fusion of the sutures
of the skull), and indicators of biomechanical stress to
test their effects on growth status and found neither
nutritional, generalized health, nor biomechanical
indicators of environmental stressors were associated
with low lmean values (Goode-Null etal. 2009:247).
Goode-Null etal. (2009) also compared the New York
African Burial Ground results to Sciullis (1994)
results on five prehistoric Native America populations
in the Ohio River Valley dating between a.d.1000 and
1700. New York African Burial Ground individuals
had some of the highest proportion values, possibly

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

154

Figure 60. New York African Burial Ground stature estimates: females (from Volume 1,
Part 1 [Goode-Null et al. 2009:Figure 136]).

Figure 61. New York African Burial Ground Stature estimates: subadults (from Volume 1,
Part 1 [Goode-Null et al. 2009:Figure 137]).

indicating that their growth status was somewhat

better than some late prehistoric Native Americans
of the Ohio River Valley.
In addition, Goode-Null etal. (2009) compared
stature estimates of New York African Burial Ground
The New York African Burial Ground

individuals to stature estimates obtained by Steckel

(1996) using ship manifests for vessels that supplied
the southern United States with enslaved laborers
between 1820 and 1860. Steckel provides stature
estimates for enslaved males and females between

Chapter 5. Diet and Disease 155

the ages of 4.5 and 25years. There were no significant differences between Steckels (1996) estimates
and Goode-Null etal.s (2009) estimates for either
subadults or adults. Goode-Null et al. (2009:251)
conclude that (1)enslavement was equally detrimental to the health of individuals (as reflected by
growth status) in the North and in the South, and (2)
the regression formula used to estimate stature for the
New York African Burial Ground juvenile remains
provides an accurate reflection of the growth status
of these individuals.

Conclusions
The researchers developed several major conclusions regarding daily life that are related to diet,
nutrition, and disease. The people buried in the
New York African Burial Ground suffered from
a number of nutritional deficiencies and diseases
that left observable effects on their teeth and bones.
Children were particularly stressed, and the timing
of enslavement appears to have been a major factor
that contributed to the development of dental and
skeletal pathologies.
Dental enamel hypoplasias were observed at higher
rates than for other enslaved eighteenth-century populations but lower than enslaved and free African
nineteenth-century populations. High frequencies of
individuals with hypoplasias probably correspond to
acute malnutrition and widespread infectious diseases,
such as diarrhea, conjunctivitis, the common cold,
influenza, and the many childhood diseases from
which the population presumably suffered. New York
African Burial Ground males were more frequently
affected by hypoplasias than females. The longer an
individual lived, the less likely he or she was to have
hypoplasias. The researchers suggest that hypoplasias
and the conditions that produced them were more
severe for individuals born enslaved in New York or
who were enslaved at a young age. High incidences
of third-molar hypoplasias among individuals who
died between the ages of 15 and 24 and low rates
among individuals aged 25 and older suggest to the
researchers that stresses associated with the Middle
Passage were responsible, given that many young
adults were forcibly migrated between the ages of 9
and 16. More than 60percent of children below age
15 had dental enamel hypocalcification, a condition
caused by physiological stress. Dental caries were
frequent, particularly among females.

The high incidences of porotic hyperostosis and

cribra orbitalia indicate that many individuals likely
suffered from nutritional deficiencies, which may have
also been complicated by gastrointestinal infection.
Periostitis was also common, indicating that many
enslaved individuals, particularly males, suffered from
infections. The researchers discovered that conditions
resulting in porotic hyperostosis and periostitis may
have interacted to a greater degree than that noted
for other populations, suggesting that the unsanitary
living conditions and poor diets probably diminished
the health status of many African New Yorkers.
The researchers also discovered a high incidence
of treponemal infection. Treponemal infection as
evidenced by saber shin and other indicators was
observed in 40individuals, 16.1percent of those
who could be assessed. All of these were more than
15years of age, and most were male, around 80percent. The researchers attributed treponemal infections
to yaws and congenital syphilis. Venereal syphilis
could have been prevalent among enslaved laborers
imported from the West Indies but only 2 individuals
had possible indicators of venereal syphilis. Infected
children would have likely suffered greatly and may
not have survived past a young age. The New York
African Burial Ground evidence regarding treponemal
infection may be important to understanding the social
implications of syphilis for enslaved populations as
well as the origins of the disease.
In addition to poor nutrition and high disease loads,
individuals born in New York had unexpectedly high
levels of lead in their teeth. Maternal contributions
during breast-feeding may have been especially
important to elevated lead levels. High lead levels
were an additional stressor that would have negatively
interacted with other dietary conditions. Low levels
of calcium in diets, for instance, could have increased
the uptake of lead, and higher lead levels could have
contributed to iron-deficiency anemia and many other
health problems.
The overall effects of poor nutrition, disease, and
environmental hazards probably dampened subadult
growth and development. Subadult stature was clearly
suboptimal in comparison to modern growth standards
and was comparable to the historically recorded stature of enslaved Africans imported into the southern
United States between 1820 and 1860. The lack of
standards for populations contemporaneous with
the New York African Burial Ground population
or standards corresponding to different genetic and
environmental factors, however, makes it difficult

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

156
to assess the degree to which the conditions of daily
life dampened growth and development for enslaved
individuals.
Historical evidence suggests that enslaved Africans,
through birth or forcible migration, arrived in New
York in a compromised state of health that was further diminished by conditions in New York. The diets
of enslaved Africans in New York City during the
period that the African Burial Ground was in use were
nutritionally deficient, as they were based on maize
and little else of nutritional value. Enslaved Africans
may have had inadequate amounts of animal foods
and went through periods of the year without fresh
fruits and vegetables. Nutritional deficiencies may
have been further worsened by lactose intolerance,
limited vitamin D production, lead consumption,
and parasitic infections. Enslaved Africans lived
in cramped, dark, and moist spaces where diseases
could spread. Unsanitary living conditions would
have led to parasitic infections and diarrheal illness.
Also common were outbreaks of smallpox, yel-

The New York African Burial Ground

low fever, measles, and other diseases (Goodfriend

1992:280).
To conclude, historical and bioarchaeological
studies of the New York African Burial Ground
provide information on the life histories of people
who suffered short lives under brutal conditions.
Disease, poor nutrition, unhealthy living conditions,
and heavy workloads combined to create a population under tremendous physiological stress. Children
were especially stressed and probably frequently
succumbed to diseases such as the common cold,
conjunctivitis, and diarrhea. The researchers infer
that the timing of many pathologies coincided with
the timing of enslavement, suggesting that some of
the highly stressed living conditions experienced by
the deceased were largely the result of their enslavement (Blakey, Mack, Barrett, etal. 2009). Building
on this body of information, further research may
contribute substantially to understanding the etiologies of specific pathologies and their relationship to
the conditions of enslavement.

Chapter 6

Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life

and Mortality
Forcible Labor and Its Effects
A major goal of the New York African Burial Ground
research was to uncover and document the physical
effects of forcible labor on enslaved laborers and the
effects of enslavement on family life and demography. The researchers examined historical evidence
for labor, family life, and reproduction in West and
West Central Africa, the West Indies, and New York;
evaluated archaeological evidence for family ties at the
New York African Burial Ground; and evaluated New
York African Burial Ground individuals for paleodemographic information on fertility and mortality and
osteological evidence of work-related stress. Historical
information showed that different kinds of work were
performed by New York African men, women, and
children, but all forcible labor was strenuous.
In light of historical information, osteological information provided an overall picture of the effects of
enforced labor on the health and quality of life for
those interred at the New York African Burial Ground.
Through analysis of patterns in the occurrence of
osteoarthritis, osteophytosis, Schmorls nodes, spondylolysis, and musculoskeletal stress markers, the
researchers discovered that many tasks that enslaved
laborers performed involved excessive physical
stresses for which they paid serious biological costs.
In all likelihood, the detrimental effects of forcible
labor, combined with a poor diet and disease processes
(discussed in Chapter5), had a devastating impact on
the health of enslaved individuals.
Through evaluation of historical and bioarchaeological information, the researchers also revealed that
enslavement had a devastating effect on family life
and procreation and that kinship and social relations
in New York strongly contrasted with kinship and
social relations in Africa. The oppressive conditions of

enslavement, including the negative attitudes enslavers had toward interaction and childbearing among
enslaved Africans, disrupted and interfered with family life, procreation, and child rearing. Through paleodemographic reconstruction using historical records,
mortality profiles, and life expectancy tables, the
researchers further showed that life expectancy was
low, child mortality was high, and the population of
enslaved laborers likely grew as a result of in-migration rather than fertility. Nevertheless, archaeological
information developed by the researchers regarding
demographic patterning in burial locations, in the use
of grave markers, and in the inclusion of jewelry and
other personal objects in some burials suggests that
enslaved Africans continually strove to maintain family ties in life and in death, despite enslavement.

Labor in West and West Central Africa

Many enslaved laborers came originally from parts of
West or West Central Africa, often by way of the West
Indies. They were thus exposed to labor patterns in
West and West Central Africa and, to varying degrees,
in the West Indies as well. Enslaved Africans would
not have been strangers to hard labor, nor to diverse
agricultural, craft working, or industrial tasks. As
Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. (2009b:15) note,
enslaved Africans would have been accustomed to
clearing land in the forests, building and repairing
houses, and providing porterage for the transport of salt
and iron (ubiquitous at many of the regional markets)
or other commodities in production centers. Some of
them may have also engaged in a variety of artisan
or craft work, including cloth weaving. Likewise,
because of long-standing metallurgical traditions in
Africa, some enslaved Africans were particularly skillful in working with metals. Bosman (1721 [1705]:109),

158
for instance, described blacksmiths in the Gold Coast
region as making all manner of tools, including all
sorts of War-arms... as well as whatever is required
in their Agriculture or House-keeping using tongs,
anvils, bellows, and pipes in their art. These enslaved
Africans may have been especially useful to managers
who needed and recognized these skills (Alpern 2005;
DeCorse 2001a). Africans in colonial New York practiced some metallurgy and were valued as blacksmiths,
for instance (Medford 2009:xix; Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009c:55).
In both New York and West and West Central Africa,
African laborers often worked as porters. They carried
huge loads that would have placed excessive stress on
the spine (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:89,
2009c:58). The lower back was highly affected by the
lifting and carrying of heavy loads, but the neck and
shoulders were also stressed because of the way loads
were carried. In the late-seventeenth century, Bosman
(1721 [1705]:319) noted that porters along the Bight
of Benin of West Africa were frequently employed in
carrying goods from the shore to principal villages:
With a burthen of one hundred pounds on their head
they run a sort of continual trot; which is so swift that
we Hollanders cannot keep up with them without difficulty, though not loaded with an ounce of weight.
Large groups of porters in late-eighteenth-century
Sierra Leone were observed to carry similar loads:
We passed at least 300Fulahs going to Kocundy,
most of them however being heavy laden took
but little notice of us. We now say their manner
of traveling with their heavy burdens, some of
which I am told equal 3Cwt. [hundredweight],
though rather I doubt it. Many of them however
carry more than that quantity which is certainly
a great load to travel with. These loads consist
mainly of rice which they carry to Kocundy and
for which they take salt in return. Their loads are
made up in a kind of long basket, from 5 to 7feet
in length and from 9inches to a foot broad, the
lower part of which comes as far down as their
rump, the upper part 4 or 5feet above their heads.
This they kept steady by means of their bow which
is fastened to the top of it, so that the whole weight
rests upon the shoulders [Watt 1994:8].
Agriculture was a common pursuit for seventeenthand eighteenth-century West Africans, many of whom
cultivated cereal grains such as millet and maize,
grew peanuts, and harvested rice along the coastal
areas and river valleys (Medford, Brown, Carrington,
The New York African Burial Ground

etal. 2009c:51). In Sierra Leone, for instance, people

cultivated maize, or Indian corn, millet, and yams,
rice, plantains, Guinea corn, ground nuts, sweet potatoes, and cassava (Winterbottom 1969 [1803]:55).
They also extracted palm oil and made palm wine
(Winterbottom 1969 [1803]:58). Planting and hoeing
with short-handled hoes and building and maintaining
water-management facilities were frequent activities
that often placed stress on the lower back. In the Kongo
region and in Sierra Leone, many agricultural tasks
were performed by women, who were the primary
planters and tenders of agricultural crops (Medford,
Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009b:16) (Figure62). In other
contexts, such as on Portuguese-owned plantations
(arimos) in the Bengo region, men worked agricultural
fields as members of labor gangs (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, etal. 2009c:53; Watt 1994:22). In 1794,
Watt (1994:22) noted that among the Fula in Sierra
Leone, the women were employed every where in
hoeing the ground which on account of its extreme dryness was very hard.... The men are chiefly occupied
in carrying their produce to Kocundy and fetching salt
from thence in return, so that neither sex is idle.
In addition to agricultural tasks, women in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century West Africa were
accustomed to extracting salt, gathering fruits for
domestic consumption, making pottery, and child
rearing (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:53).
DeCorse (2001a:118) has noted that the production of
pottery was primarily a womans task, and individuals
and entire villages might be specialized in this craft.
Depending on the region, many other activities were
also performed by men and women. In the Bight
of Benin region, common manufacturing activities
included spinning of Cotton, weaving of fine Cloaths,
making of Calabasses, wooden Vessels, Assagayes
[or throwing spears] and Smiths-ware; and several
other Handicrafts (Bosman 1721 [1705]:318). Gold
mining, iron mining, and cloth making were common industries in the Senegambia region. Africans
in Sierra Leone worked in the logging industry to
supply European demand for African sandalwood or
camwood (Baphia nitida), a wood prized for its red
dye. They also cleared land for agriculture. According to Winterbottom (1969 [1803]:46), the greatest
fatigue [agriculturists in Sierra Leone] undergo is in
clearing the ground, which is done by merely cutting
down the trees... the whole is set on fire, and the
ground is thus rendered as clear as the flames can
make it. The Akan speakers of the Gold Coast region
practiced forest clearing for agriculture and gold

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 159

Figure 62. Kongo woman laboring in agricultural field (courtesy of University of Arizona Special Collections,
from Relation historique de lEthiopie occidentale; contenant la description des royaumes de Congo, Angolle et
Matamba, by Giovanni Cavazzi, 1732) (from Volume 3: [Medford, Brown, Heywood, et al. 2009b:Figure 6]).

mining. Gold was extracted by digging prospect pits

in the hills where gold was suspected, by searching
rivers and waterfalls, whose violence washeth down
great quantities of earth, which carry the Gold and
by panning at the seashore, where there are little
branches or rivulets into which the gold is driven from
mountainous places (Bosman 1721 [1705]:71).
Cattle raising was common in West Africa. In some
contexts, such as among the Fulbe in Senegambia,
cattle were raised by specialists. In other cases, farmers raised their own cattle. People from Matamba
and Angola, particularly Angolan Imbundus, were
heavily involved in cattle raising (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009c:51, 53).

People living in coastal areas of the Bight of

Benin were accustomed to fishing and boat building (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:51).
Fishing was also a major activity in the Matamba
region. Fishermen fished from canoes that were
propelled by Paddles made like a Spade, having
a handle about the same Length; with which paddling the Water with an under-hand stroke, they
keep the Canoa in a very swift Course (Bosman
1721 [1705]:110). In eastern West Central Africa,
securing ivory, beeswax harvesting, copper and
iron ore mining, and production of iron goods were
common activities (Medford, Brown, Carrington,
etal. 2009c:53).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

160
Raiding and warfare was commonplace in West
and West Central Africa, as Africans and Europeans
fought for control of people and resources. As such,
men in West and West Central Africa were accustomed
to fighting in wars. Men fought for different African
polities and states, as allies or enslaved soldiers of the
Portuguese, and as members of raiding parties. As allies
of the Portuguese, Mbundu gathered African soldiers
as tribute (guerra preta). The Imbangala, militaristic
bands originally from south of the Kwanza River, were
frequently involved in raiding and warfare (Thornton
1992, 1999, 2003). The Portuguese enslaved thousands
of Africans for use as soldiers. In the mid-seventeenth
century, for instance, Manoel Correia Leito reported
200,000soldiers in Kasanje and its vassal states (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:53).
Widespread warfare meant that many enslaved
African males forcibly migrated from West and West
Central Africa were accustomed to soldiering, and
many people were originally enslaved as prisoners
of war. Many enslaved Africans were taken in war
with neighboring countries or as a consequence of
civil war (Thornton 1992:99100, 1999:128). In fact,
it is believed that Africans with experience in guerrilla warfare, such as Akan peoples, led a number of
enslaved-African rebellions in the Americas (Dodson
etal. 2000; Frohne 2002; Harris 2003). Many Africans
captured through warfare were sold to Muslim or
European traders. Some wars were initiated solely to
acquire enslaved Africans to use as capital to pay off
political or commercial debits (Thornton 1992:101
102). The Sudanese armies and those of many other
states relied heavily on enslaved combatants and
administrators. Enslaved Africans also were used by
state officials to produce revenue and perform military
and administrative services in the struggle for control
among royalty and the elite.
The complex societies of the African kingdoms
were known for specialization in crafts, commercial
production of many items, and widespread exchange
in manufactured goods. Enslaved laborers were often
involved in these trades and were the primary form
of private investment and the manifestation of private
wealth. Enslaved labor was also critical to agricultural
production, mining, and trade, as laborers carried goods
on commercial expeditions (Thornton 1992:90).

Labor in the West Indies

Enslaved Africans imported into New York may have
spent anywhere from days to years laboring on West
The New York African Burial Ground

Indian plantations. These laborers were frequently

acquired through the provisions trade as partial payment for goods supplied to West Indian planters.
Provisions were comparatively expensive in the West
Indies. Enslaved laborers that were difficult to control, superannuated, or found guilty of crimes such
as revolt were traded off the islands to places like
New York, especially during lean years (Burnside
1997:143). Sugar-cane productionan especially
grueling, exploitative, and dangerous form of plantation agriculturewas the major focus of West Indian
plantation economies. Enslaved laborers on West
Indian plantations typically worked from sunrise until
sunset, performing exhausting, physically strenuous
tasks, including cutting cane, carrying it to the mills,
and making sugar. Enslaved Africans also weeded the
fields, planted food crops such as maize, and gathered
cane waste materials for fuel and thatching material
(Handler and Lange 1978; Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:5354.). One especially repetitive and grueling activity, cane-hole digging, required
enslaved laborers to dig as many as 120(2-by-2-by2-foot) holes per day in ploughed fields and as many
as 90holes per day in unploughed fields (Higman
1995:164). Enslaved African also maintained the
windmills and other equipment, labored in sugar and
rum manufacture, gathered livestock feed, and tended
livestock and poultry, among other chores (Handler
and Lange 1978).
Many tasks required enslaved laborers to stoop frequently and carry heavy loads weighing between 80 and
100pounds on their heads. Such tasks included carrying
80-pound baskets of manure to spread around plantings;
filling and carrying heavy loads of trash; and cutting,
baling, and carrying 100-pound bales of grass for plantation livestock (Carrington 2002). Men, women, and
children performed these tasks, for which they suffered
heavy physical tolls. During peak production times,
enslaved laborers worked nonstop, sometimes without
sleep (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:54). It
is not surprising that labor on West Indian plantations
had negative impacts on the health status and quality
of life for enslaved laborers. Younger children, the
elderly and infirm, and permanently disabled laborers
who did not work constituted some 1825percent of
Newton Plantations enslaved laborers (Handler and
Lange 1978). They were given tasks that they could
perform, but many old and infirm enslaved laborers who
had labored in the West Indies were shipped to places
like New York, where they were put to domestic work
rather than agricultural labor.

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 161

Labor in New Amsterdam and New York

As discussed in Chapter3, enslaved laborers were first
brought to New Amsterdam shortly after its founding
in 1624. New Amsterdam began as a trading post of
the fur trade, and few colonists were interested in
producing food for the colony (Goodfriend 1978:127;
Rothschild 1990:88). The arrival of the first 11male
enslaved laborers in 1625 and 1626, followed by
3females a few years later, was a small, but significant,
boost in the settlements labor economy. Their forcible
labor was essential to building and maintaining the
settlement (Medford, Brown, Heywood, et al. 2009a:6,
2009b:15). As the settlement grew, Dutch West India
Company officials continued to recognize a serious
need for labor in New Amsterdam that was not being
filled by colonists. Although the West India Company
leased land for farming to company officials and
private individuals, the labor shortage was chronic.
Getting Europeans to perform hard labor proved difficult (Foote 2004:36), and it was widely felt that a
single enslaved African could perform more labor at
a lower cost than multiple indentured servants. Their
solution to the labor shortage was dual: (1)encourage more people to colonize New Amsterdam and
(2)import more enslaved laborers.
The first enslaved laborers in New Amsterdam
were instrumental in building the early infrastructure
of New Amsterdam. Many activities performed by
enslaved Africans in Dutch New Amsterdam probably
centered on farming. Enslaved laborers held by the
company were routinely leased to private individuals as farmhands (Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal.
2009b:16). Using implements made mostly of wood,
enslaved laborers cleared land of trees, broke up the
soil, and performed other farm tasks. The laborers also
built roads and constructed buildings and earthworks
(Swan 1993). Farmwork and construction tasks typically were performed by all-male gangs of enslaved
Africans, who labored in the city as well as in farms
outside the city. Enslaved women, by contrast, were
more often put to domestic tasks, performing all
manner of household chores and taking care of the
owners children (Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal.
2009b:16). The agricultural skills of African women,
however, may have also been put to use, given the crucial role that women in Africa fulfilled in agriculture
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c).
Less than a decade after the arrival of the first
enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam, the overseer,
Jacob Stoffelsen, commented on the labor contribu-

tions of enslaved Africans. In a 1635 Deposition

Concerning the Erection of Fort Amsterdam and Other
Work Done by the Companys Negroes, Stoffelsen testified that enslaved labor was instrumental in building
Fort Amsterdam, which was completed in 1635...
in cutting building timber and firewood for the Large
House as well as the guardhouse, splitting palisades,
clearing land, burning lime and helping to bring in the
companys grain in harvest time, together with many
other labors (quoted in Medford, Brown, Heywood,
etal. 2009b:15). The other labors included military
service against Native American attacks, the building
of a road between New Amsterdam and Haarlem, sanitation, and cultivation (Medford, Brown, Heywood,
etal. 2009b:15; Swan 1998a). In 1641, the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam informed the heads of settler
families that he would use the strongest and fleetest
Negroes to fight the Native Americans with hatchets
and the half pike, and Peter Stuyvesant requested in
1658 that the West India Company send clever and
strong Negroes to work and fight Native Americans
(cited in Thornton 1992:150). In general, Dutch treatment of enslaved laborers is considered to have been
more humane than British treatment, but Africans were
still treated differently under the Dutch than European
servants. For instance, Europeans guilty of offenses
in Dutch New Amsterdam were sometimes ordered
as punishment to work alongside Africans, suggesting
that tasks intended for enslaved Africans were more
demeaning or arduous than those typically allocated
to Europeans (Medford, ed. 2009).
When the English took over New Amsterdam in 1664,
the population was about 1,500, a figure that probably
excluded the approximately 300enslaved laborers and
75free Africans in the settlement (Goodfriend 1992:13).
As the economy of New York diversified and developed
and the settlement was transformed from one possessing a distinctly rural character to a large and more
populous urban context, enslaved labor became essential
to many developing industries (Medford, Brown, Carrington etal. 2009c:55). Tasks performed by enslaved
Africans ranged from the demeaning and excessively
arduous to the skilled and lucrative. As the colony grew
into a commercial center under the British, enslaved
laborers made a handsome contribution to skilled trade
work. During the late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, enslaved Africans performed a broad array of
activities as farmhands, mariners, bakers, brewers,
tanners, millers, chimney sweeps, washerwomen, street
vendors, dockworkers, and domestics. They worked
in fisheries, industry, transportation, construction, and

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

162
shipping (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c;
Wilczak etal. 2009:199). They labored in slaughterhouses north of the city, at docks and shipyards along
the Hudson and East Rivers, on farms on the outskirts of
town, and at shops and markets downtown (Figure63).
Enslaved men piloted market boats between the city and
farms and crewed oceangoing vessels, including privateers and legitimate traders (Foote 2004:76; Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c). Working as a sailor
sometimes offered opportunities for freedom and profit
(Foy 2006) (see Chapter7).
Many enslaved African males were employed in
tasks integrated with New York Citys lucrative shipping industry and the provisions trade. As New York
cornered the market on flour milling and bread production, New England colonies sent their grain to New
York City for processing. New York City bolters and
millers sifted and processed grain for bread, biscuits,
beer, and export (Matson 1998). Shipwrights and other
specialists often employed enslaved Africans in the
many tasks involved with shippingbuilding and
repairing ships, making rope (Figure64), and crafting
sails (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c:55,
59). Enslaved Africans also worked on ships as crew,
to the extent that during the eighteenth century, almost
40percent of sailors were of African descent (Foote
2004:201).
Enslaved Africans also contributed as skilled artisans in trades such as barbering, shoemaking, shipbuilding, goldsmithing, and blacksmithing (Wilson
1994). In 1703, households with enslaved laborers
were involved in at least 30different industries, from
blacksmith to barber. At that time, households with
enslaved laborers typically held between one and six
enslaved laborers. Merchants, shipmasters, bolters,
and brewers held the majority of enslaved laborers.
Per household, more enslaved laborers were held by
brewers, painters, bolters, carpenters, bricklayers, and
merchants; other trades held fewer laborers on average
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:Table8;
Rothschild 1990). Predominantly male labor was
associated with the households of bolters, brewers,
blacksmiths, shipwrights, coopers, bakers, cordwainers, and carpenters. Predominantly female labor was
associated with the households of merchants, mariners,
ships masters, gentlemen, sailmakers, and attorneys.
Individual enslaved laborers were quite versatile and
often performed multiple tasks in diverse industries.
The comparatively low cost and high productivity
of enslaved laborers threatened the livelihood of nonenslaved workers. As early as 1628, attempts were
The New York African Burial Ground

made to prohibit Africans from performing skilled

trades when Euroamericans convinced the West India
Company not to train enslaved Africans in skilled trades
(Harris 2003). Three decades later, when skilled tradesmen were lacking, company directors proposed that
Africans be taught skilled trades to make up the labor
deficit. The proposal, however, was rejected by Governor Stuyvesant and the council, who countered that
Africans in New Amsterdam were unfit to learn trades
(Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009b:16). Official
prohibitions give some indication of what people actually did as well as what activities the legally or politically empowered segments of the population perceived
as a threat. In the 1680s and 1690s, for instance, the
Common Council issued a series of ordinances that
prevented Africans from working as cart men or porters.
These tasks offered high pay for unskilled work, mobility, and some degree of self-empowerment (Medford,
Brown, and Carrington 2009:27). If contemporaneous
reports from West Africa are any indication (e.g., Bosman 1721 [1705]), Europeans may not have been able
to compete with Africans in such tasks.
Few documents provide information about how
enslaved laborers were treated in New Amsterdam
and New York, but it might be assumed that during the
British occupation, farm laborers were treated similarly
to those who labored in the tobacco farms of Virginia.
A Dutch traveler visiting there in 1679 observed that
overseers demanded long hours, and when the enslaved
laborers and indentured servants returned from the
fields exhausted, they were forced to grind maize for
their food (cited in Thornton 1992:169). Enslaved
laborers who worked on farms also performed coopering and cordwaining and worked in the timber
industry during the winter months. In New England,
much enslaved labor was based on a task system. Once
tasks were completed, some enslaved laborers were
permitted to work for themselves (Piersen 1996). Some
enslaved laborers were able to hire themselves out,
and others struck deals with their enslavers to split the
profits of enslaved labor (Foy 2006). In other cases,
enslaved laborers pilfered profits or sold their own
food or merchandise on the sly (Harris 2003; Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c). The New York African Burial Ground history reseachers note that such
activities were necessary to materially enhance the
quality of life not only for the men themselves, but for
those to whom they felt responsiblewives, children,
and other relativesdespite physical separation resulting from the patterns of slaveholdings (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009e:76).

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 163

Figure 63. The 1730 Townsend MacCoun map with additional labels showing loci of forcible labor exploitation (adapted from the
Townsend MacCoun Map, courtesy the New York Public Library Map Division) (from Volume 3 [Medford and Brown 2009b:Figure 1]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

164

Figure 64. Ropewalk, a colonial industry where enslaved laborers worked (from Bridenbaugh 1950) (from Volume 3 [Medford, Brown, Carrington, et
al. 2009c:Figure 14]).

Variation in Work among Men, Women,

and Children
Enslaved African males were frequently employed
as porters, dockworkers, and coopers. They performed dangerous and backbreaking tasks, moving
cumbersome and heavy merchandise, often stored
in hogsheads, to and from New York City docks
(Bridenbaugh 1950; Foote 1991). Hogsheadshuge,
standardized casks of liquid or foodheld approximately 236liters (62.3U.S. gallons) of liquid. A
fully packed tobacco hogshead weighed as much as
1,000pounds. In the 1720s and 1730s, tobacco hogsheads would have been common, as New York merchants were heavily involved in converting tobacco
from the southern colonies into value-added products for resale, such as snuff and chewing tobacco
(Matson 1998).
By contrast, female enslaved laborers typically performed domestic chores associated with New York
households. Beginning before dawn, the tasks of
enslaved women included pumping and carrying water,
The New York African Burial Ground

preserving and cooking food, caring for children, and

cleaning house and laundering clothes as well as spinning, weaving, sewing, and brewing alcoholic beverages (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009c:61).
In more-prosperous homes, enslaved African women
prepared food in detached Negro kitchens that served
double duty as their quarters (Figure65). Food was
cooked in large, cast-iron pots that, when filled with
food, were hot, heavy, and difficult to move around
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c:61).
Both enslaved and free women commonly spun
thread, sewed, weaved, and knitted. In addition to
physically arranging threads, cloth making entailed
dying and processing fabrics to make them more
supple and wearable. Fabrics that were too inflexible to wear had to be soaked in soapy warm water
and pounded (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
2009c:62, citing Tryon 1917).
As in other colonies, enslaved children were no
strangers to labor. Children as young as 6 were advertised for their labor and certainly could have been used
at younger ages. Children between the ages of 9 and

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 165

Figure 65. Negro kitchen common in colonial households. African families often resided in or near this area of the household (from Volume 3
[Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c:Figure 15]).

12 were commonly offered for sale, particularly in the

second half of the eighteenth century, when children
constituted a large portion of the New York market
in enslaved Africans. Children performed a variety of
tasks in household and mercantile settings. In some
households, children were trained to attend table,
sew, and perform other domestic services (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c:63). Free African
children also were put to work. Boys and girls of
free African New Yorkers were often apprenticed
to tradesmen and farmers as a way toensure their
upkeep. As apprentices, boys were trained at felt
making, farming, barbering, brewing, block making, and coopering. Girls learned to spin, sew, knit,
and perform many other household tasks (Medford,
Brown, and Carrington 2009:27).

The Musculoskeletal, Arthritic,

and Traumatic Effects of Work
Historical information developed by the researchers indicates that enslaved New York African men,
women, and children were frequently forced into hard,
physical labor. The kinds of tasks performed in urban
settings differed from tasks carried out in rural settings, and the degree to which enslaved African New
Yorkers were forced to work in rural versus urban
contexts varied through time. Different kinds of physical tasks, the frequency of their performance, and the
intensity at which they were performed is sometimes
suggested by skeletal indicators of physical work.
The researchers expected that there would be diverse

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

166
Table 14. Demography of the Sample Used in Stress Marker Analysis
Age in Years
Categories

Males

Females

Unknown Sex

1524

15

12

2534

17

18

3549

40

20

50+

16

13

Adult

10

15

Totals

98

78

11

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Wilczak et al. 2009:Table 63).

expressions of skeletal stress markers among the New

York African Burial Ground individuals owing to
anticipated differences in cultural practices and genetic
susceptibility, as well as variability in labor patterns
(Wilczak etal. 2009:199).
In New Orleans, for instance, urban enslaved populations performed diverse tasks ranging from hard
manual labor to less physically stressful domestic or
skilled tasks. As a result, enslaved individuals may
have experienced a broad range of health effects. In
keeping with the wide range of tasks, many individuals from Owsley etal.s (1987) study in New
Orleans exhibited signs of hard manual labor, but
others showed few signs of acute physical stress.
Wilczak etal. (2009) studied incidence rates of
mechanical stress markers in individuals older than
15 from the New York African Burial Ground sample.
Although enslaved children also performed arduous
and repetitive forced labor, Wilczak etal. (2009) did
not include individuals younger than 15 for a variety
of reasons. These included (1)the confounding effects
of continuous bone remodeling during childhood
and adolescent development, (2)the amount of time
necessary for the development of observable stress
markers, and (3)the fact that physical stress markers
in subadults are not well known.
Of the 391individuals entered into the anthropometric record, 187individuals were selected for
analysis, including 98 males, 78 females, and 11
individuals of undetermined sex (Table14). Sample
sizes for comparisons among ages, sexes, vertebral
regions, and joints or joint complexes varied according to sex, age range, and preservation. To understand
the musculoskeletal effects of work, the researchers
examined New York African Burial Ground individuals for evidences of osteoarthritis and osteophytosis,
The New York African Burial Ground

Schmorls nodes, spondylosis, and musculoskeletal

stress markers.

Osteoarthritis and Osteophytosis

Osteoarthritis, also referred to as osteoarthrosis or
degenerative joint disease (DJD), is one of the most
common forms of joint disease. Osteoarthritis is a
disease of movable joints defined by breakdown
of bone at the articular surface of joints (Goodman
and Martin 2002:41) and an imbalance between the
synthesis and degradation of the articular cartilage,
leading to the classic pathologic changes of wearing
away and destruction of cartilage. Osteoarthritis is
idiopathic, meaning it can arise from a variety of
unknown causes, but can also be caused by joint
injury or from developmental, metabolic, and inflammatory disorders (Buckwalter and Mankin 1997).
Osteoarthritis typically takes years to develop and
eventually may result in eburnation, or the formation
of a hard, shiny bone callus on bone contacts (Goodman and Martin 2002:42) (Figures66 and 67).
A related condition, vertebral osteophytosis, is
a specific form of degeneration that is characterized by lipping (extra bony growths, usually in long
spikes) on the vertebral bodies (Goodman and Martin
2002:42). Vertebral osteophytosis is an age-related
condition. Typically, vertebral osteophytosis begins
to occur in individuals by the age of 30 and is present
to some degree in most individuals by the age of 60
(Steinbock 1976).
Most scholars believe that degeneration is attributed to repetitive impulse loading of joints associated
with repetitive activities. Microfractures appear in
the bones of the joints as a result of activity; in an
attempt to repair these fractures, the bone becomes

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 167

Figure 66. Spinal pathology: (a)severe

osteoarthritis of the vertebral articular processes
in a female aged 5060 years old (Burial40);
(b)severe osteophytosis (left arrows) and
osteoarthritis (right arrow) of a lumbar vertebra
in a male aged 3545 years (Burial63);
(c)vertebral spondylolysis in a female aged
3540 years (Burial107); (d)Schmorls node
depression of a lumbar vertebra in a male aged
3545 years (Burial70); (e)severe osteophytosis
of the cervical vertebrae in a male aged 3545
years (Burial63) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Wilczak
et al. 2009:Figures 107 (a), 108 (b), 113 (c), 112
(d), 111 (e)]).

stiffer and resists stress better but is also less able to

absorb shock, increasing stress on the articular cartilage (Radin etal. 1972). These changes result in the
formation of bony lesions referred to as osteophytes,
which may be the bodys way of adjusting to continued stress. Eventually, extreme pressure may cause
the vertebrae to prolapse. If the disc penetrates into
bones, the cysts or lesions referred to as Schmorls
nodes may develop (Kilgore 1985; Steinbock 1976).
Activities that contribute to osteoarthritis may often
affect multiple joint locations. Weight-bearing joints,
such as those of the lower back, hips, and knees, are
most commonly affected.
Patterns in osteoarthritis can be used to infer activities performed repetitively by affected individuals.
For instance, high frequencies of osteoarthritis in the
elbows and shoulders of females at the prehistoric
Dickson Mounds site were interpreted to have been
the result of frequent and intensive maize grinding
(Martin etal. 1979). In another study of a prehistoric
population in the Canadian Arctic, high frequencies of
thoracic vertebral osteophytosis among females and
high frequencies of lumbar vertebral osteophytosis
among males were interpreted to be related to a sexual
division of labor. High frequencies of osteoarthritis
in the finger joints have been associated with sewing, and high frequencies in the scapula have been
associated with rowing or paddling (Merbs 1983).
Increases in osteoarthritis have also been associated

with agricultural intensification and intensified exploitation of marine resources (Bridges 1991; Walker and
Hollimon 1989; Williamson 2000). As the researchers
point out, however, the association between stress
markers and involvement in a specific task or set of
tasks is rarely clear.

Vertebral Joint Degeneration at the

New York African Burial Ground
Using several different indicators of degenerative
change, Wilczak etal. (2009) studied the occurrence of
osteoarthritis in the synovial joints (joints articulated
to move freely) of New York African Burial Ground
individuals. They scored degenerative changes as
absent(0), mild(1), or moderate to severe(2) and
created a composite measure of osteoarthritis for
each joint using the assigned ordinal values. Spinal
osteophytosi s (spondylosis deformans) of vertebral
body synchondral joints was scored based on marginal
spicule (osteophyte) development on the same scale
of absent, mild, or moderate to severe.
Osteoarthritis in at least one vertebral region was
common for males and females between 15 and
49years of age (Table15). Osteoarthritis along the
vertebral column was observed in 34males and
29females, with the number of observable males
and females varying per vertebral segment (total

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

168

Figure 67. Osteoarthritis of appendicular joints: (a)mild to moderate osteoarthritis in the humeral articular surface
of the elbow in a male aged 3040 (left, anterior view; right, posterior view) (Burial11); (b)osteoarthritis with
marginal lipping in the wrist of a female aged 5060 years (Burial40) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Wilczak et al.
2009:Figures 115 (a) and 114 (b)]).

sample size for vertebral column not provided). No

statistically significant difference between sexes was
discerned. Some bias towards lumbar involvement was
observed, with the highest percentages of osteoarthritis
occurring in the lumbar vertebrae for both males and
females, but this is not uncommon. Osteoarthritis was
seen more often among females in the lumbar vertebrae than males, however. To the researchers, high
levels of osteoarthritis in the lumbar region suggest
participation in labor involving bending and rotation
of the spine or indirect stress to the back through limb
muscles that directly attach to vertebrae (Wilczak
etal. 2009:204).
Vertebral osteophytosis was observed somewhat
less frequently than vertebral osteoarthritis, but was
nonetheless fairly common. Osteophytosis along
The New York African Burial Ground

the vertebral column was observed in 23males and

21females, with the number of observable males and
females varying per vertebral region (Table16). When
examined according to age groups, osteophytosis
and osteoarthritis increased in frequency with age as
would be expected, because both develop as part of
the natural aging process. Individuals between 15.0
and 24.9, however, exhibited unusually high frequencies of moderate to severe degenerative changes,
particularly in the lumbar vertebrae of the lower back.
Within this age group, 45percent of the individuals
were affected. Across all age categories, cervical
osteophytosis was more common than thoracic or
lumbar osteophytosis. Osteophytosis generally affects
the lumbar region first and is half as frequent in the
cervical region. The fact that the cervical region was

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 169
Table 15. Distribution of Moderate to Severe Vertebral Osteoarthritis by Sex
Age In Years

Males
No. Affected

Females
%

No. Affected

Cervical
2549

11 (39)

28.2

7 (23)

30.4

1550+

18 (59)

30.5

10 (47)

21.3

Thoracic
2549

12 (30)

40.0

9 (23)

39.1

1550+

19 (52)

36.5

13 (41)

31.7

Lumbar
2549

17 (40)

42.5

14 (24)

58.3

1550+

26 (63)

41.3

26 (45)

57.8

Note: Numbers in parentheses are sample sizes (n) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Wilczak et al. 2009:Table 64]).

Table 16. Distribution of Moderate to Severe Vertebral Osteophytosis by Sex

Age In Years

Males
No. Affected

Females
%

No. Affected

Cervical
2549

12 (39)

30.8

6 (24)

25.0

1550+

20 (60)

33.3

15 (47)

31.9

Thoracic
2549

6 (32)

18.8

3 (22)

13.6

1550+

13 (52)

25.0

8 (40)

20.0

Lumbar
2549

7 (43)

16.3

3 (23)

13.0

1550+

12 (68)

17.6

11 (43)

25.6

Note: Numbers in parentheses are sample sizes (n) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Wilczak et al. 2009:Table 65].

the most affected by osteophytosis indicates repeated

and severe mechanical strain to the neck for some New
York African Burial Ground individuals. Loading on
the shoulders or head can cause excessive strain to the
neck. Activities that can cause excessive strain to the
neck are diverse and include milking, fruit picking, use
of tumplines for carrying loads, and carrying loads on
the head (Bridges 1994; Levy 1968; Lovell 1994; Olin
etal. 1982; Scher 1978; Wienkler and Wood 1988).
Sixty percent of individuals with cervical osteophytosis also displayed cervical osteoarthritis, indicating
activities that caused compression or bending of the
neck joints. Substantial numbers of individuals with

cervical osteophytosis who showed no signs of cervical osteoarthritis, however, indicate that diverse
conditionsincluding anatomy, genetics, nutritional
stress, disease, workcould have caused cervical joint
degeneration (Wilczak and Kennedy 1998).

Appendicular Joint Degeneration at

the New York African Burial Ground
For the upper limbs, osteoarthritis in the shoulder,
wrist, elbow, or hand was observed for 22females
and 43males, with the number of observable males

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

170
Table 17. Distribution of Moderate to Severe Osteoarthritis in the Upper Limb
Age In Years

Males
No. Affected

Females
%

No. Affected

Shoulder
2549

6 (46)

13.0

4 (31)

12.9

1550+

15 (76)

19.7

12 (55)

21.8

Elbow
2549

16 (49)

32.7

6 (31)

19.4

2550+

29 (82)

35.4

14 (58)

24.1

Wrist
2549

10 (38)

26.3

5 (21)

23.8

1550+

18 (66)

27.3

10 (40)

25.0

Hand
2549
50+

8 (48)

16.7

5 (29)

17.2

19 (80)

23.8

12 (55)

21.8

Note: Numbers in parentheses are sample sizes (n) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Wilczak et al. 2009:Table 70]).

and females varying among joint complexes (total

sample size for upper limbs not provided). More
joints were affected among individual females in
comparison to males. Among females, the highest
incidence of osteoarthritis was observed in the wrists.
Among males, the highest incidence of osteoarthritis
was found in the elbow. In both sexes, the shoulder
was the least affected appendicular joint complex
(Table17).
For the lower limbs, osteoarthritis in the hip,
knee, ankle, or foot was observed for 40females and
58males with the number of observable males and
females varying among joint complexes (total sample
size for upper limbs not provided). As with the upper
limbs, more joints were affected among individual
females in comparison to males. For both males and
females, the ankle was the most frequently affected
lower-limb joint complex (Table18). Osteoarthritis in
the ankle is rare in modern times and in the archaeological record (Rogers 2000).
Across age categories and joint complexes, osteoarthritis was more common in the lower-limb joints
or joint complexes than the upper limbs for both
males and females. Activities that could contribute
to osteoarthritis in the lower limbs include walking
over uneven surfaces, performing activities while
squatting, and climbing stairs and ladders (Wilczak
The New York African Burial Ground

etal. 2009:211). Alternatively, higher incidences of

osteoarthritis in the lower limbs could have resulted
from excessive weight-bearing loads. Six individuals,
most of them over 50years of age, had osteoarthritis
in all eight upper- and lower-limb joints or joint complexes. When examined according to age, the frequencies of moderate to severe osteoarthritis increased with
age. Nonetheless, the incidence of osteoarthritis was
high for young adults between the ages of 15 and 24.9
and pronounced for individuals between the ages of
25 and 34.9years. When combined with information
on osteoarthritis of the vertebral column, the evidence
suggests that New York African Burial Ground individuals experienced different activity loads in the
upper and lower limbs, and a high burden was placed
on the pelvic girdle. The frequencies of osteoarthritis
indicate sexual division of labor, the preponderance of
some tasks such as sewing, and heavy workloads.
The researchers compared the New York African
Burial Ground individuals to the Charleston, South
Carolina, enslaved sample (Rathbun 1987). Wilczak
etal. (2009:220) found differences between males and
females, stating that in both the New York African
Burial Ground and Charleston samples males were
more frequently affected by osteoarthritis of the elbow
and females at the knee. These similarities suggested
to the authors that there may have been broad similari-

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 171
Table 18. Distribution of Moderate to Severe Osteoarthritis in the Lower Limb
Age in Years

Males

Females

No. Affected

No. Affected

Hip
2549

19 (51)

37.3

13 (31)

41.9

1550+

33 (82)

40.2

22 (57)

38.6

Knee
2549

14 (49)

28.6

13 (33)

39.4

2550+

27 (82)

32.9

24 (62)

38.7

Ankle
2549

19 (45)

15 (29)

51.7

1550+

39 (75)

27 (56)

48.2

Foot
2549

15 (45)

33.3

11 (31)

35.5

50+

28 (76)

36.8

20 (56)

35.7

Note: Numbers in parentheses are sample sizes (n) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Wilczak et al. 2009:Table 71]).

ties in workloads between males and females, with

males lifting and carrying more and female stress
at the knee associated with bending and kneeling in
household labor tasks (Wilczak etal. 2009:220).
Rankin-Hill (1997:118119) reported that 76percent of the adults from the Philadelphia First African
Baptist Church cemetery displayed evidence of slight
osteoarthritis. A higher-than-expected percentage of
younger women aged 1830years displayed osteoarthritis, and more than 61 percent of these women
also had osteophytosis. The frequency of osteoarthritis increased with age among men. Most men with
osteoarthritis (82.8percent) also had osteophytosis.
This differed considerably from the Cedar Grove
Baptist Church sample, for which the rate was about
42percent (Rankin-Hill 1997:Table5.12). Vertebral
osteophytosis was found in 52percent of the First
African Baptist Church sample, with men affected
much more frequently than females. This was higher
than the Cedar Grove sample where about 39percent
of individuals had vertebral osteophytosis. The location of affected vertebrae differed by sex, as women
were most affected in the cervical vertebrae, and men
were most affected in the thoracic and lumbar regions
(Rankin-Hill 1997:122).
Location of affected joints differed by sex at the
First African Baptist Church. Men had greater preva-

lence of osteoarthritic changes in the shoulder and

elbow than women, which Rankin-Hill (1997:121)
relates to their occupations as laborers, porters, waiters, seamen, and carters. Females had greater frequencies in the hip, knee, and hand, again relating
to the predominant occupations of washerwoman,
laundress, domestic worker, and seamstress (RankinHill 1997:121).

Schmorls Nodes
Schmorls nodes are shallow, depressed pits occurring on the superior and/or inferior endplate of the
vertebral bodies; these pits result from the pressure
of cartilaginous protrusions of damaged intervertebral
discs (Wilczak etal. 2009:204). Schmorls nodes
typically appear later in life but may occur earlier in
life in conditions of extreme physical stress (Capasso
etal. 1999). According to Rankin-Hill (1997:125),
the frequency of Schmorls nodes can be indicative of strenuous activity. Twenty-two males and 11
females at the New York African Burial Ground were
affected with Schmorls nodes, with the number of
observable males and females varying per vertebral
region (the number of observable males and females
was not provided). In both sexes, most nodes were
found in the lumbar region, but nodes in the cervical

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

172
Table 19. Regional Distribution of Schmorls Nodes
Males

Region

Females

Number

Percent

Number

Percent

Cervical

6 (60)

10.0

1 (47)

2.1

Thoracic

10 (51)

19.6

4 (40)

10.0

Lumbar

14 (67)

20.9

9 (43)

20.9

Note: Numbers in parentheses are sample sizes (n) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Wilczak et al. 2009:Table 67]).

or thoracic region were more common among males

(Table19). For all three vertebral regions, Schmorls
nodes were found most often in individuals between
the ages of 25 and 34. Relatively high frequencies
of Schmorls nodes could reflect the application of
excessive mechanical stress, but genetic factors or
work history could also have played a role.
Among the First African Baptist Church cemetery individuals, Rankin-Hill (1997:125) observed
Schmorls nodes most often on T1T9 and all lumbar
vertebrae. Males had a significantly higher frequency
of occurrence (one-third) than females, about 5 percent of those observed having Schmorls nodes. Most
of the individuals with Schmorls nodes were older
than 40years, with the remainder aged 1540years.
Comparing the Charleston Site 38CH778 sample,
Rankin-Hill (1997:125) observed that the incidence
of Schmorls nodes was higher than at First African
Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and there were substantially more men with the condition (54percent)
than women (24percent).

Spondylolysis
Spondylolysis refers to the unilateral or bilateral
fracture of a vertebral neural arch and subsequent
separation from the vertebral body (Wilczak etal.
2009:206). Spondylolysis results from a combination of genetic factors and mechanical stress and
is typically associated with heavy labor or athletics that involve stress to the lower back (Merbs
1989a, 1996). Four individuals (Burials11, 37, 97,
and 107) had complete, bilateral spondylolysis of
L4 or L5 vertebrae. Burial37 was aged more than
50years; the others were between the ages of 35 and
49. Burial107 was female; the others were male.
All four individuals also had osteoarthritis, three
had osteophytosis, and three had Schmorls nodes.
Three affected individuals (Burials11, 37, and 107)
The New York African Burial Ground

had both osteoarthritis and osteophytosis in multiple

vertebral regions.
A large number of factors contribute to manifestations of stress in the spine, including differences in
genetics, nutritional levels, bone density, anatomy, and
posture (Wilczak etal. 2009:208). Spondylolysis has
been associated with work postures among Alaskan
natives and grain porters in Zambia and Cape Province
(Capasso etal. 1999)

Musculoskeletal Stress Markers

Musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs) are distinct
marks at the site of ligament and tendon attachments
to the periosteum and bone (Wilczak etal. 2009:213).
MSMs can manifest as hypertrophic bone development
indicated by distinct ridges or crests at attachments (Figure68). In more extreme cases, MSMs are expressed as
stress lesions, indicated by nonlytic furrows or pits at
attachments. Wilczak etal. (2009) made observations on
a total of 33attachments, including 3attachments in the
head and neck region, 19attachments in the upper-limb
region, and 11attachments in the lower-limb region.
Attachments were scored as exhibiting mild hypertrophy
(1),moderate to severe hypertrophy (2),mild stress
lesion (3),or moderate to severe stress lesion (4).For
specific attachments with multiple MSMs, the highest score was used for analysis, and only MSMs with
scores above 1 were considered for analysis to ensure
the interpretation of clear cases of MSMs. In addition,
only individuals with 9 or more scorable attachment
sites were considered for analysis.
To compare individuals, Wilczak etal. (2009) calculated percentages of MSMs using the number of
affected attachments as a percentage of the number
of scorable attachments. On average, males had more
MSMs than females, and percentages increased with
age for both sexes. Moderate to severe MSMs occurred
often in males and females, including younger adults

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 173

Figure 68. Hypertrophic bone development: (a)Severe hypertrophy of the ulnar supinator insertions in a male aged 4050years
(Burial369); (b)hypertrophy of the brachialis insertions of the ulnae in a female aged 2535 years (Burial223); (c)hypertrophy
of the gluteus maximus insertions of the femora in a male aged 1718years (Burial174) (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Wilczak et al.
2009:Figures 121 (a), 126 (b), 125 (c)]).

between the ages of 15 and 24.9. Typically, MSM

development requires the accumulated application of
stresses over time, but some MSMs can develop rapidly for heavily stressed attachments (Wilczak 1998).
The occurrence of MSMs among younger adults
indicates to Wilczak etal. (2009:221) that enslaved
laborers, particularly males, may have been tasked
with hard physical labor at a young age.
Males and females had different rank orders of
affected attachments (Wilczak etal. 2009:Table72).
For males, the five most-affected attachments were
linea aspera, deltoid, pectoralis major/latissimus dorsi/
teres major, gluteus maximus, and brachialis. For
females, the five most-affected attachments were
brachialis, linea aspera, supinator, deltoid, and finger
flexors.
Observed patterns in the shoulder suggest heavy
lifting and carrying. Hypertrophy of the brachialis,

which was found to be common among both male

and females at the New York African Burial Ground,
is also associated with carrying heavy loads and has
been reported in masons, bakers, and agricultural
populations (Wilczak 2009:218). The brachialis
is also involved with supination or twisting of the
forearm, an activity that commonly takes place during sewing or weaving. In females, high incidence of
MSMs at the brachialis, supinator, and finger flexors
may indicate a preponderance of sewing and weaving
activities. Supinator MSMs have also been ascribed
to activities that manipulate loads while the elbow
is extended, for tasks including citrus fruit picking,
paddling a boat or canoe, and using heavy tools with
a long reach such as furnace irons (Capasso etal.
1999) (Wilczak etal. 2009:219). Heavy use of the
supinator among females could indicate frequent
manipulation of heavy objects, such as heavy pots

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

174
or water-laden clothing during cooking and washing
activities.
Heavy lifting is implicated by MSMs in the linea
aspera and gluteus maximus attachments. The gluteus
maximus acts as an extensor in powerful movements
such as climbing, stepping on a stool, and raising the
trunk from a flexed posture (Wilczak etal. 2009:219).
MSMs at linea aspera attachments are associated with
strenuous locomotor activities [such as those of]
Canadian fur traders, who jogged up steep portage
trails, and sixteenth-century sailors and horseback riders (Capasso etal. 1999) (Wilczak etal. 2009:219).
The combination of MSMs at linea aspera and gluteus
maximus attachments could have resulted from a
variety of different activities, but overall is consistent
with picking up heavy loads, both by bending at the
hip and lifting up the burden or... when lifting from
a squatting posture (Mack etal. 1995) (Wilczak etal.
2009:219). Comparing their findings to those from
the Catoctin Furnace, Maryland, sample of enslaved
industrial workers, Wilczak etal. (2009:220) found
similar patterns of stressful lifting as inferred from
the frequency of deltoid, pectoral, and teres major
MSMs, as well as shoulder and vertebral breakdown
(see also Kelley and Angel 1983).
Wilczak etal. (2009) also compared their findings
to information from the small New Orleans sample
representing the urban enslaved group interred at St.
Peter Street Cemetery (Owsley etal. 1987). They
found that the upper limb was more affected than
the lower limb among New Orleans individuals, the
reversal of the pattern seen at New York African
Burial Ground. Females had only relatively minor
hypertrophies, suggesting to the researchers that they
were performing less heavy physical labor than males,
perhaps as enslaved domestic laborers (Wilczak etal.
2009:221). As had been observed for urban enslaved
individuals in the New Orleans sample, the New York
African Burial Ground researchers observed wide
variability in the incidence of MSMs and osteoarthritis
among New York African Burial Ground individuals,
which they suggest indicates variability in the severity of labor within the urban enslaved populations and
a social hierarchy (Wilczak etal. 2009:221). They
conclude that both urban sites (New Orleans and New
York African Burial Ground) contrast with the more
consistently high levels of stress documented in the
rural enslaved of South Carolina, who presumably
would have engaged in plantation work and farmwork
with less variability in the types of tasks performed
(Wilczak etal. 2009:221).
The New York African Burial Ground

Family Life
The breakup of families, the imposition of restrictive rules on interaction among enslaved Africans,
the highly skewed ratios of men to women, and the
prohibition of polygamy worked together in New York
tobreak down traditional African families. The fracturing of family life had great consequences to child
health, female fertility, and overall mortality rates.
The negative effects of enslavement on family life
worsened over time. During the period of Dutch rule,
family life may have been less restricted than later,
when the English ruled the colony (see Chapter7).
Many traditional African societies defined their
communities in terms of kinship relations (Bailey
2005). For many African societies, social structure
was based on kinshipeither patrilineal or matrilineal
lineages that traced their kinship back to the legendary past (Argyle 1966; Bohannan and Curtin 1964;
Busia 1954; Chukwukere 1981; Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009e:65; Piersen 1996). Ancestor
veneration was a primary principle of ideology (Adjei
1943; Boateng 1996; Vogel 1993). Lineages acted
as political entities, economic units, and corporate
units with specific rights and privileges. Lineages
were grouped together into clans. Kinship structures
determined rights to specific resources, required clan
members to observe certain food taboos, and arranged
funeral rites (Bailey 2005; Forde 1954; Thornton
1992). Lineage and clan relationships also structured
settlement patterns, with related kin living together in
residential villages (Busia 1954). Compounds were
shared by domestic groups, each consisting of a man,
his wives, and their children. Kinship was one means
of integrating enslaved Africans and other foreigners
into African societies. Law (1991:66) has noted that
the practice of large-scale polygyny implies an unequal
distribution of marriageable men and women; it also
provided a source of status and economic differentiation among the men of African societies. Wives as well
as enslaved laborers were a source of wealth.
Enslaved laborers in African societies enjoyed a
less restrictive life than their counterparts in diasporic
contexts. In many areas, the enslaved were treated as
family members, were accorded similar comforts and
privileges, and could rise to positions of authority and
prominence. Eventually, enslaved individuals and their
children might be absorbed into the household and
granted full rights. Burnside (1997:97) has pointed
out that this was more likely in the case of females,
who were highly desirable for their fertility and skills

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 175
in farming and crafts. The acquisition of enslaved
individuals was one means by which families could be
built, maintained, and extended (Bailey 2005).
The Middle Passage and life in the New World must
have been severely damaging to traditional kinship
relations (Bailey 2005). People of different clans and
lineages were assembled indiscriminately on slavers
and then separated again when they were transferred
to new enslavers in colonial New Amsterdam and New
York, severing ties formed before or during the Middle
Passage. Special bonds forged between survivors of the
same Middle Passage voyage were rarely maintained
because the enslaved were forced to live in disparate
households. In diasporic societies, the mechanisms
of kinship inheritance and the social functions of lineages and clans became dislocated by processes of
enslavement. Burnside (1997:164166) has suggested,
however, that traditional African kinship bonds may
have been reinforced rather than severed by the Middle
Passage, despite Euroamerican suppression. Among
enslaved laborers united by shared experience, newly
formed familial and kinship bonds no doubt served
as a support system. Medford, Brown, Carrington, et
al. (2009e:67) note that even as bondage challenged
African social and cultural structures, enslaved people
continued to rely on those institutions that provided
physical, psychological, and spiritual support. Kinship
networks continued to serve this end. The most common form of affiliation that influenced family formation
was the diasporic nation discussed in Chapter4.
In Dutch New Amsterdam, it was possible for
some enslaved laborers, once freed, to form families
in their own independent households. Africans freed
by the Dutch West India Company lived with their
families on plots of land on the citys outskirts that
were granted to them at the time of their manumission (Goodfriend 1992:115). Under Dutch rule, free
New Amsterdam Africans were also allowed to marry
legally, which included marriages between African
women and European men (Wilson 1994:38). Harris
(2003:21) has estimated that more than 100children
were born to enslaved and free New Amsterdam
African couples under Dutch rule. Atypical ratios
of men to women and spatial variation in gendered
labor regimes, however, complicated the ability
of enslaved laborers to find mates, procreate, or
care for children. For instance, in the farming area
called the Out Ward, which included Harlem and the
Bowery, men far outnumbered women and children
among the African-descended population (Foote
2004:8485).

Most enslaved laborers in Manhattan lived in conditions that were not conducive to family formation.
Men and women of comparable ages typically were
separated in different households and lived under the
same roof as their enslavers. European enslavers often
prevented enslaved laborers living in different households from interacting, even if they were husband and
wife (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009e:7172).
The constant prospect of sale to unknown enslavers disrupted family formation and was traumatizing to those
who did manage to form familial attachments. Some
enslavers recognized the emotional and familial bonds
among their enslaved laborers and attempted to preserve
them (e.g., Foote 2004:151152), but these were few
in comparison to the many enslavers who treated their
servants inhumanely by breaking families apart. When
enslaved families needed to be sold, some enslavers
attempted to preserve the mother-child bond by selling
mothers together with their children. Such acts did not
come without ulterior motives. Foote (2004:152) has
pointed out that these slaveowners understood that the
gift of paternalistic benevolence was a means of imposing an obligation of obedience on their slaves.
Enslavers also attempted to prevent marriage and
procreation. The prospect of being burdened with
the feeding and clothing of the unwanted children of
their enslaved female servants moved enslavers to
choose infertile women. Barrenness was a selling point;
enslaved females were sold if they continued to produce
too many offspring (Foote 2004:75). Enslaved laborers
who managed to find mates were often separated deliberately (Goodfriend 1992:118). Polygamy continued to
be practiced, however, and some Africans refusal to
divorce one or more wives kept them from accepting
Christianity (Goodfriend 1992:122). Pervasive legal
proscriptions against interactions among enslaved
laborers would have inhibited, to some degree, the
ability of enslaved laborers to build family units (see
Chapter7) (Medford, Brown, Carrington 2009:26;
Medford and Brown 2009c:92). It was not until 1809
that Africans were again allowed to marry and own
real estate under the legal sanction of New York State
(Wilson 1994:6465) (see Chapter7).
A few mechanisms to increase family formation and
stability were available to enslaved Africans. Wilson
(1994:2122) has documented the practice of African
enslavement, which provided a means for some free
Africans to aid enslaved kin and non-kin, to gain
freedom, or at least to move from a more restrictive
bondage status to a bondage of lesser restrictions.
Twenty-eight manumissions recorded in the eigh-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

176
teenth and nineteenth centuries involved an African
male paying a monetary sum for the freedom of his
wife or children, and Wilson believes there probably
were more than those recorded. Foote (2004:150151)
argues that the Black Code of 1712 was an antimanumission measure that, because of high costs
now associated with manumission, made it extremely
difficult for free African New Yorkers to purchase the
freedom of their enslaved loved ones. Some nevertheless managed to do so; in 1724, John Fortune had
saved enough money to purchase an enslaved woman
named Marya, whom he later married, and her son,
perhaps his own offspring (Foote 2004:150).
The ugly specters of sexual exploitation and rape
of enslaved women should also be considered. Foote
(2004:153) has noted that rape has much in common
with chattel slavery, in that both involve the violent
seizure of a persons body. She writes, patriarchy and
white supremacy combined to make black females
vulnerable to sexual exploitation at the hands of white
men (Foote 2004:156). Sexual exploitation of African
women and female children often began during the
Middle Passage (Burnside 1997:131132). It was
rampant in the West Indies plantations, where it fostered the spread of venereal disease. Such relationships could be the potential source of the treponemal
infections observed in the New York African Burial
Ground burials (see Chapter5). Burnside (1997:161)
has suggested that some enslaved women who were
forced to submit sexually to their enslavers resorted
to aborting unwanted pregnancies rather than bearing
the children of such unhappy couplings.
Together with high mortality, especially for infants,
the imbalanced sex ratios and the inability to form families affected the survival of enslaved laborers and succeeding generations born into slavery. Conditions for
family formation and procreation may have been even
worse in other regions where slavery was practiced.
Thornton (1992:166167) has pointed out that there
were virtually no children on food-producing estates in
Peru, Venezuela, and Central America; Mexican sugar
estates; and some Virginia plantations because of the
need for specialized, adult-male labor. Consequently,
this resulted in a constant need to import new enslaved
laborers to replace those who died. Marriage and child
raising were more possible in Dutch New Amsterdam
and British New York, but the researchers found that
combined effects of enslavement on fertility and health
likely kept the population at below-replacement values,
and population growth resulted mainly from continuous forcible migration over time.
The New York African Burial Ground

Family Life for the African Burial

Ground Population
As no records were kept of who was buried in the African Burial Ground, the relationships among interred
individuals are difficult to infer. Genetic evidence
could possibly indicate which individuals were closely
related, but genetic testing has to date been conducted
on only a limited number of individuals (Jackson etal.
2009). The burial of jewelry with some individuals
could also suggest family relationships, but the nature
of those relationships or the circumstances under which
exchange occurred are uncertain. As families were often
separated across disparate households, the researchers
suggest that gift giving and visits among family members may have been a key strategy for maintaining
intergenerational attachments (Bianco etal. 2009:328).
Family members may have also exchanged food,
names, stories, spiritual instruction, physical care,
although enslavers may have rarely acknowledged these
kinds of exchanges (Bianco etal. 2009:329). Bianco
etal. (2009:329) conclude that the burial of jewelry
with children and infants at the New York African
Burial Ground and other African Diaspora sites could
indicate the maintenance of intergenerational ties, such
as those between parent and child.
Most individuals were provided a proper individual burial, and many burial locations were discrete
(Perry and Howson 2009). However, some patterning
in burial locations could represent family relationships.
Instances in which two or more burials shared graves
or multiple burials were clustered according to age,
sex, or proximity were identified by the researchers.
The researchers suggest that in many other cases...
individuals were placed deliberately in relation to
each other, although not in the same grave (Perry
and Howson 2009:116). They note that clusters of
graves could represent relationships among individuals. The researchers identified multiple instances in
which infants or young children were buried in close
proximity to adults with whom they could have been
related. Other apparent clusters included clusters of
child burials. These burial clusters could represent the
setting aside of specific locations for child burials at
particular times during the cemeterys history or may
indicate that the deaths of numerous children took place
in a short period of time, as could be expected to occur
during an epidemic (Perry and Howson 2009:119).
Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the locations of specific burials were marked and remembered

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 177
through time. Grave markersincluding rectangular
stone slabs and rows of cobbleswere discovered at
the New York African Burial Ground. The researchers
inferred that the use of grave markers could have been
common and that some grave markers may have been
removed during the historical period once the African
Burial Ground was filled in and developed (Perry and
Howson 2009). In some cases, rows of cobbles may
have delineated plots of related individuals (Perry,
Howson, and Bianco 2009:372). Historical and ethnographic information indicates that amongst individuals
in the African Diaspora, graves were commemorated
with items placed deliberately at the surface of grave
shafts. This practice may have also been performed
at the African Burial Ground, although excavation
techniques prevent full evaluation of this inference
(Perry and Howson 2009). Further, some African
mortuary practices involved graveside funeral rites
performed long after interment of the deceased (Medford, ed. 2009). Therefore, as the locations of burials were likely marked, remembered, and revisited,
many individuals may have been buried according
to family relationships, such as in the same grave or
in close proximity to kin, rather than buried without
consideration of social relationships.
The researchers identified 27instances of possible
shared graves at the New York African Burial Ground.
These were burials interpreted to have shared the same
grave rather than have been in close proximity to one
another (Perry and Howson 2009:Table19). Half of the
shared graves represent one or more infants or children
buried within or adjacent to the grave shaft of an adult.
Often, these were infants or young children who were
buried directly above the burial of an adult woman or
immediately adjacent to the grave shaft of an adult. In
one instance, a woman aged 3545years was buried
with a newborn in a coffin placed within the coffin
of the adult woman (Burials12 and 14). In another
instance, a woman aged 2535years was buried with
a newborn cradled in her right arm (Burials 335 and
356) (Perry and Howson 2009:116). These instances of
shared graves could represent a mother and child who
died together in childbirth. Other instances in which the
deaths of children could have been related to those of
their mother include two young children buried above
a young woman, aged 1721years (Burials72, 83, and
84), and the instance of a newborn and a 612-monthold infant buried directly atop the coffin of a woman
aged 2530years (Burials142, 144, and 149). In other
cases, there appears to have been an interval of time
between interments in shared graves, suggesting in

some cases that a child died some time after the death
of his or her mother or caregiver or that some young
infants and children were buried in the same locations
with older individuals, possibly ancestors, in order to
benefit from their spiritual care and protection.
Ten possible shared graves were of children buried together. In one instance, (Burials126 and 143),
two children were placed in the same coffin. In other
instances, a younger child was buried immediately
above an older child. Cases in which children were
buried together could represent siblings, close kin, or
children who were raised in the same household. Four
possible shared graves consisted of two adults buried
atop one another or side by side. These individuals
could have been related in a variety of ways, including
as marriage partners or close kin.
Future studies, which incorporate spatial analysis,
genetic studies, pathology, artifact associations, and
formation processes could further tease apart possible
family relationships among individuals interred at the
New York African Burial Ground. This information
could lead to the development of hypotheses about
how enslavement, family formation, health status, and
mortality were related at the African Burial Ground.
How closely related were individuals buried in the
same grave or in close proximity? Did related individuals receive similar treatment or share similar life
histories? Does evidence from the New York African
Burial Ground suggest that the death of infants and
children followed the death of close kin who may
have cared for them?

Historical Demography and

Paleodemography
Rankin-Hill etal. (2009) studied the demography of
colonial Africans in New York by combining historical
and paleodemographic evidence on the structure of the
African population of colonial New York. Paleodemography is the study of archaeological populations
based on skeletally determined age and sex (RankinHill etal. 2009:120). More broadly, paleodemography is the study of vital rates, population distribution,
and density in extinct human groups, especially those
for which there are no written records (Buikstra and
Konigsberg 1985:316). Age and sex distributions of
skeletal samples are often used to assess factors such
as mortality, population structure, hazard rates, and
fertility. Common products of paleodemographic pro-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

178
files are estimates of mortality through development
of life-expectancy and survivorship curves.
In reconstructing colonial African demography,
Rankin-Hill etal. (2009:119) had four explicit objectives:
(1)establish population profiles and demographic
trends for the New York African Burial Ground
skeletal sample that integrate these two data sets
[history and paleodemography]; (2)reveal the
New York African population in relation to its
surrounding temporal, political, economic, and
sociocultural landscape; (3)place the skeletal
sample within the biohistorical framework of
the African Diaspora in America; and (4)provide
a conceptual framework for the archaeological
research work.
Further discussion of colonial African demography
in New York was provided by Blakey, Rankin-Hill,
Howson, etal. (2009) in Chapter13 of the skeletal
biology report in this series. Their findings are integrated here.
Of particular interest in the analysis of colonial
African demography in New York are processes of
migration, fertility, mortality, and population structure. Records of colonial Africans in New York are
less comprehensive than those of Euroamericans.
Rankin-Hill etal. (2009:120) list several limitations
in historical documentation pertaining to demographic
reconstructions: (1)limited biographical or socioeconomic detail, (2)variation between sources in age categories and other designations, and (3)undercounting
of Africans due to smuggling and tax evasion. Also,
birth and death records comparable to those made by
Euroamerican churches are virtually nonexistent for
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century people of African
descent. Rankin-Hill etal. (2009) have suggested that
because of these limitations, skeletal data are better for
assessing mortality than historical data. In their reconstructions, the researchers used a sample of 301individuals for which age (for subadults and adults) and
sex (for adults) could be determined from the New
York African Burial Ground. This sample consisted of
102males, 69females, and 130subadult skeletons of
determinable age (Rankin-Hill et al. 2009:120).

Limitations on Demographic
Reconstruction
For some time, paleodemography has suffered from a
crisis in interpretation. Paleodemographers compare
The New York African Burial Ground

skeletal age-at-death distributions to model life distributions from living or simulated populations. In the
1970s, researchers focused on problems and prospects
in the use of model life tables to interpret demographic
variables from skeletal populations (Buikstra 1976;
Moore etal. 1975). The processes that create age-atdeath distributions in skeletal populations, however,
are disputed and are not clearly understood. In fact, by
the following decade, some researchers (e.g., BocquetAppel and Masset 1982) sounded the death knell for
paleodemography. Some scholars have argued that the
use of life tables for mortuary populations can result
in highly inaccurate demographic profiles and the
reconstruction of populations without ethnographic
precedent (e.g., Howell 1982). Other scholars have
criticized age estimation and the effect of errors in
estimation on paleodemographic reconstruction (e.g.,
Bocquet-Appel and Masset 1982).
In the 1980s, the problem of age assessment was
highlighted as a major problem in paleodemography
(Bocquet-Appel and Masset 1982). Age assessment
continues to be a problem today, as some researchers
argue that skeletal ages are systematically underestimated. This is particularly the case with infants,
an age group that is universally regarded as underrepresented owing to various factors, not the least
of which is preservation (Ubelaker 1978). Some
scholars exclude infants from analysis for this reason
(Dumond 1990; Sattenspiel and Harpending 1983).
Another problem that surfaced in the 1980s was that,
in certain circumstances, age-at-death distributions
can register fertility more than mortality (Johansson
and Horowitz 1986; Sattenspiel and Harpending
1983). Common sense suggests that age-at-death
distributions are a reflection of mortality, but some
researchers argue that common sense is wrong. Recent
studies continue to forward the argument that variation in fertility substantially influences age-at-death
distributions (McCaa 2002).
A number of prominent researchers (Buikstra and
Konigsberg 1985; Greene etal. 1986; Van Gerven and
Armelagos 1983) refuted many of the objections raised
by Bocquet-Appel and Masset (1982). They noted,
however, the need to refine methods for estimating
age in older adults, to standardize aging techniques
across observers, to use statistical techniques appropriate for population comparisons, and to evaluate
paleodemographic results against biologically reasonable demographic patterns. They concluded that
despite the need for advances in methods, the field of
paleodemography has great promise.

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 179
In the 1990s, Wood etal. (1992) introduced their
concept of the osteological paradox arguing that
three conceptual problems complicate or confuse
paleodemographic interpretation: (1)demographic
nonstationarity, (2)selective mortality, and (3)hidden
heterogeneity. Demographic nonstationarity refers
to the problem that most paleodemographic studies
conveniently assume a stationary state of closure to
migration, constant age-specific fertility and mortality, zero growth rate, and an equilibrium age, when,
in fact, most populations are not stationary (Wood
etal. 1992:344). In a changing population, fertility
has major effects on age-at-death distributions, and
mortality has only minor effects. Selective mortality
refers to the problem that skeletal samples corresponding to a particular age are not representative of the
original population at risk of death for that particular
age. They are only the individuals who succumbed
to age-specific risk. Individuals who did not succumb to age-specific risk are encountered skeletally
as older individuals corresponding to a different age
group. For instance, it might be inferred from skeletal samples that many 20-year-olds had periosteal
lesions when, in fact, it may have been mainly those
who died who had periosteal lesions. The concept
of hidden heterogeneity in risks hinges on the fact
that in a given population, different individuals have
different susceptibilities to disease and death. When
the differential exposure of individuals to health risks
is unknown, as is often the case for archaeological
examples, paleodemographers have no direct means
of linking aggregate age-specific mortality risks to
individual risks of death (Wood etal. 1992).
Other problems in paleodemographic reconstruction are the complications introduced by archaeological
sampling and formation processes of the archaeological record, including differential preservation. This
is particularly problematic for paleodemography,
because mortuary practices are almost universally
influenced by the deceaseds identity, and it cannot
be reasonably assumed therefore that individuals
were buried randomly in cemeteries. Nonetheless,
paleodemographic assessment can be a valuable tool
for understanding past populations, particularly when
evidence from historical documents can be used to
cross-check or supplement interpretations of paleodemographic trends.
In the case of the New York African Burial Ground,
the researchers used historical data to demonstrate that
importation, or in-migration, of enslaved laborers was
a constant factor that affected the African population

of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New York

City. Moreover, importers of enslaved Africans tended
to focus on particular age and sex categories, resulting in biased input of enslaved laborers from external
populations. In addition, as has been discussed, the
constraints placed on enslaved laborers made it difficult or impossible to form normal family relationships,
affecting childbearing rates as well as the ability of
enslaved women to raise their children.

New York African Burial Ground

Paleodemography
The researchers examined mortality among adults
and subadults, historical demography, age, and sex
structure of the sample and compared the New York
African Burial Ground to other samples of enslaved
and free people of African or European descent. Their
results are discussed below.

Mortality and Fertility

The age-at-death distribution for New York African
Burial Ground individuals is bimodal, indicating that
in comparison to older subadults and young adults,
proportionally higher numbers of infants, young children, and older adults are represented in the death
assemblage (Figure69). The bimodality of the distribution is made more pronounced because, according to standard practice (e.g., Storey 1985), subadult
percentages are calculated according to 1-year age
intervals, whereas adults were represented by 5-year
age intervals. When individuals of all ages are grouped
according to 5-year intervals, it remains clear that
infants and children form a high percentage of the
assemblage. About one-third of all individuals died
before the age of 5, and of these, more than half died
before reaching 1year of age.
Considering the subadults only, mortality was highest
between the age of birth and 6 months; 22.3percent of
individuals less than 15years old died before reaching
the age of 6months. Another 16.9percent died before
the age of 1year. Together, more than half of all children
in the sample died before reaching the age of 2. Percentages declined with increasing age, with the exception
of a bump in individuals who died between the ages
of 4 and 5 (n=13, or 10percent). Perhaps this bump
represents factors leading up to the sale of young children, which Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Howson etal. (2009)
posited to have occurred often by the age of 6.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

180

Figure 69. Mortality among the New York African Burial Ground population (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Blakey, Mack, Shujaa, et al.
2009:Figure 26]).

When separated by time, a higher percentage of

individuals in the late interval (Late-Middle to Late
Groups) died in their first year compared to the early
interval (Early to Middle Groups) (Table20; see also
AppendixA). Theoretically, this could represent an
increase in fertility over the course of the eighteenth
century, but sample size and other demographic issues
complicate interpretation. Rankin-Hill etal. (2009)
have argued that because African-affiliated population growth in New York City was low and gradual
throughout the eighteenth century, high fertility may
not be indicated by high proportions of infants and
young children. Also, large numbers of children were
imported later in the century. This could be reflected in
an apparent increase through time in child mortality.
Historical records compiled by the researchers
indicate that, over the course of the eighteenth century, the New York African-affiliated population
increased 8.4-fold (Table21). At the same time, the
European-affiliated population grew by a factor of
12.2. If population growth is modeled as exponential,
the African-affiliated population grew at an intrinsic
The New York African Burial Ground

growth rate of 2.11percent between 1698 and 1771

(Africans=733.02.58e0.0211*year, r2=0.9688). Between
1698 and 1771, population grew from approximately
700African-affiliated individuals to 2,278Africanaffiliated individuals. The recorded African-affiliated
population appears to have declined between 1771
and 1786. This may be largely because of disruptions
during the Revolutionary War and to the emigration
of as many as 3,000Loyalist blacks from New York
after the Revolutionary War (Hodges 1999; White
1991; see Chapter 3). Between 1786 and 1800,
population grew at an annual rate of 7.15percent,
3.4times faster than it had between 1698 and 1771
(African-affiliated=2040.1e0.0715*year, r2=0.9900).
During both periods, population growth was largely
the product of in-migration rather than fertility.
Some evidence suggests that the New York African
population reproduced at below-replacement levels
(Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Howson etal. 2009). If so,
patterns in eighteenth-century population growth
were purely the result of population movement rather
than reproduction.

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 181
Table 20. New York African Burial Ground Subadult Mortality
Age Category

Number

Percent of Subadults

Percent of Total

06 months

29

22.31

9.6

712 months

22

16.92

7.3

1224 months

21

16.10

7.0

23

4.60

2.0

34

5.30

2.3

45

13

10.00

4.3

56

2.30

1.0

67

2.30

1.0

78

3.80

1.7

89

2.30

1.0

910

3.80

1.7

1011

3.10

1.3

1112

0.00

0.0

1213

3.10

1.3

1314

2.30

1.0

1415

1.50

0.7

130

100.00

43.2

Total

Note: Age category is in years unless otherwise noted (from Volume 1, Part 1 [RankinHill et al. 2009:Table 16]).

Although New York Citys European population was larger throughout the eighteenth century,
European and African populations grew at similar
rates. Records compiled by the researchers indicate that between 1698 and 1771, the European
population grew at a rate of 2.09percent, almost
exactly the same rate as African-affiliated individuals
(European-affiliated individuals=3564.9e0.0209*year,
r2=0.9647). During this interval, the Europeanaffiliated population grew from 4,237 in 1698 to
18,726 in 1771. Unlike the African-affiliated population, the European-affiliated population of New
York City did not decline between 1771 and 1786,
but it did undergo substantial demographic shifts
associated with the Revolutionary War (Hodges
1999; White 1991). Between 1786 and 1800, the
European-affiliated population in New York grew at
a rate that was similar to but lower than the Africanaffiliated population growth rate. During this time,
the European-affiliated population grew from 21,507
to 51,796, an intrinsic growth rate of 6.24percent
(European-affiliated individuals=20364e0.0624*year,

r2=0.9995). Oddly, similar growth rates of European- and African-affiliated populations during the
eighteenth century raise the possibility that the influences of fertility and migration on population growth
could have been similar for both populations. In
other words, despite obvious differences in living
conditions and socioeconomic status, similar demographic forces of migration may have driven African- and European-affiliated population growth.
In the New York African Burial Ground sample,
adult males and females exhibited different mortality
profiles (Table22). Either adult females tended to
die younger, or younger females were more numerous than younger males. The largest percentage of
adult males died between the ages of 40 and 50. By
contrast, the largest percentage of adult females died
between the ages of 30 and 35. By the fourth decade
of life, nearly two-thirds of the adult females had
died, whereas less than half of the males had died.
Taking the osteological paradox discussed above
and historical information into account, Rankin-Hill
etal. (2009) offer five scenarios to explain age-at-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

182
Table 21. Population of New York County, 16981800
Year

Total

Black

White

Percent Black

4,937

700

4,237

14.2

1703

4,391

799

3,592

18.2

1712

5,861

975

4,886

16.6

1723

7,248

1,362

5,886

18.8

1731

8,622

1,577

7,045

18.3

1737

10,664

1,719

8,945

16.1

1746

11,717

2,444

9,273

20.9

1749

13,294

2,368

10,926

17.8

1756

13,046

2,278

10,768

17.5

1771

21,863

3,137

18,726

14.3

1786

23,614

2,107

1698
a

21,507

8.9

1790

31,225

3,092

28,133

9.9

1800

57,663

5,867c

51,796

10.2

Note: From Foote (1991:78) and White (1991:26), except 1703. Both Foote and White have corrected the
raw figures. See also Kruger (1985:131), though there are some discrepancies in the percentages for 1786,
1790, and 1800 (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Rankin-Hill et al. 2009:Table 17]).
a
From census of households in New York City (see below). These figures differ from those given in the
1703 census of the colony of New York, which listed only 630 blacks.
b
Includes 1,036 free and 2,056 enslaved blacks.
c
Includes 3,333 free and 2,534 enslaved blacks.

Table 22. New York African Burial Ground Adult Mortality

Male
Age
Group

Number

1519

6.9

2024

10

2529

Female
Number

Percent
Female

Percent
Total
Population

Number

Percent
Adult

Percent
Total
Population

2.3

11.6

2.7

15

8.8

5.0

9.8

3.3

7.2

1.7

15

8.8

5.0

6.9

2.3

5.8

1.3

11

6.4

3.7

3034

10

9.8

3.3

17

24.6

5.6

27

15.8

9.0

3539

12

11.8

4.0

13.0

3.1

21

12.3

7.0

4044

18

17.6

6.0

7.2

1.7

23

13.5

7.4

4549

17

16.7

5.6

11.6

2.7

25

14.6

8.3

5054

15

14.7

5.0

7.2

1.7

20

11.6

6.6

5.9

2.0

11.6

2.7

14

8.2

4.7

102

100.0

33.9

69

100.0

22.9

171

100.0

56.7

55+
Total

Percent
Male

Percent
Total
Population

Adults

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Rankin-Hill et al. 2009:Table 15).

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 183
death distributions in the New York African Burial
Ground sample:
1. Variation in mortality reflects the age-and-sexstructure of imported enslaved laborers.
2. Elevated percentages for some age groups indicate
recent arrivals who did not survive exposure to New
York living conditions.
3. Young adults were biologically compromised and
at greater risk of early deaths.
4. These distributions could have been affected by
sample bias.
5. The results could have been affected by a combination of multiple factors.

The researchers found that there was demand in

New Amsterdam and New York City for both male
and female enslaved laborers for different kinds of
work. In contrast to other areas of the Americas where
men were more dominant, there appears to have been
substantial demand for women and children to work
as enslaved household domestic servants in New
York. According to historical records, in only 3 of
10instances during the eighteenth century did the
sex ratio of African-affiliated individuals exceed 100
(Figure70; Table23). Only in 1746 was the sex ratio
substantially higher than 100 (126.7). The sex ratio
did fluctuate through time. It decreased from 1703 to

Sex Ratios
One way to assess population stability is through the
interpretation of adult sex ratios. Sex ratios are calculated as the proportion of males to females multiplied
by 100. A sex ratio near 100 means that the numbers
of males and females are in roughly equal proportions
and can be interpreted to mean a favorable availability
of marital partners for the establishment of families
(Rankin-Hill etal. 2009:125). A sex ratio higher than
100 means a preponderance of males, and a sex ratio
lower than 100 means a preponderance of females.
Historical patterns of voluntary migration or frontier expansion often involve early waves of younger
adult males followed by women and children who
arrive later in the settlement process. Hence, the sex
ratios of young colonial or frontier settlements are
often quite high (Goodfriend 1992:139). The trade in
enslaved Africans as a whole also favored exportation
of males from Africa, resulting in high overall sex
ratios during much of the slave-trade era. Sex ratios
of enslaved laborers exported from Africa sometimes approached 200, but the sex ratios of Europeans were even higher (Eltis 2000, 2001). Europeans
were willing to pay more for adult males that could
be used in plantation labor gangs. Africans valued
women for their agricultural labors and skills in craft
work. African women were often reserved for African
labor markets, whereas African men were more often
dedicated to the export market. It seems likely that
demographics were skewed for all New York City
residents, Africans and Europeans alike. Sex ratios
and the ratio of adults to children changed dramatically over time and from place to place, however, as
is discussed in Chapter4.

Figure 70. African adult sex and child sex ratio in eighteenth-century
New York City (developed from information in Volume 1, Part 1
[Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Goodman, et al. 2009:Figure 142 and Tables 97
and 98]).

1723 and then increased steadily from 1723 to 1746.

After 1746, the sex ratio decreased to below 100 and
continued to decrease for the remainder of the century.
Child sex ratios followed similar trends. Child sex
ratios fell from a male-dominated ratio in 1703 to a
female-dominated ratio in 1723. Child ratios closely
mirrored adult sex ratios between 1723 and 1737 but
plummeted in 1746, when a huge relative increase in
the population of African-descended female children
occurred. After 1746, child sex ratios rose to more
equitable levels (Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Howson etal.
2009; Medford, ed. 2009).
By contrast, the adult sex ratio derived from New
York African Burial Ground skeletal remains is much
higher than the ratio obtained from historical records.
The overall sex ratio obtained from a total of 171sexed
adults is 146 and is only marginally different when
ambiguously sexed individuals are removed. Through
time, the skeletal sex ratio changed dynamically. For
individuals assigned to the Early and Middle Groups,
dating before ca. 1760, sex ratios were between 96

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

184
Table 23. African Population by Age and Sex, Eighteenth-Century Censuses
Adults

Children

Male

Female

Male

Female

Age
Cut-Off

1703

298

276

124

101

16

negroes

1712

321

320

155

179

16

slaves

1723

408

476

220

258

not given

negroes and
other slaves

1731

599

607

186

185

10

blacks

1737

674

609

229

207

10

black

1746

721

569

419

735

16

black

black adult males

includes 76 males
over 60

1749

651

701

460

556

16

black

black adult males

includes 41 males
over 60

1756

672

695

468

443

16

black

black adult males

includes 68 males
over 60

1771

932

1085

568

552

16

black

black adult males

includes 42 males
over 60

1786

896

1207

Year

Label in
Census

Notes

presumed 16

slaves,
negroes

Note: From United States Bureau of the Census (1909), checked against Brodhead (18561887). Some discrepancies in the
numbers appearing in Kruger (1985) and Foote (1991) have been corrected (from Volume 1, Part 1 [Rankin-Hill et al.
2009:Table 18]).

and 128 (depending on whether ambiguously sexed

individuals were included). The skeletal sex ratio was
near 128 individuals assigned to the Early Group and
decreased for those assigned to the Middle Group to
near 100. Sample size probably played a role, because
the early group of sexed adults assigned an age consisted of only 15individuals. After 1760, skeletal sex
ratios were much higher. For individuals assigned to
the Late-Middle Group, the sex ratio skyrocketed to
200 or 230, depending on whether ambiguously sexed
individuals were included. For individuals assigned
to the Late Group, dating after 1776, the sex ratio
decreased to near 146.
Interpreting skeletal sex ratios is especially complicated by the fact that, among other things, it registers
the sex ratio of adults that died and does not factor in
the living. One potential interpretation of the disparity between skeletal and historical sex ratios is that
men were dying at higher rates than women. This
The New York African Burial Ground

explanation is plausible given the range of dangerous activities performed by men in New York City.
Men may have been exposed to greater hazard rates
that increased their mortality rates. Another potential explanation is that men were more likely to be
buried in the portion of the African Burial Ground
that was excavated. Future GIS analysis planned
by the researchers may help to resolve this possibility. Another possible explanation is that because the
high skeletal sex ratios occurred in the latter half of
the eighteenth century, military activities associated
with the Revolutionary War or hazards associated
with noxious industries around the Collect Pond may
have been responsible for the comparatively large
number of male burials after 1760. Perry, Howson,
and Holl (2009d) note that aspects of burials for many
of the Late Group males buried without coffins, for
instance, could be attributed to conditions related to
the Revolutionary War.

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 185

Child-to-Female Ratio
Another potential measure of fertility is the child-tofemale ratio. The larger the ratio, the more children
for every female. In a stable population, high child-tofemale ratios signal greater fertility. New York was not
a closed system, however, and enslaved laborers were
frequently imported. Hence, changes in the child-tofemale ratio are difficult to interpret without detailed
information on the age and sex of imported enslaved
laborers. Nonetheless, the child-to-female ratio derived
from historical records was at or below a value of 1
prior to the early 1740s (Figure71; see Table23).
During the 1740s, the child-to-female ratio shot up to
2, but this appears to be linked to the importation of
large numbers of enslaved female children. The childto-female ratio remained high in the 1750s but returned

Figure 71. African child-woman ratio in eighteenth-century New

York City (developed from information in Volume 1, Part 1 [Blakey,
Rankin-Hill, Goodman, et al. 2009:Figure 143 and Table 97]).

to near 1 during the 1770s. The child-to-female ratio

could indicate below-replacement levels of fertility
(Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Howson, etal. 2009).
Ratios calculated using skeletal data present a
somewhat different picture than those calculated from
historical data. New York African Burial Ground skeletal child-to-female ratios were higher in general than
historical child-to-female ratios. Overall, the skeletal
child-to-female ratio was 1.9 or 2.3, depending on
whether subadults that could not be assigned ages were
included in the calculation. This could suggest higher
levels of fertility than indicated by historical records,
the unrecorded importation of large numbers of children (perhaps in order to evade taxes), or especially
high hazard rates for children. Skeletal child-to-female
ratios peaked during the middle period, when historical
child-to-female ratios also peaked, suggesting that the

surge in numbers of enslaved female children during

the 1740s was reflected by the skeletal sample. Because
one would expect young children and infants to be
underrepresented to a greater degree than female adults,
it seems that elevated child-to-female ratios during all
periods indicates greater numbers of children within
the population than are suggested by historical records,
elevated mortality for children, or both factors.

Comparison with Trinity Church Records

Rankin-Hill etal. (2009) compared the adult age-atdeath distribution for the New York African Burial
Ground sample to historical records from Trinity
Church as a proxy for European mortality in eighteenth-century New York. The two profiles appear
to be substantially different (Figure 72). For most
age groups below the age of 55, male Trinity Church
burials occurred at lower rates than New York African
Burial Ground burials. Male Trinity Church burials
occurred at higher rates for only two age groups:
2529years and greater than 55years. Rankin-Hill
etal. (2009:127) suggest that the bump in European
male deaths between the ages of 25 and 30 could
represent the in-migration of young men, who would
have constituted a larger segment of the population,
would have been subjected more frequently to interpersonal violence, and proportionally would have
died in greater numbers. Almost one-third of Trinity
Church adults lived past the age of 55, however, suggesting that Europeans were much more likely than
Africans to reach old age. By contrast, only around
6 percent of New York African Burial Ground males
lived past the age of 55. Between the ages of 20 and
29 and over 55, adult Trinity Church female burials occurred relatively more frequently than female
burials at the New York African Burial Ground. New
York African Burial Ground females were more likely
than Trinity Church females to die between the ages
of 30 and 34.
Rankin-Hill etal. (2009) also compared New York
African Burial Ground and Trinity subadult age-atdeath distributions (Table24). They note that young
children typically are underrepresented in both historical records and archaeological cemetery excavations.
The death of young children and infants is less often
recorded in historical documents, and young children
and infants are less likely than older individuals to
be well preserved. Burials of infants and young children less than 5years old were proportionally more
numerous in the Trinity Church records than New

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

186

Figure 72. Adult mortality for New York African Burial Ground and Trinity Church (from Volume 1, Part 1 [RankinHill et al. 2009: Figure 52]).

Table 24. NYABG and Trinity Church Subadult Mortality

Age

NYABG

Percent Subadults

Trinity

Percent Subadults

05

98

75.4

119

85.0

59

19

14.6

15

10.7

1014

13

10.0

4.3

Total

130

100.0

140

100.0

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Rankin-Hill et al. 2009:Table 20).

York African Burial Ground burials. Rankin-Hill etal.

(2009) imply that the difference could simply derive
from the fact that young children and infants are more
underrepresented in archaeological samples when
compared to historical records. The overall mortality regimes for both groups were almost identical
in pattern with high early-childhood mortality and a
dramatic decline for ages 59 and 1014 (RankinHill etal. 2009:128).

The New York African Burial Ground

Mean Age at Death

To compare mortality between sites, Rankin-Hill
etal. (2009:Table22) compared the mean age at
death for males and females from the New York
African Burial Ground, the Philadelphia First African Baptist Church, the Cedar Grove Baptist Church
cemetery, Site 38CH778 in Charleston, the Catoctin
Furnace cemetery, the St. Peter Street Cemetery

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 187
in New Orleans, and the Newton Plantation burials in Barbados. For the New York African Burial
Ground, the mean age at death was 38.0 for males
and 35.9 for females. Along with females from
Catoctin Furnace and St. Peter Street Cemetery,
New York African Burial Ground females were
among the youngest to die. Males died youngest
at 38CH778, but New York African Burial Ground
males also died at a comparatively young age. On
average, New York African Burial Ground adults
died at younger ages (36.9) than most compared
samples. Charleston, South Carolina, adults died at
the youngest ages. At the New York African Burial
Ground, the overall mean age at death for 301 aged
adults and subadults was 22.3. The mean age at death
for New York African Burial Ground subadults was
3.32, as subadult mortality is skewed towards the
younger ages.
Interestingly, there is some apparent change
through time at the New York African Burial Ground
in mean age at death. Between the early and late-middle periods (preRevolutionary War), the adult-male
mean age at death remained fairly steady, whereas the
adult-female mean age at death steadily increased.
The subadult mean age at death declined during the
preRevolutionary War era. During the late period,
or after 1776, adult-male and adult-female mean
ages at death were roughly equivalent, and subadult
mean age at death increased. Adult-male mean age
at death hovered around 39 for the Early, Middle,
and Late-Middle Groups but declined to 37 for the
Late Group. By contrast, female mean age at death
climbed from 33 during the early period to 42 during
the late-middle period. During the late period, female
age at death dropped to 37. These temporal changes
in mean age at death may reflect basic demographic
changes taking place over time. During the pre
Revolutionary War era, women died at progressively
older ages over time, and subadults died at progressively younger ages over time, but men were little
affected. After 1776, adult male and adult female
mean ages at death dropped, and subadult mean ages
at death increased, trends that could reflect some of
the more dramatic changes that took place during
orafter the Revolutionary War. The dramatic changes
in mean age at death after the Revolutionary War
could indicate high hazard rates associated with the
war, the influx of large numbers of relatively young
fugitives into New York City, or both processes (see
Chapter7).

Survivorship and Life Expectancy

Rankin-Hill etal. (2009) compared New York African
Burial Ground survivorship and life expectancy to survivorship and life expectancy for First African Baptist
Church, Cedar Grove, and model populations from
two of Weisss (1973:175, 118) model life tables, MT
30.060.0 and MT 15.045.0 (Figures73 and 74) Rose
and Santeford (1985b) reported that MT 30.060.0
and MT 15.045.0 were the most comparable to the
Cedar Grove mortality experience. MT 30.060.0
refers to a model table with adult mortality level of
30.0 and a juvenile level of 60.0. Rankin-Hill etal.
(2009) acknowledge the many problems associated
with interpreting life tables, including problems with
aging skeletons and the basic assumption of model
life tables: (1)population stability, (2)nonselective
mortality, and (3)homogeneity in risks (Wood etal.
1992). Most prehistoric populations violate one or
more of the assumptions of life tables, and RankinHill etal. (2009) observe that none of the assumptions is met by the New York African Burial Ground.
They show that the population of New York Africans
changed dynamically over time and was continuously
increased through forcible in-migration. Mortality was
certainly selective, but there is no reliable historical
data on the health status of living individuals for
different age groups. There also likely was considerable heterogeneity in risks, given heterogeneity in
the population and in life experiences. Appreciating
these problems, the researchers nevertheless believe
it is instructive to examine differences between life
tables, particularly in light of historical information
on the enslaved African population in New York.
Interestingly, survivorship was higher for the New
York African Burial Ground sample for all ages below
55. Infant mortality also had the least impact on survivorship for the New York African Burial Ground
sample. Cedar Grove had the lowest survivorship for
all age groups, with more than 50percent of individuals
dying as subadults. The apparently elevated survivorship of the New York African Burial Ground is curious,
given the fact that the First African Baptist Church
was by some accounts a relatively healthy population
overall (Steckel and Rose 2002). The researchers caution that the elevated survivorship in the New York
African Burial Ground sample, however, could have
resulted from continuous in-migration of African adults
imported at older ages. In the aggregate, this would
give the appearance that adults survived more often

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

188

Figure 73. Comparison of survivorship at the New York African Burial Ground to other samples (from Volume 1, Part 1
[Rankin-Hill et al. 2009: Figure 55]).

Figure 74. Comparison of life expectancy at the New York African Burial Ground to other samples (from Volume 1,
Part 1 [Rankin-Hill et al. 2009: Figure 56]).

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 189
Table 25. New York African Burial Ground Female Life Table
No. of
Deaths
(Dx)

% of
Deaths
(dx)

1519

11.59

100.00

0.1159

471.014

2,221.014

22.21

2024

7.25

88.41

0.0820

423.913

1,750.000

19.80

2529

5.80

81.16

0.0714

391.304

1,326.087

16.34

3034

17

24.64

75.36

0.3269

315.217

934.783

12.40

3539

13.04

50.72

0.2571

221.014

619.565

12.21

4044

7.25

37.68

0.1923

170.290

398.551

10.58

4549

11.59

30.43

0.3810

123.188

228.261

7.50

5054

7.25

18.84

0.3846

76.087

105.072

5.58

55+

11.59

11.59

1.0000

28.986

28.986

2.50

Total

69

Females Age Interval (In Years) (x)

Survivors Probability Total Years Lived Total Years Lived

Life
Entering of Death Between X and X+5 After Lifetime
Expectancy
(lx)
(qx)
(Lx)
(Tx)
(e0x)

Crude Mortality Rate: 45.02

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Rankin-Hill et al. 2009:Table 26).

Table 26. New York African Burial Ground Male Life Table
Males Age
Interval
(In Years) (x)

No. of
Deaths
(Dx)

% of
Deaths
(dx)

1519

6.86

100.00

0.0686

482.843

2,441.176

24.41

2024

10

9.80

93.14

0.1053

441.176

1,958.333

21.03

2529

6.86

83.33

0.0824

399.510

1,517.157

18.21

3034

10

9.80

76.47

0.1282

357.843

1,117.647

14.62

3539

12

11.76

66.67

0.1765

303.922

759.804

11.40

4044

18

17.65

54.90

0.3214

230.392

455.882

8.30

4549

17

16.67

37.25

0.4474

144.608

225.490

6.05

5054

15

14.71

20.59

0.7143

66.176

80.882

3.93

5.88

5.88

1.0000

14.706

14.706

2.50

55+
Total

Survivors Probability Total Years Lived Total Years Lived

Entering
of Death Between X and X+5 After Lifetime
(lx)
(qx)
(Lx)
(Tx)

102

Life
Expectancy
(e0x)

Crude Mortality Rate: 40.96

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Rankin-Hill et al. 2009:Table 25).

in New York into later adulthood, when instead, they

were more often forcibly imported as adults.
In comparison to survivorship curves, life-expectancy trends suggest different trends in mortality
(Tables 2527). The Cedar Grove population had
lower life expectancy than the other samples for most
ages, but individuals surviving to late adulthood,
past the age of 45, maintained life expectancies on

par or higher than the other populations. The Weiss

MT 30.060.0 model population had the highest life
expectancy. For the first 5years of life, First African
Baptist Church and Weiss life expectancies were
very similar. The First African Baptist Church trend,
however, departed from the Weiss model at around
age 10, and at that point closely followed the New
York African Burial Ground trend. The New York

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

190
Table 27. New York African Burial Ground Life Table
Age Interval
(x)

No. of
Survivors
% of Deaths
Deaths
Entering
(dx)
(Dx)
(lx)

Probability
Total Years Lived
Total Years Lived
Life
of Death Between X and X + 5
After Lifetime
Expectancy
(qx)
(Lx)
(Tx)
(e0x)

05 months

29

9.63

100.00

0.0963

9.518

2420.316

24.20

612 months

22

7.31

90.37

0.0809

8.671

2410.797

26.68

12

21

6.98

83.06

0.0840

90.664

2402.126

28.92

34

26

8.64

76.08

0.1135

358.804

2311.462

30.38

59

19

6.31

67.44

0.0936

321.429

1952.658

28.95

1014

13

4.32

61.13

0.0707

294.850

1631.229

26.68

1519

15

4.98

56.81

0.0877

271.595

1336.379

23.52

2024

15

4.98

51.83

0.0962

246.678

1064.784

20.54

2529

11

3.65

46.84

0.0780

225.083

818.106

17.46

3034

27

8.97

43.19

0.2077

193.522

593.023

13.73

3539

21

6.98

34.22

0.2039

153.654

399.502

11.67

4044

23

7.64

27.24

0.2805

117.110

245.847

9.02

4549

25

8.31

19.60

0.4237

77.243

128.738

6.57

5054

20

6.64

11.30

0.5882

39.867

51.495

4.56

55+

14

4.65

4.65

1.0000

11.628

11.628

2.50

Total

301

Crude Mortality Rate: 41.32

Note: From Volume 1, Part 1 (Rankin-Hill et al. 2009:Table 24).

a
In years unless otherwise indicated.

African Burial Ground trend is somewhat anomalous,

because the peak life expectancy (around 30years)
was reached at the age of 10, whereas the peak life
expectancy for the other samples occurred by the age
of 5. Peak life expectancies for the Weiss model and
the First African Baptist Church were near 34years of
age. The Cedar Grove population had the lowest peak
life expectancy, only around 21years. In comparison,
peak life expectancy calculated for a nineteenthcentury almshouse cemetery in Rochester, New York,
exceeded 50years (Higgins etal. 2002). Interpretation
of life expectancy and survivorship at the New York
African Burial Ground, however, is highly complicated by a nonstable, heterogeneous population that
was continuously added to through forcible migration. The fact that life expectancy peaked at an older
age for the New York African Burial Ground than
for compared samples may reflect the fact that many
individuals were not born in New York.
The New York African Burial Ground

Conclusions
The effects of forcible labor on the New York African
Burial Ground individuals were marked. Performing
strenuous and repetitive tasks, which may have often
involved the lifting and carrying of heavy loads, led
to muscle hypertrophy and degenerative joint disease
among male and female Africans. Osteoarthritis and
osteophytosis were common and increased with age,
as expected. Sexual division of labor appears to have
been registered by the musculoskeletal effects of
work. Whereas men experienced osteoarthritis most
frequently in the elbow, women were affected most
often in the wrists. Stress fractures associated with
load bearing occurred most commonly in the upper
spine for women and in the lower spine for men. Evidently, men were involved in heavy lifting, tool-using
tasks, and other strenuous activities that stressed the
lower spine and arms, whereas women more often

Chapter 6. Forcible Labor and its Effects on Family Life and Mortality 191
performed sewing, weaving, and domestic tasks which
also appear to have involved the frequent manipulation
of heavy loads. Women and children also may have
often carried heavy loads on their heads. The excessive
physical strains caused by forcible labor in Manhattan would have been made all the worse as a result of
nutritional deficiencies and chronic infections which
the researchers demonstrated to be rampant in other
studies. Nutritional deficiency and chronic infection
would have diminished work capacity and greatly
increased the discomfort and suffering of enslaved
laborers (see Chapter5).
Paleodemographic and historical research showed
that the eighteenth-century African-descended population of New York was at below-replacement values
and increased by virtue of importation rather than
fertility. To the researchers, fractured families and
strictures on relationships among enslaved Africans
impeded formation of nuclear families and reduced the
likelihood of childbearing or adequate child rearing.
Infant mortality was high. Multiple factors, including
lead poisoning, poor nutrition, and negative attitudes
toward childbearing, could have contributed to infant
mortality. Adult mortality was also high, but mortality
differed for males and females. Either adult females
tended to die at younger ages than adult males, or
younger females were more numerous than younger
males. The overall adult sex ratio derived from skeletal
evidence was 146, meaning there were more males
than females in the sample. The sex ratios obtained
from the skeletal data differed from those found in the
historical records, an interesting point that deserves
further study. The difference could relate to variation
in male and female mortality or variation in the burial
location of males and females. Child-to-female ratios,
which averaged about two children for every adult
woman, also differed somewhat from the historical data, suggesting that there may have been more

enslaved children in New York than historical records

suggest or that, relative to adult females, children
suffered especially high mortality.
Mortality was high for enslaved Africans. Comparisons to Trinity Church burial records suggest that
Europeans had different mortality profiles, although
systematic differences between historical and skeletal
records make comparisons difficult. Violence, trauma,
and stress associated with frontier conditions led to
high death rates for young European males, and infant
mortality was high in both groups. Europeans appear
to have lived to older ages than enslaved Africans,
suggesting that cumulative stresses of enslavement
had a strong dampening effect on life expectancy.
In short, the researchers have shown that, in combination with disease, poor nutrition, and unhealthful living
conditions, heavy workloads created a population under
tremendous physiological stress. Population increase
through time was likely the result of in-migration more
than fertility. Children were especially stressed and
were forced into hard labor at young ages. Disruption of traditional kinship structures, family life, and
procreation conspired to reduce fertility and probably
increased child mortality. Nonetheless, information on
the relative location, use, and marking of graves, along
with the burial of personal items with the deceased,
suggest that New York Africans continued to build
and strengthen family in the face of dehumanizing
adversity. Building on this body of information, future
research may combine demographic models, historical
records, and skeletal data from a variety of sources to
further investigate the demographic variables affecting the New York African Burial Ground population.
Variation in spatial proximity, artifactual content, and
evidence for natality at the New York African Burial
Ground could also be examined to determine if further
spatial or temporal patterning in work-related stress,
family ties, or mortality can be discerned.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Chapter 7

The Assertion and Maintenance

of Human Dignity
Identifying modes of resistance to enslavement was
one of four major research themes identified by the
researchers (Blakey 2009a:13; Blakey 2009b:43; Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009:5) (see Chapter1). When
the research was first designed in 1993, models of
domination and resistance were popular in exploring the power relationships between hegemonic and
oppressed peoples (e.g., Miller etal. 1989). Most
considerations of domination and resistance focus
mainly on resistance, as resistance is the mode of
conduct investigators often ascribe to people under
study. For enslaved Africans in the North American
colonies, oppression began with enslavement, forced
labor, the denial of rights and freedoms, ridicule, and
restricted access to goods, services, food, shelter, or
creature comforts. Attempts at domination included the
formation of legal restrictions, prohibitions, and status
designations but also the daily dehumanizing effects of
interactions between the enslaved and enslavers.
Blakey (2009a:45) notes that
In the main, Africans in colonial New York
were enslaved, not free laborers, and thus experienced a particularly intensive contestation of
their humanity by Europeans who were intent
upon objectifying Africans as property. It is
now obvious that in New York, as throughout
the slaveholding Americas, enslaved Africans
were arbitrarily stripped of names and renamed,
family members were separated to be sold apart,
social institutions and religious practices were
disallowed or went underground, the use of
African languages was suppressed, and the cultural history of those Africans was denigrated
by slaveholders.
To the researchers, understanding the lives and lifestyles of enslaved Africans in colonial New York goes
far beyond understanding the interplay of domination

and resistance. Not all behaviors can be summed up as

acts of domination or resistance. Rather, interactions of
African New Yorkers with indentured servants, enslavers, and other individuals were guided by the assertion
and maintenance of human dignity and the pursuit of a
higher quality of life. Human dignity was not defined in
reaction to enslavement; it was central to the formation
of ideology and identity and the performance of daily
activities, whether enslaved or free (Medford 2009:xx;
Medford and Brown 2009b:1). Strategies for resistance
were among much larger sets of strategies aimed ultimately at preserving human dignity and improving the
quality of life among African New Yorkers.
As Harris (2003:12) has noted, enslavement
dominated every facet of colonial black New Yorkers livesthe work they did, their ability to form
families, their religious practices, even how they
defined themselves. But black men and women did
not simply acquiesce to enslavement or to an inferior
racial status. Throughout Dutch and British slavery,
enslaved Africans demonstrated through their labor,
their resistance to bondage, and their creation of families and communities that the racial stereotypes of
inferiority promulgated by Europeans had no basis in
reality. The enslaved African New Yorkers responded
to their captivity in varied ways and bore the scars of
their bondage on their bodies. Interpreting trauma on
human skeletons can be difficult, however. Bioarchaeologists stress that the causes of trauma are numerous.
In different archaeological contexts, trauma evident in
skeletal remains could result from accidents as well
as violent behaviors such as homicide, combat, or
other acts of conflict (Goodman and Martin 2002:39);
without historical documentation, it can be impossible to identify the cause. In the New York African
Burial Ground sample, the apparent association of
trauma with mortality and the condition of enslavement suggests the possibility that violent behaviors

194

Figure 75. Execution of a New York African on the Common (from Valentine 1860) (from Volume 3 [Medford and Brown 2009c:Figure 21]).

were sometimes associated with trauma. Multiple

fractures in multiple regions of the body for a number of individuals suggests the occurrence of either
severe accidents, such as accidents involving heavy
equipment (e.g., mill accidents or cart accidents), or
brutal acts of violence against enslaved individuals.
Although the particular circumstances under which
the individuals at the African Burial Ground suffered
these traumas remain unknown, it is possible that some
were inflicted as a response to acts of resistance.
Resistance to the conditions of enslavement was
common in Manhattan. Enslaved people escaped or
attempted escape, participated in rebellions, stole
or destroyed property, killed or planned to kill their
tormenters, gathered, conspired, and celebrated their
distinct and shared African heritages (Medford and
Brown 2009c). The formation of slave codes and
institutionalized racism testifies to the tension between
the enslaved and enslavers and documents the repeated
attempts of enslavers to dominate the enslaved. Clearly,
enslavers struggled to maintain power and control over
enslaved people and were fearful of losing control.
In general, the restrictions placed on the rights and
privileges of enslaved Africans worsened over time as
officials and government bodies attempted to maintain
control over an increasingly intractable situation
controlling large numbers of enslaved Africans who
worked all over the city for different employers and
who regularly interacted with free blacks, Native AmerThe New York African Burial Ground

icans, and disgruntled European servants (Medford

and Brown 2009c; Medford, Brown, and Carrington
2009:26; Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009e:75;
Medford, Brown, Heywood, et al. 2009b:13).
It has been historically documented that enslaved
Africans were brutally punished for breaking New York
Citys highly restrictive laws (Figure 75). Enslaved
Africans were burned at the stake, broken on the wheel,
hanged, whipped, beaten, and murdered. Some registered offenses, even those whose legal punishments
entailed execution, were occasionally pardoned owing
to the economic dependence of Euroamericans on
enslaved labor (Medford and Brown 2009c:9296;
Medford, Brown, Heywood, et al. 2009:14).
Domination of Africans and African Americans
reduced (but did not eliminate) opportunities for
interaction, exchange, commerce, and procreation.
In its various forms, domination promoted more
unhealthful living conditions for enslaved laborers.
It is expected, then, that domination should be registered physically in multiple ways, as physiological
stress, depressed fertility, and skeletal trauma (see
Chapters 5 and 6).
Enslaved and free Africans resisted domination
at every level and, despite oppression, continuously
sought freedom and opportunity. Enslaved Africans
found ways to keep their humanity at the forefront,
always through a stubborn determination to reject any
limitation on their exercise of those rights reserved

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 195

to humankind (Medford 2009: xxviiixix). Enslaved
Africans in New York congregated and interacted in
large numbers; assembled in the streets, taverns, tippling houses, dramshops, burial grounds, churches
and schools; openly rebelled; contested authority
in court; stole what they were not provided; burned
buildings; assaulted and murdered enslavers and
authority figures; and escaped captivity (Medford
and Brown 2009c). The impacts of widespread racism and inequality during and after the Revolutionary
War is cogent evidence for the deep hypocrisy of the
nations foundational mythsequality and freedom
for alland illustrates some of the contradictions of
race, slavery, and liberty in the formation of the United
States of America (see Chapter3).
American Revolutionaries sought to win freedom
from British tyranny but were unwilling to allow
the same rights and freedoms to people of African
descent. After the war, people of African descent that
remained in New York City grew increasingly assertive
of their own interests and openly resisted the discriminatory and repressive political economy of New York
City. More than before, free and enslaved people of
African-descent in postRevolutionary War New York
City openly resisted domination by verbally asserting
themselves, taking advantage of Euroamericans when
able, subverting and contravening pre-revolutionary
racial roles through dress and manner, and establishing
independent African American institutionstheaters,
churches, schools, newspapers and benevolent societies.
Mainly, African-descended individuals in New York
sought to obtain what others would deny them (Foote
2004; Harris 2003; Hodges 1999; Medford and Brown
2009c; White 1991, 2005).
This chapter discusses domination and resistance
as fundamental components of everyday life for
enslaved and free Africans in colonial America. As
Ira Berlin (1996:252) has observed, resistance to the
new regime began at its inception, as slaves clandestinely maintained their African names even as they
answered their owners call. Diasporic studies are
beginning to address the multiple and often subtle
roles enslaved African agency played in forming the
colonial world and resisting the harsh and inhumane
conditions pressed upon them. This chapter explores
the historical, social, political, and cultural factors that
fueled the tensions between the enslaved and their
enslavers in New York during the period the African
Burial Ground was in use and explores the world in
which the individuals buried in the African Burial
Ground struggled to assert their human dignity. This

chapter reviews concepts of slavery and enslaved status in Africa and the New York, summarizes historical
information, and discusses the bioarchaeological data
reflecting issues of domination and resistance.

Concepts of Slavery and Enslaved

Status in Africa and New York
As in other parts of the colonial world, various forms
of slavery were common in West Africa and West
Central Africa during the era of the Atlantic trade in
enslaved Africans. Most enslaved Africans forcibly
migrated by European traders were initially enslaved
by Africans but were enslaved according to different
systems of slavery. The many people involved in the
transatlantic tradeenslaved laborers, African slave
traders, European slave traders, African enslavers,
European enslavershad different expectations of
what slavery entailed. The status of enslaved laborers
and the freedoms permitted or denied the enslaved
were negotiated differently in different cultural contexts, and how or why people could be enslaved or
manumitted varied among different regions and different time periods. In some times and places in the
Atlantic World of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, enslaved laborers shared many liberties
with free people, including the right to own property,
to testify against free people in court, to perform
economic transactions, engage in commerce, and to
be freed. These were in fact the rights permitted to
enslaved laborers in seventeenth-century Dutch New
Amsterdam as well as enslaved laborers in some contemporary African contexts (Medford, ed. 2009).
The conditions of slavery varied in the Americas
according to national affiliation of enslavers, the labor
needs of local industries, political administration, and
time. In New York, conditions for enslaved laborers
generally worsened over time, particularly with the
transfer of political power from the Dutch to the English, but specific pathways to resistance and freedom
opened and closed over time with changing economic
and political conditions. In eighteenth-century British
New York, slavery came to be considered hereditary,
fundamental legal and commercial rights previously
allowed to enslaved laborers were restricted, and most
pathways to freedom were blocked by social and legal
institutions (Medford, ed. 2009).
Enslaved Africans came from diverse societies
with mores that conditioned their understanding and
experiences with slavery. Depending on their prior

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

196
experience with slavery, enslaved Africans had the
general expectation that they could obtain wealth,
freedom, or change status through a variety of social
or legal mechanisms. Foote (1991:206) has noted that
enslaved Africans in New York with Akan-Asante
backgrounds would have found little odd in the local
practice of enslaving strangers, or in the exchange
of persons as articles of trade, or in the assignment
of status by matrilineal descent, for slavery on the
Gold Coast displayed similar features. At the same
time, Akan-Asante normative expectations of their
own rights and responsibilities and those of their
enslavers differed from contemporary Europeans in
important ways (Foote 1991:207). Akan-Asante were
accustomed to well-articulated laws prescribing the
master-slave relation as well as the humane uses and
treatment of slaves (Foote 1991:207).
In essence, enslaved Africans with Akan-Asante
backgrounds, such as enslaved Coromantees (Akan),
expected to be treated humanely, justly, and to be
rewarded for faithful service (Foote 1991:212).
The fact that these expectations were rarely, if ever,
met led to great resentment among enslaved Coromantees. Foote (1991:207) has argued, in fact, that
the 1712 revolt was compelled by hard usage that
enslaved Pawpaws and Coromanteesgiven their
backgroundfelt was especially unjust.
Some examples of the varieties of experience within
African slavery can be found in West and West Central
Africa. Nonelite Kongolese were divided into two
groups: mavata (free villagers) and avika (enslaved
laborers). In Ndongo, a distinction was made between
ana murinda (free villagers), ijiko (state-held enslaved
laborers), and abika (privately held enslaved laborers).
Other kingdoms in West Central Africa appear to have
operated according to similar distinctions (Medford,
Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009b:18). In West Africa,
a continuum of statuses among Akan-Asante groups
defined the roles of enslaved laborers, what they were
entitled to, and how they could be treated. Akyere
were enslaved criminals awaiting capital punishment.
Odonko were foreign-born enslaved laborers who,
lacking the protection of kinship ties, could be treated
as dehumanized commodities (Foote 1991:208).
Awowa were lineage members whose labor was used
to work off a debt or as collateral against a debt
(Foote 1991:209). Awowa who were not redeemed
by their lineage, however, could become akao pa, a
status similar to odonko. Enslaved laborers, including
odonko and akao pa, could inherit part of their enslav-

The New York African Burial Ground

ers property and were entitled to land as well as to

the fruits of [their] labor (Foote 1991:209).
As Piersen (1996:9) has explained and these examples demonstrate, West African slaves were treated as
people, not property. Muslim-owned enslaved laborers
were as likely to serve as bureaucrats or professional
soldiers as agricultural laborers. They made excellent
officials and were commonly appointed military commanders because as slaves they owed allegiance to the
ruler alone; they had no conflicting loyalties to subservient nobles or particular regions or peoples. Moreover,
as outsiders lacking freedom, slave officeholders and
soldiers could not seize power and thus weaken imperial rule. Typically, Africans could be reduced to
slavery as prisoners of war, for violating a custom, for
committing a crime, or for being unable to settle a just
debt (Page 1997:xxv; see also Medford, ed. 2009).
Inikori (1999:68) has argued that many Africans forcibly migrated to the Americas had no previous experience of bondage, not even serfdom. The statuses of
enslaved laborers in Africa were entirely different from
those conferred in the Americas. To Inikori (1999:68),
the socioeconomic conditions in Africa were much
closer (in many cases even superior) to those of serfs
in medieval Europe than to those of chattel slaves in
colonial America. There were substantial differences
between enslaved laborers and indentured servants
in the Americas. As Eltis (2000:255) has observed,
indentured servants shared culture, language, a system
of government, and the possibility of advancement
with an elite that controlled the colonized territory;
[enslaved Africans] could expect nothing but a life of
hard labor and attenuated self-possession. For most
of the population interred at the New York African
Burial Ground, many of whom were most likely born
in West and West-Central Africa according to historical and bioarchaeological evidence (Goodman et al.
2009), the harsh conditions of slavery in colonial New
York would have conflicted strongly with their cultural
expectations.
Some of the most brutal forms of slavery were
enacted in the colonial-era Americas. Rights initially
permitted enslaved laborers eroded over time as
enslaved people were subject to increasingly harsh
treatment. Slavery in the colonial-era Americas also
became increasingly racialized over time as enslavement was associated more and more with people of
African descent. People whose physical appearance
resembled Africans, such as captured European prisoners of war, were sometimes enslaved on the basis

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 197

of their complexion alone. In the British colonies,
people of African descent were generally considered
to be enslaved unless they could prove their own
status to be free. Even then, it was not uncommon
for claims of freedom to be challenged and for free
Africans to be reenslaved (Harris 2003; Medford, ed.
2009; Wilson 1994).
According to some scholars, the system of slavery in New Amsterdam under the Dutch was a less
repressive one than later systems. The legal standing
of Africans under the Dutch system was considerably greater than it came to be under the British system.1 Enslaved Africans had more rights than Jewish
people under the Dutch system (McManus 1966:12;
Stokes 19151922:4:148). According to Rothschild
(1990:88), blacks were free to intermarry with whites,
attend white churches, own property, and had the same
standing in courts as whites. Enslaved laborers were
also more likely to obtain partial or complete freedom
under the Dutch system.2 Higginbotham (1978:106,
114) has even suggested that slavery as it came to
be known was not legally instituted until England
became the colonial power. Under the British system,
the rights of enslaved laborers were more severely
restricted than under the Dutch, and the prospect of
On a number of occasions, enslaved and free Africans successfully
petitioned the West India Company for wages due or sued Dutch
colonists for civil damages. In the late 1630s, five free Africans
petitioned the West India Company for back pay (Harris 2003:20;
Wilson 1994:38), and the enslaved laborers Pedro Negretto and
Manuel de Reus successfully sued Europeans for wages due
(Harris 2003:20). In 1643, Big Manuel and Manuel de Gerrit de Reus
successfully sued Englishman John Seales on behalf of Little Manuel
for allegedly damaging Little Manuels cow (Harris 2003:2021;
Wilson 1994:38).
1

In 1644, the West India Company granted half freedoms to the first
eleven males who had been brought to New Amsterdam in 1626 when
they, along with their wives, petitioned for freedom (Frohne 2002:155).
Enslaved Africans and their families were given agricultural land
and required to pay an annual tribute in furs, produce, or wampum
to the West India Company (Harris 2003:23). Failure to pay tribute
would result in reenslavement (Medford, ed. 2009). Some have argued
that half-freedom, rather than full enslavement, was beneficial to the
West India Company. It supplied the company with corve labor as
needed and was not as expensive to the company as maintaining a full
complement of enslaved laborers. The company also retained rights
to the labor and produce from former bondmen (McManus 1966:167;
Wilson 1994:2425). In 1662, Governor Stuyvesant and the council
emancipated three enslaved women who petitioned for freedom on
the condition that one of them perform Stuyvesants housework
on a weekly basis (Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. 2009b:23 n.
18). The following year, in 1664, the Dutch granted unconditional
emancipation to half-free blacks in the colony, who numbered about
seventy-five (Harris 2003:26; see also Medford, ed. 2009).
2

manumission, even at the behest of enslavers, became

increasingly unlikely, as the government issued more
numerous and harsher laws restricting the rights of
enslaved peoples.

New York Slave Codes

A major component of European efforts at dominating enslaved laborers was the so-called slave
codes. Virginia was the first of the British colonies
to establish comprehensive slave codes (Harris
2003:16). Other colonies followed suit, although in
more piecemeal fashion. In New York City, numerous laws were passed between the 1680s and 1730s
to control the citys population of enslaved laborers.
Comprehensive slave codes were passed in 1702
and 1730. Overall, these repressive laws had the effect
of denying basic rights and privileges, racializing
slavery, inhibiting manumission, and making slavery a
hereditary institution associated with people of African
descent (Medford, ed. 2009; Nordstrom 1980).
Under the British system, some of the first slave
codes were passed to restrict travel, commercial
transactions, entertainment, and public gatherings. In
1680, enslaved laborers in New York were required to
carry passes when traveling (Dodson etal. 2000:29;
see also Singleton 1984). In 1681, the mayor and city
alderman issued a proclamation that prohibited city
residents from performing commercial transactions
with or providing liquor or entertainments to enslaved
Africans or enslaved Native Americans (Medford,
Brown, and Carrington 2009:26). In 1682, gatherings
of enslaved laborers were limited to four people, and a
pass was required for enslaved laborers to participate
in sports or other activities (Medford, Brown, and Carrington 2009:26). In 1692, the city council complained
of enslaved Africans consorting with free Africans
who lived north of the city: the frequent randivozing of Negro Slaves att the houses of the free negroes
without the gates hath bin occasion of great disorder
(Goodfriend 1992:120). As a result, new laws mandated that slaves who made loud noises, played in the
street on Sundays, or patronized bars receive twenty
lashes, or their owners pay a fine of six shillings (Harris 2003:33). In 1696, Africans and Native Americans
were restricted from the military (Wilson 1994:41).
By 1700, the city government further reduced to three
the number of enslaved Africans permitted to congregate, and enslavers were again instructed to control
their slaves on Sundays (Harris 2003:33).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

198
Comprehensive slave codes were developed in
1702, when a chapter of the New York Colonial laws
was devoted to controlling enslaved laborers. The
1702 regulations reinforced and amended regulations
of the previous two decades; continued to restrict
the commercial activities, interactions, and mobility of enslaved laborers; and expanded the rights of
enslavers to control and punish the enslaved. The
1702 regulations stipulated that (1)enslaved laborers could not engage in buying or selling without
permission; (2)enslaved laborers could with some
limitation be punished at their enslavers discretion;
(3)gatherings of enslaved laborers were limited to
three people; (4)whites were prohibited from employing, entertaining, or harboring other peoples enslaved
laborers without permission; and (5)enslaved laborers
could testify against other enslaved laborers but not
against whites in court (Dodson etal. 2000:30; Frohne
2002:160; Medford, ed. 2009).
In addition, a new public office was established to
handle punishments anticipated by lawthe Common Whipper of Slaves (Dodson et al. 2000:30).
Four years later, the New York assembly passed a
law with far-reaching implications for the status of
enslaved Africans and their children. The law stated
that only Negroes could be enslaved, that religious
affiliation or Christianization did not alter the condition of slavery, and that enslavement was hereditary
(Harris 2003:28). Enslaved women were prohibited
from making claims of freedom for children with
Euroamerican fathers, as the law also protected white
males from the normal application of paternity claims
(Dodson etal. 2000:30).
Laws passed after the 1712 Uprising attempted to
limit interactions between enslaved and free Africans,
to reduce the status of free African New Yorkers by
rescinding their right to own real estate, and to make
manumission difficult and costly. In response to the
rebellion, the Common Council declared that no
slave over the age of fourteen was to be on New York
City streets after sunset without a lantern by which
he or she could be clearly seen (Harris 2003:39).
Offenders could be arrested by any white and lashed
thirty-nine times (Harris 2003:39). Again, in 1713,
a Law for Regulating Negro and Indian Slaves in
the Night Time prohibited enslaved laborers from
being on the streets an hour after sunset without a
light provided by their enslaver (Frohne 2002:163;
Medford, ed. 2009). To ensure the participation of
enslavers in controlling enslaved laborers and to fund
regulation, enslavers of disobedient enslaved laborers
The New York African Burial Ground

were required to pay a host of fines, and those seeking

to free enslaved laborers were required to pay steep
fees (Harris 2003:39).
Manumission of enslaved laborers continued to take
place under British rule but less often and according to
more restrictions.3 By the early part of the eighteenth
century, manumission by will became increasingly
difficult to carry out, and manumission often entailed
restrictive stipulations. In 1708, Nero, an enslaved
laborer held by Huguenot merchant Benjamin Faneuil,
was emancipated on the condition that he continue
to serve Faneuil and his heirs for ten years (Goodfriend 1992:116). After 1712, enslavers wishing to
free enslaved laborers were responsible for a large
200-pound security and 20pounds per annuman
amount four to six times higher than the price of an
adult enslaved laborer (Harris 2003:39)ostensibly
intended to ensure the upkeep of those that were freed.
Of course, this regulation had the effect of making
manumission costly and slow. Enslaved laborers who
were freed through last will and testament instruments
often had to undergo lengthy periods of enslavement
during which requirements of manumission were carried out. Sometimes, enslaved laborers whose penurious enslavers granted freedom but not the required
security payment were prevented entirely from being
manumitted (Harris 2003; Hodges 1999; Medford, ed.
2009; Middleton 2006). Sam, an enslaved laborer who
would not be freed by his former enslavers executor, had to petition for his freedom. Sam eventually
obtained freedom from enslavement by becoming
a debtor of the joiner John Ellison and victualler
Thomas Slow (Middleton 2006:145). Because of
these kinds of onerous restrictions, Governor Robert
Hunter in 1717 feared that the new manumission
restrictions would inspire dangerous levels of frustration and resentment among enslaved laborers whose
hopes for freedom were dashed. To Hunter, the new
restrictions would transform enslaved laborers into
not only careless servants, but excite em to insurrecIn 1691, for instance, Cresee, an enslaved laborer held captive by
the Jewish merchant Asser Levy, was claimed by a creditor, Frederick
Philipse, upon the death of Levys widow, Maria (Middleton 2006).
Frederick Philipse was the second Lord of Phillipsburg Manor [who
held] forty-six slaves (Hodges and Brown 1994:xx). With the help of
Jansen Rose, Levys erstwhile partner in the slaughterhouse, and three
other city butchers, Cresee successfully petitioned for his freedom
(Middleton 2006:142). Under somewhat unusual circumstances,
Cresee was freed based on the sworn testimony of reputable witnesses
who testified that the Levys had repeatedly declared Cresee would
be freed upon their deaths. Most enslaved laborers did not have so
much support.
3

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 199

tions more bloody than any they have yet attempted
(quoted in Middleton 2006:144).
Yet oppressive laws continued to mount. In 1730, a
new series of repressive slave codes reinforced regulations of the last half-century as well as restricted the
ability of enslaved laborers to testify in court. Enslaved
laborers were only permitted to testify against other
enslaved laborers and only in cases of conspiracy,
arson, and murder (Lepore 2005:98). Enslaved Africans freed after 1712 were no longer allowed to own
real estate, and free blacks were required to forfeit real
estate to the British crown (Harris 2003:39; Wilson
1994:64). Free blacks caught entertaining enslaved
laborers were fined at twice the rate of whites (Harris 2003:39).
In addition to legal and social circumscriptions,
domination sometimes took the form of physical mutilation or murder (see for instance, Epperson 1990). In
New York in 1677, an enslaved African in Manhattan
who refused to work was killed by his enslaver, John
Cooley (Goodfriend 1992:123). The murder of an
enslaved person was a capital crime in British New
York, and enslavers who mutilated enslaved Africans
were fined 40pounds (Foote 2004:199). Nonetheless,
violators were not always prosecuted or appropriately
charged. William Petit, who in 1733 beat the enslaved
African Joe to death, was convicted of manslaughter
rather than murder. By contrast, John Van Zandt, who
fatally horsewhipped his enslaved laborer, was not
prosecuted. In Van Zandts case, the coroner somehow diagnosed the enslaved laborers death as natural
(Foote 2004:199).
Despite the harsh legal and disciplinary environment, enslaved laborers continuously struggled to
obtain greater freedom and advantage. Enslaved
laborers did not resign themselves to their increasingly subordinate political economic status. A potential loophole in the laws regulating the activities of
enslaved Africans involved funerals, such as those
that would have taken place at the African Burial
Ground. Funerals of enslaved Africans were often
performed at night outside the city in festive gatherings accompanied by chant, song, and dance. Funerals
were excellent opportunities for enslaved Africans to
show solidarity and to foment opposition against their
enslavers. Fears over gatherings of diasporic Africans
and the need to regulate the unsupervised activities
of enslaved laborers led lawmakers to also restrict
funerary practices. In 1722, the council passed a law
requiring that all funerals of African New Yorkers
and enslaved Native Americas who died south of

the Collect Pond be conducted during daylight hours

(Frohne 2002:163; Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
2009d:89). An amendment to the law in 1731 further
limited the number of individuals in attendance at
funerals and prohibited the use of palls and pallbearers for fear that covering materials might be used
to conceal objects used for insurrection:
For the preventing of great numbers of slaves
assembling and meeting together at their Funerals, under pretext whereof they have great opportunities of plotting an confederating together to
do mischief, as well as neglecting their Masters Services it was ordered that, if more than
twelve slaves assembled at a slave funeral, those
present were to be whipped at the discretion of
the Mayor, Recorder or one of the Alderman
except the 12slaves admitted by the owner of
the dead slave, the gravedigger and the corpse
bearers [New York City Common Council 1905:
4:8688, quoted in Medford, Brown, Carrington,
etal. 2009d:89].
Despite these restrictions, the municipal government never revoked the black town dwellers customary privilege of burying their dead according to
their own beliefs and practices (Foote 2004:141). As
a result, the citys black population performed their
own communal burial rituals and, in doing, so forged
a distinct moral community set apart from the citys
Christian settler community (Foote 2004:141).

Christianity and Slavery

Religious belief and practice was intricately interwoven
into patterns of domination and resistance as slavery
and Christianity were related in complicated ways.
The religious beliefs of New Amsterdams enslaved
laborers became one way to distinguish Africans from
Europeans... as non-Christian beliefs theoretically
marked those whom Europeans could enslave (Harris
2003:17). According to Harris (2003:17), Europeans
initially justified slavery as a way to bring heathen
Africans to Christianity. In fact, biblical texts often
were cited as justification for slavery of sub-Saharan
Africans. This partitioning of humankind was traced
to the postdiluvian migration of the tribes of Shem,
Ham, and Japeth to different parts of the world (Foote
2004:45). Dark-skinned peoplethe sons of Ham
bore the curse of Noah. Blackness was equated with
moral pollution and whiteness, with moral purity.
Binary categories of pure and impure humankind were
based in the medieval Christian symbolism of darkness

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

200
and light, which were then translated into skin color
(Foote 2004:97). The fact that Africans were heathens
who did not practice Christianity further reinforced this
duality. Perceived as godless savages who dwelled in
spiritual darkness, Africans were simultaneously the
target of missionaries seeking to bring them to salvation and yet enslaved through rationalizing biblical
arguments (Foote 2004:98; Harris 2003). Enslaved
individuals who were baptized were seldom freed,
however, as the Europeans dependence on enslaved
laborers ultimately trumped religious beliefs.
For the most part, enslavers in New York City did
not take an especially active role in Christianizing
enslaved Africans and were conflicted about involving Africans in Christianity. The Dutch Reformed
Churchs first minister in New Amsterdam, Domine
Jonas Michalius, in 1628 referred to enslaved Angolan women as thievish, lazy, and useless trash (Medford, Brown, Heywood etal., 2009b:16). A decade
later, however, the Dutch established the Collegiate
School to train both Dutch and Africans in Christian
principles. Around the same time, the Dutch Reformed
Church performed their first baptism of a black child,
Barent Jan Pieters (Dodson etal. 2000:20). Fourteen
marriages recorded by the Dutch Reformed Church
between 1639 and 1652 involved Africans, and at least
one was interracial (Wilson 1994:38).4
The Dutch Reformed Church stopped converting
enslaved Africans to Christianity altogether by 1655,
however, and for the next decade only one black person
was baptized (Harris 2003:17). The rationale limiting
Christianization of enslaved Africans was that enslaved
Africans wanted only to use their conversion to earn
freedom from enslavement rather than to achieve piety
and adopt Christian virtues. This attitude reduced the
ability of Africans to obtain freedom and rationalized
the culturally based differentiation between Europeans
and Africans (Harris 2003:1718). Similar attitudes
persisted with British rule after 1664. In 1687, Governor Dongan remarked that New Yorkers made no
effort to Christianize enslaved Africans (Goodfriend
1992:126). Around the same time, in 1686, only six
African New Yorkers were listed as members of the
Dutch Reformed Church (Goodfriend 1992:116).
In addition to blocking access to Christianity to
diasporic Africans, the British barred them from their
burial grounds. Shortly after construction, Trinity
Lucie d Angola and Anthony Van Angola, one of the first enslaved
couples to marry in New Amsterdam, were married in the Church on
the Fort in 1641 (Wilson 1994:38).
4

The New York African Burial Ground

Church ordered in 1697 that no Negroes be buried

within the bounds & limits of the church yard of Trinity Church (quoted in Medford and Brown 2009b:1).
After 1697, most Africans in Manhattan were buried
in the African Burial Ground, a burial ground that
may have been used by some Africans for decades
(Medford, ed. 2009). According to Berlin (1998:62),
because white northerners excluded black corpses
from their burial grounds, the graveyard became the
first truly African-American institution in the northern
colonies, and perhaps in mainland North America.
One major effort to Christianize enslaved Africans,
Elias Neaus catechism school (est. 1704), was not
particularly successful in its mission, owing to the
reluctance of Euroamericans to sanction baptism and
their suspicion that Neaus teachings contributed to
rebelliousness (Dodson etal. 2000:20; Harris 2003:34;
Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009e:73). In
1707, Elias Neau estimated that he had more than
100catechumens (people receiving religious instruction with the intent to be baptized), but fewer than 10 of
them were baptized. Similar numbers were reported in
other years. Many of the enslaved Africans who cycled
through his ministry were interested in obtaining the
booklets he handed out and perhaps in gaining a greater
understanding of Christianity, but few were regulars.
European contemporaries, moreover, were not especially supportive of his school. Enslaved laborers were
required to obtain permission and sponsorship to be
baptized, and most enslavers refused this privilege to
Africans (Goodfriend 1992). Rebels involved in the
1712 insurrection were fictitiously associated with
his school, and Neaus teachings were considered a
potential threat to civil order (Foote 2004). Restrictions
requiring enslaved Africans traveling at night to carry
a lantern and a pass may have been partly directed
at reducing attendance at Elias Neaus night school
(Goodfriend 1992:129).
Despite being kept from Trinitys burial ground,
enslaved Africans were admitted to services held at
Trinity Church and other churches. Between 1704 and
1764, 869slaves were baptized at Trinity Church but
only 19, or 2.2percent, were considered full members
(Harris 2003:35). In 1726, large numbers of English
and African servants were observed to regularly attend
Sunday catechisms at Trinity Church (Dodson etal.
2000:31). The English may have allowed greater
access to baptism and church services during this
time because after 1706, religious affiliation could no
longer alter the condition of slavery. Christianization
no longer justified manumission (Harris 2003:28).

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 201

It must be kept in mind that Christianization was
not necessarily a spiritual goal of enslaved Africans
in New York. To enslaved Africans, Christianity may
have been considered more useful as tool to access
aspects of white society rather than a refuge for religious devotion (e.g., Fountain 1999). Many enslaved
and free Africans in New York performed Africanderived religious practices in public and private social
spaces and probably maintained African spiritual beliefs
in constructing their own unique identities (see Chapter8) (Medford 2009:xx; Medford, Brown, Carrington,
et al. 2009d:88, 2009e:70, 7374). African diasporic
religious beliefs and practices, moreover, may have
motivated and guided resistance (Rucker 2001). African
religious specialists, such as Peter the Doctor, operated
openly in New York, and Africans routinely performed
diasporic songs, dance, chants, and rituals at funerals
and other gatherings (Medford and Brown 2009c:94).
Archaeological findings at many African American
sites, including those that formed in colonial Manhattan, suggest that fundamentally African religious beliefs
and practices were retained and applied to American
contexts (Fennell 2000, 2003; Ferguson 1999; LaRoche
1994; Leone and Fry 1999; Samford 1996; Singleton
1995; Stine etal. 1996; Wall 2000; Wilkie 1997). New
religions with African rootssuch as Vodun, Santera,
and Candomblemerged amongst enslaved Africans
in the diaspora, and many persist today. Even African
American expressions of Christianity owe part of their
character to African belief systems and the unique religious experiences of enslaved Africans. Perry, Howson,
and Bianco (2009:374) suggest that the African Burial
Ground provided an institutional basis as well as founding personnel for African American churches founded
in Manhattan in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth
centuries, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church (est. 1796) and St. Philips African Church (est.
1818). These possible continuities in religious practice
and practitioners led the researchers to hypothesize that
the African Methodist and Episcopal churches might
have had a century-and-a-halfs worth of African and
then African American religious philosophy and ritual
practice upon which to build (Perry, Howson, and
Bianco 2009:374).
It was not until late in the eighteenth century that
conditions that fostered the development of autonomous Christian organizations among Africans and
African Americans began to emerge (Medford and
Brown 2009a:101). The New York African Society,
a benevolent and spiritual organization, was formed
in 1784 (Dodson etal. 2000:49). The following year,

members of the Church of England and the Society of

Friends (Quakers) formed the New York Manumission
Society (Hodges 1999:166). Founded by middle-class
and elite white men (Harris 2003:5), leading members
included John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. The society
offered free legal aid, fought against bounty hunting
of fugitives and, in 1787, established the African Free
School, a single-room school for 40 boys and girls at
245 William Street (Dodson etal. 2000:4950). Ten
years after its founding, the African Free School hired
John Teasman, a free African American, as an assistant
teacher. Teasman went on to become vice president of
the New York African Society for Mutual Relief when
it was founded in 1808, serving alongside William
Hamiltona free African American carpenter who
may have been fathered by Alexander Hamiltonwho
served as president (Dodson etal. 2000:54; Harris
2003:6566).
Other benevolent societies that promoted the education and improved welfare of Africans and African
Americans in New York included the Brooklyn African
Woolman Benevolent Society and Zion Churchs African Marine Fund, both established in 1810. To foster
early childhood religious education, Catherine Ferguson, an African American cake maker, established an
integrated Sunday school in 1793 for children of African or European descent (Dodson etal. 2000:51).
Three years later, a group of African American members of the John Street Methodist Church who were
unwilling to tolerate prejudicial treatment and religious
marginalization organized Zion Church (Dodson etal.
2000:52). African American churches continued to be
founded by African Americans unwilling to tolerate
poor treatment in Euroamerican churchesthe First
Baptist Church (est. 1808) and the African Wesleyan
Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn (est. 1818)
(Dodson etal. 2000:55). In the years leading up to
emancipation, opportunities for education and religious
involvement continued to foster racial segregation. In
1816, the Village of Brooklyns first public school (est.
1815) begins accepting blacks...but place[d] them
in a separate room (Dodson etal. 2000:56). Eleven
years later, the first African Free School in Brooklyn,
Colored School No. 1 (now P.S.67), was established
(Dodson etal. 2000:60).
These later African American religious and educational institutions were built on the foundation of many
years of personal and organized resistance in New
Yorks African community. While initially a justification for slavery, Christian practice became a powerful
expression of human dignity and community, as well as

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

202
a tool to resist domination and create opportunities for
African Americans in New York. This creative form of
resistance coopted and adapted an oppressors religion
into an organizing platform for education and obtaining
freedom (Medford and Brown 2009d).

Resistance
This section explores a variety of ways that enslaved
Africans resisted domination in colonial New York.
Resistance as a basic form of interaction and a means of
defiance and self-assertion was an important component
of the daily lives of enslaved and free African Americans. Enslaved laborers interred at the African Burial
Ground clearly negotiated and resisted the conditions
of their enslavement. Medford (2009:xix) stresses the
active role African New Yorkers played in asserting their
own dignity: In colonial New York, African peoples
faced their new reality and resolved not simply to survive but to structure a life for themselves in the midst of
exploitation and repression. Free African New Yorkers
sought the rights and wherewithal to lead prosperous and
fulfilling lifestyles; they did so in resistance to mounting
legal and political attempts to undermine their rights and
reduce their status. Enslaved laborers, likewise, mounted
official legal resistance against their enslavers as well
as routinely resisted the conditions and impositions of
their enslavement (Medford and Brown 2009a, 2009c).
At the African Burial Ground, human qualities and
rights were struggled for simply by virtue of careful,
customary burial practices that no human society has
been willing to do without. This act of asserting their
humanity simultaneously represented resistance to the
legitimation of slavery (Blakey 2009a:5)
Resistance can take many forms, including covert
resistance, overt resistance, and collective rebellion
(Garman 1998:142; Scott 1985). Covert resistance,
such as theft and sabotage, probably pervaded the
daily life of enslaved African New Yorkers. Forms of
overt resistance include acts such as escape, verbal
or physical assault, official grievances or petitions,
and public gatherings. In comparison to other forms
of resistance, collective rebellion was a less common
but higher-intensity form of resistance (Garman 1998;
Singleton and Bograd 1995).
Ferguson (1991:28) has identified another, more
subtle form of resistance that he calls unconscious
resistance. Unconscious resistance has to do with
how people perform common activities, such as food
preparation, and would have been a central part of the
daily lives of enslaved laborers. Ferguson (1991:28)
has phrased it best: by striving to build and live their
The New York African Burial Ground

own subculture (see Stuckey 1987), different in kind as

well as material quality from that of their white captors,
African Americans unconsciously distanced themselves
from the kinds of rationalizations that would have
helped make slavery work. They resisted slavery by
being themselves (emphasis added). In colonial New
York, this would have meant maintaining and building
on their native cultural traditions, in place of assimilating into Euroamerican culture. To the researchers,
It is no surprise that white New Yorkers sought
to control the African population, even in death.
In their mortuary practices, New York Africans
exhibited unity and humanity; both challenged
the legitimacy of slavery and threatened to
undermine its very existence. The African Burial
Ground was a powerful symbol of the strength
of the African community and the commitment
that its members had to each other. In a sense, it
was an example of passive resistance, practiced
by a people who were left with few alternative
ways of challenging the legal status that had
been imposed upon them [Medford, Brown,
Carrington et al. 2009d:8990].

Social Gatherings
As in colonial Carolina, enslaved Africans in New
York likely created a domestic environment based on
their history and experience (Ferguson 1991:30). The
history and experience of enslaved Africans were different from those of their European and Euroamerican
enslavers, but unlike those held at southern plantations,
enslaved laborers in New York were a minority of the
population. As the servants of households, merchants,
professionals, and craftsmen, enslaved Africans in New
York tended to live individually or in small groups with
their enslavers. With the exception of labor gangs in
rural fields outside New York City, large, aggregated,
and physically separated domestic units were more
common to southern plantations, where enslaved laborers were the segregated majority of local residents. The
life that African Americans created together in New
York was formulated in contexts where people could
get together and interactin the streets, in the prayer
houses, in the taverns and tippling houses, in the markets, on the docks, and in common areas within and
outside the city. It was a collective life formulated in
the context of work, entertainment, release, devotion,
and grieving (Medford, ed. 2009).
Colonial laws repeatedly tried to suppress, undermine, or deny the collective life of enslaved laborers.
Public gatherings of enslaved laborers were perceived

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 203

as a threat to public safety. A 1682 order reveals the
tension between enslaved laborers and their enslavers.
Enslaved laborers endeavored to congregate, celebrate,
gamble, or compete in sports even as Europeans sought
to deny such rights:
many Greate Evills and Inconveniencys [committed by] Negros and Indian Slaves their frequent
meetings and Gathering themselves together in
Greate numbers on the Lords Day and att Other
unseasonable times using And Exerciseing Severall Rude and Unlawful sports and pasetimes
to the Dishonour of God Profanacon of his holy
Day Breach and Disturbance of the Peace and
Quiett of His Magesties Subjects many whereof
are Likewise Drawed aside and Mislead to be
spectators of such their Evill Practices and thereby
Diverted from the more Suitable and Pious Duty
And Service of the Day [New York City Common
Council 1905:1:92, quoted in Medford, Brown,
and Carrington 2009:26].
Enslaved laborers were also restricted from commercial
activities, as these too were construed as a threat to
public safety (see Chapter 5):
Nonetheless, enslaved Africans in colonial New
York did manage to congregate in large numbers during festivals and other occasions. Enslaved Africans
had opportunities for mass gathering during European
holidays, on Sundays, at black funerals, and at night
(Foote 1991:236). Large numbers of African and European New Yorkers participated in rural frolics where
different diasporic nations shared dances, music, and
other revelries (White and White 2005). In colonial
New York, enslaved Africans gathered without threat
of punishment during celebration of the Dutch Pinkster, the Irish St. Patricks Day, the English New Years
Day, observances of the English monarchs coronation
and the monarchs birthday (Foote 1991:232). Many
of these festivals took on a decidedly African character, with vibrant singing, dancing, and drumming that
recalled and embellished the diverse traditions enslaved
Africans brought from their homelands.5 Enslaved
laborers also gathered during Sunday church services,
when Euroamerican attendees were unable to supervise
enslaved laborers behavior.
Along with indentured servants and other workers,
enslaved laborers had opportunities to interact in tavStuckey (1987:8083) has argued that the black Pinkster parades
masked African-derived cultural practices and therefore should be
considered a form of covert resistance to New Yorks dominant culture.
By contrast, White (1989) has asserted that Pinkster parades were a
form of syncretization and has downplayed the role of resistance in
their performance.
5

erns and tippling houses, at the tea water pump, at the

docks, and at markets. In 1696, Mayor William Merritt observed Negro slaves making a great Noise and
disturbance in the Street [and] uttering Several Oaths
and Execrations (quoted in Goodfriend 1992:121) and,
in 1700, the Grand Jury complained of the frequent
meetings of negroes in tumultuous crowds (Goodfriend
1992:121). In 1703, Elias Neau observed that enslaved
Africans dance and divert themselves in the streets
during Sunday church services (quoted in Goodfriend
1992:121). In the 1770s, people of African descent
often interacted at Catherine Market in the Dock Ward,
where dance, drumming, fiddling, and singing were
common (Foote 1991:236). Street entertainment was
a common activity performed for pocket change (Figure76). Horse races making use of African and African
American jockeys were run near Catherine Market. It
was in these furtive social spaces that black solidarity
continued to grow (Foote 1991:243). Funerals offered
other occasions to gather, to express cultural identities,
and to share knowledge and experience normally suppressed in the presence of people of European descent.
Often accompanied by drumming and singing, funerals offered opportunities to expression of afrocentric
values, uncensored emotions, and collective spirit
(Foote 1991:235).

Rebellion
Throughout the colonial Americas, open rebellion was
a recurrent feature of interactions between the enslaved
and their enslavers.6 Rebellion also occurred in colonial
As early as 1526, the first enslaved Africans forcibly migrated to
South Carolina rebelled and escaped within a few months of their
arrival. Enslaved Africans revolted in Mexico in 1542, 1570, 1608, and
1650 (Dodson etal. 2000:18). In Jamaica, enslaved Africans revolted
in 1669, 1672, 1673, 1678, 1682, 1685, 1690, 1733, and 1734. In
1739, approximately 44 blacks and 21 whites were killed during
a bloody revolt in Stono, South Carolina (Dodson etal. 2000:28,
33). In 1743, A great number of Spanish and other Prize Negroes
rioted in Newport after having been brought there to be condemned
and sold (Foy 2006:65). Enslaved Coromantees planned revolts in
St. Croix in 1759 and in Jamaica in 1760 (Frohne 2002:162). In the
1790s, enslaved Africans revolted in Haiti and in Saint Domingue
(Dodson etal. 2000; Harris 2003). Gabriels 1800 plan to use over a
thousand enslaved laborers to attack whites in Richmond was stopped
by armed forces (Dodson etal. 2000:53). A decade later, Charles
Deslondes, an enslaved laborer from Saint Domingue, led a rebellion
of enslaved laborers in Louisiana (Harris 2003:68). Insurrections
also occurred on vessels transporting enslaved Africans during the
Middle Passage. On Middle Passage voyages, Senegambians, who
made up a substantial percentage of enslaved laborers in New York,
were particularly rebellious (Richardson 2001). The rebelliousness of
enslaved Africans, reported in newspapers like the New-York Weekly
Post-Boy, was an increasing source of tension and uneasiness for
European New Yorkers (Hodges 1999).
6

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

204
New York. On April1, 1712, more than two dozen
Africans set fire to a building owned by the enslaver
Peter Vantilborough, a baker. Armed with guns, hatchets,
knives, and other stolen weapons, the rebels ambushed
the settlers who came to extinguish the blaze. The rebels
killed 8European New Yorkers and injured 12. Although
none of the rebels were killed during the attack, the
rebels who had escaped to the countryside committed
suicide rather than be captured. Seventy suspected
rebels were jailed, and 21 were tried and convicted.
Eighteen convicted rebels were executed horrifically
(Frohne 2002; Foote 2004; Harris 2003; Medford and
Brown 2009c:94; Scott 1961). The executioners burned
some condemned rebels at the stake, hanged others,
beheaded all, and left their mutilated bodies outdoors
to rot from exposure (Foote 2004:123). Remarkably,
Peter the Doctor, a free African conjurer who may have
led the rebellion and had performed protective rituals of
invincibility beforehand (e.g., Rucker 2001), was kept
in jail for months but eventually exonerated (Medford
and Brown 2009c:94; Scott 1961).
Along with several Spanish Negroes, Akan-speaking Coromantee and Pawpaw laborers who arrived in
New York sometime between 1710 and 1712 were
implicated in the 1712 revolt. Two Spanish Negroes,
Hosey (Jose) and John (Juan), were from a Spanish
vessel captured in 1706 and had protested since their
capture that they were free Spanish citizens (Harris
2003:38; Scott 1961). Enslaved Akan, whose expectations of slavery were molded in the Akan kingdom
of the Gold Coast, felt that even if they served their
masters well, slaves [in New York] were not entitled
to land and the products of their own labor, and they
received nothing like a tribal adoption into their masters families and the broader settlement community.
In short, the slaves belonged to individual settlers,
but they did not belong in the settler community
(Foote 2004:136).
Foote (2004:125) has argued that the rebels acted
not so much to overthrow colonial New Yorks institution of slavery and assert their belief in the value
of freedom as to restore themselves to familiar forms
of Akan sociality or, failing that objective, to escape
their enslavers through committing suicide, which,
for them, meant reunion with their ancestors.

Arson
Decades after the 1712 Uprising, in 1741, a series of
mysterious fires broke out that destroyed most of the
buildings inside the fort, the day following a disorderly
The New York African Burial Ground

St. Patricks Day celebration. Nine additional fires took

place in the following 3 weeks. New Yorkers feared
the fires were part of a widespread conspiracy between
large numbers of African Americans and Euroamericans to burn down the city, rape and murder their
enslavers, and escape the area by boat (Davis 1985;
Lepore 2005; Medford and Brown 2009c:9496).
Huge numbers of people were arrested over the alleged
conspiracy, and many were executed: 160blacks
and 21whites were arrested, four whites (including
Mr. and Mrs. Hughson) and 17blacks were hanged,
and 13blacks were burned at the stake. Executions
for blacks took place in the Commons near the New
York African Burial Ground (Frohne 2002:165; Medford and Brown 2009c). Although most scholars now
recognize the conspiracy trials as a tragic miscarriage
of justice and argue that no grand conspiracy existed,
many of the sentiments or alleged intentions reveal the
depth of New York European fears and the intensity
of New York African resistance. Analysis of testimony and events surrounding the alleged conspiracy
reveal that many forms of resistanceincluding theft,
murder, and destruction of propertywere regularly
discussed and sometimes carried out by enslaved
laborers in New York (Davis 1971, 1985, 2002). To
Davis (1971:26), the events of 1741 make clear that
[enslaved laborers] evaded curfew, assembled unlawfully, traveled without permission almost at will in
the city, enjoyed unlawful entertainment, consorted
illegally with other persons, stole, and occasionally set
fires. In short, they clearly countervened structures of
social control, eluded restraint and punishment, and
slipped occasionally from their shackles. Although
the wider conspiracy is viewed today as the fiction
of perjured testimony and hysteria (e.g., Scott 1961),
evidence from associated trials clearly indicates that
African New Yorkers talked of doing damage to the
society enslaving them, expressed hopes of gaining
freedom and the material benefits being denied them,
and acted against the laws restraining their liberty. The
talk was widespread, and some did more than talk
(Davis 1985:xii).
Arson may have been a common form of violent
resistance performed against property and persons.
Built mostly of wood, New Yorks buildings vulnerability to combustion made arson an especially
dangerous threat to the community (Medford and
Brown 2009c:96). As such, arson was a capital crime.
In addition to its role in the 1712 Uprising and the
1741 conspiracy, other acts of arson were also committed in the city and in the countryside. In 1728,

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 205

Figure 76. Dancing at the market (from Costello 1887) (from Volume 3 [Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b:Figure 18]).

fires in New York prompted local residents to petition municipal authorities to purchase a fire engine
(Foote 1991:266). In 1736, two female enslaved Africans were accused of burning the stable, boltinghouse, and other buildings in the east ward (Foote
2004:206). Authorities strongly suspected that the
fires were part of a larger conspiracy. In 1819, Rose
Butler, an 18-year-old African American indentured
servant, was hanged for burning down the home of
her employer (Medford and Brown 2000).

Theft
Theft was a pervasive activity amongst enslaved
laborers in New York City. Enslaved laborers often
stole household goods, clothing, jewelry, money, and
other items in order to provision themselves with
entertainment, clothing, food, or liquor, or sometimes, their own freedom. Many European New
Yorkers participated in the black market for stolen goods by fencing stolen goods or by providing

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

206
enslaved laborers with information or opportunities to steal from New York shops and households.7
Enslaved laborers also stole cash and embezzled
money when selling goods for their enslavers at the
citys markets. Laws were passed to prevent theft or
the involvement of free people in the traffic of stolen
goods (Goodfriend 1992; Hodges 1999; Medford,
ed. 2009). One law required free people convicted of
receiving stolen goods to pay the original owner of
the merchandise three times the value plus a 5-pound
fine (Foote 2004:205).
Although theft in New York was considered a
serious crime, enslavers of enslaved laborers guilty
of theft were occasionally unwilling to see enslaved
laborers punished.8 The loss of enslaved labor was
more costly than the loss of a few household items.
Theft was, in a sense, tolerated to some degree
(Hodges 1999; Medford, ed. 2009). Nonetheless,
there was prejudicial treatment against New York
Africans in New York Citys court system and when
administered, punishment was severe. For instance,
in 1719, an enslaved woman named Betty was convicted along with another woman for stealing a
brass kettle from the home of a local merchant
(Medford and Brown 2000:1). She was sentenced to
be tied to a cart, driven around the city, and whipped
at designated spots for a total of 39lashes (Medford
and Brown 2000:1). European New Yorkers were
allowed a jury trial, whereas people of African descent
were afforded only a tribunal of three justices of the
peace and five prominent landowners without a jury
of peers. Black defendants brought to court for theft
were convicted at twice the rate of white defendants
(Foote 2004:205).

enslavers dominance. These included habits such

as smoking and drinking, sullenness, and speaking sharply. Enslaved laborers might deliberately
destroy property, resort to poisoningparticularly
common because of the deep magicoreligious traditions of many African groupssmother or expose
infants, drag their feet, feign ignorance, and embezzle
(Medford, ed. 2009; Singleton and Bograd 1995).
In the Caribbean, feigning illness was one form of
resistance. It was difficult to separate the genuinely
sick from those who feigned illness, making it a
successful avenue of resistance (Handler and Lange
1978:100).
Insubordination, however, was not always passive and sometimes became overtly violent. A number of recorded incidents from the late-seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries demonstrate that people
of African descent occasionally struck, attacked, or
murdered European New Yorkers whom they reviled
or who threatened punishment. Although apparently
isolated, these kinds of incidents clearly indicate
that in addition to open rebellions, smaller-scale
episodes of overt violent resistance against enslavers
also occurred.9

Runaways
Another form of resistance was, of course, running
away. Indentured servants of various nations ran
away as did enslaved Africans, as newspaper notices
of the day indicate (Foote 2004:189). Freedom of
movement, the relative anonymity of city interac-

In colonial New York, African gangs reportedly roamed the

countryside, where they terrorized rural communities (Hodges
1999:101). In the 1690s, Mayor William Merritt was assaulted in the
face by Prince, an enslaved laborer, when the mayor attempted to break
up a group of African New Yorkers whom he accused of disturbing
the peace near his home (Foote 2004; Middleton 2006:143). For his
crime, Prince was publicly whipped at every major intersection in
town (Foote 2004:206). In 1696, Mary, an enslaved woman, was
charged as an accessory to the murder of John Bogee (Medford and
Brown 2000). Enslaved laborers were executed in 1702 and 1708 for
murdering their enslavers (Foote 2004:138). In 1708, an enslaved
woman and an enslaved Native American man were executed for
planning to murder the seven members of the Hallett family (Medford
and Brown 2000). In 1746, a farmer who suspected several New
York Africans of stealing hens was shot in the mouth with his own
gun while he attempted to arrest the suspects in the small boat they
piloted (Hodges 1999:101). In 1749, four slaves from New Spain
murdered the crew of a sloop moored at the port of New York, hijacked
the sailing vessel, and escaped by sea (Foote 2004:198). In 1774,
Shadrack, a free black, was convicted of assault and battery on a
white man with his bare hands (Foote 2004:206).
9

Insubordination
The researchers point out that enslaved laborers
could behave in ways that passively resisted their

In 1699, 12 enslaved laborers associated with 8different enslavers

were prosecuted for stealing a brass kettle, a pettycoat, and quantities
of bread (Goodfriend 1992:122). In 1718, Mary Holst was indicted
for entertaining Negro slaves at her house and receiving stolen goods
such as silver and gold rings (Goodfriend 1992:122).
7

For example, in 1719, an enslaved laborer of the blacksmith

Harmanus Burger, named Harry, was sentenced to death for theft. The
old and feeble enslaver pleaded for mercy, as his survival depended
on Harrys labor (Goodfriend 1992:119).
8

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 207

tions, intense privateering activity, military conflict,
and the large numbers of free and enslaved Africans who operated throughout the city and its environs provided opportunities for enslaved Africans
to escape captivity. By escaping, enslaved laborers
stole themselves from their enslavers and wrested
control of their own labor. Fugitives exacted economic damage on their enslavers, stole clothing and
other items, and formulated multiple identities to
fool officials and passersby into thinking them free or
freely passing with the permission of their enslavers.
Enslaved laborers attempting to escape would often
forge passes claiming permission for travel from
their enslavers or even faked manumission or free
birth (Foote 2004:192; Hodges and Brown 1994;
Medford and Brown 2009c:9192; Waldstreicher
1999). Waldstreicher (1999) has likened many runaways to confidence men. Runaways manipulated
artifacts and symbols of identity to capitalize upon
the ambiguities in the dominant racial classification
system of eighteenth-century America (Waldstreicher 1999:245).
Pursuing runaways in New York was complicated
by the fact that some enslaved laborers would disappear for a few days or even weeks only to reappear
later (Foote 2004).10 Discovering runaways depended
to a great extent on the vigilance of the citys free
Euroamerican townspeople, and advertisements were
frequently published to enlist public help (Foote
2004:189; Hodges and Brown 1994). In 1679, the
Common Council passed a law imposing a hefty
fine of 25pounds for harboring fugitives or failing
to return fugitives to the proper authorities (Dodson
etal. 2000:28). The following year, enslaved laborers were required to carry passes when traveling
(Dodson etal. 2000:29; see also Singleton 1984).
More than a century later, the federal governments
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 required citizens to assist
in the capture of runaways and severely restricted the
ability of accused fugitives to legally demonstrate
their freedom.
Escape was not rampant but fairly common nonetheless. In New York, most runaways were American-

In the French Caribbean, laws distinguished between enslaved

laborers who ran away permanently and those who absented themselves
from work for a short time and returned voluntarily. The punishments
differed for each crime. In the English Caribbean as well, it was
possible for enslaved laborers to escape a particularly hard enslaver
by running away and taking refuge among laborers belonging to
someone else (Thornton 1992:276).
10

born enslaved adult males who were familiar with local

conditions and could speak at least one European language, usually English or Dutch (Foote 2004; Hodges
and Brown 1994; Medford and Brown 2009c:9192).
Footes (2004:192) study of New York runaways documented that fewer than 10percent of runaways were
born in Africa, although the number of African-born
runaways appears to have increased after 1760. Only
6percent were females (Foote 2004:197). Confined to
their enslavers houses and often constrained by the
responsibility of caring for young children, it was far
more difficult for enslaved women to escape. When
they did, according to Foote (2004:197), they often
did so in the company of a male, or they disguised
themselves as males. Gatherings of enslaved men in
labor gangs provided greater opportunities to plot and
carry out escapes.
Sometimes, escaped Africans banded together
and formed maroon communities. In the New York
region, maroon communities were never as large or
as lasting as those that developed in other parts of
the Americas (e.g., Orser and Funari 2001; Singleton
and de Souza, in press; Weik 1997). Foote (1991) has
argued that open revolt and marronage were rare in
New York because of the geography of Manhattan
Island and the presence of large numbers of armed
European New Yorkers who could rapidly mobilize.
Nonetheless, gangs of escapees did form in rural
areas outside the city. In 1679, eastern Long Island
became a refuge for fugitives after the enslavement of
Native Americans there was prohibited by New York
governor, Edmund Ardos (Dodson etal. 2000:28).
In 1690, farmers in Harlem complain[ed] about a
nearby band of Negroes who have run away from
their masters at New York and commit depredations
on the inhabitants of the said village (Dodson
etal. 2000:2930; Goodfriend 1992:123). Outlandish
gangs were again reported to terrorize rural residents
in the 1740s. During and after the Revolutionary
War, when large numbers of free blacks and fugitives lived in the city, New York City itself harbored
a kind of internal maroon colony that hid itself not
in the rural hinterland but in the complex urban
spaces and anonymous social environments of the
city (White 1991). Conceivably, some escapees could
have reached frontier communities deep in the hinterland. Far from New York City, in the frontier of
the Northwest Territory, renegades, vagabonds, and
bandits established isolated maroon colonies (Foote
2004:198). During a 1690 expedition between Lake
Ontario and the Canisteo River Valley, the French

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

208
explorer Sieur de Villiers encountered an outlaw
village of longhouses inhabited by Indians, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Englishmen, and runaway slaves
(Foote 2004:198).
Another means for enslaved laborers to escape was
through privateering. Privateers made large fortunes,
and enslaved laborers in New York were frequently
hired out as privateers in order to obtain the enslaved
laborers prize money (Foy 2006:67). In some cases,
enslavers struck deals with enslaved laborers to split
prize money, and, in others, enslaved laborers used
privateering as a way to escape enslavement. In 1702,
for instance, New York slave masters and colonial
officials [began to express] concern...that slaves
were fleeing the colony by boat (Foy 2006:55).
Between 1739 and in 1748, large increases in privateering activity associated with imperial conflicts
opened up opportunities for enslaved Africans to
obtain freedom (Foy 2006:5758). Although privateering activity declined after 1748, opportunities for escape and freedom soon returned with the
Seven Years War (1754, 17561763). During the
Seven Years War, New York became the busiest
privateering port in British North America (Foy
2006:6667). The privateer craze allowed some
enslaved laborers opportunities for escape as well as
allowing enslaved laborers working as privateers to
negotiate better working conditions (Foy 2006:67).
After the war, owing to declining commercial and
maritime activity, superannuated enslaved laborers
were freed to avoid the costs of feeding them, and
few enslaved laborers attempted to flee via the sea
(Foy 2006:70).
Hodges and Brown (1994) compiled 662 runaway
notices for the years 17161783, corresponding to
753fugitives in the New York and New Jersey colonies, or an average of 11runaways notices per year.
Many enslaved laborers escaped during two periods:
(1)the Revolutionary War era (17751783), when
42percent of notices were published, and (2)in the
late 1790s and early 1800s. The American Revolution
(17751783) was an especially important period for
African American resistance in New York City. In
contrast to the predominantly adult male escapees of
the preceding six decades, many Revolutionary War
escapees were female, and substantial numbers were
children (Hodges and Brown 1994). Ironically, many
enslaved Africans in New York City gained freedom at this time not because of the freedom-seeking
efforts of American revolutionaries but because of

The New York African Burial Ground

British efforts to enlist soldiers of African descent in

exchange for their freedom (see Chapter3). Disruptions related to the war fostered the escape of huge
numbers of enslaved people, and escape was particularly common in New York. It is estimated that for all
of British North America, 80,000100,000enslaved
laborers escaped bondage during the Revolutionary
War (Foote 2004:211). As many as 12,000fugitive
enslaved laborers were reported in New York City by
the 1779 British military census, and 4,000runaways
remained in the city in 1782. Unfortunately, nearly
half of the black loyalists, which included the old and
infirm, died during the war (Foote 2004). By the end
of the war, the influx of military personnel, white
loyalists, and fugitive slaves into the occupied port
town enlarged the citys already swollen population
of displaced people and converted the once bustling
entrept into an overcrowded garrison town, loyalist refugee camp, and runaway slave community
(Foote 2004:212). At the close of the war in 1783,
the British assisted in the emigration of at least 3,000
loyalist blacks, including 1,336 men, 914 women,
and 750 children (Foote 2004:288 n. 40). Traveling
on 81 oceangoing vessels supplied by the British,
the majority of migrs moved to Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick, where they settled free black communities. Others moved to England and Sierra Leone
(Dodson etal. 2000:39; Foote 2004:217). Many of
the evacuees were prime-age adults who escaped
from enslavement in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia,
South Carolina, New York, and New Jersey (Foote
2004:217). The settlement of these communities met
with considerable difficulty, however, as recently
emancipated individuals struggled with the problems
of inadequate tools and land, racial prejudice, and the
uncertainty of an unfamiliar environment (MacLeodLeslie 2001).
During the late-eighteenth century, enslaved
laborers in New York escaped far more often than
their southern contemporaries in Virginia or South
Carolina (Hodges and Brown 1994; White 1991).
Compared to Virginia, twice as many advertisements
for enslaved Africans were posted in New York City
despite the fact that Virginias enslaved population
was nine times larger (Foy 2006:73). White (1991)
has attributed the Revolutionary Warera trend to
the unprecedented opportunities for freedom and
personal improvement offered to enslaved laborers
by the British forces that occupied New York City
and the later trend in the 1790s and 1800s to a grow-

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 209

ing assertiveness among African Americans in New
York and New Jersey after the Revolutionary War.
After the Revolutionary War, (1) many enslaved
laborers had seen combat against enslaving populations, (2)enslaved laborers recently imported from
the West Indies were accustomed to open resistance
and collective rebellion, (3)conspicuous abolitionist
sentiments among some New Yorkers fomented the
struggle for freedom, and (4)the population of free
blacks in New York City itself was increasing rapidly
[making] bondage all the more distasteful to those
enslaved (White 1991:144). Medford (2009:xx)
explains that This late-eighteenth-century activism
had less to do with the revolutionary rhetoric of the
previous era than it did a continuation of the resolve
of African peoples to remind white New Yorkers that
they were entitled to the same respect and dignity
accorded to all people. It was this persistence that
defined their experience in colonial New York for
more than two centuries.

Resistance during Gradual Emancipation

After 1799, the numbers of free blacks in New York
City began to rise dramatically. Free blacks and fugitives flocked to the city; consequently, the latter were
even harder to find, which complicated the control
of enslaved laborers. Enslavers increasingly had to
negotiate better deals and living conditions with
their enslaved laborers or risk being left with either
a sullen refractory slave, or, if the slave decamped,
nothing at all (White 2005:151154). Many enslaved
laborers were able to bargain for their freedom to the
extent that by the time slavery ended in New York on
July4, 1827, there were virtually no slaves left in the
city (White 2005:154). (Dodson etal. [2000] have
suggested otherwise, claiming that 10,000 were freed
on Emancipation Day.) The uneasy and anguished
transition to freedom ushered in more overt and intensified forms of African resistance. African Americans
seeking entertainment or employment were seen by
Euroamericans as jostling and thronging in the streets
and on the sidewalks. Euroamericans began to be
subject to frequent scams and hoodwinks, public
insults, and overt disrespect. Owing to recent waves
of immigration from Europe, African New Yorkers
were only a small part of New York City population,
but their conspicuous presence was prominent to
European New Yorkers far beyond the proportion of
the population they represented (White 2005).

In the early-nineteenth century, African New Yorkers often dressed exceptionally well, better than many
European New Yorkers, and gathered together in
illustrious displays, a fact that offended the European
New Yorkers sense of station. Extravagantly dressed
African New Yorkers traveled in groups that defiantly
forced European New Yorkers to step aside or even
to leave the sidewalk entirely (White 2005). African
New Yorkers subverted and overturned the racial
roles to which they had for so long been subjected.
This was a frustrating and destabilizing affront to
many European New Yorkers: Partly it was African
Americans flamboyant clothing, and partly their
use of the accoutrements of elite white life, such as
carriages. But overall it was the clamorous way in
which black people were occupying the public space
that whites had unthinkingly assumed was theirs
alone that disconcerted blacks fellow citizens (White
2005:172).
Around this time, New York African churches,
schools, and theaters were founded to improve
literacy and education, give African New Yorkers
more control over their own worship, build community solidarity, provide outlets for creativity and
entertainment, and relieve African New Yorkers
from prejudicial treatment. Other institutions like
the Freedoms Journal, the first black newspaper
in the United States, were established to give independent voice to African New Yorkers (Dodson etal.
2000:60). Deep-seated prejudice and Euroamericancontrolled political and economic interests, however,
continued to suppress New York African efforts at
achieving equality and freedom. Medford and Brown
(2009d:103) note that during the early-nineteenth
century, As the free black population grew, black
institutionsboth religious and secularflourished,
indicative of the effort of African Americans to further their independence. But slavery and indenture
continued to shape the lives of many black New
Yorkers, and discrimination imposed second-class
status on the rest.

Bioarchaeological Indicators of
Domination and Resistance
Although there is abundant historical evidence for
resistance and the assertion of human dignity, such

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

210
behaviors are difficult to recognize archaeologically.
The New York African Burial Ground history researchers have pointed out that punishment was at the discretion of the enslaver, unless an enslaved laborer
broke municipal or colonial laws (Medford, ed. 2009).
Mutilation or murder as punishment was not permitted by law, but it did occur. Whether administered by
enslavers, free citizens, or the court, the punishment
rarely fit the crime. For instance, for stealing bags
of coffee and candles, a laborer named Cumbe was
sentenced to 6months of hard labor in the city jail
(Medford and Brown 2009c:93). Others were publicly whipped or even executed for similar offenses.
Executions were typically brutal and torturous, and
as the researchers have revealed, some executions
took place in the Commons near the African Burial
Ground (Medford, ed. 2009).
Some forms of punishment, such as whipping or
hard labor, would be difficult to identify archaeologically if they did not directly affect skeletal elements.
The researchers suggest that some individuals may
give mute evidence of violent punishment. The bones
of the 2535-year-old adult in Burial 137 and the
3545-year-old male in Burial 359 had a darkened,
highly polished appearance [that] was consistent with
slight burning or singeing of bone (Blakey 2009a:6).
Blakey (2009a) notes that the cause of these bones
appearance remains unknown but burning at the stake
is one possibility. Burials330, 331, 362, and 372
contained only crania, possibly indicating decapitation. Mutilation was a common punishment for
capital offenses in Colonial New York, especially
those involving armed revolt (Medford and Brown
2009c:94). The great deal of postdepositional disturbance associated with these burials and the fragmentary nature of the bones indicate this explanation is
hypothetical at best.11
Wilczak etal. (2009) analyzed skeletal indications of
trauma in New York African Burial Ground skeletons
by examining incidences of fractures. Skeletal trauma
can indicate the occurrence of interpersonal violence or
accidents that damaged skeletal elements. In skeletal
samples, the most commonly observed fractures are in
long bones, ribs, and vertebrae (Merbs 1989b). DepresBurial330 consisted of a displaced cranium and mandible in a
disturbed area; Burial331 consisted of a redeposited cranium and
mandible fragment in a disturbed area of the site (Perry, Howson,
and Bianco, eds. 2009c:446); Burial362 was clearly truncated by a
postdepositional act; and Burial372 represented only a mandible.
11

The New York African Burial Ground

sion fractures on flat bones of the crania, typically

caused by a blow to the head, are also common for
prehistoric individuals (Ortner and Putschar 1981). It is
important to investigate secondary changes associated
with trauma, such as osteoarthritis or body asymmetry,
because they may provide important clues about quality of life and the interaction of skeletal pathologies
(Eisenberg and Hutchinson 1996).
The timing of fractures provides information about
their effects on life history. For the New York African Burial Ground sample, fractures were classed
as premortem, perimortem, ambiguous perimortem,
and postmortem fractures. Fractures were considered
premortem if there was evidence of bone remodeling
in the area of the fracture. Fractures were considered
perimortem if they appeared to have been made on
live or fresh bone but showed no evidence of bone
remodeling. Postmortem fractures were fractures that
appeared to have been made on dead bone. Ambiguous
perimortem fractures were fractures that could have
been made shortly before or after death.
In their analysis, Wilczak etal. (2009:222) observed
a total of 117fractures in 23[adult] males and
81fractures in 18[adult] females. Among males,
cranial fractures were most common, followed by rib
fractures. Among females, femur fractures and cranial
fractures were present at similar frequencies. All cranial fractures were either perimortem or ambiguous
perimortem. For both males and females, at least four
of five fractures were either perimortem or ambiguous
perimortem, suggesting that episodes of trauma were
potentially related to causes of death. A few individuals accounted for the majority of fractures.
For individuals with fractures, multiple fractures
are indicated even when ambiguous perimortem
fractures are excluded. For several individuals (e.g.,
Burials89, 171, 180, and 205), perimortem fractures
were observed in multiple areas of the skeleton. Two
of these individuals were older adults (Burials89
and 171), and three were individuals in Late Group
burials (Burials 171, 180, and 205). The individual in Burial89, a female more than 55years of
age, was one of the oldest in the sample. Burial171
held a male between 44 and 60years of age who
had a premortem fracture of the left clavicle and 22
perimortem fractures distributed across his entire
body, excepting the cranium. A female aged between
19 and 20years at the time of her death (Burial205)
had the greatest number of fractures [32], and
all . . . were perimortem (Wilczak etal. 2009:223).

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 211

Fractures were present in children as well as adults.
The researchers also observed fractures on the bones
of three subadults aged between 10 and 14years. The
child in Burial180 had multiple fractures, which were
distributed throughout the skeleton including the long
bones of all four limbs, the pelvis, and the cranium
(Wilczak etal. 2009:223). In several cases, it seems
that the incidents that led to multiple fractures probably coincided with death.
The woman in Burial 25, aged 2024 years at
her death, represented the most dramatic case of
interpersonal violence in the sample (Wilczak etal.
2009:224). She had a lead musket ball lodged in her
rib cage, blunt-force trauma to her face, and a spiral,
or oblique, fracture to her lower right arm above the
wrist caused by twisting and pulling. The researchers interpret the injuries as resulting from resisting a
person who subsequently shot the woman (Wilczak
etal. 2009:218226).
Perhaps the clearest indicator of how the bodies
and souls of enslaved laborers were treated by some
Euroamericans is found in Burial364. This man aged
between 25 and 35years of age was buried without
a coffin, and his remains were placed in a puzzling
fashion. Some skeletal elements were placed in correct anatomical position, but others were displaced,
such as the right forearm bones, which had been
placed in the lower-left-leg area. The bones also
displayed probable perimortem cut marks, indicating
that the hands and lower arms had been severed near
the time of death. One interpretation of these remains
is that the person represented a cadaver that had been
stolen from the burial ground, partially dissected, and
reburied (Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009d). Sadly, the
researchers note that grave robbing for such purposes
was all too common in late-eighteenth-century New
York City (Medford and Brown 2009a:101). Alternatively, if dismemberment occurred prior to or near
the time of death, this individual could have been the
victim of a brutal and torturous execution.
Grave goods and mortuary treatment can be interpreted as indicating resistance. These issues are
addressed in discussions of origins and identity (see
Chapter4) and spirituality and sacred space (see
Chapter 8).

Discussion
Historical archaeologists have come to embrace models of domination and resistance in understanding the

life experiences of enslaved Africans. This chapter

documented the contours of domination and resistance
in colonial and early Federal period Manhattan by
examining historical and bioarchaeological information. There is abundant historical evidence for patterns
of domination and resistance in colonial (16241775)
and early Federal period (17761830) Manhattan. The
harsh impositions of slavery began shortly after the
founding of Dutch New Amsterdam in 1624. The Dutch
system of slavery was not as repressive as the British
system came to be, but it nonetheless involved forcible
labor exploitation and dehumanizing oppression. Overt
resistance to the conditions of slavery began early in the
settlements history, as enslaved Africans continuously
sought to increase their rights and freedoms. Africans
successfully petitioned for wages due, won court battles, developed families, acquired real estate, and fought
for their rights and freedom; substantial numbers of
enslaved Africans were eventually freed. To the Dutch,
however, the granting of half-freedom and eventually,
freedom, may have been more of an economic decision
than a moral imperative. New Amsterdam Africans who
were granted half-freedoms were still economically
and militarily obligated to the West India Company
and, at the same time, were less costly to the Dutch
to maintain. Also, the development of rural Africanowned farms on the settlements periphery formed a
buffer zone between the Dutch settlement and Native
American groups, affording the settlement protection
against attack.
The conditions of slavery and oppression worsened for Africans after the British takeover in 1664.
The British system quickly became highly repressive and involved the building of more and more
restrictive laws and harsh punishments over time.
The British restricted New York African commercial
activities, travel, public gatherings, entertainment,
funerals, and manumission. They restricted the rights
of African New Yorkers to own land, testify in court,
or to make a better life for African New Yorkers and
their families. Brutal and inhumane punishments
were inflicted on African New Yorkers who violated
the citys highly restrictive codes. Under the British,
slavery became racialized and hereditary, creating
a system of exploitation, oppression, and injustice
whose onerous effects continue into the present (see
Chapter3).
Yet, with every restriction and oppression, enslaved
laborers resisted their enslavers. They did so in multifarious covert and overt ways. Enslaved laborers

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

212
were insubordinate, they undermined their enslavers,
they stole, they gathered together, they celebrated
their distinct and shared heritages, they escaped, and
they rebelled. Many acts of resistance are registered
historically by complaints, laws, criminal charges,
and court proceedings. These documents indicate
a deep and rich history of resistance but also retain
a certain historical bias. More than likely, African
resistance was more subtle, pervasive, and effective
than historical records indicate or than archaeologists
and historians realize.
The African Burial Ground was an extremely
important locus of African resistance in Manhattan.
Although officials restricted the size and scheduling
of funeral rites, they did not restrict their content.
Euroamerican citizens were confused and offended
by African diasporic rituals and behaviors, but they
also did not understand them. It is quite likely that
resistance was intricately woven into New York African religious behaviors and that, as an institution,
the African Burial Ground nurtured African-derived
values and fomented New York African resistance.
Blakey (2009a:4) suggests that the cemetery may
well have taken on special significance for affirming
that its participants were human beings, for preserving
cultures, and for maintaining a sense of hopefulness
among New Yorks African community. Perry, Howson, and Bianco (2009:374) further suggest that, once
the burial ground had closed, the legacy of Africanderived religious traditions and resistance that was
developed at the African Burial Ground may have
continued on with the development of New York
African churches and other institutions.
Resistance is difficult to read from the archaeological record. There is some evidence for domination
and resistance in the mortuary treatment of individuals interred at the African Burial Ground, including
evidence for the expression of African diasporic cosmologies and belief systems. In many ways, however,
these were likely core aspects of neo-African identities. Their presence and maintenance in a racialized
and oppressive context probably required continuous
resistance against those who attempted to repress
neo-African identities, but in and of themselves were
not defined in terms of resistance. These issues are
visited in more detail in discussion of origins and
identity (see Chapter4) and spirituality and sacred
space (see Chapter8).
Bioarchaeological evidence for domination and
resistance is also somewhat difficult to interpret
because evidence for trauma and stress cannot often
The New York African Burial Ground

be tied to specific acts of domination or resistance.

Domination took the form of threats and occasional
acts of physical violence, but more subtle day to-day
domination depended upon the deployment of a wide
spectrum of disciplines, ranging from the imposition
of European-American names to food rationing and
control of architectural and landscape space (Epperson 1990:35). For example, at Newton Plantation in
Barbados, historical records indicate that brutal physical punishment was performed against enslaved Africans, yet the skeletal material indicates little evidence
of pathologies or traumas indicative of overt physical
abuse (Farnsworth 2000:147), leading Handler and
Lange (1978:21) to conclude that more subtle abuse
through diets and malnutrition was more in evidence.
Farnsworth (2000:148), however, has pointed out that
this kind of explanation tends to dismiss the impacts of
violence on enslaved life and overlooks other forms of
archaeological evidence that could inform on physical
violence. As Farnsworth (2000:155) has noted, To
speak of resistance, without discussing violence, is to
ignore a significant cause of that resistance and only
give one side of the story.
The New York African Burial Ground stands out
in this regard in that material evidence of possible
physical violence was discovered. A number of individualsincluding men, women, and children
suffered multiple fractures in multiple regions of
their skeletons, and a few could represent the victims of execution or torture. The brutal executions
that might be indicated by some of the evidence
would have likely been inflicted on Africans who
resisted enslavement and oppression. One woman
(Burial25), a victim of a physical assault, had her
right arm twisted to the extent that it was broken.
She was punched or clubbed in the face, breaking
her nose and maxilla, and she was shot in the back.
The attempt of her bone to reheal suggests that she
remained alive for a short period before her eventual
death. Her brutal killing may have occurred as she
resisted her attacker.
The specific causes of trauma are often indeterminate, however. Historical records indicate ubiquitous
oppression and extreme privation, the results of which
are probably registered in evidence of physical stress
and disease discussed in Chapters5 and 6, in addition to the skeletal trauma discussed in this chapter.
Archaeologists continue to seek ways to infer behavioral determinants of physical trauma and stress using
a combination of archaeological, skeletal biological,
and historical evidence. Otherwise, it can be said with

Chapter 7 . The Assertion and Maintenance of Human Dignity 213

little certainty which physical evidence suggests processes of domination or resistance and which physical
evidence suggests other processes. Ultimately, the
assertion and maintenance of human dignity goes far

beyond strategies of resistance and was likely manifest

in many ways, including in the ideology, identity, and
spiritual practices of enslaved Africans. These issues
are discussed in the chapter that follows.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Chapter 8

Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary

Practices at the New York African Burial Ground
African-derived religious beliefs and practices were
richly expressed in the Americas in many different
ways. From New York to Pernambuco, enslaved and
free Africans from different parts of Africa performed
and participated in rituals that had deep African roots
and had specific historical or cultural resonances.
Differences existed between rituals performed in
Benin or Angola, as well as between those performed
in different communities or among different ethnic
groups. Despite their differences, there were also
overarching similarities among the religious rituals of
people from different parts of West and West Central
Africa. Many rituals involved with divination or healing were distinct in their details and material referents
but similar in their purposes and goals. In this sense,
African-derived rituals were fundamentally distinct
from Christian European rituals in their approach to
religious belief and practice. Many African rituals
were highly pragmatic and were designed to address
instability within individuals or communities.
New York African belief systems and practices
likely persisted in the form of conjurers, priests, and
midwives who performed healing, conjuring, and
divination rites (e.g., Wilkie 1997). Peter the Doctor, a free New York African, performed rituals for
the participants of the 1712 Uprising that resembled
elements of the African-derived magico-religious
practices known as obeah and performed among the
black populations of the British West Indies and other
English overseas colonies, where the continuous influx
of native Africans supported the retention of Africanisms (Foote 2004:142).
In colonial New York, the number of Americanborn persons of African descent reached a high in the
1760s. At the same time, African New Yorkers were
exposed to a process of what Foote (2004:147) has
called re-Africanism, as large cargoes of enslaved

Africans continued to arrive in the port. Africanderived religious beliefs continued to be an available
and competed source of moral authority for the citys
black population (Foote 2004:147). In this sense, the
belief systems among enslaved Africans in the Americas were rejuvenated and influenced by belief systems
brought recently from Africa, rather than eroded by
the onslaught of European Christianity.
Mortuary practices at the African Burial Ground
add to an understanding of the spirituality and religious philosophy of diasporic Africans in New York.
The African Burial Ground affords an opportunity
to explore the interplay of several different belief
systemstraditional African religions, European
Christianity, Islam, and perhaps Native American
beliefsand infer processes of identity formation and
maintenance, syncretism, creolization, and resistance
among enslaved Africans. Perhaps most important,
studying the African Burial Ground brings archaeologists closer to an understanding of the universal
human condition and the struggle among African New
Yorkers to order and make sense of a sometimes cruel
and unjust world.
All peoples mark the passage through important life
stages, whether the event is a puberty ritual or the state
funeral of a beloved president. Perhaps the most universal rites of passage surround death. People mourn
not only to show their grief over losing loved ones but
also to ensure the safe passage of loved ones into the
next world, to mark the status of both the deceased
and their mourners, and to reassure the community
that life does indeed go on. Because of this, mortuary practices serve as a rich reservoir of information
concerning belief systems, worldview, and sacred
landscape. How mortuary behaviors are registered
in the archaeological record and how archaeologists
choose to identify or investigate funerary deposits

216
is crucial to establishing knowledge of these issues.
Many important aspects of mortuary ritual may not
be clearly distinguished in the archaeological record,
and others may require methodological advances to
be identified.
What can be learned from the archaeological
record alone is limited, however, particularly from
the perspective of a single site. As will be discussed
below, mortuary patterns at the New York African
Burial Ground remain intriguing in a variety of
aspects, including in their apparent homogeneity.
Perry and Howson (2009:109) observed that an
extraordinary degree of homogeneity is found in four
parameters of potential variability examined at the
African Burial Ground. Coffin use, body orientation
with head to west, and extended supine body position characterize the vast majority of interments.
The preference for individual interment is also very
evident.... It is also very likely that shrouding was
the prevailing practice.
The homogeneity of archaeologically recognized
mortuary practices suggest that diasporic Africans
in New York routinely performed some mortuary
practices in very similar ways. These practices,
including the use of shrouds; extended, supine burial
in individual coffins; orientation of burials with an
individuals head pointing to the west; and limited
interment of grave goods, are similar to the practices
of Christian Europeans during the period the African
Burial Ground was in use. In a few instances, Islamic
or Native American practices may be in evidence.
Possibly, official ordinances or the influence of grave
diggers or sextons are responsible for the narrow range
of variation in mortuary practices, but no evidence
in support of these hypotheses has yet to surface.
The uniformity of observable mortuary patterns at
the African Burial Ground suggests that some strata
of African Diaspora mortuary behavior overlapped
significantly with that of Christian Europeans. At the
same time, historical and ethnographic descriptions
of religious practices in New York City and other
diasporic contexts as well as archaeological evidence
of African Diasporic spiritual practices at the New
York African Burial Ground suggest that fundamentally African or African American belief systems were
also expressed.
This chapter summarizes what has been learned
about mortuary practice from the New York African
Burial Ground. After considering some of the general
problems and issues underlining mortuary studies,
mortuary practices at the New York African Burial
The New York African Burial Ground

Ground are considereduse of coffins; body placement and orientation; use of grave markers; shrouding;
and accompanying items, including clothing, ornamentation, and other items. Next, the archaeologically
silent aspects of burial are consideredpreparing
the body for burial, mourning rites, and associated
ceremonies. The chapter then turns to the ideological
influences of Christianity, Islam, Native American
spiritual beliefs, and African religions upon mortuary
practices at the New York African Burial Ground. Last,
the burial ground as sacred space and its meaning to
the descendant communities is discussed.

Problems and Issues in

Mortuary Studies
Deciphering underlying religion or ideology from
archaeological manifestations is never easy. Many
beliefs and practices have no obvious material signatures. Or, without fairly detailed historical or
ethnographic information on ideology and ritual,
archaeologists may not know what to look for or
how specifically to interpret archaeological patterns.
Consequently, such mortuary behavior is difficult to
interpret using archaeology alone (Handler and Lange
1978). An exuberant burial involving numerous rites
and ceremonies that emphasize the roles of ancestor
spirits versus a sedate funeral emphasizing grief,
piety, and a distant heaven could result in a similar
material signaturethe extended supine burial of
an individual within a coffin oriented with the head
to the west.
Information from diverse historical and ethnographic sources is often needed to interpret archaeological data. Jamieson (1995:39) strikes to the heart
of the matter in writing that
there is a need for historical archaeologists
to consider the work of historians of slavery,
art historians, Africanist ethnographers, and
Africanist archaeologists. Only with such a
wide-ranging ethnohistorical approach can
historical archaeologists begin fully to put the
burial practices of African Americans in context.
The interpretation of mortuary rituals and material culture is contingent on the wide-ranging
chronological, geographical, and social contexts
which characterize the long history of African
descendants in the New World.

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 217
Many factors complicate the realization of these
laudable goals, however, only some of which can be
touched upon here.
A major problem in the investigation of African
religions is the tendency to overgeneralize African
cultures, which has resulted from a paucity of wellresearched ethnohistory and ethnography, a lack of
archaeological studies in West and West Central African sites contemporary with the period of slavery,
and the relative newness of Colonial period studies
(Armstrong 1990:8; Jamieson 1995:41; Thornton
2001:73). Thornton (2001:73) has written that most
Central African ethnography describes religion best
only for the northern part of the Kikongo-speaking
area and necessarily also focuses on the cultural
situation of the twentieth century, which complicates
using it for periods centuries earlier. By contrast,
the writings of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
European visitors to Africa are fairly abundant but
problematic in their hostile misrepresentations of
African religions (Thornton 2001:73).
An extraordinary variety of cultural expressions
can be found among African cultures and enslaved
Africans in New York derived from diverse parts of
this huge continent (Butler 2000:24) (see Chapter4).
As Goodfriend (1992:113) has reminded us, New
York Citys large black population was strikingly
heterogeneous, consisting of native-born New Yorkers, seasoned blacks from the West Indies or other
mainland colonies, West Africans, Malagasay people
from Madagascar, and so-called Spanish Indians.
This heterogeneity makes the apparent homogeneity
of burial practices at the African Burial Ground all
the more remarkable.
The lack of data on social and temporal variation
in belief systems is a serious obstacle to interpreting
the mortuary practices of Africans in the diaspora
(Howson 1990; Jamieson 1995:43; Posnansky 1999).
Many studies have tended to focus on a select number
of West African groups, such as Fon, Efe, and Yoruba,
whose religious background formed the foundation
of religions that developed in the Caribbean, such
as Vodoun and Santera. The religious backgrounds
of other groups, such as those in Central Africa and
Senegambia, have been less well studied, although
recent investigations are beginning to address gaps in
ethnohistorical knowledge (Kelly 2004; Sweet 2003;
Thornton 2001). Ethnographic studies have also concentrated on state societies. When nonstate societies
were first studied by anthropologists, they already had
been displaced, marginalized, and deeply affected by

the trade in enslaved Africans (Posnansky 1999).

Archaeological sampling is an important consideration at the African Burial Ground. The excavated
portions of the burial ground represent only a fraction of the original cemetery (Howson and Bianchi
2009a) (see Chapter3). Therefore, the burial sample
is probably not representative of the entire cemetery.
Complicating sample size and representativeness
issues are problems with field methods and the myriad
formation processes that have affected the deposits and
the remains (Howson and Bianchi 2009) (see Chapter2). Processes that may have affected burials and
their contents include historical and modern ground
disturbance, factors affecting preservation, refuse
disposal, bioturbation, and similar processes. Field
methods precluded comprehensive identification of
the original ground surface and paid limited attention
to stratigraphy or the assessment of factors affecting
preservation (Howson and Bianchi 2009a). Features
overlying burial deposits were given little attention
or documentation. Provenience information was also
not specific enough to search comprehensively for
evidence of grave markers or to assess relationships
between some artifacts and burial events (Howson
and Bianchi 2009a) (see Chapter2).
As has been noted previously, the precise identities of the deceased interred in the African Burial
Ground are unknown. No records were kept of the
individuals who were buried in the African Burial
Ground, in contrast to the cemeteries associated with
contemporary Christian churches. Currently, it is not
known precisely where individuals came from, how
they were related to other individuals in the burial
ground, or what tasks they performed in New York
and elsewhere. As Seeman (1999:405) has reminded
us, enslaved Africans left a faint trace on the historical record. Whereas it is plausible that the majority
of the New York African Burial Ground interments
represent the remains of enslaved Africans, based
on documentary records, some could have been free
Africans, and others could have been of European,
Native American, or of mixed descent.
Some Native Americans were enslaved, as were
those persons referred to as Spanish Negroes
(Cantwell and Wall 2001:168169; Foote 2004:36, 80:
197; Goodfriend 1978:137, 1992:112; Harris 2003:16;
Kammen 1975:58; Medford, ed. 2009). Enslaved
Native Americans included the local Munsees as
well as nonlocal groups who were brought to New
Amsterdam as captives or came there to trade. If local
enslaved Native Americans were buried in the African

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

218
Burial Ground, they more likely would have been
interred during its earliest use; in 1679, the English
governor banned the enslavement of local Indians,
although the enslavement of members of other Indian
groups continued (Cantwell and Wall 2001:320 n.
2; Foote 2004:80). In 1706, the British passed a law
stating that Negroes only shall be slaves and discounting religion in determining enslavement (Harris
2003:28).
Spanish Negroes were captured from Spanish
vessels and enslaved because of their swarthy skin,
despite protestations that they were neither slaves nor
Negroes (Foote 2004:136; Harris 2003:18). This practice ended after 1750 (Harris 2003:30). Some Spanish
Negroes were Native Americans captured in New
Spain from Central and South America (Goodfriend
1992:114). Records typically do not differentiate
between Native Americans and Spanish Negroes
when referring to enslaved Native Americans (Goodfriend 1992:114).
The researchers also noted that not all Africans
were enslaved. Particularly during the Dutch period,
a number of free Africans lived in Manhattan and its
environs, and they maintained a presence after Dutch
rule ended (Goodfriend 1992:115116; Medford, ed.
2009; Perry, Howson, and Bianco, eds. 2009a; Wilson
1994:2325). By contrast, Foote (2004:259 n. 135) has
suggested that only a small number of free blacks and
black indentured servants lived in New York City and
the adjacent countryside during the colonial period
and hypothesizes that most individuals identified as
Negro in official census were enslaved. People
identified historically as free blacks, unless they
were church members, may have been buried in the
African Burial Ground.
Some Europeans also may have been buried in the
cemetery. The 1757 Almshouse cemetery for New
Amsterdams abject poor was located south of the
African Burial Ground and may have overlapped
with southern portions of the cemetery (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009:48). Some executed lawbreakers
also were buried in areas adjacent to or overlapping
the African Burial Ground (Foote 2004:104). As Foote
(2004:141) has written, the colonial rulers deemed
the area encompassing the Negroes Burial Ground to
be a convenient location for the disposal of toxic waste
and the burial of outsiders, such as paupers, criminals,
and slaves. Deserters and prisoners of war also were
buried near the barracks on the Commons in areas that
may have overlapped with portions of the African
Burial Ground. The researchers concluded that the
The New York African Burial Ground

burials of prisoners, prisoners of war, and the poor

may have been most common in areas of the African
Burial Ground south of excavated areas (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009). As a result of the confounding
variables discussed above, any inferences made about
cultural, religious, or ethnic identity and the lifeways
of ethnic groups based on the treatment of the dead
should be considered tentative. With these caveats
in mind, this chapter turns to a discussion of burial
practices at the African Burial Ground and the inferences concerning worldview, cosmology, and belief
systems that can be derived.

Burial Practices at the

African Burial Ground
As has been noted, one of the most striking aspects
of burial treatment at the African Burial Ground is
its homogeneity. This section examines evidence for
coffin use and decoration, shrouding, body placement and orientation, grave markers, clothing, and
ornamentation.

Coffins
According to Perry and Howson (2009), 353 of the
385graves for which the presence or absence of a coffin could be determined contained coffins (91.7percent). Coffins generally were simple constructions
lacking hardware and were made from soft woods such
as cedar, pine, or fir (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:221;
Perry and Howson 2009:110). Three main types of coffins were observed: hexagonal, or shouldered; tapered,
or trapezoidal; and rectangular (Figure77). Poorly
preserved coffins were labeled as four sided when
it could not be determined if the shape was tapered or
rectangular. Some coffins contained footboards, and
these were found in tapered and shouldered coffins
(Howson and Bianchi 2009b:217). Gable-lidded coffins, which were found at the seventeenth-century Martins Hundred site in Virginia (Nol Hume 1982:3839,
70) and represented the majority of identifiable coffin shapes from Philadelphias First African Baptist
cemetery dating to the nineteenth century (Parrington
etal. 1989:144), were not observed at the New York
African Burial Ground.
The researchers used coffin shape as one attribute to
place interments in time. Drawing on several lines of
evidence, the researchers suggest that the trapezoidal

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 219

Figure 77. Coffin shapes represented at

the New York African Burial Ground (from
Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Perry, et al.
2009:Figure 49]).

(four-sided tapering), flat-lidded coffins found at the

New York African Burial Ground may represent an
earlier and/or less expensive style than the hexagonal
style (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:215). The researchers support this hypothesis by noting that where
graves are superimposed, burials with four-sided,
tapered coffins usually predate burials with hexagonalshaped coffins (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:215).
Tables2831 present coffin data by temporal group
for burials of determinable age, sex, and coffin type. It
is clear from these tables that hexagonal coffins were
not present in the Early Group burials (pre-1735) but
predominated after that time. It must be noted, however, that coffin shape was one of several factors used
to define temporal groups (see Chapter2), and thus
criteria for inferring the relative age of burials could
have influenced this pattern (Howson and Bianchi
2009b:218).
Subadults in the sample were always buried in coffins. Subadults coffins were more varied than adult
coffins. Tapered, four-sided, rectangular, or other
coffin shapes were most common among subadults
and were used in a substantial percentage of subadult
burials during all periods. The researchers provide an
explanation for the greater variance in coffin shape
among subadult burials and perhaps the more frequent
occurrence of non-hexagonal shaped coffins: The
shape of childrens coffins was less standardized than
the shape of adult coffins because childrens coffins
were more likely to be made by families rather than
purchased from workshops (Howson and Bianchi
2009b:218).

Most coffins were constructed with iron nails rather

than screwsalthough preservation made it difficult to identify screwsand most lacked hardware.
Screws were identified in the field for 3burials and
in the laboratory for 31 burials. Other hardware items
that could have been screws were set aside for X-ray
but unfortunately were lost as a result of the terrorist
attacks of September11, 2001 (Howson and Bianchi
2009b:232). The few screws that were recorded in
situ were recorded at the corner joints or along the
lid, suggesting that screws may have been used as
needed to address problems in construction, such as
warped wood (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:233). Most
of these were used in the construction of hexagonal
shaped coffins (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:Table41),
suggesting they may have exclusively been part of the
toolkit of professional cabinetmakers. Screws added
to the cost of coffins, but the number identified per
coffin was low. Typically, one or two screws were
identified for coffins with screws.
The hexagonal coffin containing Burial 252, a
child between 1 and 2years of age, may have had
a breastplate. Seven handles with back plates, also
of iron, were recovered, six from the same burial
(Howson and Bianchi 2009b). The scarcity of coffin
hardware is notable. At a later, rural African American
cemetery in Arkansas, the Cedar Grove Baptist Church
Cemetery (dating between 1890 and 1927), casketlid fasteners, handles, decorative tacks, plaques, and
windows were common. It is intriguing that coffin
hardware, except for decorative tacks, was absent from
infant (birth to 2years) burials and rare among child

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

220
Table 28. Coffin Shape in the Early Group (pre-ca. A.D. 1735), by Age and Sex of Interred Individuals
Age and Sex

No Coffin

Tapered Coffin

Subadult, indeterminate sex

4
(20.0%)

Adult, indeterminate sex

2
(10.0%)

Adult male

1
(100.0%)

Adult female

Male indeterminate age

Female indeterminate age

Total

1
(100.0%)

Four-Sided Coffin

Rectangular Coffin

Total

1
(100.0%)

4
(44.4%)

6
(30.0%)

1
(11.1%)

6
(30.0%)

1
(11.1%)

2
(22.2%)

2
(20.0%)

1
(11.1%)

20
(100.0%)

9
(99.9%)

1
(100.0%)

31

Note: Disturbed and redeposited remains, deposits lacking skeletal remains, and burials of indeterminate age and sex excluded;
indeterminate and unknown coffin types excluded. Possible males grouped with males, possible females with females; possible
coffin types grouped with determinable types. Subadult = <15 years; adult = >15 years.

Table 29. Coffin Shape in the Middle Group (ca. A.D. 17351760),by Age and Sex of Interred Individuals
Age and Sex

No Coffin

Hexagonal
Coffin

Tapered
Coffin

Four-Sided
Coffin

Rectangular
Coffin

Total

Subadult, indeterminate sex

41
(45.0%)

4
(100.0%)

8
(100.0%)

4
(100.0%)

57

Adult, indeterminate sex

2
(2.2%)

Adult male

21
(23.1%)

21

2
(100.0%)

23
(25.3%)

25

Male indeterminate age

2
(2.2%)

Female indeterminate age

2
(2.2%)

2
(100.0%)

91
(100.0%)

4
(100.0%)

8
(100.0%)

4
(100.0%)

Adult female

Total

109

Note: Disturbed and redeposited remains, deposits lacking skeletal remains, and burials of indeterminate age and sex excluded;
indeterminate and unknown coffin types excluded. Possible males grouped with males, possible females with females; possible
coffin types grouped with determinable types. Subadult = <15 years; adult = >5 years.

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 221
Table 30. Coffin Shape in the Late-Middle Group (ca. A.D. 17601776), by Age and Sex of Interred
Individuals
Age and Sex

No Coffin

Hexagonal
Coffin

Tapered
Coffin

Four-Sided
Coffin

Rectangular
Coffin

Total

Subadult, indeterminate sex

10
(31.2)

2
(100.0%)

2
(100.0%)

1
(33.3%)

15

Adult, indeterminate sex

Adult male

2
(66.7%)

12
(37.5%)

Adult female

1
(33.3%)

8
(25.0%)

2
(6.3%)

2
(100.0%)

2
(100.0%)

3
100.0%)

42

Male indeterminate age

Total

3
(100.0%)

32
(100.0%)

2
(33.3%)

16

Note: Disturbed and redeposited remains, deposits lacking skeletal remains, and burials of indeterminate age and sex excluded;
indeterminate and unknown coffin types excluded. Possible males grouped with males, possible females with females; possible
coffin types grouped with determinable types. Subadult = <15 years; adult = >15 years.

Table 31. Coffin Shape in the Late Group (ca. A.D. 17761795), by Age and Sex of Interred Individuals
Age and Sex

No
Coffin

Hexagonal
Coffin

Tapered
Coffin

1
(50.0%)

Four-Sided Rectangular
Coffin
Coffin

2
(100.0%)

5
(83.3%)

Other

2a
(100.0%)

23

Subadult, indeterminate
sex

13
(24.5%)

Adult, indeterminate sex

2
(3.8%)

36

24

Adult male

16
(64.0%)

20
(37.7%)

Adult female

6
(24.0%)

16
(30.2%)

Male indeterminate age

3
(12.0%)

1
(1.9%)

1
(1.9%)

2
(100.0%)

90

Female indeterminate age

Total

25
(100.0%)

53
(100.0%)

1
(50.0%)

2
(100.0%)

2
(100.0%)

1
(16.6%)

6
(100.0%)

Note: Disturbed and redeposited remains, deposits lacking skeletal remains, and burials of indeterminate age and sex excluded;
indeterminate and unknown coffin types excluded. Possible males grouped with males, possible females with females; possible
coffin types grouped with determinable types. Subadult = <15 years; adult = >15 years.
a
1 shared grave, 1 possible 8-sided coffin

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

222

Figure 78. Composite drawing of coffin

handle based on the X-rays taken of the
handles from Burials176 and 90 (length is
7.4inches) (drawing by C. LaRoche and R.
Schultz) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson and
Bianchi 2009b:Figure 127]).

burials (213years) at Cedar Grove (Rose and Santeford 1985b:130, 133). By the mid-eighteenth century,
coffin furniture, such as lid fasteners, handles, plates,
and decorations, was mass produced and available
to coffin makers (Habenstein and Lamers 1975:256
257). The lack of coffin furniture among the New
York African Burial Ground interments may suggest
a lack of availability at the time of the cemeterys
use or, more likely, may reflect the impoverishment
of enslaved people.

Decorated Coffins
Some coffins at the New York African Burial Ground
were decorated with paint or coffin furniture. Coffin
furniture includes items such as handles, corner and
edge lace, breastplates, upholstery, and other decorative metalwork (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:239)
(Figure78). The use of decoration on coffins is generally understood to have entailed additional expense
and may have been relatively rare at the African Burial
Ground owing to the impoverishment of the individuals buried there. The inclusion of grave goods and
coffin furniture may have been preferred among some
enslaved West Africans. In the late-seventeenth-century Gold Coast region, for instance, Willem Bosman
(1721:221222) noted that deceased who were rich
during life are richly cloathed when put into the Coffin; besides which several fine Cloaths, Gold Fetiches,
high-prized Corals... and several other valuable things
are put into the Coffin to him, for his Use in the other
Life, they not doubting but he may have Occasion for
them. The Value and Quantity of his Coffin Furniture,
is adjusted in proportion to what the Deceased left his
Heir, or perhaps to the Heirs Conveniency.
Coffins in four burials (Burials159, 183, 213, and
313) were thought by the excavators to have had posThe New York African Burial Ground

sible red-paint residue. The individuals were a woman

2535years old (Burial159), a child approximately
1year old (Burial183), a woman aged 4555years
(Burial213), and a man aged 4555 (Burial313)
(Howson and Bianchi 2009b:241, 243). The red color
suggests it may have been primer rather than topcoat,
in which case it is possible that the coffins could have
been painted black, but only the primer was preserved
(Rose and Santeford 1985a:99, 105, 118). Otherwise,
it is possible that the red color held symbolic significance, was incidental to the origin of the materials
used, or is a product of deterioration. Identification
of the red color is based on visual inspection only,
as samples were not analyzed for pigment (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:243). The researchers (citing
Rauschenberg 1990:38) note that information on coffin
manufacture in Charleston and New York suggests that
black paint was used to paint coffins and entailed an
added layer of cost.
Painted coffins have been noted among other
enslaved populations. At the Cobern Street cemetery in
Cape Town, South Africa, some of the coffins in which
enslaved Africans were buried were painted white or
green. The green color could indicate staining with
copper residue (Cox etal. 2001). Some burials interred
in a cemetery at Vredendal, South Africa, were interred
in coffins made of recycled woodwine-barrel
staves, fruit boxes, and, in one case, a drawer from a
chest of drawersas indicated by characteristic paint
residues and stamped lettering. February (1996) has
attributed this practice to the poverty of the deceased,
who were farm laborers.
The researchers suggest that painting a coffin was
an added funeral expense and might represent paternalism, the ability of kin to pressure enslavers into
additional outlay, the esteem in which the deceased
was held, or the status or aspirations of the mourners

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 223
(Howson and Bianchi 2009b:243). Goodell (1985:247;
cf. Dworkin 1972:65), defines paternalism as interference with others autonomy justified by reasons
referring exclusively to their welfare, good, happiness, needs, interests, or values. Another possibility
is that wood originally used in storage or shipping
containers or furniture was reused in the manufacture
of coffins.
Three burials were placed in coffins with decorative patterns made from tacks (Burials101, 176,
and 332). Tacks thought to represent a lid decoration
were also discovered in Burial222, an adult of undetermined age, but the burial was vandalized and the
tacks scattered before their original locations could be
recorded properly (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:239).
Tacks were also discovered in association with Burials138, 197 and 256, but these do not appear to
have represented lid decoration. It is interesting that
although Euroamericans preferred brass tacks for
coffin decoration, the tacks for Burials101, 176, and
332 were made of iron, and those in Burial222 were
described as cast metal. The researchers note that
the white reflective nature of tinned iron tacks could
signal the possible significance of color or other
visual quality (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:239).
These burials suggest an additional layer of cost
was placed in the burial of the deceased and that,
at least in the case of the Burial101, may indicate
something about ethnic affiliation and diasporic
origins (see Chapter4). These individuals may have
been highly regarded by mourners or had access to
more resources than other individuals interred at
the New York African Burial Ground. All three of
these burials contained a Late-Middle Group (ca.
a.d.17601776) male buried with a child or infant
buried nearby.

Coffin Use in Africa and the Diaspora

The use of coffins appears to represent a historicalperiod shift in African mortuary practices, and coffin
use was widely distributed in the African Diaspora.
According to some sources, only kings in the ancient
West African past were buried in coffins; ordinary
people were wrapped in mats or cloth for burial (Ffoulkes 1909:16; Rattray 1927:169). By the eighteenth
century, many Africans had begun using coffins, and
today the practice is widespread (Adjei 1943:92;
Chukwukere 1981:61; Medford, ed. 2009). Medford,
Brown, Carrington, et al. (2009d:86) note for instance
that Gold Coast mortuary practices provided that the

body be interred either wrapped in a shroud or placed

in a coffin, which became increasingly common in the
eighteenth century. In some areas, traditional social
and kinship relations expressed in funerary practices
were transferred to the use of coffins. Among the Fante
of coastal Ghana, the childrens primary obligation to
their dead father is to provide the coffin and shroud,
which is given to his matrilineal kin (Chukwukere
1981:63). Chukwukere (1981:63) has stated that the
coffin is a fundamental symbol of the father-child
relationship.
The researchers observed that because enslaved persons were legally defined as property, the responsibility
for coping with their death often rested with enslavers
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009d:86). Howson and Bianchi (2009b:215) suggest that at least in
some cases, the master of a household was expected
to provide the coffin for an enslaved member (and
probably also for free or indentured servants or other
dependents). For example, the cabinetmaker Joshua
Delaplaine recorded filling orders for 13 coffins used
to bury Africans between the years 1753 and 1756
(Howson and Bianchi 2009b:215; Howson, Bianco,
etal. 2009:58; Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
2009d:85). In other cases, particularly for infants
and young children, coffins may have been supplied
by relatives. It is unclear whether enslavers provided
coffins to enslaved Africans throughout the eighteenth
century or during the period of Dutch settlement, as
current information on the provision of coffins dates
mainly to the 1750s, and no official ordinances regarding the provisioning of coffins have been discovered.
To the English during the late-seventeenth and earlyeighteenth centuries, a coffin was an essential element
of the decent funeral, even for the poor (Houlbrooke
2000:193). Given the intense concern over disease and
recurring epidemics in urban centers like London and
New York, it is at least plausible that coffin use was
considered a preventative measure against the spread
of disease. During a 1793 yellow fever epidemic in
Philadelphia, for instance, coffins were stockpiled and
trenches dug in advance at the potters field so that
poor victims of the disease could be buried quickly
(Murphy 2003:66). At the same time in New York
City, corpses were considered dangerous contributors to the spread of epidemics (Milne 2000). Given
the impoverishment inferred for many Africans, the
expense of coffins, and the prevalence of coffins at the
New York African Burial Ground, however, it seems
likely that the provision of coffins by enslavers may
have been common. If indeed the case, the provision

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

224
of a coffin appears to have been the one aspect of the
funerals of enslaved individuals in which enslavers
were regularly involved. As Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. (2009d:85) discerned, [t]he few pieces
of evidence available concerning black burials suggest
that white participation in black mortuary practices
ended with the furnishing of a coffin. The remainder of burial practices, including the performance of
ceremonies and rituals, the placement of grave goods,
and the preparation of the body, appear to have been
under the control of mourners (Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009d:86).

Burials Without Coffins

Thirty-two burials were interred without coffins, and
30 of these contained individuals of determinable age
and sex. All coffinless burials were adults, and most
were males (75percent). Most (29, or 90.6percent)
were assigned to the Late temporal group (a.d.1776
1795). The absence of coffins among adult males is
particularly striking. Perry and Howson (2009) list
several possible explanations for the absence of coffins: poverty (the inability of the deceaseds family
to afford a coffin), refusal of the enslaver to provide
a coffin for an enslaved person, special circumstances
of death or burial, or distinctive burial customs. Noting that most burials without coffins were assigned
to the Late temporal group, which corresponds to the
period including the Revolutionary War and afterward, the researchers propose that these individuals
were African American soldiers and refugees who
lacked the financial and social means to ensure coffin burial (Howson and Bianchi 2009b:213; Perry,
Howson, and Bianco 2009:370; Perry, Howson, and
Holl 2009d:204).
It is intriguing that most of the deceased buried
without coffins also were buried without shrouds,
as indicated by the absence of shroud pins. Only six
burials without coffins had shroud pins, and field
notes suggest that one of these (Burial210) actually
may have been buried in a coffin. It is also interesting that a higher proportion of the individuals buried
without coffins also had material culture other than
clothing fasteners and shroud pins than in the sample
as a whole. Clothing fasteners, ornaments, or other
items were roughly twice as common among coffinless
burials as opposed to burials with coffins (Howson
and Bianchi 2009b:214). In other aspects, coffinless
burials appear to differ minimally from individuals
buried in coffins.
The New York African Burial Ground

Shared Coffins and Graves

The researchers noted that the overarching mortuary program as performed at the cemetery called for
individual interment. Shared graves are exceptional,
though they appear in all temporal groups (Perry and
Howson 2009:116). The researchers identified 27cases
of possible shared graves. The researchers considered
that there may have been more cases of shared graves
than have been recognized, but disturbance, preservation, and other factors make the interpretation of shared
graves difficult. The presence of intervening sediment,
stratigraphic relationships, and the age and gender of
the deceased suggest that most of these cases represent
subsequent rather than simultaneous interments. In rare
cases, the burial of an adult woman with an infant suggests the burial of a mother and child who may have
died at roughly the same time. In other cases, possible
family relationships are indicated by sequences of
burials within the same grave (see Chapter4). Genetic
studies have yet to be conducted for most individuals, but instances of shared graves suggests that the
African Burial Ground played an important role in the
recognition of family relationships and the maintenance
of family ties. The locations of specific graves were
likely remembered through time. Many other specific
interpretations of shared graves are possible, including associations with ancestral spirits and kinship ties
between the living and the dead.
Although rare, the custom of sharing coffins and
graves occurred elsewhere in the Diaspora. Enslaved
Africans in the Cobern Street cemetery in Cape Town,
South Africa, sometimes shared a single grave and
coffin. One burial contained a woman and child, and
another held a man, woman, and child (Cox et al.
2001:81). The African origin of these individuals were
inferred based on isotopic analysis and the presence
of culturally modified teeth among some individuals. Grave sharing continued into the nineteenth and
early-twentieth centuries among African American
populations. Two infants, probably stillborn and perhaps twins, were buried in the same casket at the
Cedar Grove Baptist Church Cemetery (Rose and
Santeford 1985a:56).

Shrouding
The researchers inferred that most individuals buried
at the African Burial Ground were buried in shrouds,
winding sheets, or clothing. The presence of copper
pins (Figure79) was generally interpreted as evidence

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 225

Figure 79. Replicas of New York African Burial

Ground pins created by artisans at Colonial
Williamsburg (photograph by Rob Tucher) (from
Volume 2, Part 1 [Howson, Bianchi, and Perry
2009:Figure 9]).

for shrouding, and the placement of pins within the

burial was linked to different shroud styles. According to Howson (2009:258), straight pins would have
been available at shops, at the markets, and no doubt
from peddlers, and they also could have been obtained
by women and girls who did the sewing in European
households. Cloth would have been costly and may
have been obtained from stores, peddlers, recycling,
or theft (Howson 2009:259). The researchers suggest that, barring factors of preservation, individuals
without pins or clothing fasteners may have been
buried in winding sheets, that were wound about
the corpse or sewn or tied shut rather than pinned
(Howson 2009:247), but lack of evidence for pins or
clothing fasteners makes the inference of funeral attire
tenuous. Pins appear to have been slightly less than
an inch in length; most recovered from the New York
African Burial Ground were fragmentary, and their
length, when intact, could not be accurately measured.
Fragments of linen, cotton, or unidentified textiles
were recovered in a number of instances. Fragments
associated with buttons were generally interpreted as
remnants of clothing fabric. Eighteen fragments were
not associated with buttons and were interpreted by
the researchers as possible shroud material (Howson
2009:260261).
The use of shrouds was common at the New York
African Burial Ground. Shrouding, as evidenced by
the presence of copper-alloy straight pins in association with skeletal remains, was seen in 213 burials

(68.7percent of burials with sufficient preservation for

pins to be observed). As wrapping the dead in winding
sheets was a common practice for many Africans and
Europeans of the period, the researchers suggest that,
if not shrouded, a substantial number of individuals
may have been buried in winding sheets. The use of
shrouds for funeral attire was common among Europeans during the eighteenth century. Shrouds of the
period somewhat represented an open-backed nightshirt with a tie at the feet (Howson 2009:259). Winding sheets either covered the entire corpse or revealed
the face of the deceased (Howson 2009:259).
The presence or absence of a shroud was linked to
the deceaseds age and for adults, gender. Evidence
for shrouding was common among infants, children,
and adult females. Shrouding was less common among
adult males but was still observed in nearly 50percent of male burials for which preservation was sufficient.
The proportion of shrouded burials increased
between the periods corresponding to the Early and
Middle Groups. The researchers suggest, however,
that owing to factors of poor preservation, many Early
Group (pre-ca. a.d.1735) individuals could have been
shrouded (Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009a:133). On the
other hand, shroud pins may have been less available
during the early period. Negligible change was noted
after the period corresponding to the Middle Group
burials. The relatively higher proportion of shrouded
female burials remained much the same through time
(Howson 2009:248). Although females were more
likely to be buried with pins, adult males typically
had two or more pins preserved, and adult females
buried with pins, fewer than two pins preserved. In the
case of burials of small children or infants in shrouds,
Howson (2009:248) suggests that because these would
have required little cloth and few or no pins, the use
of shroud pins may have held ritual meaning beyond
fastening. This meaning may have had to do with
protecting the very young or with ensuring adequate
means to make a spiritual passage.
Thirty-one adults and 13 subadults had pins only
on the cranium. Howson (2009:257) suggests that
these may have represented a chin cloth (used to
prevent the jaw from falling open during burial) or
possibly the pinning back of the shroud to expose
the face. Roughly equal numbers of male and female
burials, most of which were those of older adults,
had pins on the cranium. Chin cloths were typically
used in eighteenth-century England, although they
were tied rather than pinned (Litten 1991:72; Rich-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

226
ardson 2000:19). Howson (2009:257) suggests that
pinning the chin cloth suggests a variant practice.
Overall, the most pins were found on the cranium,
and this was particularly the case among adult males.
Fewer pins were discovered at the jaw, neck, torso,
or extremities. Pins at the torso were more common
among females.

Body Placement and Orientation

Body placement and orientation were highly standardized. Of 269 burials for which the position of the body
could be determined, all were supine (placed on the
back), and the majority were extended. The hands were
usually resting on the pelvis or at the sides (Figures80
and 81). Occasionally, the arms were crossed over
the chest. The researchers wrote that the extended
body position is so uniform at the African Burial
Ground as to constitute, along with coffin burial and
orientation, part of an accepted mortuary program
(Perry and Howson 2009:115). Of 375 burials for
which orientation of the head could be determined,
the researchers state that 367 (97.8percent) were
buried with their heads to the west or looking toward
the east (Figure82).
Others were oriented head to east (n=4), head
to south (n=3), and head to north (n=1) (Perry
and Howson 2009:111). Nothing in particular distinguishes the non-westward-oriented burials. The burials
included infants and adults of both sexes buried with
and without coffins and shrouded and unshrouded
burials as indicated by straight pins. None had culturally modified teeth. One individual was apparently disinterred, surgically altered, and reinterred after death,
and was perhaps a victim of medical experimentation
in the late-eighteenth century (Perry, Howson, and
Holl 2009d:209210).
Individuals placed in head-to-west orientation were
generally oriented in a slightly southerly direction.
The researchers suggest that the alignment of graves
could have been guided by (1) the position of the sun
at sunset; (2) the orientation of existing buildings;
or (3) the orientation of neighboring graves. The
researchers note that if graves were aligned according
to position of the sun at sunset, more than 45percent of
graves would have been placed during the late spring
or summer months (Figure83). Fewer burials would
have been placed during the winter. Alternatively,
the researchers suggest that a generalized impression
of where on the horizon the sun set may have been
used. The setting of the sun over Lower Manhattan is
The New York African Burial Ground

Figure 80. Burial of an 1820-year-old female in extended supine

position with hands crossed over pelvic region (Burial 122) (drawn by
M.Schur, 1992) (from Volume 2, Part 2 [Perry, Howson, and Bianco,
eds. 2009c:169]).

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 227

Figure 81. Burial of a 3545-year-old man in extended supine position with hands placed at sides (Burial151)
(drawn by M.Schur, 1992) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009d:Figure 105]).

most often slightly south of west (Perry and Howson

2009:111).
Another interpretation of the orientation data is
that graves were aligned according to the orientation
of streets, buildings, or property boundaries. The
researchers suggest that many burials may have been
placed perpendicular to the orientation of Broadway.
Other burials may have oriented in relation to a fence
line or the town palisades, both of which trended from
southwest to northeast. Graves that were dug during a
short span of time may have also shared orientation.
Nol Hume (1982:3637) proposed this explanation
for parallel graves at Carters Grove.

In his analysis of graves from Vredendal, February (1996:281) has written that the burial position,
possible shrouds and clothing with no formal grave
goods as well as orderly marked graves with head
and foot stones suggests a strong Christian missionary influence. For Christians, the head-to-west
orientation allowed the dead on the day of the Last
Judgement to rise facing the east. The use of niche
burials, where the body was placed in a niche at
the side of a burial shaft, was used at Vredendal in
combination with the apparent Christian traits. Earlier burials in the southwestern Cape tended to be
flexed and included niche body placement, suggest-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

228

Figure 82. Orientation of burials with heads oriented to the west at the New York African Burial Ground (from Volume 2, Part 1
[Perry and Howson 2009:Figure 54]).

Figure 83. Position of the sun on the horizon at

sunset in lower Manhattan over the course of a
year, relative to the New York African Burial Ground
site grid (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Howson
2009:Figure 55]).

ing a hybridization of some traditional and Christian

influences. In New York City during the period the
African Burial Ground was in use, many enslaved
Africans were exposed to Christianity in their homelands and may have themselves been practitioners
of local forms of Christianity (Medford, ed. 2009;
Thornton 2001).

Grave Markers
Grave markers were used for children, adult women,
and adult men at the African Burial Ground. Grave
markers were rare, but three types were recorded:
wooden posts, rectangular stone slabs, and rows
The New York African Burial Ground

of cobbles (Figure84). The grave of Burial194,

a man aged between 30 and 40years at his death,
was marked with a cedar board nailed to the coffin
headboard. The parallel alignment of many graves
in apparent rows suggests that more graves may
originally have been identified by such perishable
markers. Some graves were marked with rectangular
stone slabs placed at the head (Burials18 and 23;
possibly Burial360), rows of small cobbles outlining
the grave (Burial13/43; perhaps Burials22, 23, or
29), or both (Burial47).
Cobble outlining was used throughout the African
Diaspora (Thompson 1983:137; Vlach 1978:139
145) and appears to have African roots. A related

Figure 84. Grave markers: (a)burials marked with cobbles at the surface; (b)excavated grave of Burial18 with stone marker in place at its west (head) end; (c)stone that appears to have been a marker
for Burial23; (d)vertical slab of stone found above Burial47 and the line of cobbles along the north side of the grave (photographs by Dennis Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Howson
2009:Figures 57 (a), 58 (b), 61 (c), 59 (d)]).

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 229

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

230
practice in Africa may have been the piling of
stones atop graves. Medford, Brown, Heywood,
etal. (2009b:22) note that in the 1660s, a European observer, Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi, observed
that the Kongolese dead were buried in deep pits
mounded with dirt and covered with a mound of
stones. Piles of stones atop graves have been discovered at a cemetery in Kapanda, Angola (Gutierrez
1999), and atop possible graves at Parting Ways, a
small community of free African-Americans established in 1794 in Plymouth, Massachusetts (Deetz
1996).

Graveside Deposits and Memorialization

It is important to keep in mind that mortuary rites
may continue long after the actual burial event. The
researchers noted that because of the field methods
employed during the excavation of the New York
African Burial Ground, the opportunity to document
the location of the historical-period ground surface
was lost. Historical-period features above grave shafts
were only documented to a limited extent, and artifacts within grave shafts were rarely provenienced
with enough specificity to determine their precise
relationship to burial events. As a result, it was rarely
possible to determine which artifacts may have been
placed on coffins or placed on top of graves after
grave shafts had been filled in. Also, many items
that could have been placed within or above burials were perishable, such as wooden implements,
food, or flowers, and would not have survived in the
archaeological record. It is thus difficult to determine
in many instances what mourners may have included
in burials, placed on top of coffins, or placed on the
ground surface of graves. Given the tendency of many
African peoples to memorialize the dead through
offerings, libations, and shrines, it seems likely that
such behaviors also took place at the African Burial
Ground.
Features could have also been placed above
graves to communicate or interact with the dead.
For instance, the Dutch merchant Willem Bosman
(1721:223) noted in the late-seventeenth century
that along the Gold Coast, mourners generally
build a small cottage or hut, or else plant a little
garden of rice on the grave, into which they throw
several worthless goods of the deceased, but not
household stuff or other valuable moveables.... At
Axim and other Places, they place several earthen
The New York African Burial Ground

images on the graves, which are washed one year

after the funeral, when they renew the funeral ceremonies in as expensive a manner as the interment
itself. Conceivably, some features, macrobotanical remains, and artifacts located at or near the
eighteenth-century ground surface of the New York
African Burial Ground could have been related to
mortuary behaviors, rather than trash disposal or
commercial and residential activities of the lateeighteenth century. Nonperishable objects, such
as glass bottles, ceramic vessels, metal items, or
specially chosen fragments of glass, ceramic, or
metal, may have been placed on graves, but these
items are not easily distinguished from nonmortuary materials using the current evidence. Owing to
incomplete information, the association of artifacts
or features discovered outside grave shafts with
burials proved difficult to determine (see Chapter2).
Nonburial features and artifacts are described in a
separate report (Cheek and Roberts 2007).
Terra-cotta heads that appear to match historical
descriptions were recovered during an archaeological excavation of mid-seventeenth-century deposits
conducted during the 1950s and 1960s at Ahinsan,
Ghana (Vivian 1992:158). Modern informants suggested the heads were placed on a grave 40 days
after burial. Clusters of deposits on a prominent hill
at Ademanso (an ancient Adanse capital) consisted
of ornate, stylized clay heads and pottery, along with
fragments of bowls, pots, pot stands, goblets, lids and
handles, and large pendants. Vivian (1992:161) has
suggested that these deposits are funerary deposits that
represent the memorialization of deceased relatives.
Similar ritual deposits were discovered at other sites in
the Gold Coast region that are tentatively dated to the
eighteenth or nineteenth centuries (Vivian 1992:162).
Vivian has interpreted these deposits as resulting from
the intensive and repeated use of the burial grounds
by clan groups.
Similar graveside deposits have been noted in
other parts of West Africa, West Central Africa, and
in North America, where in all cases they are seen
as inviolate (Deetz 1996:208). At Parting Ways,
probable graves were covered with concentrations
of cobblestones, fragments of ceramic or glass containers broken in place, a cut-glass decanter, pressed
glass tumblers and saucers, and stoneware jugs.
These graveside deposits bear a strong resemblance
to deposits from cemeteries in West and West Central
Africa, such as Akan ritual compounds in Ghana.
Throughout the American South, African American

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 231
graves were marked with bottles and jars. These
objects often have a hole broken through the bottom, suggesting ritual killing of funerary objects
(Deetz 1996:208). Other forms of memorialization
observed in North America include the performance
of African-derived dances on the graves of ancestors
at special times of the year (Fairley 2003:548, citing
Stuckey 1987).
It is unfortunate that waste disposal by local potteries was so common at the African Burial Ground,
as it desecrated sacred space and mixed trash into
ritual deposits. The ubiquitous presence of waste and
the lack of precise information on stratigraphy and
artifact locations undermined the researchers ability
to recognize evidence of aboveground mortuary practices. Complete, nearly complete, and reconstructible
vessels manufactured during the eighteenth century
were discovered in deposits at the New York African
Burial Ground, although many may have related to
late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century residential or commercial use of the area (Brighton 2007).
Some of the artifacts or features associated with
secular use of the African Burial Ground (described
in Cheek and Roberts [2007]) could potentially have
been associated with sacred practices. In addition to
artifacts discovered at or near the historical-period
ground surface, some postholes that could not be
definitively associated with fence lines could conceivably be related to shrines built to memorialize
ancestors.

Mortuary Material Culture

Clothing and Ornamentation
Nonperishable fasteners thought to represent clothing, such as buttons, were relatively scarce and were
present in only 42burials. For 9 of those burials, the
association was tenuous. This does not necessarily reflect the percentage of individuals who were
dressed when interred; the researchers point out that
many garments of the era were fastened with perishable drawstrings and ties or with pins, particularly
womens garments (Bianchi and Bianco 2009:265,
283) (Figure85). The majority of burials with nonperishable fasteners were adults, and there were many
more adult men than women in this group. Inferred
clothing items represented by fasteners included
jackets, shirts, breeches, and possibly undergarments
or nightclothes. Three agletssmall metal tubes

that encased the ends of lacings and cords typically

used on caps, shirts, and gownswere found, having been interred with a child (Burial22) and two
women (Burials213 and 342). A possible grommet
that may have functioned as a clothing fastener was
buried with a child (Burial368). The only child buried
with a button was a 610-year-old of indeterminate
gender who was interred with one white metal button
on the pelvis, suggesting breeches. Unfortunately,
some of the preserved fasteners were not observed in
situ. Cuff links and buttons occasionally were worn
as ornaments; these examples are discussed below.
Intriguingly, bits of leather and fragments of metal
suggesting footwear were not recovered, and Bianco
etal. (2009:324) have suggested that the deceased
were not dressed in shoes. It may have been that
shoes were too expensive to bury with the dead and
were saved to hand down to the living. A common
folk belief among todays population in the American
South (both African American and Euroamerican)
may have ancient roots. Writing of the Cedar Grove
Baptist Church Cemetery in Arkansas (dating to the
nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries), Rose and
Santeford (1985a:41) have discussed the belief that
one should never bury anyone with shoes left on
the feet.
The available information suggests that persons
were dressed as well as shrouded. Some individuals
with fasteners suggesting clothing had straight pins
only on the cranium, indicating a possible chin cloth
rather than a complete shroud. The majority of burials with pins, however, excluding the cases where
pins may have fastened clothing, were interpreted as
indicating a probable shroud.
Few burials were found with personal adornment in
association with the remains. Only 25 individuals had
a clear association with personal adornment (Bianco
etal. 2009:321). The ornaments included beads, cuff
links used as jewelry rather than clothing fasteners,
rings, a pendant, and an apparent hair ornament fashioned of a glass disk set in a frame of wire filigree
(found with the infant in Burial186). Except for the
pendant, which was silver, the metal ornaments were
made of copper alloy or paste. Bianco etal. (2009)
suggest that these items were relatively inexpensive
and widely available when the African Burial Ground
was in use. Ornaments were found with the burials of
men, women, children, and infants. Personal adornment may have been acquired in Africa, along the
routes by which Africans came to New York, or in
the city (cf. Handler 2006, 2007).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

232

Figure 85. Period clothing: (a)breeches with fall fronts over the center fly, from left to right: linen cotton (17651785), cotton velvet (1785
1825), and yellow nankeen cotton (17851815); (b)working womans striped linen wool petticoat (17701820) topped by a high-waisted
short gown made from cotton linen (18001820); (c)quilted petticoat (17701775) made in New York by Margaret Bleeker Ten Eyck; (d)selfenclosed casing for a drawstring, on a gown with set-in sleeves (18001810). (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation) (from Volume 2, Part 1
[Bianchi and Bianco 2009:Figures 136 (a), 137 (b), 138 (c), 140 (d)]).

The New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 233

Beads and Cowries

Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. (2009d:88) note
that [in] many African societies, beads hold ceremonial significance at every stage of life: at birth, puberty,
initiation, marriage, procreation, old age, death, and,
finally, entry into the community of ancestors and
spirits. Beads were found in several burials at the New
York African Burial Ground. Some beads found at the
New York African Burial Ground were characteristic
of African manufacture, such as the opaque yellow
beads forming a necklace placed with the infant in
Burial226, but most were of European manufacture.
The child in Burial187 was dressed in black beads
made of glass manufactured in Europe and placed
around the hips or arms. Regardless of where beads
were made, the presence of beads is an indication of
the important expressive role they continued to play in
the lives and death of New York Africans (Medford,
Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009d:88). Burial340, an
adult woman, wore two strands of beads primarily
made from European glass in shades of blue and yellow, mixed with one amber bead and cowries. This
woman had modified teeth worked into hourglass and
peg shapes. The LA-ICP-MS elemental analysis placed
this woman in ClusterC2, which the researchers interpreted as corresponding to individuals born in Africa.
Strontium isotope analysis also placed Burial340 in
a group of apparent nonlocal origin (Goodman etal.
2009). Bianco etal. (2009:329) note that in Ghana and
Nigeria, waist beads like those found with Burial340
would have been worn as foundation garments that
served to keep garments secure as well as conceal a
womans figure. The waist beads would have been
hidden from public view but visible to those closest to
the wearer, such as a husband or a sweetheart, and the
women with whom she bathed and groomed (Bianco
etal. 2009:329). Glass beads like those described above
were imported from Europe and reworked in African
locales, and imported glass was used as raw material
for powder-glass beads (Bianco etal. 2009; DeCorse
2001a:137; Ogundiran 2002:434435). A single blackglass, round bead was found with Burial250, an adult
of indeterminate age and sex. It was the only such bead
in the collection.
The cowries discovered with Burial340 were the
only cowries discovered at the New York African
Burial Ground. Beginning around 1515, cowries were
commonly imported into West Africa by European
factors and had become fully monetized in the Bight
of Benin region by the seventeenth century (Ogundiran

2002:438439). In essence, cowries arrived with the

Atlantic trade, became deeply embedded elements of
West African economy and ritual behavior, and were
imbued with symbolism that interwove traditional
African cosmogonies with aspects of the Atlantic
economy. In Yorubaland, billions of moneta cowries
from the Indian Ocean were traded for enslaved Africans, to the extent that cowries were often referred to
as slave money in the Bight of Benin (Ogundiran
2002:440). This equation of cowries with enslavement and death was strong enough that some traditions in Benin relate that human life was converted
into cowries and wealth was accumulated through
enslavement and forcible labor. Some traditions in
Benin, for instance, speak of cowries as shell fished
from the Atlantic Ocean using slave corpses as bait
(Ogundiran 2002:443).
Archaeological excavation at Ilora and Isoya in
Nigeria revealed the presence of caches of cowries
as well as the burial of large numbers of cowries with
nine burials of adults. Ogundiran (2002:451) has
suggested that as grave goods, cowries could serve
as a social and symbolic replacement of the personal
belongings of the deceased based on the idea that cowries were the essence of wealth and self-realization.
The association of cowries with the accumulation
of wealth, enslavement, and death would not have
been lost on enslaved Africans in New York. The
precise meaning of cowries worn by the individual
in Burial340 may never be known, but it is certainly
likely that they represent intimate material and symbolic continuities with West African roots.
Cowries also had associations with fertility and
abundance and were popular for use in divination.
In Yorubaland, divination was most often performed
using a sacred divination chain (pl) or a collection
of 16 cowries (rndnlgn). Men used both forms
of divination, but women were apparently practitioners mainly of rndnlgn (Ogundiran 2002:453).
A necklace from Burial72 at Newton Plantation in
Barbados included dog canines, glass beads, cowries,
fish vertebrae, and an agate bead in a configuration
that suggests the use of the necklace in divination
(Handler 1997; Handler and Lange 1978). An association with divination is not clear for the New York
African Burial Ground string of beads and cowries,
but it seems at least plausible that the adornments were
associated in some ways with wealth, abundance, and
perhaps fertility.
The blue beads interred with the woman in Burial
340 could also suggest adherence to African practices.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

234
Blue beads and beads of other colors are common in
African American archaeological assemblages (Stine
etal. 1996). Owing to the prevalence of blue beads
at African American sites and the connections with
West Africa, investigators have hypothesized that
these beads in particular functioned as ethnic markers
(Otto 1984; Smith 1977) or spiritual symbols (Adams
1987), as well as noted their similarity to trade beads
used in West Africa (Ascher and Fairbanks 1971).
Stine etal. (1996:65) hypothesized that blue bead
symbolism represents the development of a uniquely
African American practice. They suggested that the
color blue was thought to have curative properties
and that blue beads were used as a form of protection against misfortune and sickness (Stine etal.
1996:65). Blue bead symbolism was, however, also
common in West Africa, including among Muslims,
who apparently believed that blue glass beads repelled
evil spirits (Kelly 2004:229; Ogundiran 2002:432;
Singleton 1990:75). Blue beads were present at the
New York African Burial Ground, but researchers also
observed substantial variation in bead color, shape,
and style (Figures86 and 87). The variety of bead
colors, shapes, and styles suggests that bead choices
may have been dictated by personal, aesthetic, or
ritual reasons. Beads were only discovered with a few
individuals, making the inference of associations of
beads with other attributes of burials or individuals
tenuous.
Yoruba terminology distinguishes 15 kinds of beads
on the basis of color, shape, and size, but 6 kinds of
beads were particularly important to defining wealth,
power and status. Five of these were in use before
the development of the Atlantic economy: the blue
or blue and green translucent glass beads (segi) and
their blue racelet (kereu) variant on one hand, and the
red chalcedony beads (akun), and their jasper (segida)
and carnelian (ejiba/edigba) variants (Ogundiran
2002:432). Red coral beads were also important, but
it is unclear if red coral beads were present before the
advent of the Atlantic economy. Historical evidence
shows that in the early-sixteenth century, the Portuguese bought tens of thousands of beads that may
have been modified or manufactured in Ile-Ife and
resold them at points along the coast of West Africa.
Archaeological evidence for ancient bead manufacture was discovered immediately north of Ile-Ife, at
Olokun grove (Ogundiran 2002:434435). In the midseventeenth century, the blue and red bead types listed
above were indices of political status and wealth
that were distributed as the prerogative of the Oba of
The New York African Burial Ground

Benin (Ogundiran 2002:435). Studies of the symbolic

meaning of beads in Yorubaland indicate that beads
were considered to indicate wealth, good fortune, and
spiritual well-being (Ogundiran 2002:436).
Ogundiran (2002:442) has argued that a pre-colonial Yoruba deity of the ocean/sea, Olokun, became in
colonial contexts the god/goddess of wealth, keeper
of the rich storehouse of beads, giver of children,
owner of a palace of cowries (riches) beneath the
ocean, and the patron-deity of traders and potentates
involved in direct trade with the European factors.
The association of beads and cowries with Olokun
could possibly link their usage as grave goods to
facilitate the passage of the spirit through water or
the return of ancestral spirits to African homelands by
way of the sea. In Yorubaland, nonlocal commodities,
such as cowries, imported copper/brass, iron bars
and cooking pots, chinaware, and beads of glass and
exotic stone manufacture, tended to be associated
with Olokun (Ogundiran 2002:442). The theme of a
symbolic return to ancestral ties via water or bodies
of water was also suggested by the presence of marine
shell accompanying burials at the New York African
Burial Ground.

Clam and Oyster Shell and Coral

Clam shells and oyster shells were commonly discovered in sediments deposited at the New York African
Burial Ground. In many cases, pieces of shell became
incorporated into deposits as a result of natural or nonmortuary cultural processes. The researchers identified, however, six cases for which sufficient evidence
was present to infer the deliberate placement of shell
artifacts within burials (Burials 22, 348, 352, 365,
387, and 405), in some cases, as possible composite
artifacts consisting of a shell and an iron nail (Perry
and Woodruff 2009:355356). To the researchers,
the presence of shells suggests the continuation,
in at least some aspects, of African spirituality and
burial customs (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al.
2009d:88). Owing to similar symbolic associations in
Africa and the African Diaspora, Perry and Woodruff
(2009:355) infer that shells at the New York African
Burial Ground may have been placed as symbols of
the deceaseds passage through water to the spirit
world and to represent his or her new identity as an
ancestor.
Shell artifacts were deposited with men, women and
children. A number of burialsBurials22, 348, 352,
365, 387, and 405had shells that were deliberately

Figure 86. Bead Types 1, 3, and 2 from the New York African Burial Ground: (a)Bead Type1, (bottom two rows), Bead Type3 (top three rows) (all are from Burial 340); (b) Bead
Type 2 (all are from Burial340); (c) Bead Type6 (all are from Burial187, Catalog Nos.0098-B.00100988 B.022) (photographs by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Bianco
et al. 2009:Figures 231 (a), 232 (b), 235 (c)]).

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 235

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

236

Figure 87. Bead Types 4, 5, and 715 from the New York African Burial Ground: (a) Bead Type4 (from Burial340, Catalog No.01651-B.084); (b)Bead
Type5 (from Burial107, Catalog No.00850-B.003); (c)Bead Type7 (all are from Burial340, Catalog Nos.01651-B.017, 01651-B.042, 01651-B.054,
01651-B.058, and 01651-B.061); (d)Bead Type8 (all are from Burial340, Catalog Nos.01651-B.041 and 01651-B.53); (e)Bead Type9 (from
Burial340, Catalog No.01651-B.078); (f)Bead Type 10 (both are from Burial428, Catalog No.02115-UNK.001); (g)Bead Type11 (from Burial250,
Catalog No.01239-B.004); (h)Bead Type12 (from Burial340, Catalog No.01651-B.079); (i)Bead Type13 (from Burial434, Catalog No.02125UNK.001); (j)Bead Type14 (all are from Burial226, Catalog Nos.01212-B.00101212-B.008); (k)Bead Type15 (from Burial340, Catalog No.
01651-B.075) (photographs by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Bianco et al. 2009:Figures 233 (a), 234 (b), 236 (c), 237 (d), 238 (e), 239 (f),
240 (g), 241 (h), 242 (i), 243 (j), 238 (k)]).

interred with individuals. Burial22, a child between

2.5 and 4.5years old, had a fragment of local hardshell clam, which may have been strung to a necklace
placed near the childs neck (Figure88). The child
in Burial 22 clustered with individuals with dental
modification in cluster C2 of the elemental-signature
analysis, suggesting African birth (Goodman etal.
2009:108). However, the strontium isotope signature
for the child and somewhat elevated lead levels suggest local birth. Perhaps, the individuals elemental
signature reflects that of the childs mother, who may
have been born in Africa. Burials348, 352, and 365
(Figure89) each had a composite artifact consisting of iron (probably iron nails) and oyster or clam
The New York African Burial Ground

shell placed on their coffin lids (Perry and Woodruff

2009:355356).
Similar artifact deposits were discovered in Burials 387 and 405. A shell and a nail were discovered
in association with cranial bones from Burial405, a
Middle Group (ca. a.d.17351760) burial of a child
between 6 and 10years old. The child in Burial 405
clustered with 7 children and 5 adults with modified
teeth in the elemental signature analysis but was not
included in the strontium isotope analysis (Goodman
etal. 2009:113). Burial387, an Early Group (pre-ca.
a.d.1735) burial of a man between 34 and 44years
of age, had a whole oyster shell artifact placed on
the coffin lid (Perry and Woodruff 2009:355). Given

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 237

Figure 88. In situ photograph of Burial22, showing

a fragment of hard-shell clam above the left clavicle
(photograph by Dennis Seckler) (from Volume 2,
Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff 2009:Figure 263]).

Figure 89. Detail of in situ photograph of shell and iron

artifact from coffin lid of Burial365. Scale is in inches
(photograph by Dennis Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1
[Perry and Woodruff 2009:Figure 265]).

the co-occurrence of shell and iron artifacts in several instances and their association with coffin lids,
it seems possible that these artifacts may have been
parts of talismans intended to protect or guide the
deceased. Another possible talisman was included
with Burial328, a Middle Group (ca. a.d.17351760)
burial of a woman between 40 and 50years of age.
She had a large stoneware sherd decorated with a blue
spiral design placed on her coffin lid (Figure90). Citing numerous sources, Perry and Woodruff (2009:363)
noted that there is abundant ethnohistorical, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence for this practice
from West and West Central Africa.
A large coral artifact found in association with
Burial376, a Late-Middle Group (ca. a.d.1760
1776) burial of a man between 45 and 65years old,
was determined not to be local in origin (Figure91).
The specimen was identified by Ann F. Budd, Ph.D.,
a Fossil Coral Taxonomist and Professor of Geology
at the University of Iowa, as Siderastrea siderea, an

Atlantic species found mainly in the Caribbean, the

Gulf of Mexico, and Bermuda (Perry and Woodruff 2009:356). Perhaps this coral specimen was
transported from the West Indies. Five other coral
artifacts that could not be associated with particular
burials were discovered at the New York African
Burial Ground. Because coral species are not native
to New York waters, they were likely manuported to
the site. Perry and Woodruff (2009:356) state that in
keeping with the hypothesis that relics of the ocean
may have been associated in multivalent fashion with
Africa, the Middle Passage, and the spirits of the
ancestors . . . the corals place of origin became a clue
to its spiritual, as well as archaeological, meaning.
Given the spiritual, social, and economic importance
of coral in West and West Central Africa, it is possible that coral artifacts not directly associated with
burials were ritually deposited in association with
burials or during the memorialization of previously
buried Africans.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

238

Figure 90. In situ photograph of stoneware

vessel fragment, Burial328 (Catalog No. 1589GF). North is at the top (photograph by Dennis
Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and
Woodruff 2009:Figure 282]).

Figure 91. Coral (Siderastrea siderea) from Burial376 (Catalog

No.1985-B). Weight is 190g. Scale is in inches (photograph
by Dennis Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff
2009:Figure 266]).

Rings, Cuff Links, and Other Adornments

The researchers list a total of 30 burials that contained items they interpreted as personal adornments,
including beads (discussed above), rings, possible
earrings, cuff links, and some decorative buttons
(Bianchi and Bianco 2009:Table48). Buttons are
common at many historical-period sites. Bone button
backs were, in fact, manufactured near the African
Burial Ground by residents of New York Citys first
Almshouse (17361797) (Baugher and Lenik 1997;
Baugher etal. 1990; Cantwell and Wall 2001). At
the New York African Burial Ground, a variety of
button types was discovered in a total of 35 burials
copper-alloy buttons, domed copper-alloy buttons,
bone-backed copper-alloy buttons, bone buttons,
pewter buttons, wooden buttons with copper-alloy
The New York African Burial Ground

shanks, a stamped iron button, a leather button or

button back, and a large Britannia button made on
spun white metal (Figure92). A few buttons had recognizable designs on their faces, such as the anchor
motif on two buttons from Burial6 (Figure93). A
few others, such as those in Burial203, may have
been faced with leather. In many cases, the locations
of buttons within burials suggest they may have been
used as clothing fasteners. The stamped iron button
in Burial371 may have been used in upholstery. In
other cases, buttons could have been used as personal
adornment or kept in conjuring bundles. Bianco etal.
(2009:Table 53) identified buttons interpreted as
possible personal adornments in 7 burials (Burials6,
10, 181, 259, 325, 326, and 415). Most of these were
made using copper-alloy materials, and a few had
designs on their faces. Buttons discovered in other
burials may have also been used as adornment or as
ritual paraphernalia, but lack of precise provenience
information made interpretation of their specific use
uncertain.
Copper-alloy rings with glass or paste insets as
well as paste rings were distributed widely and have
been found in many colonial-era sites (Deagan 1987;
Karklins 1992; Quimby 1966; Smith 1965; Stone
1974; Wood 1974; Wray and Schoff 1953). Rings were
worn on the fingers and, in some cases, may have been
part of other ornaments (Figure94). Burial377, an
adult woman, had three rings at her throat. Burials71,
115, 242, 310, and perhaps 398 wore rings on the right
or left hand. All were women (Bianco etal. 2009). A
ring was recorded in the field with Burial39, a young
child, but no ring was recovered in the laboratory,
although copper residue was discovered clinging to a

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 239

Figure 92. Button types at the New York African BurialGround: (ad)bone (Burial37, Catalog No.460-B.001; Burial313, Catalog No.1516-B.002;
Burial392, Catalog Nos.2039-B.005, 2039-B.009); (e)bone with offset rim (Burial313, Catalog No.1516-B.001); (f)turned bone (Burial171, Catalog
No.931-B.002); (gi)copper alloy (Burial191, Catalog No.1081-B.001; Burial250, Catalog No.1239-B.001; Burial415, Catalog No.2097-B.006);
(jk)copper alloy, front and back (Burial10, Catalog No.234-B.013; Burial214, Catalog No.1191-B.002); (l)copper alloy with shank fragments
(Burial325, Catalog No.1527-B.001); (m)copper alloy with applied loop shank, front and side (Burial366, Catalog No.1830-B.002); (n)copperalloy dome button with shank fragment (Burial379, Catalog No.1906-B.003); (o)copper alloy, cast two-piece (Burial403, Catalog No.2067-B.003);
(pq)copper alloy with bone back (Burial181, Catalog Nos.967-B.002 and 967-B.003); (r)bone and copper alloy (Burial181, Catalog No.967B.005); (st)copper alloy with zinc, nickel (Burial181, CatalogNos.967-B.001, 967-B.008); (u)tin plated copper alloy (Burial259, Catalog No.1249B.013); (v)iron (Burial371, Catalog No.1875-B.002); (w)Britannia button, spun white metal with copper-alloy shank (Burial405, Catalog No.2071B.001); (x)wood, front and back (Burial203, Catalog No.1174-B.007) (photographs by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Bianchi and Bianco
2009:Figures 154 (a), 191 (b), 208 (c), 212 (d), 190 (e), 156 (f), 167 (g), 180 (h), 223 (i), 149 (j), 174 (k), 192 (l), 200 (m), 204 (n), 218 (o), 163 (p),
164 (q), 165 (r), 160 (s), 161 (t), 184 (u), 202 (v), 220 (w), 169 (x, front), 170 (x, back)]).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

240

Figure 93. Buttons recovered with

Burial 6: (left) button, copper
alloy, gilt (Catalog No.219-B.001);
(middle) button, copper alloy,
gilt (Catalog No. 219-B.004);
(right) diagram of anchor device
(photographs by Jon Abbott) (from
Volume 2, Part 1 [Bianchi and Bianco
2009:Figures 145 (left), 146 (middle),
147 (right)]).

Figure 94. Rings recovered from the New York African Burial Ground: (ab) plain copper-alloy rings (Burial71, Catalog No.813-B.004)
(Burial398 [redeposited fill soil], Catalog No2061-B.001); (cd) copper-alloy-rings with glass insets (Burial 242, Catalog No. 1229-B.003)
(Burial310, Catalog No.1486-B.001) (photographs by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Bianco et al. 2009:Figures 246 (a), 248 (b), 249 (c),
250 (d)]).

fragment of coffin wood. In at least one burial, rings

may represent ritual paraphernalia rather than personal
adornment. A cluster of seven small, copper-alloy
rings was buried with an adult male aged between 55
and 65years (Burial147). The rings were found near
three straight pins aligned along the mans humerus,
suggesting rings may have been kept in a cloth bag or
sack that was pinned to his garment. The researchers
hypothesize that the rings may have been part of a
The New York African Burial Ground

conjuring bundle of some kind (Perry, Howson, and

Bianco 2009:372).
Definitively associated cuff links or cuff-link faces
interpreted as personal adornment were discovered in
five burials (Figure95). Most cuff links were buried
with adult males, but enameled cuff-link faces were
found with an adult woman buried without a coffin
(Burial371). Rather than representing fasteners, they
apparently were part of a necklace or bracelet, as they

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 241

Figure 95. Cuff links recovered at the New York African BurialGround: (a)front and back of cuff links, copper alloy (Burial341, Catalog
No.1652-B.001); (b)cuff link, copper alloy (Burial392, Catalog No.2039-B.004); (c)button or cuff link, copper alloy (Burial398,
Catalog No.2061-UNK.003); (d)jewelry/possible cuff link or button face, enamel (Burial211, Catalog No.1186-B.001); (e)enameled
cuff link faces (Burial371, Catalog No.1875-B.001) (photographs by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Bianchi and Bianco
2009:Figures 198 (a), 214 (b), 215 (c), 254 (d), 255 (e)]).

were discovered beneath the womans left humerus,

and may have originally been backed with leather or
another perishable material. An enameled, turquoise
button or cuff-link face with a copper-alloy backing
was found below the chin of Burial211, an adult who
was a probable male. Its location indicates it probably
was a button used on a shirt.
Earrings and necklaces were worn as personal
adornment (Figure96). A cast silver pendant that may
have been worn as an earring was found near the mandible of the child in Burial254 dating to the Middle
Group (ca. a.d.17351760). A curved copper-alloy
object in the Late-Middle Group (ca. a.d.17601776)
burial of a probable male (Burial332) may also have
been part of an earring. The adult male in Burial214,

dated to the Late Group (ca. a.d.17761795), may

have been buried with a seed necklace. The excavators
described this object but did not draw it, and the seeds
were not positively identified in the laboratory before
they were lost as a result of the terrorist attacks on
September11, 2001. Strings of beads worn as necklaces, bracelets, or waist strands were also interred
with several individuals (discussed above).

Other Material Culture

Other material culture in mortuary contextincluding
clay pipes, knives, and items that may have represented personal talismans or bundles used for healing or divinationwere relatively rare. A complete,

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

242

Figure 96. Cast silver pendant in Burial254, Catalog No.1243-B.001: (a)upper portion has slightly twisted metal
hoop 1.6cm wide and 0.9cm long attached to a sphere 0.9cm in diameter: a jump ring is attached to the bottom
of the sphere, from which hangs a pear-shaped dangle (photograph by Jon Abbott); (b)reconstruction of silver
pendant from Burial254 (drawing by C.LaRoche and R.Schulz) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Bianco et al. 2009:Figures
252 (a) and 245 (b)]).

unused pipe was found with Burial340, a woman aged

4065years at the time of her death (Figure97). Of
African birth, the woman in Burial340 was dressed
with beads about her waist and hips and perhaps her
wrist (discussed above). Fragmentary pipes were
found in two other burials (Burials158 and 165) but
their association with interments is unclear.

Figure 97. Clay pipe in Burial340, Catalog No.1651-B.134; bore

diameter is 6/64inches (photograph by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2,
Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff 2009:Figure 267]).

The New York African Burial Ground

Pipe smoking was common among black New

Yorkers of both sexes in colonial Manhattan. Notches
in the teeth resulting from pipe smoking were observed
in some individuals at the New York African Burial
Ground, but not those potentially associated with
smoking pipes or pipe fragments. Rather than signifying that an individual was a habitual pipe smoker, the
interment of smoking pipes may have functioned to
provision individuals with items they would need to
carry out social or spiritual activities in the afterlife
or to symbolize a change in ontological status. The
unused smoking pipe in Burial340 has analogs at
other African Diaspora sites. Perry and Woodruff
(2009:357) note that unused smoking pipes were
interred with individuals from Seville Plantation in
Jamaica (Armstrong 1999; Armstrong and Fleischman
1993) and at Elmina, Ghana. Perry and Woodruff
(2009:357) observe that it is noteworthy that in all
of these cases the pipes in the burials had yet to be
smoked and that at least in the case of Burial 340,
the pipe may have been included as a talisman or a
memento.

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 243

Figure 98. (a)Detail of clay pipe bowl, showing IW mark, from Burial158 (Catalog No. 903-GF). Bore diameter is
5
/64inches (photograph by ChristopherR. DeCorse); (b)Drawing of bowl shape (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and
Woodruff 2009:Figure 268]).

Figure 99. In situ photograph of clay pipe stem and bowl near the
left forearm of Burial165 (Catalog No.919-B). Scale is in inches
(photograph by Dennis Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and
Woodruff 2009:Figure 269]).

Burial158, a Late Group (ca. a.d.17761795) burial

of a man between 20 and 30years of age, included a
bowl fragment from a clay pipe and a matched set
of gilt copper-alloy cuff links (Perry and Woodruff
2009:357). The pipe bowl fragment was marked with
the initials IW (Figure98). The researchers suggest
that although the initials could have had something to
do with the identity of Burial158, the lack of a coffin
and the presence of six pipe fragments (of varying
bore diameters) in the grave shaft could indicate that
the pipe was not deliberately placed with the burial
(Perry and Woodruff 2009:357). The individual of

Figure 100. Clay pipe stem and bowl from Burial165 (Catalog
No.919-B). Bore diameter is 4/64inches (photograph by
ChristopherR. DeCorse) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and
Woodruff 2009:Figure 270]).

undetermined age or sex buried without a coffin in

Late Group (ca. a.d.17761795) Burial165 had
bowl and stem fragments from a smoking pipe positioned near the left forearm (Figures99 and 100).
As in the case of Burial158, it is uncertain whether
these artifacts were deliberately placed in the burial
to express something about the individuals identity
or whether they were redeposited during grave digging. Interestingly, the elemental signature of the
individual in Burial 165, who had modified teeth,
clustered by itself and was different from that of any
other individual in the elemental signature analysis.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

244

Figure 101. In situ photograph of knife

handle (Catalog No.1191-B.005) and
coin (Catalog No.1191-B.003) from the
left pelvic/forearm area of Burial214.
The coin is visible above the right side
of the knife handle, lying on a fragment
of coffin wood. Scale is in inches
(photograph by Dennis Seckler) (from
Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff
2009:Figure 276]).

Figure 102. Knife handle of bone or antler and iron, from Burial
214 (Catalog No.1191-B.005). Length is 85mm (photograph by
Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff
2009:Figure 277]).

Strontium isotope values were high for both enamel

and dentine for this individual, and lead levels were
very low, suggesting the possibility of African birth
and a fairly recent arrival in New York. Unused pipes
have been found in other diasporic contexts as well
as at Elmina, Ghana (Armstrong 1999:181; DeCorse
2001a; Handler 1997).
Knives were found with two burials. Burial214,
a Late Group (ca. a.d.17761795) burial of a man
between 45 and 55years old, included an iron and
bone or antler knife handle (Perry, Howson, and Holl
2009d:205; Perry and Woodruff 2009:361) (Figures101
and 102). A knife blade also accompanied Burial48,
an Early Group (pre-ca. a.d.1735) adult of undetermined age (Perry and Woodruff 2009:361) (Figure103). Similar findings have been discovered in the
burials of other enslaved laborers at African Diaspora
sites. Perry and Woodruff (2009:361) note that an
enslaved laborer at Seville Plantation in Jamaica,
for instance, was buried with a knife in his left hand
(Armstrong 1999; Armstrong and Fleischman 1993).
The New York African Burial Ground

Figure 103. X-ray of iron knife blade from Burial48 (Catalog

No.620-CHC), shown at actual size (image courtesy of John
Milner Associates) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff
2009:Figure 278]).

In addition to being personal possessions, artifacts

such as knives may suggest possibilities concerning
the social roles people played in life. They may also
have been included to protect or assist the deceased
after death.
In addition to the knife, the man in Burial214 was
buried with a copper-alloy coin, tentatively interpreted
as a George II halfpenny (Perry, Howson, and Holl
2009d:205; Perry and Woodruff 2009:353). Coins
were found buried with three other individuals (Burials135, 230, and 242), all of them mature individuals

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 245

Figure 104. In situ photograph of Burial135,

showing copper coin (Catalog No.880-B.001) in
left eye socket. Scale is in inches (photograph
by Dennis Seckler) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry
and Woodruff 2009:Figure 256]).

Figure 105. (a)X-ray of coin (copper George II halfpenny, obverse) from Burial135 (Catalog No.880-B.001). Diameter is 30mm.
The left-facing profile and legend are faintly discernible on the surface of the excavated coin (X-ray by Metropolitan Museum of Art,
supplied by John Milner Associates). (b)1749 George II halfpenny from the numismatic collection at the University of Notre Dame
Libraries (source: Jordan 1998) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff 2009:Figure 258]).

assigned to the Late Group (ca. a.d.17761795). The

3040-year-old man in Burial135 had a copper-alloy
coin placed over each eye. At least one (and possibly
the other as well) was a George II halfpenny dating
between 1727 and 1760 (Figures104 and 105). He was
also buried with a small mica schist disk that Perry
and Woodruff (2009:363) suggest may have been a
game piece or perhaps a flash (see discussion in
next section). Burial230 contained a woman between
55 and 65years of age who had two copper-alloy coins
of different sizes interred with her. Because of their
locations within the burial and the textile fragments
that adhered to each coin, the researchers inferred
that the two coins may have been placed on the eyes
(and subsequently dislodged) or secured in a pocket
or purse (Perry and Woodruff 2009:353) (Figures106
and 107).

The Spiritual Significance of Items

of Material Culture
Objects of possible spiritual significance included a
calcite crystal, a quartz disk, a micaceous schist disk,
shells, coral, a clay ball with a copper-alloy band, a
tiny glass sphere, and a metal mass (Figures108111).
Some of these items could have been individual charms
or perhaps bundles of items used in ritual practice. The
metal mass was discovered along with a black glass
bead and an unusual copper-alloy button in the pelvic
area of an adult of undetermined sex in Early Group
(pre-ca. a.d.1735) Burial250, suggesting that the
items may have been associated with each other and
could have held symbolic or spiritual significance. The
clay ball buried with Burial375, a young adult woman,
may have been contained in a pocket or a leather

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

246

Figure 106. Copper coin from Burial230 (Catalog No.1216-B.003).

Diameter is 29mm (photograph by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2,
Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff 2009:Figure 260]).

Figure 107. Textile from a possible shroud that had adhered to a

coin from Burial 230 (Catalog No. 1216-B.002). The coin is 22mm in
diameter (photograph by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry
and Woodruff 2009:Figure 135]).

Figure 108. Calcite crystal cluster in Burial55, Catalog

No.0792-B.003 (width 3.5mm) (photograph by Jon
Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff
2009:Figure 279]).

Figure 109. Rose quartz disk in Burial289, Catalog

No.1321-B.004 (diameter 7mm) (photograph by Jon
Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff
2009:Figure 280]).

Figure 110. Mica schist disk from Burial 135 (Catalog No. 880-B).
Diameter is 6 mm (photograph by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2,
Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff 2009:Figure 281]).

The New York African Burial Ground

Figure 111. Glass sphere in Burial410,

Catalog No.2082-B.001 (diameter 3.44mm)
(photograph by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2,
Part 1 [Perry and Woodruff 2009:Figure 274]).

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 247

Figure 112. Ceramic sphere with copper alloy band in

Burial375, Catalog No.1886-B.001 (diameter 17mm)
(photograph by Jon Abbott) (from Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry and
Woodruff 2009:Figure 271]).

pouch on her right hip. If kept in a leather pouch, the

artifact could have been part of a bundle of objects
used in conjuring or divination rituals. The object is
unusual in comparison to other discoveries at African
Diaspora sites, but possibly similar to items alluded
to in historical discussions (Figure112). An anecdote
cited by Chireau (2003:1213), for instance, describes
an incident in which a conjurer gave a clergyman a
charm that the clergyman referred to as a luck ball.
The charm was intended to provide good fortune by
increasing the clergymans small congregation. In
Brazil, a ball-shaped object with a thread tied to it
was used in divination rituals performed by enslaved
Africans with the intent to identify individuals guilty
of theft (Sweet 2003:125).
Artifacts interred with individuals at the New York
African Burial Ground are similar to objects discovered at other African Diaspora sites and could have
possible functions related to divination, healing, or the
passage of the spirit through water to the world of the
dead. These kinds of objects are often discovered as
collections or caches of items that appear to have been
intentionally deposited in special locations, such as at
thresholds or in pits associated with African American
domestic spaces (Brown 1994; Fennell 2000, 2003;
Ferguson 1992,1999; Franklin 1997c; Galke 2000;
LaRoche 1994; Leone and Fry 1999, 2001; McKee
1995; Patten 1992; Samford 1996; Singleton 1995;
Wall 2000; Wilkie 1995, 1997; Young 1996, 1997). At
the Charles Carroll house in Carrollton, Maryland, for
instance, the discovery of deposits made up of quartz
crystals, pierced discs, pierced coins, beads, pins, a
rounded pebble, and a white potsherd with a blue asterisk painted on the interior bottom were interpreted by

Dr. Frederick Lamp (Curator of African Art, Baltimore

Museum of Art) as items used by enslaved Africans
to control spirits who left the body at death and who
wandered via water back to the sea, their ending point
as well as their source (Leone and Fry 1999:373).
According to Leone and Fry (1999:372373), some
West Africans believed that spirits could be directed
to perform for humans by using material items that
looked like water, death, or flashes of light. Among
the Kongo peoples, reflective surfaces of seashells,
quartz crystals, and mica or mirror fragments were
metaphoric of the water boundary of the living and
the world of the spirits, and thus communicated the
invocation of the spiritual forces into the world of the
living (Fennell 2003:14). Reasoning along similar
lines, Perry and Woodruff (2009:363) note that the
small (6-mm-diameter) micaceous schist disk found
in Burial 135 could have served as a game piece or
perhaps a flash placed for its reflective quality symbolic of water (see Figure110). If a flash, the mica
disk may have been intended to attract the attention of
African spirits (Perry and Woodruff 2009:363).
It must be remembered, however, that the use of
unusual objects as charms was not restricted to African-descended individuals. Distinctive stones and
crystals, for instance, have been a source of fascination
for many groups, including Native Americans and
Euroamericans. Some Euroamericans used crystals or
distinctive stones as protective amulets or to ward off
evil spirits (Fennell 2000:286). X insignia similar to
insignia identified in the bowls of spoons and on other
items associated with diasporic Africans (Ferguson
1992, 1999) were also inscribed on fence posts or
walls to ward off evil spirits by German immigrants
(Fennell 2000:302).
Objects like those discovered at the African Burial
Ground, as well as many other objects and materials
such as claws, teeth, clay, ash, nut shells, bird skulls,
feathers, and rootshad special meanings associated
with spirits or the attributes of spirits. Charms referred
to in Kikongo as minkisi (nkisi in the singular), or
kiteke, in Kimbundu were often worn on the person,
wrapped in skins, or were hung in houses as protection
and for luck (Thornton 2001:80). These objects held
special ritual significance and were created and used
in specific combinations in public and private rituals.
Individual minkisi were viewed as the container for
a manifestation of an invoked spirit and used in rituals of divination, protection, or healing that involved
the invocation or control of spirits (Fennell 2003:14).
When manipulated, minkisi enabled spirits to mani-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

248
fest their power in healers through spirit possession.
Protective charms were also sold to individuals by
healers to protect against wild animals, to protect the
foundation of houses, to kill thieves, to protect crops,
to ensure fertility, and so on (Sweet 2003:105106).
Some minkisi were provided houses where members
of the community could access them in times of need
(Fennell 2003:1415). New York Africans were also
observed to use charms, a practice that invoked anxiety and fear among enslavers. For instance, in 1762
John Watts (1928:97) wrote that:
Mr. Isaac Young-Husband has a Wench of mine
in his hands called Belinda, middle aged but not
very comely, she is a simple innocent creature &
a very good Cook, has lived long in my family
& indeed was a most necessary Servant, but her
simplicity led her to triffle about charms which
alarmed my female family too much to keep
her [John Watts to John Riddell, November27,
1762; quoted in Medford, Brown, Carrington,
etal. 2009e:73].

Preparing the Dead for Burial, Mourning

Rites, and Associated Ceremonies
It cannot be known for certain how the deceased
were prepared for interment and what rites and ceremonies were used to bury them, for prayers, music,
songs, and dance do not survive in the archaeological record. Archaeologists must rely on historical
accounts and ethnographic observations to infer
what nonmaterial rites may have accompanied the
dead. This limitation of archaeology is particularly
restrictive in the case of the New York African Burial
Ground, because evidence for many funeral rites
and ceremonies associated with African traditions
would not have been preserved in the materials
available for study.
The available historical evidence suggests that
graveside rituals at the African Burial Ground were
performed by Africans according to their own beliefs
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009d:85). Chaplain John Sharpe wrote in 1712 that enslaved New
York Africans are buried in the common by those
of their country and complexion without a Christian
office; on the contrary the Heathenish rites are performed at the grave by their countrymen (Sharpe
1881:355). Writing in the nineteenth century, Valentine
(1860:567) echoed this sentiment in writing that
The New York African Burial Ground

the negroes in this city were, both in the Dutch

and English colonial times, a proscribed and
detested race, having nothing in common with
the whites. Many of them were native Africans,
imported hither in slave ships, and retaining their
native superstitions and burial customs, among
which was that of burying at night, with various
mummeries and outcries.
Legal restrictions imposed during the eighteenth
century provide a glimpse into practices that were
prominent enough to prompt restriction by colonial
administrators. A 1722 law required that enslaved
laborers who died south of the Collect Pond be buried
during daylight hours, implying that Africans previously buried their dead at night (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, etal. 2009d:89). Burial at night may
have held spiritual significance or was necessitated
by the requirements of work, but to many European
New Yorkers, night burial was considered a disturbance and an opportunity to conspire and foment
resistance. Before these laws were enacted, settlers
complained that the feverish drumming and chanting accompanying night burial disturbed their sleep
(Foote 2004:142).
Washing the body before clothing or shrouding is
characteristic of European Christian, Muslim, and
traditional African practices (Habenstein and Lamers
1963; Litten 1991). In most groups, gender and kinship play an important role in determining the people
who offer this service to the dead. Among the Fante
of coastal Ghana, the deceased is bathed by members
of his or her matrilineage (Chukwukere 1981:62). In
southern Africa, the in-laws of the deceased wash
and drape the corpse (Vogel 1993:404). For Cameroonians of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth
centuries, death was polluting. As a result, mourners
had to be cleansed and burial tools disposed of, and
rituals to keep death away were performed (Jindra
2005:359360).
Other ritual performances characteristic of some
African burial practices included pouring libations,
gifting mourners, and bewailing the dead. Gifts were
sometimes apportioned according to kin relationships, thus reinforcing these relations (Chukwukere
1981:63).
Public weeping was customary among many African tribes, including the Yoruba, Ibo, Ibibio, and the
Akan-speaking Asante, Fante, and Akwapim (Adjei
1943:89). Libations were poured before wailing began
to propitiate the spirits, and there was a specific order

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 249

Figure 113. Divining the cause of death, an African funeral rite practiced in Jamaica (from Phillipo 1843) (from Volume 3 [Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009d:Figure 19]).

of wailing. Processions also were common among the

Akan speakers. For Fante mortuary processions, the
men of the deceaseds patrilineage drummed, sang,
danced acrobatically, and hung patrilineage flags over
the body (Chukwukere 1981:62).
Another rite unlikely to leave evidence in the
archaeological record is divining the cause of death
or searching for signs of witchcraft (e.g., see Bosman
1721:217220) (Figure113). This common practice
among West African peoples persisted in the Caribbean Islands and in New York (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009d:86).
Along the Gold Coast in the late-seventeenth
century, close relatives wailed loudly and cleansed
themselves near the corpse; more-distant relatives as
well as townspeople also participated in mourning
rites. The wives of a deceased husband shaved their
heads, covered themselves in white earth, dressed
in rags, and roved from place to place in mourning. Loud wailing and large gatherings of mourners
took place for several days prior to burial (Bosman
1721:220222). After the burial of the deceased, the
participants drink and be merry, which lasts for several Days successively (Bosman 1721:222). In Benin
during the same period, relatives and enslaved laborers
of the deceased mourned for a period of around 14
days, during which time they wailed, played musical

instruments, and drank exuberantly. Participants in

the funeral returned to normal activities after burial of
the deceased, but close relatives continued to mourn
in a similar manner for months afterward. The bodies of individuals who had died far from home were
sometimes dried slowly over a fire to preserve them
until the deceased could be buried in the proper place
(Bosman 1721:417418). In one instance in the Ivory
Coast, Bosman observed the funeral of a superannuated woman who had died far from her place of birth.
After 24 hours of mourning ceremonies involving
all the people of the village, an empty Canoe was
brought just before the Dwelling of the Deceasd, into
which the Corps was laid; next which was placed a
Pot of Rice, and another of Palm-Wine, in order to
supply her, if she happened to be hungry or thirsty
on her Journey; and after that the Canoe was filled
with all sorts of green Plants (Bosman 1721:446).
After the woman was buried at her place of birth and
the friends and relatives had returned home to the
village where she had most recently lived, a large
feast was held.
These few examples indicate that rituals surrounding the death of African individuals involved the structured interactions of individuals organized according
to kinship and community membership. Involving
numerous activities conducted over a long period,

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

250
these burial rituals were arrayed across a variety of
places in addition to the place of burial. Obviously, the
condition of forced servitude and the many restrictions
placed upon enslaved laborers would have required
New York Africans to alter the timing, duration, or
intensity of mourning; the size of mourning parties;
and the preferred location of burial, as well as reduce
the lavishness of feasting or drinking and the offering
of grave goods so as to accommodate the conditions in
which they were forced to bury their dead (see Chapter7). Nonetheless, it should be expected that aspects
of these diverse practices could have been recreated
in colonial settings to the extent possible. Much more
work triangulating between historic accounts, later
ethnographies, and African Diaspora archaeological
finds will need to be done to achieve a more detailed,
nuanced, and historically accurate understanding of
the burial practices expected at different times and
places in the African Diaspora.

Multiethnic Influences on
Burial Practices
Native American
Local Native American burial practices differed from
contemporaneous African practices and from those
inferred to have taken place at the African Burial
Ground. Late Woodland burial practices in New York
involved burial in a flexed position, covering the
grave with charcoal and shell, and placement of few
grave goods with the deceased (Cantwell and Wall
2001:99). A seventeenth-century colonist noted that
natives fence their graves with a hedge, and cover
the tops with mats, to shelter them from the rain
(Denton 1902:9). Another wrote, They make a large
grave, and line it inside with boughs of trees, in which
they lay the corpse, so that no earth can touch it. They
then cover this with clay, and form the grave, seven
or eight feet, in the shape of a sugar loaf, and place
palisades around it (de Vries [1642] in J.F. Jameson
[1909:223]). Some Native Americans in New Netherland collected together the bones of their ancestors,
cleaned them, and bound them up in small bundles.
They dig a square grave, the size and length of
the person, and over it erect four pillars, which
they cover with the bark of trees... they set a
time when they will bury the body, when all the
friends will have a great gathering, and bring
The New York African Burial Ground

ample supplies of provisions, accordingly as

is prescribed by their village, that a great festival is to be held, with frolic and dancing. This
festival continues some ten days, during which
time their friends come from other nations on
all sides, in order to see it held, and the accompanying ceremonies, which are attended with
great expense [de Vries 1642, quoted in J.F.
Jameson 1909:224].
Archaeologists have recovered similar graves surrounded with postholes (Solecki 1947:48).
Other practices involved secondary burial after
exposure. The bones of the dead apparently were
bundled and brought back to the home settlement if
a person died away from home (Cantwell and Wall
2001:100). Some groups buried bone bundles in
ossuaries (Kaeser 1970) and disinterred the bones
when moving to new settlements (Heckewelder
[1876:92], referring to Nanticoke) (Cantwell and
Wall 2001:102).
At the New York African Burial Ground, a possible
element of traditional Native American practices can
be inferred in the treatment of Burial377, a woman
aged 4550years old. This woman, who was placed in
the Late-Middle Group (ca. a.d.17601776), appears
to have been buried without a coffin. She may have
been wrapped in matting, blankets, or some other
perishable, organic material that left organic stains
resembling wood. (Similar material, interpreted by the
excavators as possible deteriorated coffin wood, was
discovered in Burial381, a nearby burial of a young
adult assigned by default to the Middle Group, ca.
a.d.17351760.) A substance identified as red ocher
stained the organic material and the womans head,
ribs, and scapulae (Perry and Howson 2009:125). The
woman also was wearing three copper-alloy rings
as part of a necklace. This placement was unusual;
among other individuals, rings worn as ornaments
were placed on the fingers. Otherwise, the disposition
of Burial377 was not dissimilar to the typical New
York African Burial Ground practice of extended
supine inhumation with head to the west.
Burial377 was not included in the Sr isotope studies or the trace element analysis; she did, however,
have culturally modified teeth, as indicated by mesial
filing (Goodman et al. 2009:108). The lack of a coffin,
the possible matting, and the possible red ocher imply
that this woman could have been buried according to
Native American tradition. Red ocher was widely used
by Native Americans throughout eastern North Amer-

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 251
ica in their funeral rites; it has long been symbolically
associated with death and rebirth. If African, perhaps
she was the wife of a Native American man or was
buried according to an African tradition that also made
use of red ocher and burial matting. Alternatively, the
red ocher-like substance and possible matting could
have been the products of deterioration of a decorated
coffin, in which case her burial would not be suggestive of local Native American practices.

Islam
A large percentage of enslaved Africans who were
forcibly migrated to New York embarked originally
from Senegambia, where Muslim factors were especially active (Medford, ed. 2009). It might be expected,
then, that many individuals buried in the African
Burial Ground were exposed to Islam in Africa or
the Americas and may have participated in religious
practices associated with Islam (Gomez 1994:684,
2005). Although it would not be unexpected to find
evidence of Muslim ideology or burial practices at the
African Burial Ground, this was not the case.
Sub-Saharan Africa was historically linked to the
Mediterranean and Muslim worlds before the advent
of European colonialism. As early as the seventh
century, Muslims traveled across Africa, and Islam
began to spread, spurring the development of Islamic
kingdoms in Ghana, Mali, and the Songhay Empire of
northwest Africa (eleventh to fifteenth centuries). At
the same time, Muslim scholars, travelers, and warriors brought the chattel-slave trade to the savannahs
(Alexander 2001:49; Saul 2006; Skinner 1978).
High mobility and a long history of interactions
resulted in deep historical linkages between Islamic
and some traditional African religions (Saul 2006:45).
In many areas of Atlantic Africa, Islam was an eclectic belief system. Esoteric knowledge of divination
practices, for instance, were shared among Muslim
pilgrims and practitioners of traditional African religions, such as the Yoruba and Fon. A Muslim form
of divination known as khatt ar-raml, or sand writing, that was practiced widely in sub-Saharan Africa
beginning in the thirteenth century (Brenner 2000:154)
is very similar to If divination, which developed in
Ile-Ifa among the Yoruba and became widely used by
the Igbo, Nupe, Fon, and Ewe (Bascom 1969; Brenner
2000:160; Morton-Williams 1966).
When first encountered by the Portuguese during
the fifteenth century, inhabitants of the Senegambia
region, including the Fula, Jolof, Mandingo, and Tuka-

lor peoples, followed a mixture of Islamic and local

religious traditions (Sweet 2003:8788). Although
adherence to Muslim practices was often voluntary,
some Africans enslaved by Muslims were forced
to convert to Islam. Others were persecuted by the
Portuguese Inquisition for their Islamic faith. The
forcible migration of people with Muslim or mixed
belief systems is an important component of African
Diaspora religion that has often been overlooked in the
historiography of the African diaspora (Gomez 1994,
2005). Many enslavers in North America referred to
enslaved Africans from Senegambia and Sierra Leone
as Mandingos and, by the nineteenth century, the
terms Mandingo or Mandinga were synonymous
with Muslim (Gomez 1994:685). Observers noted
that Muslim holy men and traders who practiced grisgris lived in every town along the Sierra Leone coast
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009e:67). Central Africans forcibly migrated from Angola, Cabinda,
Congo, and Gabon were less likely to bring Muslimderived belief systems with them to the Americas
(Sweet 2003:104). Medford, Brown, Carrington, etal.
(2009e:67) report that, whereas many coastal West
African communities remained outside Muslim influence in the seventeenth century, this changed in the
eighteenth century.
Africans in the New World practiced Islam as well,
including in New York (Gomez 1994, 2005; Medford,
Brown, Carrington, etal. 2009e:73). Anthony Jansen
Van Salee, a person of mixed Dutch and Moroccan
ancestry who settled in New Amsterdam in 1633,
was described in official records as a black Mohammedan (Foote 2004:41; Gomez 2005).
Muslim burial traditions prescribe an essentially
uniform burial rite, but variation in mortuary practices occurs throughout the Islamic world, based on the
perspectives of different Muslim schools of thought
and historical context (Insoll 2003:17). The spirit of
the burial, however, is much the same in that Muslim burials, unlike the burials of other traditions, are
intended to be straightforward, unostentatious, and
simple (Insoll 2003:17). In many Muslim burial
traditions, the body of the deceased is washed and
perfumed immediately after death and then is covered
with a cloth or dressed in grave clothes. For many
Muslims, a kafan, called kubba in West Africa, is the
only covering allowed, and no jewelry or other ornament may be worn.
Traditionally, Muslims did not use a coffin or
casket (Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009d) although
they were wrapped in shrouds, preferably made from

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

252
unstitched white cloth (Howson, Bianco, et al.
2009:63). Muslims shrouds could require several
yards of cloth because multiple wraps were needed
to cover the entire body. Due to the large amount of
cloth needed, Howson (2009:260) concludes that the
outlay for a proper shroud would have been prohibitive
for African Muslims living under slavery in colonial
New York. In Muslim burials, the deceased is positioned to face Mecca and placed on the right side.
This burial configuration is sometimes accompanied
by either a narrow grave shaft or bricks used to support the body on its right side (Insoll 2003). Muslims
bury the deceased as soon as possible after death,
and it is preferred for a Muslim to be buried close to
where he or she died and not be transported to another
location. Howson, Bianco, et al. (2009:63) note that
in Islamic tradition, men wash and cover men, and
women wash and cover women. Graves are typically
shallow so that the deceased can hear the call to worship but deep enough to allow the corpse to sit up
for its interrogation by the angels Munkar and Nakir
and thus gain entry to paradise (Insoll 2003:17).
Unostentatious stone or wood grave markers were
typically allowed only to be placed above where the
head of the deceased was positioned, or not at all, but
in reality [there is] great variety with regard to grave
markers (Insoll 2003:17). For instance, stones used
to mark the location of head and feet as well as grave
goods (mainly among women in the form of jewelry)
have been associated with Islamic Bedouin burials
dating between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries
in the Near East (Zias 2000). Moreover, the blending
of Islamic and other African religious traditions in
West Africa could have resulted in burials that display
a mixture of traits related to multiple traditions.
Archaeologists have used characteristics considered
diagnostic of Muslim burial practicesright-side
position, burial without a coffin, absence of grave
goods and markersto identify Muslim burials in
multiethnic cemeteries. Burialsin the Cobern Street
cemetery in Cape Town, South Africa, inferred on the
basis of isotopic analysis to be enslaved Muslims from
the Indian Ocean regions were placed on their right
sides facing Signal Hill, a local feature of importance
to Muslims (Cox etal. 2001:8190). They were buried
without shrouds or grave goods. By contrast, burials
thought to represent non-Muslim enslaved persons
of African descent, again based on isotopic analysis,
were wrapped in shrouds as indicated by presence
of pins, placed on their backs with arms extended at
their sides or folded over the pelvis, and dressed in
The New York African Burial Ground

clothing, as shown by the presence of buttons (Cox

etal. 2001:8081). These individuals also were buried
with personal goods, such as pipes and knives (Cox
etal. 2001:91).
In contrast to practices attributed to Muslims, the
deceased interred in the New York African Burial
Ground were commonly shrouded, typically placed
in coffins, and never placed on the right side, at least
among the undisturbed burials. Grave markers were
used, and some individuals were apparently buried
with personal goods. Further, the few descriptions of
African burial practices in New York indicate transportation of the body to the African Burial Ground
and fairly boisterous activities that may have involved
wailing. Together the known material and behavioral
attributes of burials placed in the New York African
Burial Ground suggest that Islamic beliefs, if they
indeed were held among the population, were not
commonly expressed in excavated portions of the
burial ground.
One possible Muslim burial was observed with
Burial237/264. The unusual head-to-south orientation
of Early Group (pre-ca. a.d.1735) Burial237/264 was
interpreted by Perry, Howson, and Holl (2009a:146)
as possibly representing a Muslim adult of undetermined age or sex who was originally placed on the
side and meant to face east. The general lack of
evidence for Muslim burials at the New York African Burial Ground could suggest that if buried in the
African Burial Ground, Muslims were not buried in
the excavated portion.

Christianity
As with Islam, aspects of Christianity were practiced
alongside African religious traditions in some areas
where enslaved Africans originated. This was particularly the case in West Central Africa, where Christians had begun proselytizing in the sixteenth century
(Butler 2000). Christianity was also practiced in the
creole societies of the Atlantic coast that developed
as a consequence of the trade in enslaved Africans.
Medford, Brown, Heywood, etal. (2009b:19) suggest
that Christianity became a main indicator of social
status in Kongo, where significant numbers of Central Africans lived in communities where Christianity, European languages, dress, foodways, and other
cultural practices interacted.
The Kingdom of Kongo officially converted to
Christianity in 1491 with the conversion of the prin-

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 253
cipal king of the Kongo, Mzinga Mbamba (Butler
2000:26). Afterward, the Kongo became the center
of Central African Christianity (Thornton 2001:83).
Thornton (2001:72) has argued that as a result of
Portuguese missionary activities in the Kingdom of
Kongo, hundreds of thousands of central Africans
practiced a local form of Christianity. Before the
African Burial Ground formed, most of the people
in Kongo identified themselves as Christians and
were usually accepted as such by visitors (Thornton 2001:83). The Dutch, in the 1630s, for instance,
described the people of Kongo as fully Roman Catholic; they knelt before wooden crosses, kept rosaries,
and prayed in Christian ways (Thornton 2001:83).
The Christianity that developed in Kongo, however, was not the same as the Christianity of the Portuguese who brought it or that of the Dutch or the
British. Christianity in Kongo retained elements of
traditional religious practices and beliefs. The Portuguese, in fact, characterized the people of Kongo
as not fully Christian, although this characterization
was in part used to justify war against non-Christians
(Thornton 2001:83). Forms of Christianity practiced
in Manhattan were also considerably diverse, owing
to the diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds of the
settlements inhabitants (Foote 2004:92). Enslaved
Africans arriving in New Amsterdam and later, New
York City, would have been confronted by multiple
approaches to Christian religious practice, many of
them Protestant in organization, with members who
were described by visitors as not particularly pious or
reverent (Foote: 2004:32). The Catholic experience
of some enslaved Africans could have stood at odds
to Protestant practices in the settlement.
In Kongoland, the melding of Kongo traditional
beliefs and Christianity was achieved through careful accommodations of ritual and terminology that
enabled multiple belief systems to exist side by side.
Fundamental differences existed between Kongo traditional beliefs and Christian beliefs. A major difference
between Christian and Kongolese belief, for instance,
was the widespread West Central African belief that
the ancestors were not permanently removed to a distant heaven but occupied an active role in the world
of the living (Thornton 2001:85). While performing Christian rituals, the Colonial period Kongolese
continued to visit their ancestors graves and seek
luck, health, and blessing. They respected the territorial deities that they sometimes came to identify
also as Christian Saints, but sometimes worshipped
separately. They sought out witches to destroy, and

resisted attempts of missionaries to describe all these

activities as witchcraft (Thornton 2001:84).
The participation of African-descended people in
Christianity varied through time while the African
Burial Ground was in use, depending on prior experience with Christianity and varying attitudes among
the Dutch and the British. Under Dutch rule in New
Amsterdam, Africans were welcomed into churches,
encouraged to marry according to Christian practice,
and had their children baptized. The Dutch Reformed
Church insisted that the Dutch Calvinist enslavers in
New Netherland should be responsible for instructing their Negroes in the Christian Religion and that
time should be provided for all Negroes to assemble
in a suitable place in order to receive instruction from
a catechist (Foote 2004:43). The Dutch Reformed
Church insisted, however, that Native Americans
and Africans be instructed in religion and make a
confession of faith before baptism. As a consequence
of these restrictions, few adults of African descent
were baptized and admitted to membership in New
Amsterdams Dutch Reformed Church. Between 1639
and 1655, the Dutch Calvinist ministers baptized only
57converts of African descent; of that number, 49
converts were children. Conspicuously, they baptized
no African-descended people between 1656 and 1664
(Foote 2004:4748). Of the 49children, the majority
were likely offspring of free New Amsterdam Africans
(Foote 2004: 250 n. 94).
Church participation of African-descended people
waned when the British took control of the colony. A
small Lutheran congregation continued to welcome
people of African descent, but for the most part, African worshipers were not taken seriously (Goodfriend
1992:125). As Foote (2004:126) has pointed out, New
Yorks first slavery law proclaimed that No Christian
shall be kept in bondage. European New Yorkers
were therefore conflicted over their moral imperative
to Christianize heathens and their desperate need for
labor in British New York. No doubt, many Africans
who turned to Christianity did so out of the hope that
conversion would release them from bondage (see
Chapter7). A law enacted in 1706 ended this hope,
stating that the baptizing of enslaved individuals of
African or Native American ancestry or their children
would not result in emancipation (Foote 2004:127;
Goodfriend 1992:126).
The Anglican Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) made the only significant effort to convert blacks to Christianity in New
York City by sponsoring Elias Neaus catechetical

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

254
school for Negroes between 1705 and 1723. Only a
fraction of the citys enslaved laborers attended the
school, which was opposed by a strong faction of Trinity Church (Goodfriend 1992:126127, 130). Neau
reported in 1712 that the greatest part of the black
people in New York remain unbaptised (Goodfriend
1992:131). In 1691, England banned Roman Catholic
priests from New York, a move that may have further
alienated enslaved laborers who practiced elements
of Catholicism brought from West Central Africa or
New Spain. Foote (2004:147) suggests that the people
of African descent most likely to embrace evangelical
Protestantism were enslaved laborers born or raised in
New York City during the mid-eighteenth century.
Aspects of mortuary practices at the New York
African Burial Ground that could reflect Christianity
include the use of coffins, the orientation of the body
with the head to the west, use of headstones or headboards, and the absence of burial goods other than
clothing and ornaments. East-west orientation with
head to west was characteristic of Christian burial,
so the dead would rise on the day of the resurrection
facing east (Parler 1962; Puckett 1926; Rose and
Santeford 1985a:4041). Perry and Howson (2009)
noted that the extended supine body position in the
New York African Burial Ground is typical of European Christian burial. These customs appear to have
been widespread in the diaspora.
Other mortuary practices associated with Christianity include the use of copper coins to cover the eyes.
This practice is ancient, dating to Classical times,
when it was considered as payment for the boatman
Charon who ferried the deceased across the River
Styx. It also served the practical purpose of keeping
the eyes closed. Skeletons found in Jericho dating
from the first and second centuries C.E. have been
found with coins over the eyes. This custom continued to be practiced by African Americans into the
twentieth century (Rose and Santeford 1985a:61).
Copper coins were recovered from four burials at
the New York African Burial Ground. Coins were
placed over the eyes of Burials135, an adult male,
Burial230, an adult female, and Burial242, also an
adult female.

African Belief Systems

African religions evolved and changed dramatically
in the centuries before Europeans invaded their homelands. Butler (2000:26) has written that African reliThe New York African Burial Ground

gions were as dynamic and shaped by human actions

in different ways and different times as were European
religions. Change took place prior to the arrival of
missionaries, traders, and conquerors. Christianity, it
seems, only further complicated a suite of beliefs and
practices that had been evolving for centuries.
A major challenge in the study of religion in the
African Diaspora is the assumption that Africa represents a kind of past to an American present. That
is, African contexts were sources of past beliefs and
practices from which diasporic beliefs and practices
were in part derived. Matory (1999:74) has argued
that many discussions of religion in African diasporic
contexts often treat Africa historically as the past or
the base line rather than a locus of contemporaneous, coeval developments in religious thought and
practice. In this sense, African diasporic religions in
the Americas are assessed in terms of their purity
or as alleged survivals of a traditional African past.
Embedded within this assumption is the characterization of African pasts as static and traditional and
diasporic contexts as dynamic and transformative (see
also Hall 2002; Mitchell 2005).
From this perspective, African religious ideology
was fundamentally altered in response to new conditions in the Americas, and aspects of African diasporic
religion in the Americas that are reminiscent of Africa
are seen as survivals. Although it is true that African beliefs and practices were adapted to conditions
in diasporic contexts, it is possible that changes took
place more in an additive than a reductive fashion.
As Chireau (2003:41) has explained, While Africans
were unable to replicate their religious institutions,
they usually created new, sometimes clandestine traditions that served their collective needs. Although they
transformed the older religions, Africans maintained
their ancient spiritual moorings while in America.
A fundamental characteristic of many African religious ideologies is flexibility. Core beliefs and ways
of perceiving the world may have been maintained
even as aspects of African, Islam, and Christian religions were incorporated into a dynamic ensemble of
beliefs and practices. Sweet (2003:112), for instance,
considers Christianity not as a fundamental aspect of
Kongolese identity, but rather as a veneer of additions
to a central core of indigenous beliefs. In this sense,
Sweet (2003:113) has suggested that Christianity was
naturalized by the Kongolese to render it compatible
with indigenous religious philosophy.
Numerous religions developed in the African diaspora. These included Candombl, Umbanda, Xang,

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 255
Batuque, Santera, Palo Mayombe, and Vodoun. Many
African diaspora religions were hybridizations of
African traditions that sometimes included elements
of Christian European and Muslim religious practices
to which Africans were exposed in Africa and in the
Americas.
Repressive attitudes toward African religiosity
were especially pronounced in the British colonies.
Butler (2000:85) has stated that no other Old World
peoples suffered such wholesale destruction of their
traditional religions as did Africans enslaved in Britains North American colonies. Yet despite the odds
against them, Africans reconstructed in America some
key elements of their traditional religious practice and
slowly reconfigured Christianity according to their
own needs (see also Chireau 2003:41).
According to Sweet (2003:113), the Kongolese
drew parallels between Kongolese and Christian ideas
by recognizing similarities between Nzambi Mpungu
and the Christian god and between ancestral deities
and Christian saints. The Kongolese may have adapted
Christian symbolism to match the spirit and structure of Kongolese rather than replace a Kongolese
core religious identity with a Christian one (Sweet
2003:113). The melding of Kongolese and Christian
beliefs and practices resulted in new forms of religious practice, but ones that maintained an essential
African basis. To Sweet (2003:114), Christian faith
was, at best, a parallel system of belief that served
to complement Kongolese worldviews. Kongolese
who practiced Christianity were in this sense bi-religious rather than Christians or Kongolese Christians
(Sweet 2003:114). Fennell (2003:16) has suggested
that Bakongo readily translated the Christian holy
spirit, angels, and saints as spirits and Christian priests
as ritual specialists similar to banganga. In a similar
fashion, the crucifix, statues of saints, Eucharist, and
church buildings were viewed the same as minkisi and
related ritual buildings (Fennell 2003:16).
Many enslaved Africans in colonial New York
City do not appear to have embraced Christian belief
systems (Foote 2004:131). Goodfriend has stated
that funerals were the focal point of black religion
in New York City. When blacks assembled to bury a
member of their community, the opportunity existed
for reinforcing traditional beliefs about death and the
afterlife. Foote (2004) has pointed out that until the
transatlantic slave trade ended in 1807, New Yorks
African-descended population remained closer to
African cultures than Euroamerican culture. As long
as native Africans continued to disembark at the port

of New York, beliefs and practices of African derivation remained an available source of moral authority
for the colonial port towns black population (Foote
2004:142). According to Goodfriend (1992:122), this
was especially the case for mortuary customs.

West Central African Core Beliefs

Many West Central Africans lived in a world densely
populated by spirits. Ancestral spirits were of fundamental importance to West Central African belief
systems, as was the interconnectedness of political,
economic, and religious matters. The world of the
living and the world of the dead were intimately connected as a single community, although separated by a
large body of water through which the dead had to pass
in order to reach the other world (Sweet 2003:104).
The living and the dead had social and moral responsibilities to each other. Ancestor spirits protected the
living from harm, upheld community standards and
morality, witnessed disputes, and insured bountiful harvests. In return, they expected to be loved
and remembered. They required food at communal
feasts, expected to be consulted in important family
decisions, and demanded proper burials and frequent
offerings at their graves (Sweet 2003:104).
A widely held belief in Loango and other parts
of West Central Africa was that the dead went to
an afterlife where they continued to have an influence on the living. Also living in this other world
were powerful spiritual beings, or deities, and two
categories of lesser spirits who were detached from
individual families or territories, and who either
activated charms that any one possessing the charms
could use, or were dangerous angry spirits, ghosts
whose malice or mischief could be troublesome
(Thornton 2001:75).
In Mbundu, deities were referred to as kilundu;
kilundu gave prohibitions, called kixila, for the people
to follow, and punished them, often with sickness,
if they did not follow them (Thornton 2001:7).
Nzambi were deities of the highest status. According
to Sweet (2003:107), Nzambi Mpungu was considered a remote and inaccessible original ancestor to
the Kongolese, but with the coming of Portuguese
Christianity, Nzambi Mpungu came to be equated with
the Christian God and was perceived by Kongolese
Christians as involved in everyday affairs. Territorial
deities, who often lived in high places, watercourses,
and uncultivated areas, were responsible for natural
events, planting and harvesting schedules, and com-

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

256
munity morality (Thornton 2001:78). Territorial deities were either male or female and were often related
as marriage partners. Priests, called nganga Kiteke in
the Kimbundu speaking area or kitomi (or kitebela if
female) in Kongo served territorial deities. Kitomi
traveled widely, carrying a staff of office, were not
allowed to marry, or to die a natural death (Thornton
2001:79). Territorial deities were worshiped at shrines
kept in houses or other architectural spaces (Thornton
2001:7678).
Sweet (2003:107) has warned that interpreting
African religions through a Christian lens has resulted
in the false impression that lesser spirits were agents
of a supreme being when, in fact, no such hierarchical
arrangement existed. As lineal offspring of common
ancestors, there was indeed a hierarchy of kinship and
respect (Sweet 2003:107); it was the most recently
dead who took the most active role in the world of
the living. According to Thornton (2001:74), some
Mbundu in the 1650s may have believed that the souls
of the dead passed on to relatives. The soul of a dead
husband transmigrated to his wife or favorite wife, or
barring that, passed on to his child. Others apparently
believed that the soul perished along with the body
(Thornton 2001:74). In Loango, some people believed
in reincarnation, that the soul of a dead person was
reborn in the same family, whereas others did not
believe in an afterlife (Thornton 2001:74). Families
attended to the ancestors. Families in Loango had
small house altars where they left food and drink.
Ceremonies involving sacrifice were also held to
propitiate the dead. Descendants who failed to offer
ancestors enough were visited with sickness, death, or
bad luck; those who attended the ancestors well were
rewarded with good luck and good health (Thornton
2001:79). In Christian Kongo, people visited the
graves of the dead to ask for good luck in war and
other affairs. Cemeteries were located in deep woods
or away from inhabited areas so that the soul could
have maximum rest, and would lay quietly in the
grave and not bother the living (Thornton 2001:80).
Zizumina were spirits of those killed in war or eaten
by animals and improperly buried. These wicked and
bothersome spirits molested the living (Thornton
2001:81). As the New York African Burial Ground
history reseachers note,
We may never know the extent to which these
beliefs and practices transferred to and were
reshaped in the New Amsterdam environment.
It is reasonable to assume, however, that West
The New York African Burial Ground

Central Africans (like all people) held to their

traditions to the degree that their bondage and
circumstances permitted. Removal from their
homelands and enslavement in New Amsterdam
would have challenged their ability to define
themselves on their own cultural terms but would
not have erased influences long embedded in
their collective consciousness [Medford, Brown,
Heywood, et al. 2009b:18].

Divination and Healing

The religious experience of West Central Africans
was in many ways practical and efficacious. Most
West Central Africans viewed their religions as a
way of explaining, predicting, and controlling events
in the world around them rather than as a vehicle for
communing with or supplicating to a supreme being
(Sweet 2003:108). West Central Africans conceived
of the self as consisting of an outer being, or shell,
and an essential inner being, or soul. The inner being
could act independently of the outer being and leave
the body to pursue other matters while the outer body
slept. Maintaining a whole or complete soul required
the protection of ancestral spirits. Health was a sign
of spiritual power and well-being, whereas illness
indicated failure to fulfill social obligations to ancestral spirits. The soul could also be weakened by the
activities of evil spirits and witches who attempted to
prolong the separation of the soul from its outer shell,
so that they could eat the soul and deplete its power
(Sweet 2003:105).
To many West Central Africans, no form of illness
was considered natural (Sweet 2003:145). West
Central African religions were based on dialogues
among the living and the dead and on factors that
were familiar and known, rather than the hidden,
inaccessible mysteries more familiar to Christian
belief. As intermediaries, ritual healers or diviners
identified important past or future situations and spirits or witches that for various reasons plagued the
body. Remedies prescribed to treat illness included
the concoctions of medicinal herbs, feasts to appease
ancestors, and trials of suspected witches. Healers
were sometimes chosen by particular spirits to cure
specific diseases or illnesses or to protect from malevolent forces (Sweet 2003:105). In Brazil, divination
was used by both enslavers and enslaved Africans to
identify individuals guilty of offenses such as escape,
witchcraft, or theft. In this way, African divination

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 257
operated to achieve balance and harmony in the slave
community, from the perspective of both slaves and
the master (Sweet 2003:121).
Spirit possession was an especially powerful and
animated form of divination. During spirit possession, a spirit entered the vessel of a mediums body
through which it spoke and acted and could be queried.
For Angolans, other forms of possession involved
possession by ancestor spirits (quilondo), usually
as punishment for a lack of proper veneration and
respect (Sweet 2003:144). This kind of possession,
referred to as calando in Brazil, could cause illness
or death in those who were possessed.
Sweet (2003:128129) has pointed out that although
divination involving communication with ancestral
spirits was common among West Central Africans
and West Africans, the specific symbols and rituals
performed differed in accordance with very specific
historical and cultural resonances. A diversity of
material traces related to divination rituals could be
expected, although many of these ultimately may have
had similar goals or meanings. West Central Africans
apparently placed heavy emphasis on divining and
treating the cause of illness through spirit possession, whereas enslaved Africans from Mina placed
greater emphasis on other rituals, divination, and
herbal cures to heal the ill (Sweet 2003:156). An
emphasis on using material objects in divination ritual
may make some West African ritual behaviors more
visible than West Central African ritual behaviors in
the archaeological record, although hybridized forms
that combined practices from multiple regions also
developed (Sweet 2003:158).
Common artifacts used in West African forms
of divination include a large basket, which might
contain powders, shells, bones, hair, teeth, feathers,
and other powerful substances from the natural world,
all of which might be endowed with spiritual power
(Sweet 2003:156). Divination rituals involving a
pan filled with water were common among enslaved
Africans imported from the Bight of Benin. The water
symbolized the water body through which spirits
passed when moving between the world of the living
and the world of the dead (Sweet 2003:129). Ewe,
Fon, and Yoruba from West Africa often used snakes
in divination rituals, as snakes were believed to provide fortune or misfortune. Other forms of divination,
such as jaji, during which suspects are directed to
remove an object from boiling water, appear to have
been common across ethnic groups. In this ritual, the
person who is burned is considered guilty.

Despite differences in specific divination rituals,

different groups shared broad similarities in the purposes of divination; namely, the restoration of temporal balance through spiritual intervention (Sweet
2003:132). Sweet (2003:131) has contended that some
divination rituals and beliefs held in common among
diasporic groups may have been instrumental in the
formation of diasporic group identities and processes
of creolization. Many divination rituals were performed during the night after long workdays and
were always viewed with suspicion and trepidation
by the master class (Sweet 2003:133).

Discussion
Enslaved Africans brought rich and diverse religious
beliefs and practices with them to the Americas, many
of which may have been expressed at the African Burial
Ground. The growing literature on religious beliefs
and practices of African-descended individuals in the
Americas is beginning to reveal a deep and complex
history of dynamic interactions and culture change.
Groups living in West Africa, particularly in the Senegambia region, were exposed to Islam centuries before
the arrival of Christian Europeans. The widespread
mobility of Muslims facilitated the mobilization of
people, artifacts, and ideas between West Africa and
other parts of the Islamic world. Interactions among
practitioners of Muslim and traditional African faiths
resulted in the development of parallel traditions and
the exchange of religious ideas and rituals. Forms of
divination practiced by the Yoruba, Igbo, Nupe, Fon,
and Ewe, for instance, reflect the interaction and mutual
development of Islamic and traditional African ritual
practices. Some enslaved Africans forcibly migrated to
the Americas were professed Muslims; others carried
with them traditions that reflect a long period of interaction among Muslim and non-Muslim worldviews.
Beginning in the fifteenth century, the arrival of
Christian Europeans on the Atlantic coast of Africa
exposed Africans to Christian religious beliefs and
practices and spurred the development of new religious forms, such as Kongolese Christianity. In West
Central Africa, many Kongolese came to identify
themselves as Christians and to incorporate aspects
of Christian religion into their own worldviews.
Thornton (2001) has suggested that the Kongolese
practiced their own local form of Christianity, which
some Christian Europeans characterized as not fully
Christian. Sweet (2003) has argued that the core of

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

258
Kongolese religious identity was never Christian.
Instead, Christian practices were parallel traditions
enacted alongside traditional African ones. According
to this view, the Kongolese indigenized or inculturated Christianity to suit Kongolese worldviews
and religious needs. Kongolese accepted Christian
saints and seraphim as the ancestral spirits of their
own cosmologies and embraced Christian priests and
ritual paraphernalia as performing functions similar
to their own banganga and minkisi, respectively.
The processes by which Africans incorporated
elements of Islam or Christianity into their religious
lives appear to have been ones of supplementation
and augmentation, rather than replacement. Although
some individuals certainly identified themselves as
Muslim or Christian, core beliefs and the fundamental structure of traditional African worldviews could
have remained largely intact. Complete adoption of
European Christian or North African Islamic belief
systems may have only occurred among individuals
indoctrinated at a young age. Owing to the continuous influx of African adults, many traditional African
beliefs may have been continuously imported and
rejuvenated in colonial contexts, albeit from different
sources and according to changing conditions.
Traditional African religions are often considered
flexible and nondogmatic; they are capable of accommodating and incorporating elements of multiple
religious traditions. Thus, it should be expected that
some aspects of Christian or Islamic mortuary practice
would be expressed in the burials of enslaved Africans
who maintained fundamentally non-Christian or nonIslamic worldviews, or a mixture of worldviews that
resonated with multiple religious traditions.
Islamic mortuary practices were not clearly in
evidence at the New York African Burial Ground. It
still remains possible that some individuals buried in
the New York African Burial Ground who were buried
without jewelry, ornaments, or coffins and wrapped
in winding sheets were Muslim. It is also possible
that some individuals practiced a mixture of Islamic
and other faiths or that Muslims were buried in other
areas of the burial ground. The coffinless burials in
the New York African Burial Ground sample tended to
be buried with personal items and according to body
positions and orientations that go against Muslim
practice; multiple attributes of their burials, including
the lack of coffins, appear to relate to factors other than
religious background. Many of those interred without
coffins were inferred to have been African refugees
or Africans employed by British forces who died as
The New York African Burial Ground

a result of the Revolutionary War. These individuals

may have lacked the local social network needed
to mobilize the resources for a proper burial. Perry,
Howson, and Holl (2009d:204) hypothesize that the
impetus behind coffinless burial was not a lack of
means, but a lack of people to see to these individuals
funeral arrangements.
By contrast, some of the basic attributes of many
of the burialssupine, extended burial in coffins with
head-to-the-west orientationsare shared among
European Christian burial practices as well as some
contemporary African burial practices (Gittings
1984; Handler and Lange 1978; Perry and Howson
2009:115; Riordan 1997). As has been discussed, the
performance of Christian-affiliated practices among
enslaved Africans need not suggest the replacement
of traditional African values with European Christian
ones. Indeed, among Africans who identified themselves as Christians, aspects of Christian religion
appear to have supplemented traditional African practices. Christian forms were given African meaning or
significance. The appearance of mortuary practices
held in common among some Africans and European
Christians thus does not necessarily imply the expression of Christian or fully Christianized identities, nor
does it imply the loss of African-derived religious
identities. Rather, the use of practices common to
Christian burials implies that these elements were
actively incorporated into New York African mortuary practices.
The uniformity of burial practices at the New York
African Burial Ground implies to Perry, Howson, and
Bianco (2009:371) that a community identity began
to develop early in the eighteenth century among
African-descended people living in New York, despite
the diversity of religious and ethnic backgrounds.
The researchers also point out, however, that the
sample is probably not representative of the entire
burial ground and could be biased toward individuals
with a common background (Howson and Bianchi
2009a). If this is the case, practices identified in the
excavated burials may more closely reflect practices
of one or more segments of the community, rather
than represent the entire community The possibility
that sextons or grave diggers influenced some burial
practices also remains, although no information confirming official involvement in burials prior to the
late-eighteenth century has come to light (Howson,
Bianco, etal. 2009:63). A possible explanation for
the remarkable homogeneity in burial practices may
relate to the provision of coffins by slaveholders, the

Chapter 8 . Death, Ideology, and Cosmology: Mortuary Practices at the New York African Burial Ground 259
impoverishment of the deceased, and the influence of
sextons and grave diggers.
Historical information on African diasporic religious beliefs and practices encourages archaeologists
to consider death not an event, but a process. Discrete
ceremonies surrounded the burial of an individual,
but in many cases, the dead were also memorialized
at one or more points after the original burial. Moreover, some African worldviews tend to conceptualize
the world of the living and the world of the dead as
intricately interconnected. Through the efforts of
religious specialists, the performance of divination
and healing practices, offerings, and the manipulation or deposition of spiritually endowed objects, the
living regularly interacted with the dead. The dead
were not forever removed to a distant heaven but
continued to play a role in the world of the living by
providing information, moral authority, and protection
or affecting the fortune of the living. The dead could
also bring harm upon the living as a result of failures
to fulfill social obligations, witchcraft, or the actions
of aggrieved individuals.

The Impact of Field Methods on the

Interpretation of Mortuary Practice
This brings the discussion to one aspect of the research
that was sorely overlooked in the initial fieldwork
and that could have provided an important source
of information had a research design emphasizing
African Diaspora studies been developed prior to
excavationthe targeting of contexts where ritual
deposits associated with spirit management, memorialization, and ancestor veneration were likely to have
occurred. The limited information available about
religious practices in West and West Central Africa
and in the diaspora suggest that ritual deposits were
to be expected at the surface of graves, as well as
various locations within graves, including on coffin
lids. Although the specific meanings of these deposits
are not easy to interpret and could have varied among
people of different backgrounds, they were fundamentally African expressions of spiritual philosophy that
appear to have found new life in diasporic contexts.
The inclusion of some grave goods with individuals
provides a small glimpse into practices that likely
had diverse African roots, but the full complement of
significant practices that may have resulted in ritual
deposits at the New York African Burial Ground were
obscured by the way data were recorded.

For the most part, because the main focus of the

investigations was the burial itself and not the associated ground surface or specific proveniences within
or above the grave shaft, it was not possible to isolate
materials as definitively related to mortuary practices
unless they were directly associated with the coffin
or human remains. The appropriate level of care in
feature discovery or detail in data development was
not met, and important information was irretrievably
lost. This is perhaps one of the greatest frustrations
for archaeologists, who can only assume that a rich
reservoir of potential information was obliterated in
haste and ignorance. Future investigations should
strive to ensure that the opportunity to obtain such
information is not lost should excavations of the
remains of diasporic Africans again take place.

Conclusions
The African Burial Ground was sacred space for
thousands of people of African descent who lived
and died in New York during the eighteenth century
and possibly earlier. Individuals of African descent
may not have elected originally to bury their dead in
the African Burial Ground; the location of the burial
ground was essentially chosen for African-descended
individuals as a result of the prejudicial proscriptions
of European New Yorkers (Medford, ed. 2009). As the
African Burial Ground came to be used, however, it
became a place of central importance to many Africandescended individuals. As Blakey (2009a:6) states,
the cemetery may have been especially important as
an institution for the affirmation of African and African
American humanity under the material conditions of
slavery and in the pervasive presence of the psychological affront to black humanity required to morally
justify those conditions. It was the place where kin
were buried, a place to memorialize and interact with
the ancestors, a place to develop and strengthen neoAfrican identities, and a place to foment resistance.
In essence, it was sacred space that was in many
ways African to the core. Despite (or perhaps because
of) its importance to people of African descent, the
African Burial Ground was repeatedly desecrated by
historical-period waste disposal and other regrettable
activities.
In the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, as the land around the Collect Pond was filled in
and residential and commercial facilities were developed on the site, the African Burial Ground became

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

260
sacred space buried and obscured by tons of debris
and overprinted with countless secular activities.
This was a site of monumental proportions that was
disturbingly disregarded. Remarkably, substantial portions of the site were never destroyed. Amidst intense
public outcry, portions of the African Burial Ground
were discovered to have remained largely intact when
the site was excavated. The disturbance of more than
400burials by excavation was seen by many members
of the descendant community as further desecration
of sacred space and a very real recapitulation of the
prejudice and racism of times past. Since its rediscovery, appreciation of the African Burial Ground as
sacred space has been renewed among members of
the descendant community, who fight to preserve the
burial ground and protect it from further desecration.
Investigation of the site has awakened understanding
of the spirituality of Africans in the Americas and
raised questions about how diverse ideologies and cosmologies related to mortuary practices among people
of African descent in New York. Perry, Howson, and
Bianco (2009:373374), for instance, question how
the mortuary practices performed at the African Burial
Ground influenced later practices among descendants
and suggest that understandings of mortuary practices
at the African Burial Ground could be used to understand practices that followed:
How was the proper burial of the seventeenth/
eighteenth century reconfigured in the liturgies
and in the burial yards and vaults of the citys
nineteenth-century black churches? Were the
accoutrements, logistics, and divisions of labor
that comprised a proper burial altered during
periods of heightened social suffering, such as
the yellow fever or cholera years? Using the
African Burial Ground as a baseline might offer
a more sophisticated grasp of how a rite of passage is remade when the organizing structures
in the world around it have changed.

The New York African Burial Ground

Investigation of the site has also revealed how little

is known about the mortuary practices of seventeenthand eighteenth-century Africans in the diaspora or
the relationship of mortuary practices to the diverse
and dynamic belief systems of which they formed
a part. Given variation through time in the origins
and backgrounds of Africans forcibly migrated to
places like New York City and variation in local and
regional histories of enslavement and forced migration, it should be expected that mortuary practices
at different times and places in the diaspora should
be regionally variable and historically contingent.
Some aspects of mortuary practices at various times
in Brazil, for instance, may have been very different
from those in New York. Other aspects of mortuary
practices could have been broadly similar across many
different contexts of the African Diaspora owing to
broadly similar conditions or cultural backgrounds.
Sufficient information is not available at this point
to document or evaluate the potential variability in
mortuary practices among Africans in the diaspora,
let alone to assess fully their meaning or significance.
Yet, a richness of content and meaning that is largely
untapped seems to be present in these materials. To
achieve a more complete understanding of the life
and death of diasporic Africans in New York and
other British colonies, much more work needs to be
done in ethnohistory, ethnography, and archaeology.
Yet, if that work is to be done, archaeologists need to
ensure that the appropriate information is developed.
Future studies of African Diaspora burial grounds
and sacred sites should incorporate what is known
about how Africans in the diaspora interacted with
the dead to target contexts that are likely to contain
material evidence for mortuary behavior. Otherwise,
crucial information is lost, and the opportunity to
understand aspects of our shared past is unknowingly
discarded.

Chapter 9

Significance of the African Burial Ground

The African Burial Ground is the deeply sacred site

of burial and commemoration of thousands of African ancestors during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. With the rediscovery of the Burial Ground
in the late twentieth century, the sacred nature of the
site was recognized through the descendant communitys involvement and dedication in seeking proper
respect and dignity for the ancestors buried there.
Since the rediscovery, multiple ceremonies and vigils
celebrating and venerating the ancestors have been
held at the African Burial Ground, Howard University,
and other locations. The GSA sponsored ceremonies
commemorating the transfer of the human remains to
Howard University in 1993, reinterment of the remains
at the New York African Burial Ground in 2003, and
the dedication of the memorial in 2007. The sacred
nature of the site has also been emphasized by the
Projects Office of Public Education and Interpretation
(OPEI) through education materials and exhibits at the
interpretive center, and by the researchers in the three
technical volumes that are part of this series.
In addition to its spiritual significance, the African
Burial Ground also represents an important reservoir of information on world history and the African
Diaspora. The people buried there lived and died
during a tumultuous and pivotal period in world history, when colonial encounters between Europeans,
Africans, and Native Americans took place on local,
international, and transatlantic scales. Processes and
events that occurred during this period form the foundation of modern life. The history of Atlantic slavery
and the emergence of race concepts and racial relations
in the Americas are issues central to a more complete
understanding of the modern world.
Given its significance to our national and international heritages, the African Burial Ground was
designated a New York City Landmark and a National
Historic Landmark in 1993, and in 2006 the portion of

the burial ground that was excavated was designated

a National Monument. Interdisciplinary studies in the
history, biology, and archaeology of sites like the New
York African Burial Ground are key to developing a
greater understanding of many issues in anthropology
and history. New York African Burial Ground research
is important to African Diaspora studies, bioarchaeology, colonial studies, historical archaeology, urban
archaeology, African Diaspora archaeology, Cultural
Resource Management (CRM), and to the discipline
of archaeology as a whole.
Data generated from excavations at the New York
African Burial Ground are a testament to human
cruelty on the one hand and to human dignity on the
other. The individuals buried in the African Burial
Ground suffered harsh living conditions, poor diets,
environmental hazards, and brutal punishments. At
the same time, the individuals lived independent lives
and were buried with dignity by people with similar
backgrounds and affiliations, including loved ones
(Perry, Howson, and Bianco, eds. 2009a). As Blakey
(2009a:5) cogently observes, in the face of racialist attempts to objectify and dehumanize people of
African descent, the dignified and careful burial of
individuals at the African Burial Ground represents
a potent assertion of humanity. Through the dignified and careful burial of the deceased, Africans and
African Americans resisted dehumanization and the
legitimization of slavery and racism.
For history and archaeology, the research recovers
evidence of people whose struggles and accomplishments had been neglected and undervalued by previous
histories and racial ideologies. Rarely acknowledged
until this discovery, the forced labor of individuals
buried in the African Burial Ground literally built and
maintained New York, one of the largest and most
influential cities in the Western Hemisphere (Medford,
ed. 2009). New York African Burial Ground research

262
elucidates and clarifies the origins, identities, daily
lives, and struggles of Africans and African Americans
in a northern colony.
This chapter explores some of the ways in which
the New York African Burial Ground has and will
continue to influence the discipline. First, some of the
key findings of the research are summarized. The New
York African Burial Ground Project is then contextualized in terms of current research, with an emphasis
on how New York African Burial Ground research is
exemplary and what it contributes to archaeological
knowledge and praxis. In particular, the New York
African Burial Ground research is discussed in terms
of themes important to (1)African Diaspora studies,
(2) archaeology as a whole, (3)historical archaeology,
(4)African Diaspora archaeology, and (5) CRM. The
chapter concludes with a discussion of the significance
of the site in terms of its interpretation and inscription
on local, national, and international lists of significant
heritage sites and landmarks.

Research Directions
As previously stated, the lack of an adequate research
design was a major point of contention early on in the
project. An adequate research design was not produced
during the initial stages of fieldwork in part because
archaeologists had little time to prepare one but also
because research expertise in the African Diaspora was
notably lacking among members of the original project
team. The research design that was required by the
amended MOA and eventually approved by the GSA
was developed by a team of physical anthropologists,
archaeologists, and historians assembled by Michael
Blakey (Howard University and John Milner Associates
1993). The approved research design endeavored to
establish the full scientific and historical significance
of the site by bringing to the project diverse expertise
and a richly informed African Diaspora perspective
that relied heavily on African American intellectual
traditions, including critical theory and vindicationist
approaches to history (Blakey 2009a:12). As Blakey
(2009a:13) observes, the research design
proposed the most comprehensive interdisciplinary study then attempted, with studies that
ranged from molecular genetics to African art
history. Included on the team were specialists
in the archaeology and history of relevant African, Caribbean, and North American diasporic
populations, all leading scholars and their most
The New York African Burial Ground

energetic students. The full range of the latest

techniques for skeletal recordation and assessment would be used; as a guide, we used a
manuscript of Standards for Data Collection
from Human Skeletal Remains (Buikstra and
Ubelaker 1994), then in final preparation. The
problems presented for research included: the
cultural origins, the physical quality of life, the
transformations, and the resistance to slavery
that could be gleaned from the data.
Comments received on the research design revealed
that the research teams colleagues were strongly
divided regarding the proposed approach, with some
strongly in favor and others strongly opposed. Some
reviewers commented that they felt the project teams
approach was ethnocentric in its political content and
in its overt attention to African American perspectives.
According to Blakey, he was instructed by the GSA to
remove any political or ethnocentric overtones in the
research design on the grounds that such statements
could be construed as discriminatory. However, no
changes would be made because no discriminatory
content existed. The passages [considered ethnocentric or discriminatory] were simply definitive of the
concerns and critical perspective of African Diaspora
scholarship. It seemed that to affirm the vindicationist
or corrective value of the site made our work more
meaningful to some and more threatening to others
(Blakey 2009a:14).
Blakey (2009a:13) suggests that objecting to using
African American intellectual traditions to interpret
the New York African Burial Ground is like objecting
to French structuralism or British social anthropology
on the grounds that these schools of thought are ethnocentric. Vindicationist or correctionist scholarship
is distinct from what has been termed Afrocentric
scholarship (Blakey 1995). Its aim is not to replace
Eurocentric bias with Afrocentric bias but instead to
expose and correct the biases and distortions of dominant or racializing perspectives. Blakey (2009a:13)
characterizes the researchers theoretical approach as
adding to the interpretation of the New York African
Burial Ground site rather than excluding or displacing
other traditions. To Blakey (2009a:13), because the
intense involvement of northern colonies in slavery
is largely absent from public consciousness, the very
presence and size of the African Burial Ground supports the vindicationist argument that current Eurocentric versions of national and world history are
distorted and inaccurate.

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 263

The current report is organized around the main
themes identified in the research design: origins, identity, transformations, and resistance (see Chapter 1).
Chapters 48 provide a full accounting of how the
researchers approaches and findings addressed the
major themes. Nonetheless, a brief recounting of key
findings is warranted.

Key Findings of the Research

A major focus of the research was to discover where
African New Yorkers came from in Africa and which
macroethnic groups they were affiliated with prior
to being forcibly migrated to New York (Howard
University and John Milner Associates 1993). Historical research revealed that the origins of African
New Yorkers were diverse; New York Africans came
from many different societies in West and West
Central Africa, as well as from Southeast Africa.
Documented voyages of ships returning to New
York directly from Africa suggest a predominance of
Senegambians, with smaller numbers from Southeast
Africa, the Gold Coast, or West Central Africa. Many
African New Yorkers were initially enslaved in the
Caribbean before they were shipped to New York,
however. As a result, the ethnic affiliation of many
African New Yorkers reflected the ethnic composition of the Caribbean colonies from which they
were shipped. For instance, between 1658 and 1713,
Africans from the Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, and
Niger Delta were common in Barbados and Jamaica.
Hence, African New Yorkers originally migrated to
Barbados and Jamaica before being shipped to New
York may have been from the same areas of West
Africa. Historical research also revealed that ethnic
backgrounds and characteristic ages and sexes of
individuals forcibly migrated to New York changed
over time while the burial ground was in use. This
resulted in a changing tapestry of ethnic affinities
over time as well as variation in the demographic
composition of the New York African community
(Heywood and Thornton 2009b; Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009a; Medford, Carrington, et
al. 2009).
A major focus of the research involved investigating whether New York African Burial Ground
individuals could be linked with specific macroethnic
groups in Africa through biohistorical research. Morphological studies of crania and teeth consistently
suggested African descent for the individuals that
were examined, but a lack of appropriate reference

samples made it difficult to discern from which

groups people were descended. Genetic studies demonstrated an incredible degree of genetic diversity in
a small sample of individuals, a finding that underscores the genetic diversity of both African peoples
in general and of African New Yorkers in particular.
Like the morphological studies, genetic studies were
hampered by an inadequate database of reference
samples, resulting in efforts to develop a more relevant and comprehensive database (Jackson et al.
2009). Trace element and isotope studies showed
which of a sample of individuals had likely migrated
during life and were used to conclude whether an
individual may have been born in New York, Africa,
or a third location. These studies generally confirmed
that most individuals with modified teeth were likely
born in West or West Central Africa, but the clustering of some individuals with modified teeth with
young individuals thought to have been born locally
suggests that a few individuals with modified teeth
could have grown up in another part of Africa or
somewhere in the Americas. This finding led the
researchers to hypothesize that the cultural modification of teeth could have persisted among enslaved
Africans in the Americas (Goodman et al. 2009).
Altogether, studies of origins have made important
advances in understanding the cultural and biological
backgrounds of the people buried but also revealed
the need for much future work (Blakey, Rankin-Hill,
Goodman, et al. 2009).
Tied into the question of origins is the question
of identity. The research design addressed the issue
of identity in terms of how African identities were
transformed in the context of New York enslavement
(Howard University and John Milner Associates 1993;
Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009; Perry, Howson,
and Bianco 2009). Previous models of culture change
have suggested that Africans in northern colonies were
quickly acculturated through processes of enslavement
and lost their distinctive African cultural heritages
(Blakey 2009b). More recent historical and anthropological research has suggested that Africans retained
essential aspects of their African heritages and that
Africans throughout the Americas routinely organized
themselves according to diasporic, African-derived
identities, sometimes referred to as nations. Africans from different parts of West, West Central, and
Southeast Africa were continually arriving in New
York, which suggests that ties to African heritages for
the African American community in Manhattan were
continually rejuvenated throughout the period the

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

264
African Burial Ground was in use. This process would
have resulted in the maintenance of African cultural
continuities in Manhattan, rather than in the loss of
African-derived identities, spiritual perspectives, and
cultural expressions (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et
al. 2009a, 2009e).
The diverse origins of African New Yorkers were
complemented by exposure to diverse lifeways and
belief systems. Many African New Yorkers, even
prior to arriving in Manhattan, had been exposed
to Islam, Christianity, and African religious traditions. African New Yorkers also came from societies with diverse subsistence systems and political
economies. Before their enslavement, African New
Yorkers had lived in communities that depended
on fishing, agriculture, pastoralism, and specialized
crafts and industries for their survival. African New
Yorkers brought their distinct heritages to Manhattan,
where they expressed a variety of personal, ethnic,
and religious identities that derived from African
heritages and were influenced by the interaction of
Africans, Native Americans, and Euroamericans in
diasporic contexts. New York Africans had familial,
occupational, and organizational identities that were
both influenced by their own personal backgrounds
and affected by enslavement. In colonial New York,
Africans assumed many different identities: some that
honored and extended their African heritages, some
that were developed anew in order to carve out a new
existence in New York, and others, such as racial and
enslaved statuses and occupation, that were forced
upon them (Heywood and Thornton 2009a; Howson,
Bianco, et al. 2009; Medford, Brown, Carrington, et
al. 2009a, 2009c, 2009d, 2009e; Medford, Brown,
Heywood, et al. 2009a).
Very few graves contained personal items or other
characteristics that could be used to infer the origins and identity characteristics of the deceased. The
researchers concluded that the lack of personal items
indicates the poverty of the deceased. Some graves
contained itemssuch as a tobacco pipe, shell, crystal,
a mica disk, coral, a ceramic ball, strands of beads, and
other itemsthat are suggestive of African cultural
backgrounds and spiritual practices. In a few cases,
evidence for possible conjuring bundles or amulets
implied the spiritual roles an individual may have
fulfilled in life and could be connected to traditions
of spirit communication and intervention practiced
by Africans in the diaspora. One particularly remarkable link to an African heritage was the discovery
of a possible Sankofa symbol on the lid of a mans
The New York African Burial Ground

coffin in Burial 101. Another was the tobacco pipe

and strand of waist beads buried with the woman in
Burial 340. Both individuals had culturally modified
teeth, although the woman in Burial 340 was likely
born in West or West Central Africa, whereas the man
in Burial 101 may have been born in the Americas.
Together, these artifactual clues to African heritages
suggest that aspects of African spiritual practices and
beliefs were cherished and renewed among African
New Yorkers (Bianco et al. 2009; Perry, Howson, and
Bianco 2009; Perry and Woodruff 2009).
Along with diverse origins and expressions of
identity came a certain level of solidarity among
African New Yorkers. Given diverse origins and the
long period during which the African Burial Ground
was used, the researchers were surprised to find that
the vast majority of burials in the New York African
Burial Ground were quite similar in their archaeological characteristics. Most individuals were buried
individually in coffins, in supine position, shrouded
or in street clothes, with the head to the west. The
homogeneity in mortuary treatment at the New York
African Burial Ground suggested to the researchers
that an overarching African American community
identity had developed early on in the use of the burial
ground. A strong community identity may have been
necessary for New York Africans to aid each other in
their mutual survival and to assert and maintain their
human dignity (Howson 2009; Perry and Howson
2009; Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009a, 2009b, 2009c,
2009d; Perry, Howson, and Bianco 2009).
The conditions of daily life for African New Yorkers, including the conditions of their lives in Africa and
the Caribbean prior to arriving in New York, were of
major concern to the researchers (Howard University
and John Milner Associates 1993). The researchers
thus investigated evidence for diet, work, disease,
health, family formation, and mortality among the
individuals buried in the New York African Burial
Ground. Historical information indicated that the diet
for enslaved Africans was poor, much of it based in
meager portions of cornmeal mush, supplemented only
minimally by dairy, fruits, vegetables, meat, and seafood. In both the Caribbean and in Manhattan, enslaved
Africans supplemented their diets through their own
efforts by tending gardens, hunting, fishing, theft, and
exchange in underground markets (Medford, Brown,
Carrington, et al. 2009b, 2009c; Medford, Brown, Heywood, et al. 2009b; Medford, Carrington, et al. 2009).
Bioarchaeological studies showed that many New
York African Burial Ground individuals likely suffered

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 265

from nutritional deficiencies, and this was particularly
the case among individuals likely to have been born
enslaved. The high incidence of porotic hyperostosis
and cribra orbitalia, for instance, probably reflects a
lack of adequate nutrition among the enslaved (Null
et al. 2009). Poor dental health, including abscesses
and frequent caries formation, would have made eating
difficult and could have contributed to poor nutrition
or other health risks, such as infection (Mack et al.
2009). One particularly striking finding was that some
individuals had especially high levels of lead in their
teeth. Individuals with highest concentrations of lead
appear to have spent an extended portion of their lives
in New York, whereas individuals who had arrived in
New York shortly before their deaths had low levels
of lead in their teeth. To the researchers, this pattern
suggested that lead poisoning had occurred locally. The
source of the lead is currently unknown, but toxic levels of lead in the environment could have contributed to
diverse health problems, including developmental and
nutritional problems. Lead poisoning, excessive work,
infection, and poor nutrition probably contributed to
delayed growth and development among African New
Yorkers (Blakey 2009b; Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Goodman, et al. 2009; Goode-Null et al. 2009; Goodman
et al. 2009).
On Caribbean plantations, work centered around
planting, tending, and harvesting crops, and around
processing cane to produce sugar and rum. Work in
urban Manhattan was more diverse, particularly during the eighteenth century, and spanned a wide range
of occupations, including agricultural labor, maritime
work on ships or on the docks, domestic work in New
York households, and skilled labor in New York merchant shops. Early on in the history of the settlement,
Africans labored to build, protect, and ultimately feed
New Amsterdam. Later, as the settlement grew into a
bustling commercial center and port city during the
late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many Africans worked in the shipping industry and in diverse
trades (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c;
Medford, Brown, Heywood, et al. 2009a, 2009b).
Bioarchaeological investigation of musculoskeletal
markers, osteoarthritis, osteophytosis, and other potential indicators of work suggested that many individuals from the New York African Burial Ground had
suffered hard labor. The researchers found evidence
for frequent heavy lifting and repeated performance
of manual tasks such as sewing. The researchers suggest that common activities included working from a
squatting position, walking over uneven surfaces, and

climbing stairs and ladders. One surprising finding

was that the ankle among both men and women was
frequently affected by osteoarthritis, which is highly
unusual for populations studied bioarchaeologically.
Men and women exhibited somewhat different patterns in indicators of work, which seemed to reflect a
tendency for women to be involved in domestic tasks
such as sewing, washing, and manipulating heavy
objects, such as iron pots or water buckets, and men
to be involved in a variety of other tasks that required
different forms of hard labor and heavy lifting. In
contrast to indicators of work on southern plantations,
which tend to be fairly consistent among individuals
due to similarity in work regime, indicators of work
in the New York African Burial Ground sample were
somewhat diverse among individuals, perhaps owing
to the diverse tasks performed by New York Africans
(Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Goodman, et al. 2009; Wilczak
et al. 2009).
Disease was rampant in the places where enslaved
African New Yorkers lived and worked. Cities like
New York were crowded and unsanitary, resulting in
the spread among the population of infectious diseases,
such as diphtheria, influenza, measles, smallpox, and
yellow fever. The researchers found that disease epidemics occurred repeatedly throughout the period
the burial ground was in use. Enslaved African New
Yorkers lived in damp, dark attics, cellars, and kitchens and were often poorly clothed. Hard labor weakened their bodies as did the poor diets on which they
depended. Unsanitary conditions and chronic physical
stress would certainly have encouraged infection and
the spread of disease among enslaved African New
Yorkers (Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009b).
Bioarchaeological evidence for infection was seen
in the bones of many individuals, with active lesions
occurring most often among the young, suggesting that
infectious disease for the young in particular may have
led to their early deaths. It was not possible in most
cases to discern the specific etiology of indicators of
infection, but evidence for congenital syphilis or yaws
was observed in around one of every six individuals who were observable for treponemal infections.
Interestingly, evidence for venereal syphilis was slim,
a finding that stands in stark contrast to studies in the
Caribbean, where venereal syphilis appears to have
been widespread among enslaved populations (Blakey
2009b; Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Goodman, et al. 2009;
Null et al. 2009).
Bioarchaeological and historical evidence suggests
that the health of African New Yorkers was seriously

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

266
compromised by enslavement and racial oppression.
Especially stressful periods during childhood were
reflected in the occurrence of hypoplasias in the teeth
of New York African Burial Ground individuals. Hypoplasias, like indicators of active infection, seemed
to be most prevalent among younger individuals,
suggesting that people who were most affected were
those enslaved at a young age. To the researchers, the
timing of their occurrence seems to have coincided
with the (1) the initiation of children into hard labor
around the ages of 4 or 5, (2) stressful conditions
leading up to the capture and enslavement of children
in Africa, or (3) stress associated with the Middle
Passage (Blakey, Mack, Barrett, et al. 2009; Blakey,
Rankin-Hill, Goodman, et al. 2009).
The accumulated stresses of enslavement led to the
early deaths of many African New Yorkers. Compared
to Trinity Church records, African adults appear to
have died at younger ages than New York European
adults. Large numbers of infants and children also
died, a pattern that appears to have been fairly similar
to the pattern seen in the New York European population. Overall, the mean age-at-death for African adults
was around 37 years for New York African Burial
Ground adults, which was lower than most compared
samples. Life expectancy appeared artificially high
for younger New York Africans, but this pattern was
likely an artifact of the forcible migration of Africans
to New York as adults, some of whom may have died
within a few days or years of their arrival, whereas
many enslaved children born in New York may not
have survived to adulthood. Mortality data suggest
overall that enslaved African New Yorkers died young,
whether they were infants or children born in New
York or recently migrated African-born adults (Blakey,
Rankin-Hill, Goodman, et al. 2009; Blakey, RankinHill, Howson, et al. 2009; Rankin-Hill et al. 2009).
The researchers found that opportunities for procreation and child care were severely limited by the
conditions of enslavement in Manhattan. Examination
of sex ratios and child-to-female ratios indicates that,
although there were substantial numbers of New York
African adult females throughout the eighteenth century in comparison to African adult males, reproduction
and child survivorship probably did not occur at rates
high enough to contribute to growth in the New York
African population. Instead, the New York African
population appears to have grown mostly as a result
of in-migration, rather than reproduction (Blakey,
Rankin-Hill, Goodman, et al. 2009; Blakey, RankinHill, Howson, et al. 2009; Rankin-Hill et al. 2009).
The New York African Burial Ground

Many New York enslavers regarded childbearing

and childcare as impediments to economic gain and
thus tried to prevent procreation and family formation among enslaved Africans. Nonetheless, African
New Yorkers still managed to forge families, which
was reflected to some degree in the patterning of
graves and offerings found in the burial ground. The
formation of families and intergenerational ties are
also evident in the community of African landowners
that emerged around the Collect Pond in the midseventeenth century and in records of baptism, marriages, manumissions, and wills (Howson, Bianco,
et al. 2009; Medford, Brown, and Carrington 2009;
Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009e; Medford,
Brown, Heywood, et al. 2009b; Perry and Howson
2009). In the New York African Burial Ground, possible family relationships were suggested by clusters
of graves, shared graves, and the burial of personal
adornments. Grave markers were used for some
graves and could have been used for many more;
the number of graves that were marked is simply
unknown due to historical-period disturbance and a
lack of documentation of the original ground surface
during fieldwork. Evidence for grave markers and
possible family relationships suggest that the graves
of loved ones were remembered and memorialized.
Given what the researchers learned about West and
West Central African spiritual practices, it seems
reasonable to assume that graves were periodically
visited in order to commemorate and interact with the
ancestors (Bianco et al. 2009; Howson and Bianchi
2009a; Perry and Howson 2009; Perry, Howson, and
Bianco 2009; Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009a, 2009b,
2009c, 2009d).
A final major research theme for the project was
African resistance to the conditions of enslavement
(Blakey 2009a; Howson, Bianchi, and Perry 2009).
Historical research documented a climate of intensified oppression throughout the period the burial
ground was in use. Oppressive conditions worsened
with the British assumption of political power in
1664. The British enacted increasingly repressive
laws to control and punish enslaved Africans. Over
time, new laws restricted public gatherings (including
funerals), manumission, exchange, and interaction
among enslaved Africans as well as codified slavery
as hereditary and racialized. Laws allowed for harsh
corporal punishments of enslaved Africans who broke
the Citys laws and limited the ability of Africans to
act as witnesses. At the same time, Africans were not
provided a jury of their peers to decide cases, and

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 267

courts convicted New York Africans at a higher rate
than New York Europeans accused of similar crimes
(Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c, 2009d;
Medford, Brown, Heywood, et al. 2009b; Medford
and Brown 2009a, 2009c).
Resistance was very important to building solidarity in the New York African community and in
asserting and maintaining human dignity. Specific
acts of resistance included insubordination, theft,
assault, arson, murder, escape, and rebellion, but also
included the affirmation of African-derived values
and customs in daily life. The uprising of 1712 is
a powerful example of collective resistance that
demonstrates the lengths taken by enslaved Africans
to fight for their freedom and their dignity; events
that surrounded the great conspiracy of 1741 also
demonstrate the depth of New York African resistance (Medford and Brown 2009a, 2009b, 2009c;
Medford, Brown, Carrington, et al. 2009c, 2009e).
Some trauma, such as that seen on a woman who was
shot and beaten, could have resulted from an act of
resistance, but this cannot be known with certainty
(Wilczak et al. 2009). Limited evidence for burned
bone could also be interpreted as evidence for burning at the stake, which was a historically documented
punishment for Africans who resisted their oppressors
(Blakey 2009a). During the Revolutionary War, many
African New Yorker escaped slavery by joining the
British, but many also died in New York during the
War. After the War, escaped Africans continued to
flock to the City, and social and religious institutions
that openly served Manhattans African American
community began to emerge (Medford and Brown
2009a).
As an African American religious and social
institutionthe first in New York and perhaps the
first in North Americathe African Burial Ground
was a critically important locus of African resistance where Africans asserted their basic humanity
through the proper burial of friends and loved ones.
The available historical information suggests that
African New Yorkers controlled their own funerals;
the only apparent involvement of enslavers was the
probable provision of a coffin to the enslaved. During a century or more of use, thousands of Africans
were buried in the African Burial Ground, bearing
silent testimony to the humanity and suffering of
New Yorks enslaved population. After the burial
ground closed around 1795, African New Yorkers established new burial grounds for their loved
ones. The researchers suggest that, as a social and

religious institution, the African Burial Ground lived

on with the development of African churches and
mutual aid societies. With the rediscovery of the
site in 19911992, the legacy of the African Burial
Ground continues to live on as the contributions and
struggles of New York Africans are researched and
commemorated (Blakey 2009a; Blakey, Rankin-Hill,
Goodman, et al. 2009; Howson, Bianchi, and Perry
2009; Medford and Brown 2009a, 2009b; Perry,
Howson, and Bianco 2009).

African Diaspora Studies

The New York African Burial Ground Project research
was conducted within the scholarly framework of African Diaspora studies and has produced more-informed
research results as a consequence of this perspective.
African Diaspora scholarship has much to offer to
anthropology and archaeology, although American
archaeology has tended to ignore this large body of
research (Blakey 2009b). Yelvington (2001:277278)
remarked, for instance, that
The current anthropological concern with processes of globalization, dispersion, migration,
and transnationalism, citizenship; with colonialism, the historical development of cultures,
cultural hybridity, cultural politics and the politics of culture, difference and disjuncture; with
resistance, structure and agency can be presented as new, cutting edge, or hot topics only by eliding and implicitly dismissing
foundational scholarship on the anthropology of
the African diaspora in the Americas, such as
that of W.E.B. DuBois (18681963), St. Clair
Drake (19111990), Zora Neale Hurston (1903
1960), Katherine Dunham (1909 [d. 2006]),
Jean Price-Mars (18761969), Rmulo Lachantaer (19091952), or Arthur A. Schomburg
(18741938) to name only a few.
The research findings of the New York African Burial
Ground Project include historical, biological, and cultural information about enslaved African individuals
in Colonial and early Federal period New York City.
This information substantively adds to a key research
focus of African Diaspora studies, understanding
the experiences of African-descended persons in the
diaspora. The research also elucidated the origins of
individuals interred at the New York African Burial
Ground without resorting to racial typologies and

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

268
supports the vindication of the historical and cultural
contributions of Africans and African-descended persons in the diaspora (LaRoche and Blakey 1997; Mack
and Blakey 2004).
The New York African Burial Ground Project is a
prime example of activist scholarship and community
partnering and exemplifies well the traditions of African Diaspora research (Epperson 2004). It was through
community engagement and the political pressures
brought to bear on the GSA that the positive changes
in the research, including the inclusion of questions
relevant to descendant community members, were
made possible. Without public engagement and the
support of the descendant community, the researchers would not have been able to pursue some of the
studies that proved useful, such as isotope and genetic
analysis using destructive techniques (Blakey 2009a,
2009c). Between 1993 and 2006, the OPEI routinely
engaged with the public to disseminate information
on the project and on the African Diaspora, sponsored
community events, and involved members of the
public in the project as volunteers, interns, and community partners. Like the OPEIs internship program
for high school and college students, the researchers
involved many undergraduate and graduate students
in conducting the research, providing unique opportunities for enrichment and professional training (see
Chapter 2).
The highly visible and often heated struggle for
control of the project resulted in a reckoning of
African Diaspora archaeology with African Diaspora
studies. The research design lifted the project out
of particularistic local histories and placed the
research instead within the broader context of African Diaspora studies. As Mack and Blakey (2004:15)
have noted:

missal of African Diaspora studies within historical

archaeology had led to the assumption that general
competence in historical archaeology was all that was
necessary to excavate and interpret African Diaspora
sites (LaRoche and Blakey 1997:92, 95). The Howard University New York African Burial Ground
team raised the bar for the qualifications of African
Diaspora archaeologists and demonstrated a clear
need for specialized expertise in African Diaspora
studies (LaRoche and Blakey 1997). As a result of
the New York African Burial Ground Project, it is
now more widely understood that the archaeological
study of African Diaspora sites should include knowledge of African Diaspora scholarship, the active and
respectful involvement of descendant communities,
and an awareness of the roles race and privilege play
in influencing current research (e.g., Brown 1997;
McDavid 1997; McKee 1994; McKee and Thomas
1998; Mullins 2006; Wilkie 1995).
A similar reckoning with bioarchaeology also
resulted from the New York African Burial Ground
Project. The New York African Burial Ground research
team insisted on asking questions relevant to African
Diaspora studies rather than asking questions derived
from outdated scientific paradigms that are clouded
by race and racial typology (Blakey 2009c; LaRoche and Blakey 1997; Mack and Blakey 1994). The
researchers African diasporic approach challenged the
biases of existing research strategies and confronted
problems with the lack of appropriately comparable
osteological samples, which made it difficult to trace
the origins of individuals interred at the New York
African Burial Ground to the level of detail pursued
by the researchers. As Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Goodman,
etal. (2009:271) observed:

If one views those interred in the African Burial

Ground simply as slaves, as isolated characters
in a local colonial American setting, one would
ask different kinds of questions and get different
answers regarding local artifacts and skeletal
remains. The more we understand about Africa
and the Caribbean, the more we can see their
influences on the people in New York.

Every effort to make comparisons with other

skeletal populations attempted to drag us back
to race. Whether DNA, dental morphology, or
craniometry, the comparative data of anthropologists tended to have taken perfectly good
measurements of specific ethnic, linguistic, or
historically particular regional groups and then
aggregated them into sub-Saharan, West African,
black, white, or some other pseudo biological
category. Such essentially racial categories are
irrelevant to ascertaining the more specific African geographical regions, and the historically
relevant cultural groups within such regions,
with which a skeletons biological distinctiveness is associated.

Interpretations of the individuals interred in the

New York African Burial Ground also benefited
from the expertise of the research team, many of
whom were grounded in African American history
and African Diaspora studies. Before the New York
African Burial Ground Project, ignorance or disThe New York African Burial Ground

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 269

The researchers responded proactively to these
challenges. For instance, a lack of comparative DNA
data led to the establishment of African genetic data
banks in Cameroon and elsewhere under Dr. Fatimah
Jacksons leadership (Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Goodman, etal. 2009:272) (see Chapter4). This project
has begun to provide the comparative data needed
for the analysis of the more specific African cultural
and geographical origins of individuals interred at the
African Burial Ground and other sites of the African
Diaspora and has allowed living African-descended
people in the diaspora to trace their ancestors origins
(Blakey, Rankin-Hill, Goodman, etal. 2009; Gates
2009).
In short, New York African Burial Ground research
was explicitly grounded in African Diaspora studies,
and many research decisions and directions resulted
directly from that involvement. The debates and
struggles throughout the New York African Burial
Ground Projects history have much to do with this
innovative research focus. The debates and struggles that emerged have had many positive benefits
for African Diaspora studies and African Diaspora
archaeology. The New York African Burial Ground
Project has created an unprecedented opportunity to
increase the relevance of African Diaspora studies
to history, archaeology, and biology. In doing so,
the project has demonstrated a clear need to design
research according to an African diasporic perspective
as well as to develop appropriately scaled biological,
archaeological, and historical data that are relevant
to answering the refined and corrective questions
raised by African Diaspora scholarship. In addition,
the project has helped to redefine the field of African
Diaspora archaeology in terms of (1)its relationship with other disciplines, (2)its relationship with
descendant communities, (3)the qualifications and
obligations of practitioners, and (4)the role of race
in the discipline.

The Discipline of Archaeology

The New York African Burial Ground Project is central to current archaeological theory and practice
and has prompted many important questions. How is
archaeological knowledge produced, and who stands
to benefit from archaeological research? Why is it
even performed? How can it be practiced to meet the
diverse needs of professionals, descendant communities, and contracting agencies?

Sociopolitics of Scientific Research

Archaeologists increasingly realize that their efforts
are not apolitical and that archaeological research
often has political, social, and ethical implications
for diverse publics, including descendant communities (Leone etal. 1987; Moss 2005). A major trend in
African Diaspora archaeology is the recognition of
sociopolitics of archaeological practice (Franklin
1997a; Singleton 1999:1). The increasing willingness
of archaeologists to recognize and accommodate the
sociopolitical implications of their research can be
attributed in many ways to the New York African
Burial Ground Project. The New York African Burial
Ground research demonstrates that public engagement as a way to serve the interests of the descendant
community and as a source for developing research
directions is not incompatible with scientific research.
In fact, many of the positive outcomes of the project
have both political and scientific implications. The
New York African Burial Ground Project demonstrates
that there are subjective and political components to
archaeological research; that multiple and competing
interpretations of data are appropriate when plausible and logically coherent; that meaning is layered,
contextual, and contingent; and that the concerns of
descendant communities should be recognized and
actively incorporated in the design and implementation of archaeological research and in the curation and
reinterment of human remains and items of cultural
patrimony.
At the same time, archaeologists need to be cognizant of their role in political movements and how
scientific results are used for political ends. Archaeologists can unintentionally become the tools of political
factions. In working with descendant communities,
the possibility of factionalization and the implications of working for political factions require careful
consideration (Baugher 2005; Brumfiel 2003). Moreover, contributing scientific knowledge to inform on
political issues is different from uncritically using
research as a political tool. With regard to this problem, archaeologists need to reserve scientific judgment
to observable facts and testable theories (VanPool and
VanPool 1999). The New York African Burial Ground
Project was a testing ground for the interaction of
scientific and political goals. As Blakey (2009b:44)
has insisted, scholars investigating sites such as the
New York African Burial Ground need to base their
interpretations and discussion on material evidence.
Indeed, the rigorous scientific methods of the research

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

270
team were necessary to establish much of what was
learned about the African Burial Ground. The scientific research team used intersubjectively testable and
verifiable methods based on theoretical systems, scales
of measurement, and instruments of measurement in
order to establish plausible and logically coherent
interpretations of empirical data.

Historical Archaeology
Early approaches to historical archaeology, once characterized as a handmaiden to history, were preoccupied with sites associated with historically important
white men (Paynter 2000b:170). Typical subjects were
pilgrim fathers, plantation owners, past presidents,
battlefields, forts, etc. (Paynter 2000b:170). Minorities, such as women, Chinese Americans, Latin Americans, or African Americans, were generally ignored
in many investigations, as were issues having to do
with identity, gender, class, race, or power relations
(Paynter 2000a, 2000b). Orser (1999:662) argues that
the failure of American historical archaeologists to
address race and racism in any substantive way has
served to maintain the fields tacit political conservatism, a stance consistent with the traditional use
of historical archaeology to examine sites associated
with places and personages important in the dominant
national ideology. Well-developed theoretical discussions in historical archaeology are overshadowed by a
predominance of archaeography, or the detailing of
aspects of the post-Columbian way of life (Paynter
2000a:3). In this sense, studies in historical archaeology are sometimes associated with the simple testing
or confirmation of historical fact, and historical
archaeology is dismissed as the junior varsity of
anthropological archaeology (Little 1994:30).
The field is changing, however. Theoretical orientations, particularly those with postprocessual leanings,
are beginning to take center stage. The articulation
and expression of power through gender, class, or
race relations, for instance, has recently been a focus
of many studies (Paytner 2000b:172). Studies of class
relations have focused on relationships between workers and business owners within the context of industrial capitalism. Less attention has been paid to the
transition from tributary or kin-based production to
capitalist relationships (Paynter 2000b:177), although
commercial urban centers like New York City may be
ideal contexts to study the emergence of capitalistic
production. The forcible migration of enslaved AfriThe New York African Burial Ground

cans, many of whom came from political economic

systems based on kinship ties, to places like New York
City may in fact embody the transition from kin-based
production to capitalist production. As such, sites
such as the New York African Burial Ground have the
potential to inform on these research issues.
The New York African Burial Ground Project is
widely considered an exemplary collaboration in
historical archaeology (Paynter 2000b:186). The
successes of the project have already been cited in
many discussions, particularly in terms of the sociopolitics of archaeological practice, the importance of
involving descendant communities in archaeological
research, and the projects unique contribution to
studies of slavery and racial formations in the colonial
Americas (e.g., Armstrong and Fleischman 2003;
Baugher 2005; Blakey 1998a, 2001; Cantwell and
Wall 2001; Epperson 1999a, 1999b, 2004; Franklin
1997a; Franklin and McKee 2004; Handler 2006;
Jamieson 1995; LaRoche and Blakey 1997; Leone
and Fry 1999; Leone etal. 2005; Mack and Blakey
2004; McCarthy 1996; Paynter 2000b; Perry and
Paynter 1999; Prince 2006; Singleton 2001a; Thomas
2002; Wilkie 2004; Wilkie and Bartoy 2000). More
publications will certainly follow as researchers continue to study the site and its implications. As Paynter
(2000b:186) has observed, the research promises
to transform the citys local history and historical
archaeologys practice and the study of the history of
the racial formations of the post-Columbian world.
To Epperson (1999a:8182), the New York African
Burial Ground Project provides an ideal opportunity to address several aspects of the archaeology of
capitalism, including the social construction of racial
categories, the formulation of hegemonic and counterhegemonic historical consciousness, the essentialist/
social constructionist debate, and the role of descendant communities and their allies in archaeological,
historical, and bioanthropological research.
Studies of race have a long history in anthropology
and can be organized into two distinct camps: one
rejuvenates an essentialist position on the biological reality of races... and another sees race as an
ideological and political economic phenomenon of the
post-Columbian world (Paynter 2000b:179). The New
York African Burial Ground research clearly stems
from the latter approach and is explicitly differentiated
from essentialist positions (Epperson 1999b). The use
of racial typing in skeletal analysis, for instance, was
soundly rejected by the researchers (Blakey 1998a,
2001, 2009c). New York City is an especially ripe

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 271

territory for understanding the formation of race, race
relations, and a racialized political economy (e.g., see
Foote 1991, 2004). Racial formations are important
to understanding capitalist labor economies but also
to understanding ideological and social constructions of the modern world. Ideological constructions
of racial hierarchy have guided the treatment and
study of African Americans and Native Americans.
White supremacy and social Darwinism, for instance,
are ideologies based on hierarchical race concepts
(Paynter 2000b:180). Modern concepts of blackness
and whiteness emerged during the late-seventeenth
century in the contexts of slavery (Epperson 1999a).
The New York African Burial Ground research clearly
demonstrates that an ideology of white supremacy
and the racialization of production was not confined
to southern plantations but was a common feature of
northern and urban economies as well.
In developing interests in African Diaspora archaeology, historical archaeologists have increased the
visibility and accuracy of modern concepts of historical African American experiences. At the same time,
African Diaspora archaeology has inadvertently created an ethnic archaeology of the Other. This result,
combined with findings confirming that the archaeology profession in this country is almost totally white,
have produced a study of ethnicity that more often
reflects the perspectives of its investigators than the
perspectives of those being investigatedan outcome
that is the exact opposite of what this research was
intended to do (Singleton 1995:122). Similarly,
Patten (1997:132) has argued that archaeologists
current perception of the ways in which categories
of race, ethnicity, or religion marginalize identities
often becomes the structure of our research. An
obvious solution to this problem is to more actively
incorporate African American perspectives into
archaeological research. This imperative can be partially achieved by (1)involving African American
descendant communities more fully in research,
(2)incorporating to a greater degree African American history and intellectual traditions in research
agendas, and (3)promoting and encouraging the
professional advancement of African Americans in
the discipline. The New York African Burial Ground
Project has contributed to all three of these goals. For
instance, the initial problem of black exclusion at
the New York African Burial Ground Project was
also followed by a small but noticeable increase in
outreach to black students by archaeological projects
(Blakey 2009a:14).

African Diaspora Archaeology

African Diaspora archaeology (which includes African
American archaeology) is one of the most exciting
and vibrant fields of research in historical archaeology
today. The leading edge of current research in historical archaeology is dominated by studies in African
Diaspora archaeology. Following the excavation of
the New York African Burial Ground, many insightful and challenging articles have addressed issues in
African Diaspora archaeology. It is not our intention
to recapitulate all those insights and arguments here.
Rather, a few of the major trends in African Diaspora
archaeology are highlighted in order to understand
how New York African Burial Ground research fits
into this larger research program.
In the United States, African Diaspora archaeology gained serious traction and momentum with the
passing of historic preservation laws in the mid-1960s
and early 1970s (Singleton 1995). Interest in African
Diaspora archaeology emerged from the combined
effects of multiple forces: black activism, the passage
of historic preservation legislation, the emergence of
an archaeological interest in American ethnic groups,
and the increased use of archaeology in the public
interpretation of historic sites, including plantations
(Singleton 1995:120). Since its inception more than
a half-century ago, African American archaeology is
now one of the fastest growing specialties within
historical archaeology (Paynter 2000b:183) and
has numerous landmark investigations to its credit
(Joseph 2004). Plantation archaeology, in particular,
has contributed substantially to the development of
historical archaeology and has propelled advances in
African Diaspora archaeology (Singleton 1990). At
the same time, a heavy focus on plantation archaeology has led to false impressions that the locus of
slavery and oppression occurred mainly on the larger
and wealthier southern plantations and has shifted
attention away from the diverse life experiences of
African-descended people in the Americas. New York
African Burial Ground research offers perspectives
rooted in northern, urban, maritime, and mercantile
contexts and thus helps to dispel misconceptions about
the contexts of enslavement.
In attempting to give voice to the voiceless, African Diaspora archaeology focused on African survivals in everyday African American life and developed
overly simplistic interpretations of African American
communities (Singleton 1999:2). The complex material and behavioral interactions of African Americans

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

272
with others in terms of their forced subordinate position was largely overlooked. This research focus, in
identifying and interpreting African survivals, lingers
on today and presents the search for cultural markers linked to Africa as the most significant aspect of
African-American material life (Singleton 1999:2).
Thomas (2002:147148), for instance, has noted that
regardless of theoretical orientation, archaeologists
studying African-American sitesparticularly preemancipation sitescontinue to take great delight
in finding artifacts we can attribute to the Africanness of those who once lived at these sites. Despite
the different ways that archaeologists may view and
interpret Africanisms, or African holdovers, we all
seem to share one sentiment: we all really want to find
them on the sites we excavate. Lets face itwe find it
comforting. As archaeologists, we have a strong desire
to see the Africa in African-American sites. Thomas
(2002) has cautioned, however, that our dependence
on such material linkages to interpreting identity
restricts our ability to fully understand African American material life and identity formation.
Certainly, the lack of African provenance for artifacts at African American sites does not indicate that
African-derived identities did not exist. Scholarship
over the last few decades demonstrates that African
Americans shared and developed heritages distinct
from those of other Americans. Distinctive components of African American heritages are manifested in
many areas of daily life, including cultural preferences,
foodways, craft production, music, art, language, and
religious practice. Yet, crucial archaeological understandings remain unresolved. Singleton (1999:8) has
asked: How was this cultural identity constructed
in specific settings and how can it be interpreted
from archaeological resources? Studies of identity
formation at sites like the New York African Burial
Ground may be crucial to understanding how African
heritages of individuals in the Americas influenced
identity formation in an urban, mercantile, maritime,
colonial context.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the rationale of African Diaspora archaeology was to tell the story of
Americanspoor, powerless, and inarticulatewho
had been forgotten in the written record (Singleton
1999:1). This view of African Diaspora archaeology
has changed. African Diaspora archaeology is no
longer seen as simply an effort to capture unrecorded
aspects of black history or to bring attention to the heritage of a neglected community (Singleton 1999:1).
Instead, African Diaspora archaeology is framed as the
The New York African Burial Ground

archaeology of the African Diaspora or the archaeology of the black Atlantic World (Orser 1998). The
archaeology of African colonial experiences in the
Americas is now considered crucial to understanding
European and Native American colonial experiences.
African Diaspora archaeology is no longer about filling in the gaps of historiography but is an essential
route to understanding key issues of race, ethnicity,
class, gender, cultural transformations, exchange,
racial ideology, race relations, and power relations
on both sides of the Atlantic basin (Agorsah 1996).
Increasingly, African Diaspora archaeology merges
with other studies of the African Diaspora, in order
to understand how enormously complex and broadly
scaled historical processes contributed to the formation of African American experiences.
As a result of the New York African Burial Ground
Project, historical archaeologists now realize that
better interpretation of the African American archaeological record requires a better understanding of
archaeology and cultural practices in West Africa and
West Central Africa in addition to those in the Americas (Agorsah 1996). Until recently, little research
has questioned how African archaeology informs on
African Diaspora archaeology, and vice versa. The
work to develop connections between African and
African American archaeologies has begun, but much
more remains to be learned (see, for example, papers
in DeCorse, ed. [2001] and papers in Ogundiran and
Falola, eds. [2007]). As an Americanist, Singleton
(2001a) has outlined three issues that she considers
important to the study of African archaeology. First,
many areas of West Africa and West Central Africa
are virtually unknown archaeologically and unevenly
researched (DeCorse 2001b). Senegal, Ghana, and
Nigeria have comparatively well-developed research
and educational infrastructures, whereas archaeological knowledge of other areas is speculative and
preliminary (DeCorse 2001b:2). Second, it is difficult
to distinguish archaeologically between processes of
political centralization and processes of enslavement
(MacEachern 2001). Third, in order to understand
processes involved with creating the archaeology of
West Africa and West Central Africa, the effects of
the Saharan trade in enslaved Africans need to be differentiated from the effects of the transatlantic trade in
enslaved Africans (McIntosh 2001; Singleton 2001a).
Resolving these issues could contribute substantially
to contextualizing and interpreting African Diaspora
sites in the Americas, such as the New York African
Burial Ground.

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 273

African Diaspora archaeology is a crucial testing
ground for new trends in archaeological research,
such as how archaeologists define research domains
and how they interact with the public and descendant communities. Many issues raised in African
Diaspora archaeology speak to the sociopolitics of
archaeological practice (Singleton 1999:1; see also
Franklin 1997a). Franklin (1997a) has questioned the
intentions of historical archaeologists in investigating the African American past. Franklin (1997a:37)
posed the question, Has the black archaeological past
been colonized by white, middle-class specialists?
Although to control or distort the African American
past is probably not the intention of most historical
archaeologists studying African Diaspora sites, the use
of archaeology to underwrite nationalistic, genocidal,
or racist political agendas is not uncommon (Trigger
1989). Moreover, the subtle and pervasive ways in
which racial ideologies have structured scientific
and historical consciousness may not be recognized
by individuals lacking training in African Diaspora
studies.
A concern that was of fundamental importance
to the study of the New York African Burial Ground
and that continues to be important to the study of
other African American sites is the imperative for
African Americans to be involved in African American archaeological projects. That African Diaspora
archaeology is largely studied by Euroamericans is
problematic, as it brings a biased perspective to African Diaspora archaeology that may often be ignorant or insensitive to African American identities
and African American history. One way to increase
African American involvement is by involving African American descendant communities in research.
Franklin (1997a:37), for instance, has suggested that
archaeologists make more of an earnest effort to
involve black Americans in research and interpretations. Another way is through recruitment and education of African Americans in archaeology. A critical
question that has emerged in a number of high-profile
investigations of African American sites is Why are
there few black American archaeologists? (Franklin
1997b:799). Of the 1,500members of the Society for
American Archaeology who responded in 1997 to a
survey question on ethnicity, only around one-tenth of
1percent responded that they were African American.
That same year, Franklin (1997b) could identify only
four African Americans with Ph.D.s in archaeology.
That number has certainly increased in the last decade,
but probably not as much as it needs to.

Cultural Resource Management

The New York African Burial Ground project was
paid for with public funds allocated to CRM, rather
than paid for by a grant from the private sector or a
nonprofit institution. The applicability of Section 106
of the NRHP as amended to the project is what enabled
the extraordinary research opportunities pursued by
the researchers. As part of the regulatory process,
the amended MOAsigned in December 1991 by
the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the
GSA, the NPS, and the LPCprovided measures
to ensure public outreach, the building of a memorial and an interpretive center, and the respectful
removal, analysis, and reinterment of human remains
and burial-associated artifacts.
Like the New York African Burial Ground Project,
most archaeological work in the United States today
is conducted in the context of CRM. The lions share
of projects, money, and labor are dedicated to CRM.
At least four of every five archaeologists working in
the United States works in CRM. Funding for CRM
research is as much as 20 times that of academic
research (Green and Doershuk 1998). Altschul and
Patterson (forthcoming) recently calculated that the
CRM industry does nearly a billion dollars worth
of business per year. CRM studies are particularly
important in the United States because they offer the
opportunity to collect data on many different kinds of
sites that might be overlooked by more-finely focused
academic research programs (Green and Doershuk
1998:133). Despite the large amount of data generated
through CRM investigations and the many different
kinds of sites and contexts investigated, CRM reports
devote relatively little explicit attention to theoretical
frameworks (Green and Doershuk 1998:129). The
same problems are found in CRM studies of African
Diaspora sites. Many new data have emerged, but little
explicit attention is paid to theoretical frameworks,
analysis, or the reformulation of research goals
(Samford 1996:113; see also LaRoche and Blakey
1997:92; Singleton and Bograd 1995). Few of these
data are analyzed in any substantive way. As of October 2005, more than 500 reports related to aspects of
African American heritage were included in the reports
module of the National Archaeological Database (Fennell 2005). Although this amounts to around 0.15
percent of the approximately 350,000reports listed,
information from only a minority of these reports has
been brought to bear in major publications on African
Diaspora archaeology.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

274
Since the inception of CRM, an uneasy relationship
has existed between it and academic archaeology.
Academic archaeologists have routinely decried the
myopia and particularism of compliance-oriented
archaeology as well as suggested that business and
financial concerns corrupt the integrity of archaeological research. Professionalism is an issue that often
comes up in these kinds of discussions, the implication
being that CRM workers are often unprofessional. But
as Gray (1999) has noted, neither CRM nor academic
archaeology can claim an overabundance or lack
of professionalism. Academic archaeologists often
cast CRM research unfairly in a negative light. It is
true that routine, unimaginative field and analytical
methods and boilerplate reports characterize large
parts of the field (Green and Doershuk 1998:130), but
innovative methods and reporting are also in evidence
(Gray 1999). Innovative, high-technology advances in
field methods and analysissuch as those involving
remote sensing, geographic information systems, or
data managementare often pioneered in CRM (Gray
1999; Green and Doershuk 1998).
CRM funds big projects that have the potential
to answer big questions, but many CRM reports,
including those reporting on African Diaspora sites,
are compliance-oriented reports that interpret results
according to unimaginative boilerplate contexts. The
potential significance or relevance of historical-period
sites to archaeology, history, or descendant communities is rare in CRM studies. A common criticism of
CRM investigations is that despite the millions of
dollars expended and the hundreds of thousands of
reports produced, few investigations can claim substantive results or the production of new knowledge.
Thus, for many CRM studies, there is always a risk
that, although abundant data are generated on diverse
sites, particularly those threatened by development,
little understanding of investigated sites is gained.
How sites fit into a bigger picture or inform on major
events or processes is often lost, leaving investigators
and the public to wonder: what are we learning (e.g.,
Altschul 2005)?
CRM has made important contributions to African
Diaspora archaeology. At the same time, theoretical
advances are notably lacking. CRM investigations,
for instance, have frequently conceptualized African
Diaspora archaeology within a framework of acculturation. Interpretations offered by CRM studies have
tended to argue that African Americans had become
largely acculturated or Americanized by the nineteenth century (Joseph 2004). As Joseph (2004:21) has
The New York African Burial Ground

argued, however, culture change... is not acculturation. Evidence for retention or extension of African
beliefs and practices has been found at many sites
(e.g., Fennell 2000; Ferguson 1992, 1999; Leone and
Fry 1999; Singleton and Bograd 1995; Stine etal.
1996; Wilkie 1997), including the New York African
Burial Ground, and most archaeologists studying the
African Diaspora prefer alternate models of culture
process, such as historical creolization, domination
and resistance, and resistant accommodation. These
models should be evaluated using archaeological and
historical evidence, and new models of culture process
should be developed to account for the evidence.
Further, CRM has also been dominated by Euroamerican professionals who rarely seek academic
preparation in African American studies departments,
and very few faculty of African American studies
departments have been contracted by archaeologists
(LaRoche and Blakey 1997:92; see also Leone etal.
2005:596). The New York African Burial Ground has
raised the bar for the standards in CRM by requiring more advanced scholarship in African Diaspora
studies to be applied to the study of African Diaspora
sites. To LaRoche and Blakey (1997:93), Seizing
intellectual control has meant that the criteria for
competency have been expanded to include an affinity for African-American culture, past and present,
and comfort with and knowledge of the politics of
African descendant populations, their cultures, and
their histories.

Cultural Resource Management

and the African Burial Ground
The New York African Burial Ground Project began as
a fairly routine, compliance-oriented CRM investigation. As discussed in Chapter2, the initial fieldwork
was performed by a CRM firm contracted by the
GSA. The analytical phase of the fieldwork, while
still contracted with the GSA, involved the collaboration of CRM professionals and academic researchers affiliated with major universities and institutions
(Blakey 2009a).
In a sense, the New York African Burial Ground
Project is almost two projects: (1)the fieldwork phase
of work and (2)the analytical, interpretive, and reinterment phases of work. The fieldwork phase of work
is generally cast in a negative light. It was performed
(1)mainly by Euroamerican archaeologists, (2)working in CRM, (3)with varying levels of experience in
African American burials or sites and limited under-

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 275

standing of African American history or bioarchaeology, (4)under intense pressure, (5)according to a
rushed schedule, (6)without an adequate research
design, (7)with insufficient curatorial supplies or
procedures, (8)in violation of the GSAs Section106
responsibilities, (9)and against the wishes of segments of the descendant community. Further, the
excavations at the site were conducted in a way that
(10)was perceived as desecrating a sacred site, (11)
resulted in excavation errors and security breaches,
and (12)required African American politicians and
scholars, as well as representatives from multiple
municipal, state, and federal agencies, to intervene
and oversee the process (see Chapter2).
To many of the people involved, the fieldwork
phase of the project was a political nightmare. As
visible as the project was, the many difficult issues
that converged on the project extended far beyond the
project itself. Although field archaeologists and the
associated CRM firms became the target of much criticism, the root of these enormous problems went far
beyond the archaeologists conducting the work. Many
problems stemmed from insensitive and unbending governmental policies and procedures, historical
issues, existing research traditions, and inadequate
legal frameworks for protecting African American
burials and associated grave goods. Blakey (2009a:8)
noted disturbing parallels between political economic
conditions when the African Burial Ground was used
and when it was excavated by archaeologists two
centuries after its abandonment. Some problems in
how the site was studied and how the descendant
community was treated may have resulted from a
racist political economy and the pervasive influence
of late-twentieth-century racist ideologies (Mack and
Blakey 2004). As Blakey (2009a:15) has observed,
the controversy surrounding the site and the publics
efforts to stop excavation:
was viewed by the descendant community as
a continued refutation of African American
humanity and dignity. This attention to the site
was also the result of the powerful revelations
that the excavation and the research teams initial findings produced about a past of African
enslavement and African contributions to nation
building that had been buried and hidden from
the American consciousness (Blakey 1998a).
Indeed, the educated public had long been taught
that there had been few blacks and no slavery
in the American North. Now the undeniable

contradictory evidence confirmed the African

American vindicationist critique of pervasive
Eurocentric distortion of American and world
history.
The analytical, interpretive, and reinterment phases
of work performed by Howard University and John
Milner Associates, Inc., form a striking contrast to
the fieldwork phase of work. Following the project requirements set forth in the amended MOA of
December 1991, this second project consisted of three
components: (1)the analytical or research component,
(2)public engagement and education component, and
(3)the curation and repatriation component. Instead
of a botched political fiasco, these phases of work
are hailed as resounding successes to be celebrated
and commended (LaRoche and Blakey 1997). To the
researchers, these phases of work (1)represent an
unprecedented seizure of intellectual power; (2)were
conducted by a racially and ethnically diverse research
team, many of whom were African Americans with
backgrounds in African and African American history or bioarchaeology; (3)actively engaged and
involved the descendant community in guiding
research directions and deciding on the course of the
project; (4)treated the deceased and their descendants
with dignity and respect; (5)developed a sophisticated
and theoretically relevant research design; (6)raised
the standards for CRM research at African American
sites; (7)integrated research from multiple disciplines,
including history, archaeology, and skeletal biology;
(8)regularly interfaced with and educated the public
through multiple media; (9)developed databases and
crucial frames of reference for ongoing research;
(10)prompted positive change in some aspects of the
profession; (11)inspired new insights into African
Diaspora archaeology, history, and bioarchaeology;
and (12)endeavored to make the project data and
reports widely available to the scientific community
and the public (Blakey 2009b; LaRoche and Blakey
1997).
The New York African Burial Ground research
design was driven by an expanded and refined theoretical framework based on African Diaspora studies
and vindicationist scholarship. Howard University and
John Milner Associates, Inc.s research design was an
innovative and unprecedented attempt to make New
York African Burial Ground findings relevant to events
and processes happening at scales that went far beyond
more particularistic studies of colonial Manhattan. The
researchers attempted to contextualize the New York

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

276
African Burial Ground in the broadest sense, as one of
many sites throughout the Atlantic World that can be
used to inform on the African Diaspora and the political economies of racism and slavery. In this sense, the
research assumed a wider field of academic and social
relevance than most CRM projects achieve.

National and International

Significance of the African Burial
Ground as a Cultural Property
The significance of the African Burial Ground extends
far beyond the confines of the site, far beyond New
York City, and far beyond the United States. As LaRoche and Blakey (1997:84) explain, excavation of the
African Burial Ground has global and universal implications which transcend urban archaeology, physical
anthropology, or the concerns of any one group. The
African Burial Ground is emblematic of slavery and
the struggles of Africans and African Americans in the
diaspora against racism and oppression. The research
helps Americans remember the past and encourages
the scientific community and the public to learn more
about the history of enslavement, the trade in enslaved
Africans, the diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences of Africans in the diaspora, the development
of African American culture and identity, and the
assertion and maintenance of human dignity. Understanding these issues is crucial to understanding the
modern world.
Determinations of significance are used in a variety
of ways to assess the eligibility of a site for protection
and management. The protection and development of
a heritage site, such as the African Burial Ground, is
partly afforded by its inscription on local, state, federal, or international heritage lists and the development
of management plans. The African Burial Ground
is protected through its designation as a New York
City Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and
a National Monument.
In archaeology, significance is based on the theoretical framework used to evaluate a site (Altschul
2005:198) as well as the legal framework that defines
criteria for determining significance. Different laws
and conventions, such as the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 as amended and the World
Heritage Convention, establish different criteria for
determining significance. Many sites in the United
States are protected under the NHPA, which proThe New York African Burial Ground

tects sites based on the determination of significance

and integrity. The evaluation of a sites significance
according to the NHPA is performed based on its
association with one or more of four criteria. In a
general sense, a site is considered significant under
NHPA if it is determined to:
A. be associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our
history; or
B. be associated with the lives of persons significant
in our past; or
C. embody the distinctive characteristics of a type,
period, or method of construction, or represent the
work of a master, or possess high artistic values,
or represent a significant and distinguishable entity
whose components may lack individual distinction;
or
D. have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information
important in prehistory or history.
Unfortunately, the process of determining significance under the NHPA has become rigid, formalized,
and unimaginative. Many sites are recommended as
eligible for protection under the NHPA, although a
much smaller number are actually determined eligible and listed in the NRHP. Currently, more than
80,000sites have been nominated for listing in the
NRHP; 2,400 of these have been formally designated
as National Historic Landmarks. Most sites are recommended as significant under Criterion D as contributing to an important archaeological research question.
Typically, archaeological research questions considered important under this criterion are those that have
to do with refining culture histories or with testing
hypotheses about events or culture process (Altschul
2005). The research design argued that the New York
African Burial Ground is eligible under Criteria A and
D, which to the researchers suggests that the site is
important for more than its information potential to
archaeologists, historians, or bioarchaeologists.
Very few sites listed in the NRHP are affiliated with
African American heritages (Seibert 2000). Failure to
recognize or acknowledge the significance of African
American sites is troublesome and raises the question
of biases in archaeological discovery or in evaluating
the eligibility of African Diaspora sites for listing in
the NRHP. In Texas, for instance, sites affiliated with
Euroamericans have been recommended as eligible
for NRHP listing at a much higher rate than African
American sites (Barile 2004).

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 277

National Park Service Listening Sessions

The significance of a site to a descendant community
could differ substantially from significance as determined by archaeologists. In 2004, the NPS solicited
input on the significance of the African Burial Ground
from community leaders, activists, and other interested parties through a civic engagement process that
included listening sessions and public meetings. People and organizations who contributed opinions to the
planning process for management recommendations
included Friends of the African Burial Ground, Committee of the Descendants of the Ancestral Afrikan
Burial Ground, former Howard University research
team members, former African Burial Ground Steering Committee members, Memorial Advisors, OPEI
volunteers, Peggy King Jorde, and the New York
Public Librarys Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture. The civic engagement process resulted
in five observations on the significance of the site.
The significance of the site as determined through
listening sessions seems to have more to do with the
sites association with important events and broad
trends in enslavement, the African Diaspora, and the
development of New York than it has to do with its
ability to inform on important archaeological research
questions:
The African Burial Ground is tangible evidence of
slavery in the North.
The African Burial Ground is sacred space.
The African Burial Ground shows the African
contribution to the prosperity of New York City.
The African Burial Ground demonstrates that
the enslaved Africans were not a homogeneous
people, but a group of individuals from diverse
backgrounds.
The African Burial Ground is a reminder that slavery still exists in the world [NPS 2006:iv].
A series of recommendations on how the site should
be interpreted and used were also made:
The African Burial Ground can and should tie into
related Lower Manhattan points of interest
The African Burial Ground should be a place to
educate and reach people on various levels
Preserve and protect the internationally important resources and values of the African Burial
Ground
Provide knowledge on its history and meanings

Sustain and expand knowledge through continued

research
Take the lead in making the African Burial Ground
a model for the care and interpretation of a sacred
site
Partner with like-minded organizations and agencies [NPS 2006:iv]
The recommendations developed through listening
sessions clearly associate the African Burial Ground
with broad historical processes that occurred on an
international scale. Further, the African Burial Ground
is seen as relevant to the protection and interpretation of other international resources and to sustained
research on the African Diaspora. To the descendant
community, the African Burial Ground is a valued and
sacred cultural property requiring protection, care,
and sensitive interpretation through the collaborative
efforts of multiple organizations and agencies.

Native American Graves Protection

and Repatriation Act
In the United States, archaeologists working on
Native American sites are often required to consult
Native American descendant communities and to
treat Native Americanaffiliated human remains
according to legal, professional, and ethical guidelines. The Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) provides a
process for institutions and federal agencies to repatriate sacred objects, funerary objects, objects of
cultural patrimony, and human remains to Native
American lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Native American organizations. Although some
archaeologists initially saw NAGPRA as a burden
that could cripple archaeological research, archaeologists are now more accustomed to consulting with
Native American tribes and to designing more widely
relevant, culturally sensitive, politically informed
research. Following the passing of NAGPRA, the
burden rests on archaeologists to make a case for
studying Native American human remains, and the
interests of Native American groups substantially
influence the conduct of archaeologists. Archaeological research involving Native American burials
now has to be aligned with the interests of Native
American communities. Archaeologists can no longer
work absent a relationship with the Native American
groups they serve (Ferguson 1996).

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

278
The same legal protection afforded Native American communities through NAGPRA is not afforded
to African American communities, or any other nonnative groups, for that matter. African Americans do
not have an equivalent legal apparatus that ensures
their involvement in deciding on the treatment of
human burials, funerary objects, or objects of cultural
patrimony. In the case of the New York African Burial
Ground, widespread protest and intense public scrutiny were necessary to ensure that the voices of the
descendant community were heard and that African
American researchers were given the opportunity
to direct research. It took the involvement of African American politicians, community activists, and
scientists to change the course of New York African
Burial Ground investigations and to establish explicit
linkages between archaeological investigations and
the concerns and interests of the descendant community. Essentially, African American researchers,
politicians, and community activists seized intellectual and political power in the interest of the
descendant community (LaRoche and Blakey 1997).
Without that effort, it is unlikely that descendant
community members would have been included in
discussion as much as they were. Baugher (2005) has
suggested that the political power of African Americans, as a significant voting block, was one factor
that made the voices of the descendant community
heard. Historical archaeologists now frequently cite
and celebrate the achievements of New York African
Burial Ground researchers in making the descendant
community an important stakeholder and partner.
Now, the New York African Burial Ground Project is
emblematic of these issues. Archaeologists must ask
themselves, however, if African American researchers, politicians, and community activists had not
spearheaded the effort, would respectful treatment
have occurred? Should legal protection similar to
that required by NAGPRA be afforded to all burials
and burial grounds?

World Heritage Sites

Few African Diaspora sites or sites in the United States
are inscribed as World Heritage sites. The African
Burial Ground is not currently inscribed as a World
Heritage site, although efforts to nominate the site
for inscription are underway. World Heritage sites are
designated according to six cultural and four natural
criteria outlined in the Operational Guidelines for the

The New York African Burial Ground

Implementation of the World Heritage Convention

(2005), established by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and
the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of
the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (ICPWCNH).
Cultural heritage, natural heritage, and mixed cultural
and natural heritage properties are defined according
to Articles1 and 2 of the World Heritage Convention.
Cultural heritage properties are monuments, groups
of buildings, or sites. Natural heritage properties are
natural features, natural sites, or precisely delineated
natural areas. Cultural landscapes are combined
works of nature and of men and are also defined by
the World Heritage Convention.
Archaeological sites are worthy of inscription when
they are considered to be of outstanding universal
value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological,
or anthropological points of view (UNESCO and
ICPWCNH 2005:45). As Pomeroy (2005:303) has
noted, conventions used to determine outstanding or
personal value are subjective and vague. Others have
argued that the criteria for assessing the outstanding
universal value of sites nominated for inscription on
the World Heritage List and their authenticity have
been conceptualized, explained and understood from
a European viewpoint (Labadi 2007:152; see also
Byrne 1991; Labadi 2005). The result of these ambiguous and Eurocentric conventions for determining value
has been that the distribution of cultural properties
has grown uneven, both culturally and geographically,
since 1978, resulting in a sample that is skewed toward
the monumental heritage and religious architecture of
Western Europe (Pomeroy 2005:303). Since 1994,
steps have been taken to correct this imbalance by
implementing measures to develop a more representative global sample.
World Heritage sites associated with enslavement
and the trade in enslaved Africans have typically
been inscribed on the basis of Criteria iii, v, and vi
for assessing outstanding universal value for cultural
heritages:
(i)represent a masterpiece of human creative
genius; (ii)exhibit an important interchange of
human values, over a span of time or within a
cultural area of the world, on developments in
architecture or technology, monumental arts,
town-planning or landscape design; (iii)bear a
unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 279

or which has disappeared; (iv)be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural
or technological ensemble or landscape which
illustrates asignificant stage(s) in human history;
(v)be an outstanding example of a traditional
human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which
is representative of a culture (or cultures), or
human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the
impact of irreversible change; (vi)be directly or
tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic
and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this
criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria.)
Inscribed properties associated with enslavement
and the trade in enslaved Africans include the Island
of Gore (Senegal), a major slave-trading center from
the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries (Criterionvi);
James Island and Related Sites (Gambia), a series of
sites on the River Gambia related to an important trade
route to the interior for the trade in enslaved Africans
(Criteria iii, vi); Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater
Accra, Central and Western Regions (Ghana), fortified
trading-posts erected between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries related to trade routes and the trade
in enslaved Africans (Criterionvi); Asante Traditional
Buildings (Ghana), the last standing architectural
remains of the Asante civilization (Criterionv); and
Royal Palaces of Abomey (Benin), palaces founded
in part on slavery and the trade in captive Africans
(Criteriaiii, iv), such as the palace of King Ghezo,
whose bricks contain the dried blood of sacrificed war
captives (Lovejoy 1997:2). Cultural landscapes and
sites related to cultures from which some enslaved
laborers were derived have also been inscribed, such
as the Sukur Cultural Landscape (Nigeria), a landscape
of sacred symbols, terraced fields, and ironworking
facilities (Criteriaiii, v, vi); the Osun-Osogbo Sacred
Grove (Nigeria), a symbol of Yoruba identity, where
a sacred grove, sanctuaries, shrines, and sculptures
venerate Osun and other Yoruba deities (Criteriaii, iii,
vi); and Royal Hill of Ambohimanga (Madagascar), a
symbol of Malagasy identity consisting of a royal city,
burial ground, and sacred places (Criteriaiii, iv, vi).
Based on New York African Burial Ground research,
Criteriaii, iii, and vi could conceivably apply to the
inscription of the African Burial Ground.

The UNESCO Slave Route Project

In 1993, during the twenty-seventh session of the
general conference of UNESCO, the Slave Route Project (27C/Resolution3.13) was approved. Nicphore
Dieudonn Soglo, the President of the Rpublique du
Bnin, officially launched the UNESCO Slave Route
Project at Ouidah on September 1, 1994. The purpose
of the project is to trace the slave trade from the
original points of enslavement in the African interior,
through the coastal (and Saharan) entrepts by which
slaves were exported from the region, to the societies
in the Americas and the Islamic world into which they
were imported (Lovejoy 1997:12). The project is
organized around four programs: (1)the scientific
program, Fight against Racism, Discrimination and
Xenophobia; (2)the teaching and education program, Breaking the Silence; (3)the program for
promotion of cultures and living traditions generated
from slavery and the slave trade; and (4)the program for cultural tourism related to slavery and the
slave trade. The fourth program includes the Slave
Trade Archives project, a project to preserve text
and memory related to slavery and the slave trade. A
celebrated achievement of the 2001 World Conference
against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia
and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa,
was the recognition of slavery and the slave trade as
a crime against humanity (UNESCO 2006). More
recently, the United Nations designated the years
20042007 as International Years to Commemorate
the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition. As
part of the 2004 commemorations, the New York
Public Librarys Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture developed an exhibition with online and
traveling components, Lest We Forget: The Triumph
Over Slavery.
As the final resting place for thousands of Africans and African Americans, many of whom traveled UNESCOs Slave Route as a result of processes
of enslavement and forcible migration, the African
Burial Ground could be a highly significant point
along UNESCOs Slave Route. The African Burial
Ground is a testament to the attempts of enslavers to
dehumanize enslaved Africans and African Americans
and a potent symbol of the assertion and maintenance
of human dignity among those who were enslaved.
Further, the African Burial Ground formed during a
crucial period in the racialization of American political

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

280
economies. Scientific research and educational programs developed around the African Burial Ground
inform on the formation of race and racialization in the
Atlantic World and thus, in their educational, cultural,
and scientific values, contribute directly to the fight
against racism, discrimination, and xenophobia.

Conclusions
New York African Burial Ground research is an excellent example of the potential for integrating history,
biology, and anthropology in archaeological research.
The synergy of findings from multiple intellectual
traditions produces far more relevant information
than could be achieved through archaeology alone.
Moreover, New York African Burial Ground research
demonstrates the need to ask big questions and the
relevance of archaeological investigations to answering such questions about the human past.
In this report, a great deal of information about
the African Burial Ground has been summarized and
integrated. Together, these data contribute to a greater
understanding of a site that was not lost to history but
was underappreciated and not well understood. As
Medford and Brown (2009b:1) have stressed, Each
burial in and of itself tells an individual story. When
considered collectively, however, in combination with
archival evidence, these burials enable us to reconstruct a forgotten community and reveal the centrality
of a marginalized people. Until the archaeological
discovery of the New York African Burial Ground
and its analysis by the research team, representation
of the site in New York history was minimal. The
significance of the site to national and international
histories was not recognized. Now, the site is understood to be highly significant on many levels. The
African Burial Ground was arguably the first African
American institution in New York City and perhaps
the first African American institution in North America
(Berlin 1998:62). With its rediscovery, the African
Burial Ground continues to be a sacred place of central
importance to African American heritage.
The New York African Burial Ground has proven
to be highly significant to understanding the different
contexts of slavery in the Atlantic World. For the most
part, African Diaspora archaeology in the Americas
focused on plantation contexts. Although many important studies have been conducted in plantation contexts (e.g., Ascher and Fairbanks 1971; Babson 1990;
Epperson 1990; Fairbanks 1974, 1984; Farnsworth
The New York African Burial Ground

2000; Otto 1975, 1980, 1984; Smith 1976, 1977), the

overrepresentation of plantation contexts has provided
a false impression about the contexts of enslavement.
Northern and urban contexts are underrepresented, as
are the immense contributions Africans and African
Americans made to the development of New York City
and the building of our nation. To Blakey, Rankin-Hill,
Goodman, et al. (2009:273),
the bones and teeth [of the individuals buried
in the New York African Burial Ground] speak
eloquently of their lives before death, bearing
witness to the stresses of malnutrition, infection,
poor medical care, lead pollution, overwork, and
injury. Individuals came to New York via diverse
routes and from diverse areas. Some were born
into slavery, but most adults probably were not.
Unfortunately, the hardships they endured rival
those confronted by and imposed on any other
group. Nevertheless, the enslaved Africans of
New York rebelled, survived, endured, and literally made a significant portion of the world that
is now enjoyed by much of humanity.
Investigation of the New York African Burial
Ground has caused many difficult and controversial
issues to be debated. Who owns the past? Who has a
right to make decisions about how heritage sites are
investigated? Who are the stakeholders and what are
their roles and responsibilities? Who should study
African Diaspora sites? How should African Diaspora
sites be studied or interpreted? To whom are archaeologists ethically or professionally obligated? Finding
the answers to all these difficult questions requires
continuous debate.
Other questions involve how and to what degree
the interests of descendant communities should dictate
research questions and methodology. In the case of
the New York African Burial Ground, the research
team left it up to the descendant community to decide
whether scientific analyses should be conducted or
invasive techniques used. The descendant community
approved both and also provided input on research
questions, semantics, and interpretation. Diverse
opinions and perspectives were expressed among
members of the descendant community, however.
Members of the descendant community were not in
total agreement with each other, let alone with archaeologists (Mack and Blakey 2004). One can expect a
plurality of opinions and perspectives to be the norm
among descendant communities, so deciding which
opinions or perspectives carry the most weight will

Chapter 9 . Significance of the African Burial Ground 281

be important. The problem of factionalization among
descendant communities also requires consideration
(e.g., Baugher 2005).
Deciding whodescendant communities, archaeologists, or review boardshas the authority to make
the final decisions is equally important. For some
technical issues, only individuals with archaeological
training will be capable of making informed decisions. For others, the opinions of individuals with
an understanding of legal requirements or budgetary
concerns might carry the most weight. When it comes
to issues of dignity, respect, sensitivity, or cultural
heritage, the opinions of descendant communities
should be heavily weighted, but again, methods for
weighing the plurality of opinions among segments
of the descendant community, archaeologists, and
contracting agencies need to be developed.
Important questions remain. How much authority should archaeologists relinquish? What kinds of
decisions, if any, remain in the exclusive domain of
archaeologists or stakeholders? Do archaeologists
and stakeholders need to define formal roles in making decisions about archaeological research? Who is
going to pay for consultations, and what are reasonable costs? Archaeologists and contracting organizations must be cognizant of the appropriate level of
technical expertise that is necessary for the informed
investigation of heritage sites, which includes the
development of research designs, public engagement,
investigative methods, data management, reporting,
curation, and reinterment. Archaeologists, however,
do not always have a complete understanding of the
relevance of a site to stakeholders, the kinds of questions and concerns that are important to stakeholders,
or the necessary familiarity with relevant historical
information or intellectual traditions.
Brumfiel (2003:214; see also Ferguson 1996) has
noted that since the passage of the NAGPRA, archaeologists working in the United States have increasingly
acted as collaborators with descendant communities.
This collaboration has seen archaeologists acting in a
variety of roles, including as technicians, consultants,
and equal partners (Brumfiel 2003). For studies of
African American sites, collaborations have required
archaeologists to engage in new forms of activity
including critical self-reflection (Franklin 1997a),
popular writing (Gibb 1997), consulting local populations when designing research (LaRoche and Blakey
1997), and developing multivocal interpretations of
archaeological remains (McDavid 1997) (Brumfiel
2003:215).

For the African Burial Ground, the major research

themes were decided through a process of public
engagement. Clearly, the theoretical framework for
the research was an outgrowth of intellectual traditions that were common to many of the Howard
University researchers and some segments of the
descendant community. The process of public engagement was not simply one of listening or informing,
but of involved active discourse and negotiation. In
some cases, segments of the descendant community
demanded historical representations that could not
be supported by material evidence, such as the idea
that slavery did not exist in Africa. Archaeologists
countered that their involvement as scholars required
that scientific interpretations rely on material evidence
(Blakey 2009b:44). Although there were substantial
differences during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries between slavery in the Americas and slavery
in Africa (Inikori 1999), our requirement as scholars
was, nonetheless, to indicate that we would refer to
slavery in Africa because of the material evidence for
its existence there (Blakey 2009b:44). Archaeologists
were willing to adjust vocabulary and to consider
alternate models of culture process, but they could not
present information that they knew to be unsupported
or factually incorrect.
The New York African Burial Ground Project has
had a major impact on the discipline of archaeology.
The project has had an even more profound impact on
the interested public, particularly African Americans.
The OPEI has collected many hundreds of newspaper
articles, pamphlets, posters, and other media that document aspects of the New York African Burial Ground.
These documents detail for public consumption the
discovery, excavation, analysis, and interpretation
of the site as well as the reburial of the individuals
studied. Interpretation of the New York African Burial
Ground is tremendously important to the public.
The New York African Burial Ground Project is
also of great importance to archaeologists. The legacy of the New York African Burial Ground Project
includes (1)the contributions of project findings to
African Diaspora studies and African Diaspora archaeology as an important case study; (2)the pioneering
and comprehensive engagement of the descendant
community; (3)the empowerment of African American scholars and the promotion of African Diaspora
perspectives; (4)a renewed emphasis on the need
to increase archaeological research into the African
Diaspora; (5)a recognition of the sites relationship
to other African Diaspora sites, particularly those in

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

282
the Northeast, where the activities and contributions
of Africans and their descendants have been largely
overlooked; (6)contributions to understanding the
social construction of racial ideologies and racialized
political economies; and (7)the development of osteological, historical, and archaeological information on
the diverse origins and life histories of individuals in
the African Diaspora.
It must not be forgotten that the African Burial
Ground is a sacred site with intense spiritual significance. Many individuals in the descendant community
felt that excavation of the site was an act of desecration. The historical-period and modern interactions
of Africans and African Americans with the site were
inherently spiritual. During excavation, people flocked
to the site to offer prayers and libations, to witness
events, and to register how they or their ancestors
were connected to the site, what the site meant to them
and their ancestors, and what they would like to see
happen in the future. Work at the site, the transfer of
human remains to Howard University, and reinterment
were accompanied by religious ceremonies performed
by practitioners of Christianity, Islam, and Yoruba
religions (Figure114).
The intense spiritual and historical significance
of the site has meant that many aspects of the project have been tumultuous. As LaRoche and Blakey
(1997:100) have suggested, the excavation of our
ancestors has been a cathartic and wrenching experience. The project has also inspired appreciation,
understanding, and awareness among professionals
and multiple publics. A tremendous amount of historical and scientific information has been amassed and

The New York African Burial Ground

Figure 114. Egunfemi Adegbolola, Chief Alagba of New York,

commemorating the ancestors in a Yoruba ceremony at the
African Burial Ground (photograph by Dennis Seckler) (from
Volume 2, Part 1 [Perry 2009:xviii].

evaluated. This information is important to understanding the past and present and for charting the
future. Hopefully, the positive outcomes of the project
have initiated a process of healing that has tangible
social and political benefits. As LaRoche and Blakey
(1997:100) have recognized, aspects of the project
were deeply offensive and provoked anger, outrage,
and cynicism. At the same time, in the right hands,
archaeology at sites like the New York African Burial
Ground is for many African Americans not an end
in itself [but] a conduit, an avenue leading to spiritual
rebirth and renewal of our history (LaRoche and
Blakey 1997:100).

Appendix A
NEW YORK AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND
STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

"A11&/%*9
ppendix
"
/
A: N&8
ew
:Y03,
ork
"
A'3*$"/
frican
#
B63*"urial
(
G306/%
round
4S5&&3*/(
teering
$C0..*55&&
ommittee
.
M&.#&34
embers
t


285

New York African Burial Ground Steering Committee Members
Howard Dodson, Chairperson

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public

Library

Peggy King Jorde, Executive Director

Mayors Office/National Advisory Committee for the African Burial

Ground

Robert McC. Adams

Secretary, Smithsonian Institution

Laurie Beckelman

Chair, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

J. Max Bond

Davis, Brody and Associates, Architect and Partner

Elombe Brath

Patrice Lumumba Coalition, Community Activist

Richard Brown

Representative, NYC African/American Community

Dr. John Henrik Clarke

Historian

Ron Conroy

Representative, NYC African Community

Rev. Susan Johnson Cook

Pastor, Mariners Temple Baptist Church

Rev. Herbert Robert Daughtry

Pastor, House of the Lord Churches

Barbara J. Fife

Deputy Mayor for Planning and Development, NYC

Miriam B. Francis

Representative, NYC African/American Community

Raenice Goode

Representative, NYC African/American Community

Dr. Jerome S. Handler

Professor of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University

Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, Jr.

President, New York Theological Seminary

Robert Macdonald

Director, Museum of the City of New York

Mary Lacey Madison

Representative, NYC African/American Community

Joan Maynard

Executive Director, The Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and

Bedford Stuyvesant History

Ollie McClean

Representative, NYC African/American Community

Christopher Moore

Journalist

Paul ODwyer

Attorney

Senator David Paterson

New York State Senate

Noel Pointer

Artists Coalition for the Preservation of the African/American Burial

Ground

Carolyn Sherry

Representative, NYC African/American Community

Adunni Oshupa Tabasi

Representative, NYC African/American Community

Howard Wright

Representative, NYC African/American Community

Committee Alternates
Claudine Brown

Smithsonian Institute

Roy Conroy
Deidre Cross

Smithsonian Institute

Nancy Devine

Mayors Office, NYC

Verna M. Francis

Representative, NYC African Community

VOLUME
olume 4. THE
he SKELETAL
keletal BIOLOGY
iology, ARCHAEOLOGY
rchaeology, AND
and HISTORY
istory OF
of THE
the NEW
ew YORK
ork AFRICAN
frican BURIAL
urial GROUND
round: A SYNTHESIS
ynthesis

286 M. L. Blakey and L. M. Rankin-Hill, editors

New York African Burial Ground Steering Committee Members (contd)
Rev. Carolyn Holloway

Mariners Temple Baptist Church

Wanda Mc Swain

ODwyer and Bernstein

Nan Rothschild

Anthropologist, Columbia University

Merin Urban

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Charlene Dwin Vaughn

Advisory Counsel on Historic Preservation

Ex-Officio Committee Members

Hon. Daniel P. Moynihan

U.S. Senate

Hon. John P. Hammerschmidt

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Bud Schuster

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. John H. Chaffee

U.S. Senate

Hon. Alphonse DAmato

U.S. Senate

Hon. Gus Savage

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Max Baucas

U.S. Senate

Hon. John J. Duncan Jr.

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. James M. Inhofe

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Steve Symms

U.S. Senate

Hon. James A. Traficant

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Major R. Owens

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Norman Y. Mineta

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Carl M. Levin

U.S. Senate

Hon. Charles B. Rangel

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Jerrold Nadler

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Edolphus Towns

U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Robert A. Roe

U.S. House of Representatives

The New York African Burial Ground

Appendix B
Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group

B.1. Early Group Burials

B.2. Middle Group Burials
B.3. Late-Middle Group Burials
B.4. Late Group Burials

Appendix A: Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group 289
Table B.1. Early Group Burials
Burial
No.

Low
Age

High
Age

adult

35

45

female?

93

81.5

adult

25

35

male

85

87.5

subadult

12

undetermined

78

83

29

adult

35

45

male?

82

33

adult

undetermined

93

34

adult

undetermined

18
23
26

38
44

Age
Category

Sex

adult

12

18

female

subadult

undetermined

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

90

Preservation
Code

Coffin

12

tapered

tapered

20

four sided

97.5

tapered

87.5

10

none
(redeposited
bones)

87.5

15

rectangular?

86

10

tapered

85.5

21.5

four sided

48

adult

undetermined

97

87.5

20

tapered

52

undetermined

undetermined

18

87.5

25

rectangular

68

adult

21

25

male

87

91

tapered

subadult

undetermined

90

87.5

34

rectangular

adult

16

19

undetermined

64

91

10

tapered

undetermined

95

87.5

31

rectangular

female

89

87.5

35

four sided

undetermined

81

93.5

-4

unidentified

female

93

88.5

70

tapered

undetermined

98

86

70

tapered

undetermined

92

92

75

four sided

60

undetermined

88

91.5

80

tapered

12.5

undetermined

102

94

69

tapered

male

98

75.5

77

four sided

72

78
83

subadult

84

adult

88

undetermined

120

adult

121

subadult

155

adult

177

adult

182

subadult

200

adult

202

adult

12

18

female?

108

85.5

70

tapered

221

adult

30

60

male

96

83.5

77

tapered

226

infant

227
237

25
2.5

30
7.5

21

34
4.5

0.17 undetermined

105

83

77

tapered

undetermined

undetermined

96

77

84

four sided

undetermined

undetermined

183

80

55.5

four sided?

male?

90

84.5

90

unidentified

81

87

tapered

80.5

84

four sided

87.5

80

unidentified

88.5

74

tapered

247

adult

249

subadult

250

adult

261

n/a

263

17

3.5

subadult

35
0.67

49.9

1.33 undetermined

101

undetermined

98

no skeletal
remains
undetermined

105

Volume 4. The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis

290
Table B.1. Early Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

264

adult

272

subadult

279

Low
Age

High
Age

Sex

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Preservation
Code

Coffin

80

55

unidentified

undetermined
0.75 undetermined

100

88.5

74.5

four sided

adult

undetermined

99

76.5

75.5

four sided

280

adult

female?

96

83

70

four sided

281

adult

male?

90

79.5

75

four sided

71.5

four sided

282
307

0.25

adult

32.5

42.5

male

96

77.5

adult

45

55

male?

88

82.5

116

no coffin

undetermined

109

84.5

109

four sided

female

94

88.5

237

tapered

308

subadult

340

adult

39.3

64.4

adult

33

57

male

85

88.5

249

tapered

subadult

undetermined

110

71.5

215

four sided

387

adult

34

44

male

109

78

227

tapered

388

adult

29

57

female

112

75.5

222

tapered

389

adult

female

100

82

220

tapered

adult

undetermined

100

84.5

235

tapered

adult

female

96

79.5

165

tapered

416

adult

undetermined

101

71.5

142

y
(no cranium)

tapered

426

undetermined

undetermined

69.5

141

n
(not excavated)

tapered?

432

adult

undetermined

78

220

rectangular?

361
382

402
404

90

Note: From Volume 2, Part 1 (Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009a:Table 23).
a
In the Sex column, a question mark indicates a probable assignment.
b
Indicates a problematic temporal assignment.

The New York African Burial Ground

Appendix A: Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group 291
Table B.2. Middle Group Burials
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

High
Age

Sex

35

male

adult

25

infant

adult

35

16

adult

17

subadult

19

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Preservation
Code

Coffin

107

n/a

undetermined

101

82.5

hexagonal

45

male

90

89.5

25

hexagonal

50

60

female

67

hexagonal

undetermined

89

83.25

20

hexagonal

subadult

undetermined

108

81.5

20

unidentified

21

subadult

undetermined

87.5

20

rectangular

22

subadult

2.5

4.5

undetermined

90

96.5

-1.5

unidentified

24

subadult

undetermined

92

87.5

rectangular

25

adult

20

24

female

96

87.5

20

unidentified

27

subadult

1.4

undetermined

74

88.5

hexagonal

30

subadult

11

undetermined

92

86

10

hexagonal

31

adult

14

16

undetermined

90

103.5

-1

hexagonal

32

adult

50

60

male

100

86.5

23.5

hexagonal?

35

subadult

10

undetermined

93

87.5

15

hexagonal

39

subadult

undetermined

82

81.75

40

hexagonal

41

adult

undetermined

66

99.5

-11

unidentified

45

subadult

undetermined

86

103.5

-5

hexagonal

46

adult

female?

86

95.5

unidentified

47

adult

35

45

male

94

103.5

hexagonal?

49

adult

40

50

female

82

87.5

40

hexagonal

50

subadult

undetermined

90

87.5

30

hexagonal

53

subadult

0.25

0.75 undetermined

90

87.5

hexagonal

55

subadult

undetermined

93

92.2

hexagonal

56

adult

30

34

female

90

90.5

15

hexagonal?

57

subadult

66

2.5

0.5

2.8

4.5

107

0.88

2.16 undetermined

90

87.5

25

hexagonal

infant

0.16 undetermined

90

93.5

25

unidentified

69

adult

30

60

male

82

89

-3.5

y
(no cranium)

hexagonal?

70

adult

35

45

male

90

92.5

10

y
(no cranium)

hexagonal

73

adult

20

30

female?

96

79

10

hexagonal

97

80

15

n
(empty coffin)

hexagonal

74
75

infant

77

subadult

undetermined

97

92.5

34

rectangular

0.67

1.3

undetermined

110

88.5

35

hexagonal

Volume 4. The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis

292
Table B.2. Middle Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

79

subadult

0.25

80

High
Age

Sex

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Preservation
Code

Coffin

tapered

0.75 undetermined

90

82

subadult

undetermined

88

87.5

40

hexagonal

81

adult

female

90

93

-3

y
(no cranium)

unidentified

82

adult

female

86

93

y
(cranium only)

unidentified

85

subadult

0.25

0.75 undetermined

89

80.5

15

hexagonal

87

subadult

undetermined

90

94

y
(cranium only)

unidentified

90

adult

35

40

female

90

81.5

hexagonal

93

adult

undetermined

85

-3

unidentified

94

subadult

undetermined

80

92.5

47

hexagonal

96

adult

16

18

male

71

94.5

47

hexagonal

98

subadult

undetermined

90

81

20

hexagonal

100

subadult

undetermined

90

80.5

20

hexagonal

102

subadult

2.67 undetermined

90

79.5

20

hexagonal

103

subadult

undetermined

86

79.5

20

hexagonal

104

adult

female

77

89.5

61

hexagonal

111

subadult

0.67

1.33 undetermined

73

91.5

53

four sided?

112

subadult

0.25

0.75 undetermined

89

82.5

unidentified

113

adult

114

adult

45

115

adult

116

adult

118

adult

122

adult

126

subadult

3.5

5.5

127

subadult

128

infant

18

25

1.33

30

40

undetermined

85

91.5

60

unidentified

50

male

100

94.5

91

hexagonal

25

35

female

94

89.5

89

hexagonal

45

55

male

100

95.5

81.5

hexagonal

94.5

55

unidentified

undetermined
18

20

female

86

93

61

hexagonal

undetermined

110

88

80.5

hexagonal

0.67

1.33 undetermined

94

90

95

hexagonal

0.17 undetermined

89

92.5

83

hexagonal

n/a

97

91.5

95

no
(empty coffin)

unidentified

129
130

subadult

undetermined

89

92

56

hexagonal

133

subadult

undetermined

76

96

78

hexagonal

136

subadult

95

86.7

unidentified

142

adult

25

30

female

95

88

90

hexagonal

143

subadult

10

undetermined

111

88

80.5

hexagonal

144

infant

0.17 undetermined

99

88

90

four sided

undetermined

The New York African Burial Ground

Appendix A: Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group 293
Table B.2. Middle Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

High
Age

148

adult

12

18

undetermined

93

91.5

149

subadult

undetermined

97

154

adult

25

29

female

88

156

adult

30

60

female

159

adult

25

35

female

160

subadult

161

subadult

163

adult

167

subadult

8.5

169

subadult

5.5

175

adult

189

adult

undetermined

206

subadult

undetermined

212

subadult

213

adult

45

215

infant

218

subadult

0.5

220

subadult

224

subadult

231

subadult

232

subadult

0.5

3.5

18

24

4.5

0.5

Preservation
Code

Coffin

70

hexagonal

88

90

four sided

95.5

75

hexagonal

66.5

115

unidentified

89

73.5

90

hexagonal

undetermined

93

73

98.5

four sided

undetermined

83

74.5

90

rectangular

male?

89

74.5

99

hexagonal

12.5

undetermined

99

86.5

65

hexagonal

9.5

undetermined

114

91.5

81

hexagonal?

72

64.5

unidentified

95.5

65.5

unidentified

75.5

93

rectangular

y
(no cranium)

hexagonal?

5.5

24

28

5.5

infant

239

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

male
90

undetermined

85

82.5

55

female

93

84.5

85.5

hexagonal

0.16 undetermined

111

81.5

72.5

four sided?

3.5

undetermined

105

89

73

unidentified

undetermined

95

78

92

tapered

1.33 undetermined

86

77.5

97

four sided

undetermined

77.5

97

four sided

undetermined

77.5

97

unidentified

127

rectangular

55

233
234

Sex

n/a

90

73

0.5

undetermined

107

77.5

96.5

tapered

subadult

1.5

3.5

undetermined

109

83.5

70

tapered

240

subadult

0.88

2.66 undetermined

90

79.5

95.5

hexagonal?

245

subadult

2.5

4.5

undetermined

93

75

85.5

hexagonal

246

subadult

0.5

2.9

undetermined

92

82.5

70

four sided

248

subadult

undetermined

90

71.2

118.5

unidentified

254

subadult

255

14

15

3.5

5.5

undetermined

96

79.5

97.5

unidentified

infant

0.17 undetermined

90

79.3

117.9

hexagonal?

256

adult

40

male

93

77.5

79

hexagonal

258

infant

undetermined

104

85.5

78

four sided

260

undetermined

undetermined

94

84.5

53.5

n/a

265

subadult

268

infant

60
0.5

0.5

undetermined

95

82

120

hexagonal?

0.5

undetermined

96

74.5

125.5

hexagonal?

Volume 4. The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis

294
Table B.2. Middle Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

270

adult

271

adult

275

Low
Age

High
Age

Sex

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Preservation
Code

Coffin

male

97

84.5

123.5

unidentified

male

103

76.5

65

hexagonal

adult

female?

96

81

50

unidentified

277

subadult

undetermined

92

77.5

51

unidentified

283

subadult

0.67 undetermined

104

76

123

hexagonal

284

adult

21

28

male

86

80.5

115.5

unidentified

285

adult

20

30

female

102

80.5

64

hexagonal

286

subadult

undetermined

89

75

126

hexagonal?

287

adult

male

95

73.5

53

y
(no cranium)

unidentified

288

adult

undetermined

74.5

120

n/a

291

subadult

undetermined

82.5

94

n/a

292

adult

undetermined

72.5

121

unidentified

293

adult

male?

106

82.5

94

hexagonal

294

subadult

undetermined

96

88

86.5

hexagonal

295

adult

50

female

110

82

70

hexagonal

296

infant

0.5

2.9

undetermined

68

84

98

unidentified

298

subadult

0.67

1.33 undetermined

66.5

123

unidentified

300

infant

undetermined

106

76

125.5

hexagonal?

301

adult

undetermined

99

86

100.5

n/a

undetermined

undetermined

86

100.5

n/a

302

adult

female?

99

88.5

99.5

n/a

303

subadult

0.5

undetermined

100

73.5

76.5

n/a

304

subadult

undetermined

90

81.5

109

tapered

306

adult

28

44

male

88

76.5

125

hexagonal

310

adult

44

52

female

99

75.5

60

hexagonal

312

infant

undetermined

94

75

67

rectangular

315

adult

30

40

female

88

83

127

hexagonal?

318

subadult

7.5

14

undetermined

116

78

144

n/a

320

subadult

undetermined

120

90

251.5

unidentified

321

subadult

undetermined

117

79.5

143

hexagonal

324

adult

25

35

female

90

69

132

hexagonal

326

adult

45

55

male

96

73.5

135

hexagonal

328

adult

40

50

female

88

84.5

241

hexagonal

334

subadult

undetermined

111

89

251

unidentified

335

adult

female

127

84.5

248

hexagonal

301A

45

0.33

4.4
18

0.5
30

25

The New York African Burial Ground

57

8.5
20

0.3

35

Appendix A: Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group 295
Table B.2. Middle Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

336

subadult

0.5

339

High
Age

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Preservation
Code

Coffin

undetermined

92

83

125.5

hexagonal?

subadult

undetermined

86

83

123

unidentified

341

adult

male

103

87.5

229.5

hexagonal

344

adult

male?

87.5

255

unidentified

345

adult

undetermined

74.5

254

n/a

347

subadult

0.5

undetermined

98

73.5

130

hexagonal

348

subadult

undetermined

112

66

138

hexagonal

349

infant

0.5

undetermined

94

72

132

unidentified

350

undetermined

82

133.5

n/a

351

adult

50

60

male

106

84.5

145

hexagonal

353

adult

24

34

male

112

84.5

230

hexagonal

355

adult

undetermined

74.5

235

n/a

356

subadult

undetermined

128

84.5

248

shared

358

adult

female?

126

89.5

230

unidentified

359

subadult

undetermined

95

84.5

127.5

unidentified

360

subadult

undetermined

75.5

235

unidentified

365

adult

female

195

79.5

257.5

unidentified

366

adult

34

62

undetermined

118

78

224

hexagonal

367

adult

25

35

female?

72

130

n/a

368

subadult

10.5

13.5

undetermined

95

80.5

246.5

unidentified

370

subadult

undetermined

75

82

146.5

hexagonal?

371

adult

25

35

female

115

69

235

no coffin

372

adult

25

35

female

81

235

n/a

374

infant

72

132.5

unidentified

375

adult

16

74.5

253

no coffin

378

undetermined

75.5

235

n
(not excavated)

unidentified

379

adult

30

40

male

109

71.5

215

hexagonal

380

adult

40

60

male

98

85

241

hexagonal

383

adult

14

18

female

79

245

hexagonal

384

adult

25

45

female

80

91.5

248

hexagonal

385

adult

40

60

female

121

86

251.5

hexagonal

390

adult

25

35

male

94

71.5

140

n/a

393

infant

- 0.17

84

211

hexagonal?

394

adult

16

59.5

185

n/a

396

subadult

82.5

224

hexagonal

25

Sex

35

undetermined

0.25 undetermined
18

female

93
120

undetermined

6.5

0.17 undetermined
25
8.5

119

undetermined
undetermined

108

Volume 4. The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis

296
Table B.2. Middle Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

High
Age

397

adult

30

40

female

398

adult

25

35

undetermined

399

infant

400

adult

25

403

adult

405

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

100

Preservation
Code

Coffin

87

229

hexagonal

93

255.5

n/a

78

213

rectangular

65.5

130

hexagonal

undetermined

106

35

male

85

39

65

male

113

93

255.5

unidentified

subadult

10

undetermined

119

83.9

211.8

hexagonal?

406

infant

undetermined

280

68.25

253.5

hexagonal?

408

adult

male?

79.5

158

n/a

n/a

410

adult

female

69.5

178

hexagonal

412

infant

undetermined

78.5

218.5

unidentified

414

adult

39

59

male

112

74

165

unidentified

415

adult

35

55

male

99

81

215

hexagonal

417

subadult

64.5

165

unidentified

418

adult

30

55

male

106

64.5

163

unidentified

419

adult

48

62

male

117

71.5

206.5

hexagonal

420

adult

35

45

male

69.5

186.5

n/a

422

undetermined

undetermined

86.5

212.5

unidentified

n/a

67

162

n
(not excavated)

unidentified

76

220

n/a

n/a

9.5

0.3

Sex

0.5

14.5

423

95

undetermined

424

adult

undetermined

425

adult

female

107

79.1

253

n
(not excavated)

hexagonal

427

adult

16

20

male?

91

69.5

179

hexagonal

428

adult

40

70

female

95

66.5

147.5

unidentified

429

adult

undetermined

64.5

215

n
(not excavated)

unidentified

n/a

84.5

215

n
(not excavated)

unidentified

430
431

adult

undetermined

79.5

162

unidentified

433

adult

undetermined

79.5

160.5

n/a

434

undetermined

undetermined

79.5

155

no coffin

Note: From Volume 2, Part 1 (Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009b:Table 25).
a
In the Sex column, a question mark indicates a probable assignment.

The New York African Burial Ground

Appendix A: Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group 297
Table B.3. Late-Middle Group Burials
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

High
Age

Sex

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Preservation
Code

Coffin

adult

30

40

male

86.5

11

n/a

4A

adult

20

25

male?

86.5

11

n/a

subadult

0.5

undetermined

90

86.5

unidentified

subadult

undetermined

105

80.5

15

hexagonal

10

adult

40

45

male

88

82.5

20

hexagonal

11

adult

30

40

male?

90

83.5

12

hexagonal

-7

four sided?

13/43

subadult

2.5

4.5

undetermined

90

105

undetermined

76

91.5

45

hexagonal

undetermined

90

92

-4

unidentified

0.75 undetermined

95

93.5

four sided?

undetermined

82

87.5

45

unidentified

0.88 undetermined

82

92.5

45

hexagonal

y
(no cranium)

unidentified

42

infant

54

adult

60

subadult

61

undetermined

64

subadult

67

adult

40

50

male

88

94

89

adult

50

60

female

92

90.5

48

hexagonal

91

subadult

undetermined

84

95

48

hexagonal

101

adult

26

35

male

78

88.5

49

hexagonal

105

adult

35

45

male

89

95

60

hexagonal

106

adult

25

35

female?

92

90.5

71

hexagonal

107

adult

35

40

female

93

90

48

hexagonal

108

subadult

0.25

0.75 undetermined

68

87

53

hexagonal

109

subadult

0.67

1.33 undetermined

126

90.5

54

hexagonal

119

adult

93

88.5

72

hexagonal

123

subadult

96

89.5

80

hexagonal?

n/a

95

73.5

74

n
(empty coffin)

hexagonal

undetermined

102

73.5

74.5

hexagonal

male

90

95.5

68.5

n/a

male

103

74.5

65.5

hexagonal

undetermined

113

86.5

80

four-sided

104

78.5

57

rectangular

undetermined

87

71.5

122

unidentified

male?

95

76.5

118

y
(no cranium)

hexagonal

108

83.5

72

unidentified

0.25

0.38

0.67

35
0.67

1.3

45

1.33 undetermined

145
0

male

146

infant

168

adult

176

adult

198

subadult

216

infant

0.16 undetermined

219

subadult

222

adult

229

subadult

20

6.75

24

11.25 undetermined

Volume 4. The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis

298
Table B.3. Late-Middle Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

High
Age

Sex

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Preservation
Code

Coffin

235

adult

28

42

female

85

71.5

123

hexagonal

238

adult

40

50

male

102

78.5

62

hexagonal

251

subadult

12

14

undetermined

101

79.5

79

hexagonal

253

subadult

13

15

undetermined

96

82.5

65.5

hexagonal

267

adult

undetermined

105

82.5

94

hexagonal

289

subadult

undetermined

89

81

125

tapered

290

adult

45

55

male

89

84

114

hexagonal

311

subadult

tapered

314

adult

40

50

male

97

82

hexagonal

316

adult

18

20

female

95

88.5

hexagonal

317

adult

19

39

male?

91.5

220

unidentified

319

adult

female

88.5

249

unidentified

332

adult

35

40

male?

92

80.5

126

hexagonal

333

adult

45

55

male

121

81.5

230.5

rectangular

338

adult

33

65

female

92

84.5

133.5

hexagonal

352

adult

male

100

67.5

131

hexagonal

357

adult

male

109

72

228.5

no coffin

362

adult

undetermined

119

69.5

235

y
(cranium only)

unidentified

373

adult

45

60

female

100

70.5

132

hexagonal

376

adult

45

65

male

98

77

134.5

hexagonal

377

adult

32.6

57.8

female

103

75.5

235

no coffin

381

undetermined

75.5

235

n
(not excavated)

n/a

391

adult

16.5

19.5

male

68

140.5

no coffin

392

adult

42.5

52.5

male

71.5

140

rectangular

395

adult

43

53

male

107

76.5

135.5

hexagonal

413

adult

50

70

female

95

62.5

175.5

hexagonal

0.25

45

0.75 undetermined

65

100

undetermined
90

Note: From Volume 2, Part 1 (Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009c:Table 27).
a
In the Sex column, a question mark indicates a probable assignment.

The New York African Burial Ground

88.5

99.5
134
99.5

Appendix A: Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group 299
Table B.4. Late Group Burials
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

High
Age

Sex

adult

20

25

female?

adult

27

42

male

adult

25

30

male?

12

adult

35

45

14

infant

15

subadult

11
45

20
28

adult

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Coffin

82.5

hexagonal

43.5

11

n/a

91

87.5

15

hexagonal

female

83

89.5

12

rectangular?

undetermined

89

89.5

12

rectangular

18

undetermined

105

103.5

-5

unidentified

50

male

85

no coffin

undetermined

83

-2

unidentified

87.5

-5

unidentified

0.5

subadult

94

Preservation
Code

36

adult

37

adult

45

55

male

102

65

20

hexagonal

40

adult

50

60

female

94

65

10

hexagonal

51

adult

24

32

female

118

75

10

hexagonal

58

subadult

59

female

3.5

4.5

undetermined

93

65

15

rectangular

infant

0.25 undetermined

90

65

15

hexagonal

63

adult

35

91

70

15

hexagonal

65

infant

90

75

10

hexagonal?

71

adult

25

35

female

102

75

10

hexagonal

76

adult

25

55

male

112

75

10

no coffin

45

male

0.49 undetermined

86

subadult

undetermined

91

74

18

hexagonal

95

subadult

12

undetermined

76

94.5

51

hexagonal

40

50

male

97

81

20

hexagonal

78

91.5

70

unidentified

91.5

77

n/a

n/a

97

adult

99

subadult

10

undetermined

117

infant

undetermined

125

adult

131

subadult

female?

89

64.5

52

unidentified

undetermined

90

91.5

76.5

unidentified

132

adult

25

30

male

98

64.5

61.5

hexagonal

134

adult

40

50

female

106

62.5

85

hexagonal

135

adult

30

40

male

100

70

70

hexagonal

137

adult

25

35

undetermined

100

63

75

unidentified

undetermined

98

67.5

86

rectangular

138

subadult

147

adult

55

65

male

81

70.5

56.5

hexagonal

150

adult

20

28

female

117

70.5

80

no coffin

151

adult

35

45

male

138

67.5

83

hexagonal

undetermined

110

55.5

67

unidentified

female?

111

54.5

74

hexagonal

152
153

undetermined
adult

Volume 4. The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis

300
Table B.4. Late Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

High
Age

Sex

157

adult

158

adult

20

30

male

162

adult

35

45

13

164
165

subadult

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

female?

Preservation
Code

Coffin

53.5

81.5

n/a

111

63

92

no coffin

male

109

55

51.5

unidentified

undetermined

97

52.5

91

tapered

undetermined

108

62.5

73

no coffin

undetermined

111

55.5

92.5

rectangular

96

65

y
(no cranium)

unidentified

adult

166

subadult

0.5

170

subadult

11

undetermined

90

171

adult

44

60

male

114

53.5

99.5

hexagonal

172

adult

25

35

female

118

40.5

88

no coffin

121

57

101

rectangular

115

60.5

90

hexagonal

62

57

n/a

173

subadult

174

adult

178

adult

179

adult

180
181

subadult
adult

0.25
17

0.75 undetermined
18

male
male

25

30

male

110

46.5

98

hexagonal

11

13

undetermined

111

50

97.5

hexagonal

20

23

male

86

66

115

no coffin

50

113.5

hexagonal

52

108.5

four sided

54.5

122

no coffin

183

subadult

0.63

1.13 undetermined

184

subadult

1.5

121

185

adult

21

186

infant

0.17 undetermined

124

47.5

110

hexagonal

187

subadult

1.5

undetermined

112

52.5

119.5

hexagonal

32

undetermined

95

58.5

52.5

n/a

0.88 undetermined

112

55

100.5

hexagonal

87.5

no coffin

188
190

adult
subadult

26
0.38

23

undetermined
male

191

adult

25

30

male

109

56.5

192

adult

40

60

female

116

67

101.5

hexagonal

193

adult

30

48

male

109

65.5

101.5

no coffin

194

adult

30

40

male

104

50.5

84

hexagonal

195

adult

30

40

female

100

81.5

63

hexagonal

196

adult

20

24

undetermined

90

83

56

hexagonal

197

adult

45

55

female

77

76

57.5

hexagonal

199

adult

30

40

female

112

73.5

80

no coffin

undetermined

101

59.5

70.5

rectangular

undetermined

83

59

77

hexagonal

77.5

98

n/a

59.5

102

hexagonal

201

subadult

203

adult

204

adult

205

adult

1.5
12

3.5
18

female?
18

The New York African Burial Ground

20

female

108

Appendix A: Burials at the New York African Burial Ground, by Temporal Group 301
Table B.4. Late Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

207
208

Age
Category

adult
subadult

Low
Age

25
0.5

High
Age

Sex

35

female?

undetermined

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

93

Preservation
Code

Coffin

78.5

95

tapered

77

96

unidentified

209

adult

40

50

male

117

42

94

hexagonal

210

adult

35

45

male

88

46

116

no coffin

211

adult

male?

95

77

79.5

no coffin

214

adult

45

55

male

99

79.5

63.5

hexagonal

217

adult

17

19

male

100

64.5

122.5

hexagonal

223

adult

25

35

female

101

66.5

76.5

no coffin

112

64.5

95.5

four sided

86

55

hexagonal

106

hexagonal

hexagonal

225

subadult

228

adult

230

adult

236

subadult

0.5

1.25 undetermined
male?

85

55

65

female

120

45.5

undetermined

90

84.5

53.5

241

adult

55

65

female

94

54.5

121

hexagonal

242

adult

40

50

female

90

49.5

117

hexagonal

243

adult

40

50

male

105

57.5

121

no coffin

244

subadult

undetermined

104

51.5

90

unidentified

252

subadult

undetermined

115

64.5

95.5

hexagonal

64.5

other

257

adult

30

40

male

100

72.1

259

adult

17

19

female?

105

40.5

102

hexagonal

262

adult

15

17

male?

94

38.5

120

no coffin

266

adult

25

35

female

105

38.5

113.5

hexagonal

276

adult

20

24

female

108

35.5

118.5

no coffin

278

adult

45

55

male

116

42

103

no coffin

297

adult

30

40

male

106

62.5

117.5

unidentified

299

adult

40

50

male

80

68.5

123.5

hexagonal

305

infant

57

122

hexagonal

309

adult

20

25

male

62

143.5

no coffin

313

adult

45

55

male

102

31.5

114.5

hexagonal

322

adult

female

99

64.5

140

n/a

323

adult

19

30

male

45

128.5

no coffin

325

adult

25

35

male

99

63.5

137.5

hexagonal

327

adult

35

45

male

98

48.5

129

no coffin

329

adult

male

85

56

128.5

no coffin

329.1

adult

undetermined

56

128.5

n/a

-0.33

0.33 undetermined

109

Volume 4. The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis

302
Table B.4. Late Group Burials (contd)
Burial
No.

Age
Category

Low
Age

High
Age

Sex

330

adult

28

58

male

331

adult

30

35

undetermined

337

adult

40

50

male

342

adult

25

35

343

adult

19

346

adult

354

adult

363

subadult

Head Angle Grid South Grid East

(degrees)
(feet)
(feet)

Preservation
Code

Coffin

58.5

140

n/a

58

137

n/a

116

37

130

no coffin

female?

104

50

129

hexagonal

23

male

92

59.5

130

hexagonal

50

70

female

117

57.5

138.5

hexagonal

35

45

male

93

44.5

129.5

hexagonal

undetermined

124

49.5

135

hexagonal

364

adult

25

35

male

90

44.5

143.5

no coffin

369

adult

40

50

male

83

54

131

no coffin

386

infant

undetermined

101

48

121.5

unidentified

0.3

Note: From Volume 2, Part 1 (Perry, Howson, and Holl 2009d:Table 29).
a
In the Sex column, a question mark indicates a probable assignment.

The New York African Burial Ground

References

Adjei, Ako
1943 Mortuary Usages of the Ga People of the
Gold Coast. American Anthropologist
45(1):8498.
Agorsah, Kofi
1996 The Archaeology of the African Diaspora.
African Archaeological Review 13(4):221
224.
Alexander, J.
2001 Islam, Archaeology, and Slavery in Africa.
World Archaeology33(1):4460.
Allegre, C. J., B. Dupre, P.Negrel, and J.Gaillardet
1996 Sr-Nd-Pb Isotope Systematics in Amazon
and Congo River Systems: Constraints
about Erosion Processes. Chemical Geology 131:93112.
Allen, L. H.
1984 Functional Indicators of Nutritional Status
of the Whole Individual or the Community.
Clinical Nutrition 3(5):169175.
Alpern, Stanley B.
1995 What Africans Got for Their Slaves: A
Master List of European Trade Goods. History in Africa 22:543.
2005 Did They or Didnt They Invent It? Iron
in Sub-Saharan Africa. History in Africa
32:4194.
Altschul, Jeffrey H.
2005 Significance in American Cultural
Resource Management. In Heritage of
Value, Archaeology of Renown: Reshaping
Archaeological Assessment and Significance, edited by Clay Mathers, Timothy
Darvill, and BarbaraJ. Little, pp.192210.
University of Florida Press, Gainesville.

Altschul, Jeffrey H., and Thomas C. Patterson

forthcoming Training and Employment in
American Archaeology. In American
Archaeology at the Crossroads: 75th Anniversary Volume of the Society for American
Archaeology, edited by Barbara J. Mills,
Wendy Ashmore, and Dorothy Lippert.
Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.
Ambrose, StanleyH.
1991 Effects of Diet, Climate and Physiology on
Nitrogen Isotope Abundances in Terrestrial
Foodwebs. Journal of Archaeological Science 18:293317.
American Anthropological Association
1998 American Anthropological Association
Statement on Race (May17, 1998).
Electronic document, http://www.aaanet.
org/stmts/racepp.htm, accessed 2007.
American Association of Physical Anthropologists
1996 AAPA Statement on Biological Aspects
of Race. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 101(4):569570.
Amorosi, Thomas
2009 Human Remains from the WSPFF Site,
Manhattan. In Washington Square Park
Greenwich Village, New York Phase 1 Construction Field Testing Report, prepared by
JoanH. Geismar, Appendix A1. Submitted
to the New York City Department of Parks
and Recreation.

304 References
Andah, Bassey W.
1993 Identifying Early Farming Traditions
of West Africa. In The Archaeology of
Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, edited
by Thurstan Shaw, Paul Sinclair, Bassey
Andah, and Alex Okpoko, pp.240254.
Routledge, London.
Anderson, Marilyn
2000 City Hall Bones Update. Archaeology
53(2):24.
Angel, J. L.
1964 Osteoporosis Thalassemia? American
Journal of Physical Anthropology 22:369
374.
1966 Porotic Hyperostosis, Anemias, Malarias,
and Marshes in the Prehistoric Eastern
Mediterranean. Science 153:760763.
1967 Porotic Hyperostosis or Osteoporosis Symmetrica. In Diseases in Antiquity, edited
by D.R. Brothwell and D.R. Sandison,
pp.378389. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois.
Argyle, William J.
1966 The Fon of Dahomey: A History and
Ethnography of the Old Kingdom. Oxford
University Press, London.
Armstrong, Douglas
1990 The Old Village and the Great House: An
Archaeological and Historical Examination of Drax Hall Plantation, St. Anns
Bay, Jamaica. University of Illinois Press,
Urbana.
1999 Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the
Caribbean Plantation. In I, Too, Am
America: Archaeological Studies of
African-American Life, edited by Theresa
A. Singleton, pp.173192. University
Press of Virginia, Charlottesville.
Armstrong, Douglas V., and Mark L. Fleischman
1993 Analysis of Four Burials from African
Jamaican Houseyard Contexts at Seville.
Report to the Jamaica National Heritage
Trust. Archaeological Reports Vol.6. Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.
2003 House-Yard Burials of Enslaved Laborers
in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica. International Journal of Historical Archaeology
7(1):3366.

The New York African Burial Ground

Asante, Molefi
1980 Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social
Change. Amulefi, Buffalo, New York.
Ascher, Robert, and Charles H. Fairbanks
1971 Excavations of a Slave Cabin: Georgia,
U.S.A. Historical Archaeology 5:317.
Aufderheide, Arthur C., J. L. Angel, J. O. Kelley,
A. C. Outlaw, M. A. Outlaw, G.Rapp, Jr., and L.E.
Wittmers
1985 Lead in Bone III: Prediction of Social Correlates in Four Colonial American Populations (Catoctin Furnace, College Landing,
Governors Land and Irene Mound).
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 66:353361.
Aufderheide, Arthur C., Fraser D. Neiman, Lorentz
E. Wittmers, Jr., and George Rapp, Jr.
1981 Lead in Bone II. Skeletal-Lead Content as
an Indicator of Lifetime Lead Ingestion
and the Social Correlates in an Archaeological Population. American Journal of
Physical Anthropology 55:285291.
Aufderheide, Arthur C., Lorentz E. Wittmers, Jr.,
George Rapp, Jr., and JoAnn Wallgren
1988 Anthropological Applications of Skeletal
Lead Analysis. American Anthropologist
90(4):931936.
Babson, David W.
1990 The Archaeology of Racism and Ethnicity on Southern Plantations. Historical
Archaeology 24(4):2028.
Bailey, Anne C.
2005 African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade:
Beyond the Silence and the Shame. Beacon
Press, Boston, Massachusetts.
Bankoff, H. Arthur, and Alyssa Loorya (editors)
2008 The History and Archaeology of City Hall
Park. Brooklyn College Archaeological
Research Center, Brooklyn College, City
University of New York. Submitted to the
New York City Department of Parks and
Recreation.
Barile, Kerri S.
2004 Race, the National Register, and Cultural
Resource Management: Creating an Historic Context for Postbellum Sites. Historical Archaeology 38(1):90100.

References 305
Barry, Dan
1999 Preserving a Buried Legacy. New York
Times 6 March:B1, B4. New York.
Bascom, William
1969 If Divination: Communication between
Gods and Men in West Africa. Indiana
University Press, Bloomington.
Bastide, Roger
1971 African Civilizations in the New World.
Translated by P. Green. Harper and Row,
New York.
Baugher, Sherene
2005 Sacredness, Sensitivity, and Significance:
The Controversy over Native American
Sacred Sites. In Heritage of Value, Archaeology of Renown: Reshaping Archaeological Assessment and Significance, edited
by Clay Mathers, Timothy Darvill, and
Barbara J. Little, pp.248275. University
of Florida Press, Gainesville.
Baugher, Sherene, and Edward J. Lenik
1997 Anatomy of an Almshouse Complex.
Northeast Historical Archaeology 26:122.
Baugher, Sherene, Edward J. Lenik, Thomas Amorosi, Diane Dallal, Judith Guston, Donald A. Plotts,
and Robert Venables
1990 An Archaeological Investigation of the
City Hall Park Site, Manhattan. New York
City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Report prepared for the New York City
Department of General Services.
Berlin, Ira
1996 From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles
and the Origins of African-American Society in Mainland North America. William
and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 53(2):251
288.
1998 Many Thousands Gone: The First Two
Centuries of Slavery in North America.
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
Boston, Massachusetts.
Bianchi, Leonard G, and Barbara A. Bianco, with
the assistance of Shannon Mahoney
2009 Buttons and Fasteners. In The Archaeology
of the New York African Burial Ground,
edited by WarrenR. Perry, Jean Howson,
and BarbaraA. Bianco, pp.265320. The
New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New

York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University,

Washington, D.C.
Bianco, Barbara A., Christopher R. DeCorse, and
Jean Howson
2009 Beads and Other Adornment. In The
Archaeology of the New York African
Burial Ground, edited by WarrenR. Perry,
Jean Howson, and BarbaraA. Bianco,
pp.321347. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Blakey, Michael L.
1995 Race, Nationalism, and the Afrocentric
Past. In Making Alternative Histories:
The Practice of Archaeology and History
in Non-Western Settings, edited by Peter
R. Schmidt and ThomasC. Patterson,
pp.213228. School of American Research
Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1998a The New York African Burial Ground Project: An Examination of Enslaved Lives, a
Construction of Ancestral Ties. Transforming Anthropology 7(1):5358.
1998b Beyond European Enlightenment: Toward
a Critical and Humanistic Human Biology.
In Building a New Biocultural Synthesis,
edited by A.H. Goodman and T.L. Leatherman, pp.379406. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
2001 Bioarchaeology of the African Diaspora
in the Americas: Its Origins and Scope.
Annual Review of Anthropology 30:387
422.
2009a Introduction. In Skeletal Biology of the
New York African Burial Ground, edited by
Michael L. Blakey and Lesley M. RankinHill, pp.318. The New York African
Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.1,
pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
2009b Theory: An Ethical Epistemology of
Publicly Engaged Biocultural Research. In
Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial Ground, edited by MichaelL.
Blakey and LesleyM. Rankin-Hill,
pp.4147. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.1, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

306 References
2009c History and Comparison of Bioarchaeological Studies in the African Diaspora. In Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial
Ground, edited by MichaelL. Blakey and
LesleyM. Rankin-Hill, pp.1940. The
New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New
York, vol.1, pt.1. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
Blakey, Michael L., Teresa E. Leslie, and JosephP.
Reidy
1994 Frequency and Chronological Distribution
of Dental Enamel Hypoplasia in Enslaved
African Americans: A Test of the Weaning
Hypothesis. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 95:371383.
Blakey, Michael L., M. E. Mack, A. R. Barrett,
S.S. Mahoney, and A.H. Goodman
2009 Childhood Health and Dental Development. In Skeletal Biology of the New
York African Burial Ground, edited by
MichaelL. Blakey and LesleyM. RankinHill, pp.143156. The New York African
Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.1,
pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Blakey, Michael L., M. E. Mack, K. Shujaa, and
R.Watkins
2009 Laboratory Organization, Methods, and
Processes. In Skeletal Biology of the New
York African Burial Ground, edited by
Michael L. Blakey and Lesley M. RankinHill, pp.4965. The New York African
Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.1,
pt.1. Howard University, Washington,
D.C.
Blakey, Michael L., and Lesley M. Rankin-Hill
(editors)
2009 Skeletal Biology of the New York African
Burial Ground. 2pts. The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.1.
Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Blakey, Michael L., L. M. Rankin-Hill, A.Goodman, and F.L.C. Jackson
2009 Discussion. In Skeletal Biology of the New
York African Burial Ground, edited by
MichaelL. Blakey and LesleyM. RankinHill, pp.269273. The New York African
The New York African Burial Ground

Burial Ground: Unearthing the African

Presence in Colonial New York, vol.1,
pt.1. Howard University, Washington,
D.C.
Blakey, Michael L., L. M. Rankin-Hill, J. E. Howson, S. D. Wilson, and S. H. H. Carrington
2009 The Political Economy of Forced Migration: Sex Ratios, Mortality, Population
Growth, and Fertility among Africans in
Colonial New York. In Skeletal Biology
of the New York African Burial Ground,
edited by MichaelL. Blakey and LesleyM.
Rankin-Hill, pp.255267. The New York
African Burial Ground: Unearthing the
African Presence in Colonial New York,
vol.1, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Bleecker, M. L., D. P. Ford, K.N. Lindgren, V.M.
Hoese, K.S. Walsh, and C.G. Vaughan
2005 Differential Effects of Lead Exposure on
Components of Verbal Memory. Occupational and Environmental Medicine
62:181187.
Blum, Joel D., E. Hank Taliaferro, Marie T. Weisse,
and Richard T. Holmes
2000 Changes in Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca and 87Sr/86Sr
Ratios between Trophic Levels in Two Forest Ecosystems in the Northeastern U.S.A.
Biogeochemistry 49:87101.
Boateng, Faustine Ama
1996 Asante. Rosen, New York.
Bocquet-Appel, Jean-Pierre, and Claude Masset
1982 Farewell to Paleodemography. Journal of
Human Evolution 11:321333.
Bogin, Barry
1988 Patterns of Human Growth. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
Bohannan, Paul, and Philip Curtin
1964 Africa and Africans. 3rd ed. Waveland
Press, Prospect Heights, Illinois.
Bosman, Willem
1721 [1705] A New and Accurate Description
of the Coast of Guinea, Divided into the
Gold, the Slave, and the Ivory Coast. 2nd
ed. English translation, printed for J.Knapton, D.Midwinter, B.Lintot, G.Strahan,
J.Round, and E.Bell, London.

References 307
Boubacar, Barry
1998 Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Great Britain.
Braithwaite, Edward K.
1971 The Development of Creole Society in
Jamaica 17701820. Clarendon Press,
London.
Breen, T. H.
2004 The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence. Oxford University Press, New York.
Brenner, Louis
2000 Histories of Religion in Africa. Journal of
Religion in Africa 30(2):143167.
Bridenbaugh, Carl
1950 The Colonial Craftsman. New York University Press, New York.
Bridges, Patricia S.
1991 Degenerative Joint Disease in HunterGatherers and Agriculturalists from the
Southeastern United States. American
Journal of Physical Anthropology 85:379
391.
1994 Vertebral Arthritis and Physical Activities in the Prehistoric Southeastern United
States. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 93:8393.
Brighton, Stephen
2007 Ceramics, Households, and Social Processes. In Archeology of 290 Broadway:
The Secular Use of Lower Manhattans
African Burial Ground, assembled and
edited by CharlesD. Cheek and DanielG.
Roberts, Chapter7. Prepared for Jacobs,
Edwards and Kelcey and the U.S. General
Services Administration, Northeast and
Caribbean Region.
Brodhead, John Romeyn
18561887 Documents Relative to the Colonial
History of the State of New York: Procured
in Holland, England, and France. Edited
by Edmund B. OCallaghan and Berthold
Fernow. 15vols. Weed, Parson, Albany,
New York.
Brown, Kenneth L.
1994 Material Culture and Community Structure: The Slave and Tenant Community at
Levi Jordans Plantation, 18481892. In

Working Toward Freedom: Slave Society

and Domestic Economy in the American
South, edited by LarryE. Hudson,Jr.,
pp.95118. University of Rochester Press,
Rochester, New York.
1997 Some Thoughts on Archaeology and Public
Responsibility. African-American Archaeology 18:67.
2004 Ethnographic Analogy, Archaeology, and
the African Diaspora: Perspectives from a
Tenant Community. Historical Archaeology 38(1):7989.
Brumfiel, Elizabeth M.
2003 Its a Material World: History, Artifacts,
and Anthropology. Annual Review of
Anthropology 32:205223.
Buckwalter J. A., and H. J. Mankin
1997 Instructional Course Lectures, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Articular Cartilage. PartII: Degeneration
and Osteoarthrosis, Repair, Regeneration,
and Transplantation. Journal of Bone and
Joint Surgery 79:612632.
Buikstra, Jane E.
1976 Hopewell in the Lower Illinois River Valley: Regional Study of Human Biological
Variability and Prehistoric Mortuary Activity. Scientific Papers Vol.2. Northwestern
Archeological Program, Northwestern
University, Evanston, Illinois.
Buikstra, Jane E., and Lyle W. Konigsberg
1985 Paleodemography: Critiques and Controversies. American Anthropologist 87:316
333.
Buikstra, Jane E., and Douglas H. Ubelaker (editors)
1994 Standards for Data Collection from Human
Skeletal Remains. Research Series No.44.
Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Fayetteville.
Burnside, Madeleine
1997 Spirits of the Passage: The Transatlantic
Slave Trade in the Seventeenth Century.
Simon and Schuster, New York.
Busia, K. A.
1954 The Ashanti. In African Worlds: Studies in
the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values
of African Peoples, edited by Darryl Forde,
pp.190209. Oxford University Press,
London.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

308 References
Butler, Jon
2000 Becoming America: The Revolution Before
1776. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Buxton, L. H. D., J. C. Trevor, and A. H. Julien
1938 Skeletal Remains from the Virgin Islands.
Man 38:4951.
Byrne, Denis
1991 Western Hegemony in Archaeological Heritage Management. History and Anthropology 5:269276.
Cantwell, Anne-Marie
1994 Something Rich and Strange: Reburial in
New York City. In From Prehistory to the
Present: Studies in Northeastern Archaeology in Honor of Bert Salwen, edited by
NanA. Rothschild and Diana diZerega
Wall. Northeast Historical Archaeology
2122(19921993):198217.
Cantwell, Anne-Marie, and Diana diZerega Wall
2001 Unearthing Gotham: The Archaeology of
New York City. Yale University Press, New
Haven, Connecticut.
Capasso, L., K. A.R. Kennedy, and C.A. Wilczak
1999 Atlas of Occupational Markers on Human
Remains. Journal of Paleopathology
Monograph Publications3:184. Edigrafital
S.P.A., Teramo, Italy.
Carrington, Selwyn H. H.
2002 The Sugar Industry and the Abolition of the
Slave Trade, 17751810. University Press
of Florida, Gainesville.
Caselitz, P.
1998 Ancient Plague of Humankind. In Dental
Anthropology: Fundamentals, Limits, and
Prospects, edited by K.W. Alt, F.W. Rsing, and M.Teschler-Nicola, pp.203226.
Springer-Verlag, New York.
Cavazzi, Giovanni Antonio
1687 Istorica Descrizione de tre regni Congo,
Matamba et Angola. 4 vols. Per Giacomo
Monti, Bologna, Italy.
Chambers, Douglas B.
2000 Tracing the Igbo into the African Diaspora.
In Identity in the Shadow of Slavery, edited
by PaulE. Lovejoy, pp.5571. Continuum,
London.

The New York African Burial Ground

2001

Ethnicity in the Diaspora: The Slave-Trade

and the Creation of African Nations
in the Americas. Slavery and Abolition
22(3):2539.
Cheek, Charles D.
2007 Conclusions and Summary. In Archeology of 290 Broadway: The Secular Use of
Lower Manhattans African Burial Ground,
assembled and edited by CharlesD. Cheek
and DanielG. Roberts, Chapter13. Prepared for Jacobs, Edwards and Kelcey and
the U.S. General Services Administration,
Northeast and Caribbean Region.
Cheek, Charles D., and Daniel G. Roberts (editors)
2007 Archeology of 290 Broadway: The Secular
Use of Lower Manhattans African Burial
Ground. Prepared for Jacobs, Edwards
and Kelcey and the U.S. General Services
Administration, Northeast and Caribbean
Region.
Chen, Aimin, Kim N. Dietrich, James H. Ware,
Jerilynn Radcliffe, and Walter J. Rogan
2005 IQ and Blood Lead from 2 to 7 Years of
Age: Are the Effects in Older Children
the Residual of High Blood Lead Concentrations in 2-Year-Olds? Environmental
Health Perspectives 113(5):597601.
Chireau, Yvonne P.
2003 Black Magic: Religion and the African
American Conjuring Tradition. University
of California Press, Berkeley.
Chukwukere, I.
1981 A Coffin for The Loved One: The
Structure of Fante Death Rituals. Current
Anthropology 22(1):6166.
Conniff, Michael L., and Thomas J. Davis
2003 The Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
In The African Diaspora Experience,
edited by GlennO. Phillips, pp.219226.
Tapestry Press, Acton, Massachusetts.
Conniff, Michael L., and Thomas J. Davis (editors)
1994 Africans in the Americas: A History of the
Black Diaspora. St. Martins Press, New
York.
Cook, K.
1993 Black Bones, White Science: The Battle
over New Yorks African Burial Ground.
Village Voice4 May. New York.

References 309
Corbett, M. E., and W. J. Moore
1976 The Distribution of Dental Caries in
Ancient British Populations IV: The 19th
Century. Caries Research 10:401414.
Corruccini, R. S., A. C. Aufderheide, J. S. Handler,
and L. E. Wittmers
1987 Patterning of Skeletal Lead Content in Barbados Slaves. Archaeometry 29:233239.
Corruccini, Robert. S., Jerome S. Handler, and
Keith P. Jacobi
1985 Chronological Distribution of Enamel
Hypoplasias and Weaning in a Caribbean
Slave Population. Human Biology 57:699
711.
Costello, Augustine E.
1887 Our Firemen: A History of the New York
Fire Department Volunteer and Paid. A.E.
Costello, New York.
Cox, Glenda, and Judith Sealy
1997 Investigating Identity and Life Histories:
Isotopic Analysis and Historical Documentation of Slave Skeletons Found on the
Cape Town Foreshore, South Africa. International Journal of Historical Archaeology
1(3):207224.
Cox, Glenda, Judith Sealy, Carmel Schrire, and
Alan Morris
2001 Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic
Analyses of the Underclass at the Colonial
Cape of Good Hope in the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Centuries. World Archaeology
33(1):7397.
Crist, Thomas A. J., James C. Garman, Gary S.
McGowan, and Douglas B. Mooney
2000 Bioarchaeological Monitoring of Water
Main Repairs and Identification of Associated Human Skeletal Remains, Chambers
Street between Broadway and Centre
Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City.
Kise, Straw & Kolodner. Submitted to the
New York Department of Environmental
Protection, Corona, New York.
Curtin, Philip D.
1969 The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Cutress, T. W., and G. W. Suckling
1982 The Assessment of Non-carious Defects
of Enamel. International Dental Journal
32:117122.

Dasch, E. J.
1969 Strontium Isotopes in Weathering Profiles,
Deep-Sea Sediments, and Sedimentary
Rocks. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
33:15211552.
Davis, David Brion
2000 Looking at Slavery from Broader Perspectives. American Historical Review
105(2):452466.
Davis, Thomas J.
1971 The New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741
as Black Protest. Journal of Negro History
56(1):1730.
1979 Northern SlavesNeglected People in the
Historiography of American Negro Slavery. Journal of Ethnic Studies8:114.
1984 These Enemies of Their Own Household:
A Note on the Troublesome Slave Population in Eighteenth-Century New York City.
Journal of the Afro-American Historical
and Genealogical Society5:133148.
1985 A Rumor of Revolt: The Great Negro
Plot in Colonial New York. Free Press,
New York, and Collier Macmillan, London.
2002 Conspiracy and Credibility: Look Whos
Talking, About WhatLaw Talk and
Loose Talk. William and Mary Quarterly,
3rd ser., 59(1):167174.
2009 Napoleon v. Lemmon: Antebellum Black
New Yorkers, Antislavery, and Law. AfroAmericans in New York Life and History
33(1):2746.
Deagan, Kathleen A.
1987 Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida
and the Caribbean, 15001800. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
DeCorse, Christopher R.
1992 Culture Contact, Continuity, and Change
on the Gold Coast, a.d.14001900. African Archaeological Review 10:163196.
1999 Oceans Apart: Africanist Perspectives
of Diaspora Archaeology. In I, Too, Am
America: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life, edited by TheresaA.
Singleton, pp.132155. University Press
of Virginia, Charlottesville.
2001a An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and
Europeans on the Gold Coast, 14001900.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington,
D.C.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

310 References
2001b Introduction. In West Africa during the
Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological
Perspectives, edited by Christopher R.
DeCorse, pp.113. Leicester University
Press, London.
DeCorse, Christopher R. (editor)
2001 West Africa during the Atlantic Slave
Trade: Archaeological Perspectives. Leicester University Press, London and New
York.
Deetz, James
1996 In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. Expanded and
rev. ed. Anchor Books, Doubleday, New
York.
Demirjian, A.
1986 Dentition. In Postnatal Growth, edited by
F. Faulkner and J. M. Tanner, pp.269298.
Human Growth, vol.2. 2nd ed. Plenum
Press, New York.
Denbow, James R.
1999 Heart and Soul: Glimpses of Ideology and
Cosmology in the Iconography of Tombstones from the Loango Coast of Central
Africa. Journal of American Folklore
112:404423.
Denton, Daniel
1902 A Brief Description of New York: Formerly
Called New Netherlands. Burrows Brothers, Cleveland, Ohio.
de Vries, David Pietersz.
1909 From the Korte Historiael Ende Journaels
Aenteyckeninge, 16331643 (1655). In
Narratives of New Netherland, 16091664,
edited by J. Franklin Jameson, pp.181
234. Charles Scribner & Sons, New York.
Diouf, S. A. (editor)
2003 Fighting the Slave Trade: West African
Strategies. Ohio University Press, Athens.
Dodson, Howard, Christopher Moore, and Roberta
Yancy
2000 The Black New Yorkers: The Schomburg
Illustrated Chronology. Schomburg Center
for Research in Black Culture, New York
Public Library. Wiley, New York.
Donnan, Elizabeth (editor)
1969 Documents Illustrative of the History of the
Slave Trade to America. 6vols. Octagon
Books, New York.
The New York African Burial Ground

Dubin, Lois Sherr

1987 The History of Beads: From 30,000 b.c. to
the Present. Harry N. Abrams, New York.
Du Bois, W. E. B.
1903 The Souls of Black Folk. Bedford Books,
Boston, Massachusetts.
Dumond, Don
1990 Fertility, Mortality, and the Mean Age
at Death: A Model of a Population
under Stress. American Anthropologist
92(1):179187.
Dunlap, David W.
1993 African Burial Ground Made Historic Site.
New York Times 26 February:B3. New
York.
Dworkin, G.
1972 Paternalism. Monist 56:6484.
Eisenberg, Leslie, and Dale Hutchinson (editors)
1996 Trauma in the Archaeological Record. Special issue, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 6(1).
Elbl, Ivana
1997 The Volume of the Early Atlantic Slave
Trade, 14501521. Journal of African History38(1):3175.
Eltis, David
1990 The Volume, Age/Sex Ratios, and African
Impact of the Slave Trade: Some Refinements of Paul Lovejoys Review of the
Literature. The Journal of African History
31(3):485492.
2000 The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
2001 The Volume and Structure of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Reassessment.
William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser.,
58(1):1746.
2002 Free and Coerced Migrations from the Old
World to the New. In Coerced and Free
Migration: Global Perspectives, edited by
David Eltis, pp.3374. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, California.
Eltis, David, Stephen D. Behrendt, David Richardson, and Herbert S. Klein
1999 The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Database
on CD-ROM. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, Great Britain.

References 311
Epperson, Terrence W.
1990 Race and the Disciplines of the Plantation.
Historical Archaeology24(4):2936.
1994 The Politics of Empiricism and the Construction of Race as an Analytic Category.
Transforming Anthropology 5(12):1519.
1996 The Politics of Race and Cultural Identity at the African Burial Ground, New
York City. World Archaeological Bulletin
7:108117.
1999a The Contested Commons: Archaeologies of Race, Repression, and Resistance
in New York City. In Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism, edited by MarkP.
Leone and ParkerB. Potter,Jr., pp.81110.
Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.
1999b Constructing Difference: The Social and
Spatial Order of the Chesapeake Plantation. In I, Too, Am America: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life,
edited by TheresaA. Singleton, pp.159
172. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville.
2004 Critical Race Theory and the Archaeology
of the African Diaspora. Historical Archaeology38(1):101108.
Ericson, Jonathon E.
1985 Strontium Isotope Characterization in the
Study of Prehistoric Human Ecology. Journal of Human Evolution 14:503514.
1989 Some Problems and Potentials of Strontium Isotope Analysis for Human and
Animal Ecology. In Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research, edited by PhilipW. Rundel, JamesR. Ehleringer, and KennethA.
Nagy, pp.252259. Springer-Verlag, New
York.
Eveleth, Phyllis B., and James M. Tanner
1990 Worldwide Variation in Human Growth.
2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
Ezzo, Joseph A.
1993 Human Adaptation at Grasshopper
Pueblo, Arizona: Social and Ecological
Perspectives. International Monographs in
Prehistory, Archaeological Series4. Ann
Arbor, Michigan.
Ezzo, Joseph A., and T. Douglas Price
2002 Migration, Regional Organization, and
Spatial Group Composition at Grasshopper

Pueblo, Arizona. Journal of Archaeological Science 29:499520.

Fairbanks, Charles H.
1974 The Kingsley Slave Cabins in Duval
County, Florida. Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers (1972)
7(2):6293.
1984 The Plantation Archaeology of the Southeastern Coast. Historical Archaeology
18(1):114.
Fairley, Nancy J.
2003 Dreaming Ancestors in Eastern Carolina.
Journal of Black Studies 33(5):545561.
Farnsworth, Paul
2000 Brutality or Benevolence in Plantation
Archaeology. Historical Archaeology
4(2):145158.
Fazekas, I. G., and F. Koa
1978 Forensic Fetal Osteology. Akadmiai
Kiad, Budapest, Hungary.
February, Ed
1996 Coffins, Wood and the Status of the
People Buried. Journal of Archaeological
Science 23(2):279282.
Feinberg, H. M.
1969 Elmina, Ghana: A History of Its Development and Relationship with the Dutch in
the Eighteenth Century. Unpublished Ph.D.
dissertation, Boston University, Boston,
Massachusetts.
1970 Who Are the Elmina? Ghana Notes and
Queries 11:2026.
Fennell, Christopher C.
2000 Conjuring Boundaries: Inferring Past
Identities from Religious Artifacts. International Journal of Historical Archaeology
4(4):281313.
2003 Group Identity, Individual Creativity,
and Symbolic Generation in a BaKongo
Diaspora. International Journal of Historical Archaeology7(1):131.
2005 African-American Archaeology: CRM
Reports and NADB Listings. The African
Diaspora Archaeology Network. Electronic
document, http://www.anthro.uiuc.edu/faculty/cfennell/CRMindex1.html, accessed
March 2007.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

312 References
Fergus, Claudius
2008 Why an Atlantic Slave Trade? Journal of
Caribbean History 42(1):121.
Ferguson, Leland G.
1991 Struggling with Pots in Colonial South
Carolina. In The Archaeology of Inequality,
edited by RandallH. McGuire and Robert
Paynter, pp.2839. Blackwell, Oxford,
Great Britain.
1992 Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and
Early African America, 16501800. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
1999 The Cross Is a Magic Sign: Marks on
Eighteenth-Century Bowls from South
Carolina. In I, Too, Am America:
Archaeological Studies of African-American Life, edited by TheresaA. Singleton,
pp.116131. University Press of Virginia,
Charlottesville.
Ferguson, T. J.
1996 Native Americans and the Practice of
Archaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology 25:6379.
Ffoulkes, Arthur
1909 Funeral Customs of the Gold Coast
Colony. Journal of the African Society
8:154164.
Foote, Thelma Wills
1991 Black Life in Colonial Manhattan, 1664
1786. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
History of American Civilization Program,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
2004 Black and White Manhattan: The History
of Racial Formation in Colonial New York
City. Oxford University Press, Oxford,
Great Britain.
Forde, Cyril Daryll
1954 African Worlds: Studies in the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values of African
Peoples. Oxford University Press, London.
Fountain, Daniel L.
1999 Long on Religion, Short on Christianity:
Slave Religion 18301870. Unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi.
Foy, Charles R.
2006 Seeking Freedom in the Atlantic World,
17131783. Early American Studies
4(1):4677.
The New York African Burial Ground

Franklin, Maria
1997a Power to the People: Sociopolitics and
the Archaeology of Black Americans. Historical Archaeology 31(3):3650.
1997b Why Are There So Few Black American
Archaeologists? Antiquity 71(274):799801.
1997c Out of Site, Out of Mind: The Archaeology of an Enslaved Virginian Household,
ca.17401778. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology,
University of California, Berkeley.
Franklin, Maria, and Larry McKee
2004 African Diaspora Archaeologies: Present
Insights and Expanding Discourses. Historical Archaeology 38(1):19.
Frohne, Andrea E.
2002 The African Burial Ground in New York
City: Manifesting and Representing Spirituality of Space. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Art History, State
University of New York, Binghamton.
Galke, Laura J.
2000 Did the Gods of Africa Die? Re-examination of a Carroll House Crystal Assemblage. North American Archaeologist
21(1):1933.
Garman, James C.
1998 Rethinking Resistant Accommodation:
Toward an Archaeology of AfricanAmerican Lives in Southern New England,
16381800. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 2(2):133160.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
2009 In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their
Past. Crown, New York.
Geismar, Joan H.
1983 The Archaeological Investigation of the
175 Water Street Block, New York City.
Manuscript on file, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
2009 Washington Square Park Greenwich Village, New York Phase 1 Construction Field
Testing Report. Submitted to the New York
City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Genovs, Santiago
1967 Proportionality of the Long Bones and
Their Relation to Stature among Mesoamericans. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 26(1):6778.

References 313
Gibb, James G.
1997 Necessary but Insufficient: Plantation Archaeology Reports and
Community Action. Historical Archaeology31(3):5164.
Gilroy, Paul
1993 The Black Atlantic: Modernity and the
Double Consciousness. Verso, New York.
Gittings, Clare
1984 Death, Burial and the Individual in Early
Modern England. Croom Helm, London.
Goldstein, S. J., and S. B. Jacobsen
1988 Nd and Sr Isotopic Systematics of River
Water Suspended Material: Implications
for Crustal Evolution. Earth and Planetary
Science Letters 87(3):249265.
Gomez, Michael A.
1994 Muslims in Early America. Journal of
Southern History 60(4):671710.
2005 Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Great Britain.
Goode, H., T. Waldron, and J. Rogers
1993 Bone Growth in Juveniles: A Methodological Note. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 3:321323.
Goodell, Grace E.
1985 Paternalism, Patronage, and Potlatch: The
Dynamics of Giving and Being Given To.
Current Anthropology 26(2):247257.
Goode-Null, S. K., K.J. Shujaa, and L.M. RankinHill
2009 Subadult Growth and Development. In
Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial Ground, edited by MichaelL.
Blakey and LesleyM. Rankin-Hill,
pp.227253. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.1, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Goodfriend, Joyce D.
1978 Burghers and Blacks: The Evolution of a
Slave Society at New Amsterdam. New
York History 59:125144.
1992 Before the Melting Pot: Society and
Culture in Colonial New York City, 1664
1730. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Goodman, Alan H., and G.J. Armelagos

1985 Factors affecting the Distribution of
Enamel Hypoplasias within the Human
Permanent Dentition. American Journal of
Physical Anthropology 68:479493.
Goodman, Alan H., J. Jones, J. Reid, M. E. Mack,
M.L. Blakey, D.Amarasiriwardena, P.Burton, and
D.Coleman
2009 Isotopic and Elemental Chemistry of Teeth:
Implications for Places of Birth, Forced
Migration Patterns, Nutritional Status, and
Pollution. In Skeletal Biology of the New
York African Burial Ground, edited by
MichaelL. Blakey and Lesley M.RankinHill, pp.95118. The New York African
Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.1,
pt.1. Howard University, Washington,
D.C.
Goodman, Alan H., and DebraL. Martin
2002 Reconstructing Health Profiles from
Skeletal Remains. In The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western
Hemisphere, edited by RichardH. Steckel
and JeromeC. Rose, pp.1160. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
Goodman, Alan H., and Jerome C. Rose
1990 Assessment of Systemic Physiological Perturbations from Dental Enamel
Hypoplasias and Associated Histological
Structures. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology33:59110.
Goodman, Alan H., B.Brooke Thomas, AlanC.
Swedlund, and GeorgeJ. Armelagos
1988 Biocultural Perspectives on Stress in
Prehistoric, Historical, and Contemporary
Population Research. Yearbook of Physical
Anthropology 31:169202.
Gould, A. R., A.G. Farman, and D.Corbitt
1984 Mutilations of the Dentition in Africa: A
Review with Personal Observations. Quintessence International 15:8994.
Gray, Marlesa
1999 Historical Archaeology in the Next Millennium: A View from CRM. Historical
Archaeology 33(2):5962.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

314 References
Green, William, and John F. Doershuk
1998 Cultural Resource Management and American Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 6(2):121167.
Greene, David L., Dennis P. Van Gerven, and
George J. Armelagos
1986 Life and Death in Ancient Populations:
Bones of Contention in Paleodemography.
Human Evolution 1(3):193207.
Greene, Sandra E.
2000 Cultural Zones in the Era of the Slave
Trade: Exploring the Yoruba Connection with the Anlo-Ewe. In Identity in the
Shadow of Slavery, edited by PaulE. Lovejoy, pp.86101. Continuum, London.
Grossman, Joel W.
1985 The Excavation of Augustine Heermans
Warehouse and Associated 17th Century
Ditch West India Company Deposits: The
Broad Financial Center Mitigation Final
Report. Manuscript on file, New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Gutierrez, Manuel
1999 Archologie et Anthropologie de la Ncropole de Kapanda (Angola). ditions
LHarmattan, Paris, et LHarmattan, Montral.
Habenstein, Robert W., and William M. Lamers
1963 Funeral Customs the World Over. Bulfin
Printers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1975 The History of American Funeral Directing. Bulfin Printers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo
2005 Slavery and African Ethnicities in the
Americas. University of North Carolina
Press, Chapel Hill.
Hall, Martin
2002 Timeless Time: Africa and the World.
In Archaeology: The Widening Debate,
edited by Barry Cunliffe, Wendy Davies,
and Colin Renfrew, pp.439464. Oxford
University Press, Oxford, Great Britain.
Hall, Stuart
1996 Introduction: Who Needs Identity? In
Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by
Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, pp.117.
Sage, London.

The New York African Burial Ground

Handler, Jerome S.
1994 Determining African Birth from Skeletal
Remains: A Note on Tooth Mutilation.
Historical Archaeology28(3):113119.
1996 A Prone Burial from a Plantation Slave
Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies: Possible Evidence for an African-Type Witch
or Other Negatively Viewed Person. Historical Archaeology 30(3):7686.
1997 An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His
Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation
Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1(2):91129.
2002 Survivors of the Middle Passage: Life
Histories of Enslaved Africans in British America. Slavery and Abolition
23(1):2556.
2006 On the Transportation of Material Goods
by Enslaved Africans during the Middle
Passage: Preliminary Findings from
Documentary Sources. African Diaspora
Archaeology Network Newsletter, December.
2007 From Cambay in India to Barbados in
the Caribbean: Two Unique Beads from
a Plantation Slave Cemetery. African
Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter, March.
Handler, Jerome S., and RobertS. Corruccini
1986 Weaning among West Indian Slaves: Historical and Bioanthropological Evidence
from Barbados. William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser.,43(1):111117.
Handler, Jerome S., RobertS. Corruccini, and R.J.
Mutaw
1982 Tooth Mutilation in the Caribbean: Evidence from a Slave Burial Population in
Barbados. Journal of Human Evolution
11:297313.
Handler, Jerome S., and Frederick W. Lange
1978 Plantation Slavery in Barbados: An
Archaeological and Historical Investigation. Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
Handloff, Robert E.
1982 Prayers, Amulets and Charms: Health and
Social Control. African Studies Review
25(23):185194.

References 315
Hardin, Garrett
1968 The Tragedy of the Commons. Science
162:12431248.
Hardwick, J. L.
1960 The Incidence and Distribution of Caries throughout the Ages in relation to the
Englishmans Diet. British Dental Journal
108:917.
Harris, Gale, Jean Howson, and Betsy Bradley
1993 African Burial Ground and the Commons
Historic District Designation Report,
edited by Marjorie Pearson. New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Harris, Leslie M.
2003 In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 16261823. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc.
2003 Tweed Courthouse Archeological Survey
and Data Retrieval Investigations. Submitted to New York City Economic Development Corporation, New York. On file, New
York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
2004 Archeological Monitoring, Con Edison Utility Trenches, Chambers Street,
Manhattan, City of New York, New York
County. Submitted to Consolidated Edison,
New York. On file, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Hays, Constance L.
1991 Archaeologists Uncover New Yorks Foulest Slum. New York Times 15June:25, 27.
New York.
Heckelwelder, John
1876 History, Manners, and Customs of the
Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited
Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Herskovits, Melville J.
1924 A Preliminary Consideration of the Culture
Areas of Africa. American Anthropologist
26(1):5063.
1941 The Myth of the Negro Past. Harper, New
York.
Heywood, Linda, and John Thornton
2009a The Political History of West Africa in the
Eighteenth Century. In Historical Per-

spectives of the African Burial Ground:

New York Blacks and the Diaspora, edited
by Edna Greene Medford, pp.2934.
The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
2009b West Central Africa and the Origins of
New Amsterdams Black Population. In
Historical Perspectives of the African
Burial Ground: New York Blacks and the
Diaspora, edited by Edna Greene Medford,
pp.912. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.3. Howard
University, Washington, D.C.
Higginbotham, A. Leon, Jr.
1978 In the Matter of Color: Race and the
American Legal Process. Oxford University Press, New York.
Higgins, Rosanne L., Michael R. Haines, Lorena
Walsh, and Joyce E. Sirianni
2002 The Poor in the Mid-Nineteenth-Century
Northeastern United States: Evidence from
the Monroe County Almshouse, Rochester,
New York. In The Backbone of History:
Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere, edited by RichardH. Steckel and
JeromeC. Rose, pp.162184. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
Higman, Barry
1995 Slave Populations of the British Caribbean 18071834. The Press, University of
the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
Hildebrant, Barbara
1994 Analysis of Cultural Materials including
Human Skeletal Remains Retrieved from
Soils Originating from Chambers Street
North of Tweed Courthouse at City Hall
Park. Hunter Research, Inc., Trenton, New
Jersey. Report prepared for Mesick, Cohen,
Waite Architects, Albany, New York. On
file, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
1995 Archaeological Investigations in City Hall
Park, Electrical Conduit Trench, Tweed
Courthouse to Broadway. Hunter Research,
Inc., Trenton, New Jersey. On file, New
York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

316 References
Himelfarb, Elizabeth J.
1999 Cover Up at City Hall? Archaeology
52(5):14.
Hodges, Graham Russell
1999 Root and Branch: African Americans in
New York and East Jersey, 16131863.
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel
Hill.
Hodges, Graham Russell, and Alan Edward Brown
1994 Pretends to Be Free: Runaway Slave
Advertisements from Colonial and Revolutionary New York and New Jersey. Garland, New York.
Hoppa, R. D., and C.M. FitzGerald
1999 From Head to Toe: Integrating Studies from Bones and Teeth in Biological
Anthropology. In Human Growth in the
Past: Studies from Bones and Teeth, edited
by R.D. Hoppa and C.M. FitzGerald,
pp.130. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, Great Britain.
Houlbrooke, Ralph
2000 The Age of Decency: 16601760. In Death
in England, edited by PeterC. Jupp and
Clare Gittings, pp.174201. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Howard University and John Milner Associates
1993 Research Design for Archeological, Historical, and Bioanthropological Investigations
of the African Burial Ground (Broadway
Block) New York, New York. Howard University, Washington, D.C., and John Milner
Associates, New York.
Howell, Nancy
1982 Village Composition Implied by a Paleodemographic Life Table: The Libben Site.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 59:263269.
Howson, Jean
1990 Social Relations and Material Culture:
A Critique of the Archaeology of Plantation Slavery. Historical Archaeology
24(4):7891.
Howson, Jean, with the assistance of Shannon
Mahoney and Janet L. Woodruff
2009 Pins and Shrouding. In The Archaeology
of the New York African Burial Ground,
edited by Warren R. Perry, Jean Howson,
and Barbara A. Bianco, pp.247263. The
The New York African Burial Ground

New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New
York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
Howson, Jean, and Leonard G. Bianchi
2009a The Archaeological Site. In The Archaeology of the New York African Burial
Ground, edited by WarrenR. Perry,
Jean Howson, and BarbaraA. Bianco,
pp.6785. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Howson, Jean, and Leonard G. Bianchi, with the
assistance of Iciar Lucena Narvaez and JanetL.
Woodruff
2009b Coffins. In The Archaeology of the New
York African Burial Ground, edited by
WarrenR. Perry, Jean Howson, and Barbara A. Bianco, pp.213245. The New
York African Burial Ground: Unearthing
the African Presence in Colonial New
York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
Howson, Jean, Leonard G. Bianchi, and WarrenR.
Perry
2009 Introduction. In The Archaeology of the
New York African Burial Ground, edited by
WarrenR. Perry, Jean Howson, and BarbaraA. Bianco, pp.133. The New York
African Burial Ground: Unearthing the
African Presence in Colonial New York,
vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Howson, Jean, BarbaraA. Bianco, and Steven
Barto
2009 Documentary Evidence on the Origin
and Use of the African Burial Ground. In
The Archaeology of the New York African
Burial Ground, edited by WarrenR. Perry,
Jean Howson, and BarbaraA. Bianco,
pp.3566. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Howson, Jean, Warren R. Perry, Augustin F. C.
Holl, and Leonard G. Bianchi
2009 Relative Dating. In The Archaeology of the
New York African Burial Ground, edited by
WarrenR. Perry, Jean Howson, and Bar-

References 317
baraA. Bianco, pp.87105. The New York
African Burial Ground: Unearthing the
African Presence in Colonial New York,
vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Hrdlicka, Ale
1918 Physical Anthropology: Its Scope and
Aims, Its History and Present Status in
America. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 1:334.
1928 The Full-Blood American Negro. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
12:1530.
Huh, Y., and J. M. Edmond
1996 The Isotopic Systematics of Fluvial Sr;
New Results from the Big Rivers of Eastern Siberia. EOS 77:325.
Hutchinson, Dale L., and Rebecca Richman
2006 Regional, Social, and Evolutionary Perspectives on Treponemal Infection in
the Southeastern United States. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
129:544558.
Ingle, Marjorie, Jean Howson, and Edward S.
Rutsch
1990 A Stage IA Cultural Resource Survey of
the Proposed Foley Square Project in the
Borough of Manhattan, New York, New
York. Historic Conservation and Interpretation, Newton, New Jersey. Submitted to
Edwards and Kelcey Engineers, New York.
Inikori, Joseph
1999 Slaves or Serfs? A Comparative Study of
Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and Africa.
In The African Diaspora: African Origins
and New World Identities, edited by Isidore
Okpewho, Carole Boyce Davies, and
AliA. Mazrui, pp.4975. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Inikori, Joseph (editor)
1982 Forced Migration: The Impact of the
Export Slave Trade on African Societies.
Hutchinson, London.
Insoll, Timothy
2003 The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.

Jackson, F. L. C., A.Mayes, M.E. Mack, A.Froment, S.O.Y. Keita, R.A. Kittles, M.George, K.J.
Shujaa, M.L. Blakey, and L.M. Rankin-Hill
2009 Origins of the New York African Burial
Ground Population: Biological Evidence of
Geographical and Macroethnic Affiliations
using Craniometrics, Dental Morphology, and Preliminary Genetic Analyses. In
Skeletal Biology of the New York African
Burial Ground, edited by MichaelL.
Blakey and LesleyM. Rankin-Hill,
pp.6993. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.1, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Jacobi, K. P., D. C.Cook, R.S. Corruccini, and
J.S. Handler
1992 Congenital Syphilis in the Past: Slaves at
Newton Plantation, Barbados, West Indies.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 89:145158.
Jameson, J. Franklin (editor)
1909 Narratives of New Netherland, 16091664.
Charles Scribner & Sons, New York.
Jamieson, Ross W.
1995 Material Culture and Social Death: African-American Burial Practices. Historical
Archaeology 29(4):3958.
Janowitz, Meta Fayden
1993 Indian Corn and Dutch Pots: SeventeenthCentury Foodways in New Amsterdam/
New York. In Health, Sanitation, and
Foodways in Historical Archaeology,
edited by JoanH. Geismar and MetaF.
Janowitz. Historical Archaeology
27(2):624.
Jindra, Michael
2005 Christianity and the Proliferation of Ancestors: Changes in Hierarchy and Mortuary
Ritual in the Cameroon Grassfields. Africa
75(3):356377.
Johansson, S. R., and S. Horowitz
1986 Estimating Mortality in Skeletal Populations: Influences of the Growth Rate on
the Interpretations of Levels and Trends.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 71:233250.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

318 References
Johnston, F. E., and L.O. Zimmer
1989 Assessment of Growth and Age in the
Immature Skeleton. In Reconstruction of
Life from the Skeleton, edited by M.Y.
Iscan and K. A.R. Kennedy, pp.1122.
AlanR. Liss, New York.
Jontell, M., and A. Linde
1986 Nutritional Aspects of Tooth Formation.
World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics
48:114136.
Jorde, P. K.
1993 Memorialization of the African Burial
Ground: Federal Steering Committee
Recommendations to the Administrator, General Services Administration and
the United States Congress. New York.
August6.
Joseph, J. W.
2004 Resistance and Compliance: CRM and
the Archaeology of the African Diaspora.
Historical Archaeology 38(1):1831.
Kaeser, Edward
1970 Archery Range Ossuary, Pelham Bay Park,
Bronx County, New York. Pennsylvania
Archaeologist 40:934.
Kalm, Peter
1960 The America of 1750: Peter Kalms Travels
in North America; The English Version of
1770. Edited by A. B. Benson. Dover, New
York.
Kammen, Michael
1975 Colonial New York: A History. Scribner,
New York.
Karklins, Karlis
1992 Trade Ornament Usage among the Native
Peoples of Canada: A Source Book.
National Historic Sites, Parks Service,
Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Kea, Ray
1982 Settlements, Trade and Polities in the
Seventeenth-Century Gold Coast. Johns
Hopkins University Press, Baltimore,
Maryland.
Keene, H. J.
1980 History of Dental Caries in Human Populations: The First Million Years. In Animal
Models in Cariology, edited by J.M.
Tanzer, pp.2340. Information Retrieval,
Washington, D.C.
The New York African Burial Ground

Kelley, Jennifer O., and J. Lawrence Angel

1983 The Workers of Catoctin Furnace. Journal
of the Archaeological Society of Maryland
19:217.
1987 Life Stresses of Slavery. American Journal
of Physical Anthropology 74:199211.
Kelly, Kenneth G.
1995 Transformation and Continuity in Savi, a
West African Trade Town: An Archaeological Investigation of Culture Change on the
Coast of Bnin during the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Centuries. Unpublished Ph.D.
dissertation, Department of Anthropology,
University of California at Los Angeles.
1997 Using Historically Informed Archaeology: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century
Hueda/European Interaction on the Coast
of Bnin. Journal of Archaeological
Method and Theory4(3/4):353366.
1999 The African Diaspora from the Ground Up:
The Importance of Historical Archaeology for Diaspora Studies. Paper presented
at the conference La Ruta del Esclavo en
Hispanoamrica, San Jos, Costa Rica.
2001a Change and Continuity in Coastal Bnin.
In West Africa during the Atlantic Slave
Trade: Archaeological Perspectives, edited
by ChristopherR. DeCorse, pp.81100.
Leicester University Press, London.
2001b La Dispora Africana desde sus Fundamentos. In Rutas de la Esclavitud en frica
y Amrica Latina, edited by Rina Cceres
Gmez, pp.467483. Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jos.
2004 The African Diaspora Starts Here: Historical Archaeology of Coastal West Africa. In
African Historical Archaeologies, edited
by AndrewM. Reid and PaulJ. Lane,
pp.219241. Kluwer Academic/Plenum,
New York.
Kelly, Kenneth G., Peggy Brunache, and Neil L.
Norman
1999 Archaeological Fieldwork at Savi, Republic of Bnin: The 1999 Field Season.
Nyame Akuma52 (December):110.
Kemp, Francis W., Prasad V.S.V. Neti, RogerW.
Howell, Peter Wenger, DonaldB. Louria, and
JohnD. Bogden
2007 Elevated Blood Lead Concentrations
and Vitamin D Deficiency in Winter

References 319
and Summer in Young Urban Children.
Environmental Health Perspectives
115(4):630635.
Khudabux, Mohamed Rakieb
1991 Effects of Life Conditions on the Health
of a Negro Slave Community in Suriname.
Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden
University, Leiden, Netherlands.
Kilgore, Lynn
1985 Degenerative Joint Disease in a Medieval
Nubian Population. Unpublished Ph.D.
dissertation, Department of Anthropology,
University of Colorado, Boulder.
Kiple, K. F., and V.H. King
1981 Another Dimension to the Black Diaspora:
Diet, Disease, and Racism. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
Kiple, K. F., and V. H. Kiple
1977 Slave Child Mortality: Some Nutritional
Answers to a Perennial Puzzle. Journal of
Social History 10:284309.
Krueger, H. W.
1985 Models of Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes
in Bone. Paper presented at the Conference
on Biomineralization, Warrenton, Virginia.
Kruger, Vivienne L.
1985 Born to Run: The Slave Family in Early
New York, 16261827. Unpublished Ph.D.
dissertation, Columbia University, New
York.
Kuevi, D. A.
1989 Vestiges et monuments anciens sur le
Plateau de Danyi. In Actes de Quinzaine
de lArchologie Togolaise 10 Janvier4
Fvrier, vol. 1, edited by D.A. Kuevi and
D.A. Aguigah. LAssociation Togolaise de
la Recherche Scientifique, Lom, Togo.
Kwiatkowski, D. P.
2005 How Malaria Has Affected the Human
Genome and What Human Genetics Can
Teach Us about Malaria. American Journal
of Human Genetics 77:171192.
Labadi, Sophia
2005 Questioning the Implementation of the
World Heritage Convention. Unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation, University of London.

2007

Representations of the Nation and Cultural

Diversity in Discourses on World Heritage.
Journal of Social Archaeology 7:147170.
Landmarks Preservation Commission
2002 Landmarks Preservation Commission
Guidelines for Archaeological Work in
New York City. Electronic document,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/
pdf/pubs/ayguide.pdf.
LaRoche, Cheryl J.
1994 Beads from the African Burial Ground,
New York City: A Preliminary Assessment.
Beads 6:320.
LaRoche, Cheryl J., and Michael L. Blakey
1997 Seizing Intellectual Power: The Dialogue
at the New York African Burial Ground.
Historical Archaeology 31(3):84106.
Larsen, Clark Spencer
1984 Health and Disease in Prehistoric Georgia:
The Transition to Agriculture. In Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, edited
by M.N. Cohen and G.J. Armelagos,
pp.367392. Academic Press, New York.
1997 Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior
from the Human Skeleton. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
Law, Robin
1991 The Slave Coast of West Africa, 1550
1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave
Trade on an African Society. Clarendon
Press, Oxford, Great Britain.
2004 Ouidah: The Social History of a West
African Slaving Port, 17271892. Ohio
University Press, Athens.
Leone, Mark P., and Gladys-Marie Fry
1999 Conjuring in the Big House Kitchen: An
Interpretation of African American Belief
Systems based on the Uses of Archaeology
and Folklore Sources. Journal of American
Folklore 112(445):372403.
2001 Spirit Management among Americans of
African Descent. In Race and the Archaeology of Identity, edited by CharlesE.
Orser,Jr., pp.143157. University of Utah
Press, Salt Lake City.
Leone, Mark P., Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, and Jennifer J. Babiarz
2005 The Archaeology of Black Americans in
Recent Times. Annual Review of Anthropology 34:575598.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

320 References
Leone, Mark P., Parker B. Potter, Jr., and Paul A.
Shackel
1987 Toward a Critical Archaeology. Current
Anthropology 28(3):283292.
Lepore, Jill
2005 New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and
Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan. Knopf, New York.
Levy, L. F.
1968 Porters Neck. British Medical Journal
2(5596):1619.
Lewis, A. B., and S. M. Garn
1960 The Relationship between Tooth Formation and Other Maturational Factors. Angle
Orthodontist 30:7077.
Lignitz, H.
19191920 Die knstlichen Zahnverstmmlungen
in Afrika im Lichte der Kulturkreisforschung. Anthropos 1415:891943.
Litten, Julian
1991 The English Way of Death: The Common
Funeral since 1450. Robert Hale, London.
Little, Barbara J.
1994 People with History: An Update on Historical Archaeology in the United States.
Journal of Archaeological Method and
Theory 1(1):540.
London, Marilyn R.
2004 New York City Hall Park: Analysis of
Partial, Scattered and Incomplete Human
Skeletal Remains Recovered during the
1999 Renovation of the Park. On file, New
York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Louis Berger and Associates
1991 Archaeological and Historical Investigations at the Assay Site, Block 35, New
York, New York. Manuscript on file with
the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Lovejoy, Paul E.
1982 The Volume of the Atlantic Slave Trade:
A Synthesis. Journal of African History
23:473501.
1989 The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on
Africa: A Review of the Literature. Journal
of African History 30:365394.
1997 The African Diaspora: Revisionist Interpretations of Ethnicity, Culture and ReliThe New York African Burial Ground

gion under Slavery. Studies in the World

History of Slavery, Abolition and EmancipationII,1.
2000 Identifying Enslaved Africans in the African Diaspora. In Identity in the Shadow
of Slavery, edited by PaulE. Lovejoy,
pp.129. Continuum, London.
Lovell, Nancy C.
1994 Spinal Arthritis and Physical Stress at
Bronze Age Harappa. American Journal of
Physical Anthropology 93:149164.
Lydon, James G.
1978 New York and the Slave Trade, 1700
1744. William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd
ser., 35(2):375394.
MacEachern, Scott
2001 State Formation and Enslavement in the
Southern Lake Chad Basin. In West Africa
during the Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological Perspectives, edited by ChristopherR. DeCorse, pp.131151. Leicester
University Press, London.
Mack, Mark E., and Michael L. Blakey
2004 The New York African Burial Ground Project: Past Biases, Current Dilemmas, and
Future Research Opportunities. Historical
Archaeology 38(1):1017.
Mack, Mark E., A.H. Goodman, M.L. Blakey, and
A.Mayes
2009 Odontological Indicators of Disease, Diet,
and Nutritional Inadequacy. In Skeletal
Biology of the New York African Burial
Ground, edited by MichaelL. Blakey and
LesleyM. Rankin-Hill, pp.157168. The
New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New
York, vol. 1, pt. 1. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
Mack, Mark E., C. M. Hill, and M. L. Blakey
1995 Preliminary Analysis of Skeletal Remains
from the New York African Burial Ground.
Paper presented at the 94th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.
MacLeod-Leslie, Heather
2001 Understanding the Use of Space in an
Eighteenth-Century Black Loyalist Community: Birchtown, Nova Scotia. Unpublished Masters thesis, Department of

References 321
Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton
University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Maresh, M. M.
1955 Linear Growth in Long Bones of Extremities from Infancy through Adolescence.
American Journal of Diseases of Children
89:735742.
1970 Measurements from Roentgenograms. In
Human Growth and Development, edited
by R.W. McCammon, pp.157199.
Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois.
Martin, D. L., G. J. Armelagos, A.H. Goodman,
and D.P. Van Gerven
1984 The Effects of Socioeconomic Change
in Prehistoric Africa: Sudanese Nubia as
a Case Study. In Paleopathology at the
Origins of Agriculture, edited by M.N.
Cohen and G.J. Armelagos, pp.193214.
Academic Press, New York.
Martin, D. L., G.J. Armelagos, and J.King
1979 Degenerative Joint Disease of the Long
Bones from Dickson Mound. Henry Ford
Hospital Medical Journal 27:6064.
Matory, J. Lorand
1999 The English Professors of Brazil: On the
Diasporic Roots of the Yoruba Nation.
Comparative Studies in Society and History 41(1):72103.
Matson, Cathy
1998 Merchants and Empire: Trading in Colonial New York. Johns Hopkins University
Press, Baltimore, Maryland.
McCaa, R.
2002 Paleodemography of the Americas: From
Ancient Times to Colonialism and Beyond.
In Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere, edited by
R.H. Steckel and J.C. Rose, pp.94124.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Great Britain.
McCarthy, John P.
1996 Who Owns These Bones?: Descendant
Communities and Partnerships in the Excavation and Analysis of Historic Cemetery
Sites in New York and Philadelphia. Public
Archaeology Review 4(2):312.
McDavid, Carol
1997 Descendants, Decisions, and Power: The
Public Interpretation of the Archaeology

of the Levi Jordan Plantation. Historical

Archaeology31(3):114131.
McIntosh, Susan Keech, with a contribution by
Ibrahima Thiaw
2001 Tools for Understanding Transformation
and Continuity in Senegambian Society:
15001900. In West Africa during the
Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological
Perspectives, edited by ChristopherR.
DeCorse, pp.1437. Leicester University
Press, London.
McKee, Larry
1994 Is It Futile to Try and Be Useful? Historical Archaeology and the African-American
Experience. Northeast Historical Archaeology 23:17.
1995 The Earth Is Their Witness. The Sciences
35(2):3641.
McKee, Larry, and Brian W. Thomas
1998 Starting a Conversation: The Public Style
of Archaeology at the Hermitage. Southeastern Archaeology 17(1):133139.
McLaren, Donald S.
1976 Concepts and Context of Nutrition. In
Nutrition in the Community, edited by
DonaldS. McLaren, pp.312. Wiley, London.
McManus, Edgar J.
1966 A History of Negro Slavery in New York.
Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New
York.
Medford, Edna Greene
2009 Introduction. Historical Perspectives of the
African Burial Ground: New York Blacks
and the Diaspora, edited by Edna Greene
Medford, pp.xviixx. The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3.
Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Medford, Edna Greene (editor)
2009 Historical Perspectives of the African
Burial Ground: New York Blacks and the
Diaspora. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol. 3. Howard
University, Washington, D.C.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

322 References
Medford, Edna Greene, and Emilyn L. Brown
2000 A Constant Source of Irritation:
Enslaved Womens Resistance in the City
of New York. HU ArchivesNet5. Electronic document, http://www.huarchivesnet.howard.edu/0008huarnet/medford1.
htm, accessed 2007.
2009a New York Africans in the Age of Revolution. In Historical Perspectives of the
African Burial Ground: New York Blacks
and the Diaspora, edited by Edna Greene
Medford, pp.97102. The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3.
Howard University, Washington, D.C.
2009b The African Burial Ground: New Yorks
First Black Institution. In Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground:
New York Blacks and the Diaspora,
edited by Edna Greene Medford, pp.14.
The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol. 3. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
2009c A Constant Source of Irritation: Resistance
in the Eighteenth Century. In Historical
Perspectives of the African Burial Ground:
New York Blacks and the Diaspora, edited
by Edna Greene Medford, pp.9196.
The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol. 3. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
2009d Epilogue. In Historical Perspectives of the
African Burial Ground: New York Blacks
and the Diaspora, edited by Edna Greene
Medford, pp.103105. The New York
African Burial Ground: Unearthing the
African Presence in Colonial New York,
vol.3. Howard University, Washington,
D.C.
Medford, Edna Greene, Emilyn L. Brown, and
Selwyn H. H. Carrington
2009 Change and Adjustment. In Historical
Perspectives of the African Burial Ground:
New York Blacks and the Diaspora, edited
by Edna Greene Medford, pp.2527.
The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
The New York African Burial Ground

Medford, Edna Greene, Emilyn L. Brown, Selwyn H. H. Carrington, Linda Heywood, and John
Thornton
2009a Eighteenth-Century Procurement of African Laborers for New York. In Historical
Perspectives of the African Burial Ground:
New York Blacks and the Diaspora, edited
by Edna Greene Medford, pp.4349.
The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
2009b Disease and Health. In Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground:
New York Blacks and the Diaspora, edited
by Edna Greene Medford, pp.7784.
The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
2009c The Ubiquity of Work. In Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground:
New York Blacks and the Diaspora, edited
by Edna Greene Medford, pp.5164.
The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
2009d By the Visitations of God: Death,
Burial, and the Affirmation of Humanity.
In Historical Perspectives of the African
Burial Ground: New York Blacks and the
Diaspora, edited by Edna Greene Medford,
pp.8590. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.3. Howard
University, Washington, D.C.
2009e Social Characteristics and Cultural Practices of Africans in Eighteenth-Century
New York. In Historical Perspectives of the
African Burial Ground: New York Blacks
and the Diaspora, edited by Edna Greene
Medford, pp.6576. The New York African
Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3.
Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Medford, Edna Greene, EmilynL. Brown, Linda
Heywood, and John Thornton
2009a The Quest for Labor: From Privateering to
Legitimate Trade. In Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground: New

References 323
York Blacks and the Diaspora, edited by
Edna Greene Medford, pp.57. The New
York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New
York, vol.3. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
2009b Slavery and Freedom in New Amsterdam.
In Historical Perspectives of the African
Burial Ground: New York Blacks and the
Diaspora, edited by Edna Greene Medford,
pp.1323. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.3. Howard
University, Washington, D.C.
Medford, Edna Greene, Selwyn H. H. Carrington,
Linda Heywood, and John Thornton
2009 West Africa and the Eighteenth-Century
Atlantic Trade. In Historical Perspectives
of the African Burial Ground: New York
Blacks and the Diaspora, edited by Edna
Greene Medford, pp.3541. The New York
African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol.3.
Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Mensforth, R. P., C. O. Lovejoy, J. W. Lallo, and G.
J. Armelagos
1978 The Role of Constitutional Factors, Diet
and Infectious Disease on the Etiology of
Porotic Hyperostosis and Periosteal Reactions in Prehistoric Infants and Children.
Medical Anthropology 2(1):159.
Merbs, Charles F.
1983 Patterns of Activity-Induced Pathology in a
Canadian Inuit Population. Mercury Series
Paper No. 119. National Museum of Man,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
1989a Spondylolysis: Its Nature and Anthropological Significance. International Journal
of Anthropology 4(3):163169.
1989b Trauma. In Reconstruction of Life from
the Skeleton, edited by M.Y. Iscan and
K.A.R. Kennedy, pp.161189. Alan R.
Liss, New York.
1996 Spondylolysis and Spondylolisthesis: A
Cost of Being an Erect Biped or a Clever
Adaptation? Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 39:201228.
Messer, H. H.
1985 Enamel Proteins and the Mineralization of
Enamel. Northwest Dentistry 64:2226.

Middleton, Simon
2006 From Privileges to Rights: Work and Politics in Colonial New York City. University
of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Miller, Daniel, Michael Rowlands, and Christopher
Tilley
1989 Domination and Resistance. Unwin
Hyman, London.
Miller, Joseph C.
2002 Central Africa during the Era of the Slave
Trade, c.1490s1850s. In Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the
American Diaspora, edited by Linda M.
Heywood, pp.2169. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
Milne, Claudia
2000 Slaughterhouses in which I Labored:
Industry, Labor, and the Land from Colonial Times to 1830. In A Narrative History
and Archeology of Block 160, edited by
Rebecca Yamin, pp.1536. Tales of Five
Points: Working-Class Life in NineteenthCentury New York, vol.1. John Milner
Associates, West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Milner, G. R., and C. S. Larsen
1991 Teeth as Artifacts of Human Behavior:
Intentional Mutilation and Accidental
Modification. In Advances in Dental
Anthropology, edited by M.A. Kelley and
C.S. Larsen, pp.357378. Wiley-Liss,
New York.
Mintz, Sidney, and Richard Price
1992 The Birth of African-American Culture:
An Anthropological Perspective. Beacon
Press, Boston, Massachusetts.
Miracle, M. P.
1966 Maize in Tropical Africa. University of
Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Mitchell, Peter
2005 African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World.
AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California.
Moore, Christopher
2005 A World of Possibilities: Slavery and Freedom in Dutch New Amsterdam. In Slavery
in New York, edited by Ira Berlin and LeslieM. Harris, pp.2956. New Press, New
York.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

324 References
Moore, W. J., and M. E. Corbett
1971 The Distribution of Dental Caries in
Ancient British Populations I: AngloSaxon Period. Caries Research 5:151168.
1973 The Distribution of Dental Caries in
Ancient British Populations II: Iron-Age,
Roman-British and Medieval Periods. Caries Research 7:139153.
1975 The Distribution of Dental Caries in
Ancient British Populations III: The 17th
Century. Caries Research 9:163175.
Morgan, Philip D.
1997 The Cultural Implications of the Atlantic
Slave Trade: African Regional Origins,
American Destinations and New World
Developments. Slavery and Abolition
18:122145.
Mork, Amy L.
2002 Paleodemography of the Elmina, Ghana,
Skeletal Population. Unpublished Masters
thesis, Department of Anthropology, Kent
State University, Kent, Ohio.
Morton-Williams, Peter
1966 Two Studies of Ifa Divination. Introduction: The Mode of Divination. Africa
36(4):406431.
Moss, Madonna L.
2005 Rifts in the Theoretical Landscape of
Archaeology in the United States: A Comment on Hegmon and Watkins. American
Antiquity 70:581587.
Mullins, Paul R.
2006 Racializing the Commonplace Landscape: An Archaeology of Urban Renewal
along the Color Line. World Archaeology
38(1):6071.
Mummery, J. R.
1869 On the Relations which Dental Caries, as
Discovered among the Ancient Inhabitants
of Britain and amongst Existing Aboriginal
Races, May Be Supposed to Hold to Their
Food and Social Conditions. Transactions,
Odontological Society of Great Britain
2:724, 2780.
Murphy, Jim
2003 An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic
of 1793. Clarion Books, New York.

The New York African Burial Ground

National Park Service (NPS)

2006 Draft Management Recommendations for
the African Burial Ground. National Park
Service African Burial Ground Technical
Assistance Project. Prepared for the U.S.
General Services Administration. Copies
available from the USDI National Park
Service African Burial Ground Technical
Assistance Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
National Park Service (NPS) Archeology Program
2006 African Burial Ground National Monument, New York. American Antiquities
Act 19062006: Monuments. Electronic
document, http://www.cr.nps.gov/archeology/sites/antiquities/profileAfricanBurialGround.htm, accessed 2007.
Nesby-ODell, Shanna, KelleyS. Scanlon, MaryE.
Cogswell, Cathleen Gillespie, BruceW. Hollis,
AnneC. Looker, Chris Allen, Cindy Doughertly,
ElaineW. Gunter, and BarbaraA. Bowman
2002 Hypovitaminosis D Prevalence and Determinants among African-American and
White Women of Reproductive Age: Third
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition 76:187192.
New York City Common Council
1905 Minutes of the Common Council of the
City of New York, 16751776, edited by
HerbertL. Osgood, Austin Baxter Keep,
Charles Alexander Nelson, and the NewYork Historical Society. 8vols. Dodd,
Mead, New York.
Nol Hume, Ivor
1982 Martins Hundred. Knopf, New York.
Nordstrom, Carl
1980 The New York Slave Code. Afro-Americans in New York Life and History
4(1):720.
Null, C. C., M. L. Blakey, K. J. Shujaa, L. M.
Rankin-Hill, and S. H. H. Carrington
2009 Osteological Indicators of Infectious
Disease and Nutritional Inadequacy. In
Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial Ground, edited by MichaelL.
Blakey and LesleyM. Rankin-Hill,
pp.169198. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence

References 325
in Colonial New York, vol.1, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Nwanunobi, C. O.
1996 Malinke. Heritage Library of African
Peoples. Rosen, New York.
Ofori-Ansa, Kwaku
1995 Identification and Validation of the
Sankofa Symbol. Update: Newsletter of
the African Burial Ground and Five Points
Archaeological Projects 1(8):3.
Ogundiran, Akinwumi
2002 Of Small Things Remembered: Beads,
Cowries, and the Cultural Translations of
the Atlantic Experience in Yorubaland.
International Journal of African Historical
Studies 35(23):427457.
Ogundiran, Akinwumi, and Toyin Falola (editors)
2007 Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the
African Diaspora. Indiana University
Press, Bloomington.
OLeary, Marion H.
1981 Carbon Isotope Fractionation in Plants.
Phytochemistry 20:553567.
Olin, M. S., H. A. Young, D.Seligson, and H.H.
Schmidek
1982 An Unusual Cervical Injury occurring during Cow Milking. Spine 7:514515.
Orser, Charles E., Jr.
1998 The Archaeology of the African Diaspora.
Annual Review of Anthropology 27:6382.
1999 The Challenge of Race to American Historical Archaeology. American Anthropologist 100(3):661668.
Orser, Charles E., Jr., and Pedro P. A. Funari
2001 Archaeology and Slave Resistance
and Rebellion. World Archaeology
33(1):6172.
Ortiz, F.
1929 Los Afrocubanos Dientimellados. Archivos
del Folkore Cubano 4:524.
Ortner, Donald J.
2003 Identification of Pathological Conditions
in Human Skeletal Remains. 2nd ed. Academic Press, San Diego, California.
Ortner, Donald J., and Walter G. Putschar
1981 Identification of Pathological Conditions
in Human Skeletal Remains. Smithsonian
Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Otto, John Solomon

1975 Status Differences and the Archeological
RecordA Comparison of Planter, Overseer, and Slave Sites from Cannons Point
Plantation (17941861), St. Simons Island,
Georgia. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Florida, Gainesville.
1980 Race and Class on Antebellum Plantations. In Archaeological Perspectives on
Ethnicity in America: Afro-American and
Asian American Culture History, edited by
Robert L. Schuyler, pp.313. Baywood,
Farmingdale, New York.
1984 Cannons Point Plantation, 17941860:
Living Conditions and Status Patterns in
the Old South. Academic Press, New York.
Owsley, Douglas W., Charles E. Orser, Jr., Robert
W. Mann, Peer H. Moore-Jansen, and RobertL.
Montgomery
1987 Demography and Pathology of an Urban
Slave Population from New Orleans.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 74(2):185197.
Page, Willie F.
1997 The Dutch Triangle: The Netherlands and
the Atlantic Slave Trade, 16211644. Garland, New York.
Palmer, M. R., and J. M. Edmond
1992 Controls over the Strontium Isotope Composition of River Water. Geochimica et
Cosmochimica Acta 56:20992111.
Parler, Mary Celestia
1962 Death and Funeral Customs. Folk Beliefs
from Arkansas, vol.8. Typescript by the
author, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Parrington, Michael, Daniel G. Roberts, StephanieA. Pinter, and JanetC. Wideman
1989 Historical and Archeological Documentation. The First African Baptist Church
Cemetery: Bioarchaeology, Demography,
and Acculturation of Early Nineteenth Century Philadelphia Blacks, vol.1. John Milner Associates, West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Prepared for the Redevelopment Authority
of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Patten, M. Drake
1992 Mankala and Minkisi: Possible Evidence
of African American Folk Beliefs and
Practices. African-American Archaeology
6:57.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

326 References
1997

Cheers of Protest? The Public, the Post,

and the Parable of Learning. Historical
Archaeology 31(3):132139.
Paynter, Robert
2000a Historical and Anthropological Archaeology: Forging Alliances. Journal of Archaeological Research 8(1):137.
2000b Historical Archaeology and the Post-Columbian World of North America. Journal
of Archaeological Research 8(3):169217.
Pearce, Susan C.
1996 Africans on This Soil: The CounterAmnesia of the New York Burial Ground.
Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The New
School for Social Research, New York.
Perry, Warren R., and Jean Howson
2009 Overview of Mortuary Population, Burial
Practices, and Spatial Distribution. In
The Archaeology of the New York African
Burial Ground, edited by WarrenR. Perry,
Jean Howson, and BarbaraA. Bianco,
pp.107128. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Perry, Warren R., Jean Howson, and Barbara A.
Bianco
2009 Summary and Conclusions. In The
Archaeology of the New York African
Burial Ground, edited by WarrenR. Perry,
Jean Howson, and BarbaraA. Bianco,
pp.367374. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Perry, Warren R., Jean Howson, and BarbaraA.
Bianco (editors)
2009a The Archaeology of the New York African
Burial Ground. The New York African
Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.2,
pt.1. Howard University, Washington,
D.C.
2009b The Archaeology of the New York African
Burial Ground: Appendices. The New York
African Burial Ground: Unearthing the
African Presence in Colonial New York,
vol.2, pt.3. Howard University, Washington, D.C.

The New York African Burial Ground

2009c The Archaeology of the New York African

Burial Ground: Descriptions of Burials.
The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, vol.2, pt.2. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Perry, Warren R., Jean Howson, and Augustin F.C.
Holl
2009a The Early Group. In The Archaeology
of the New York African Burial Ground,
edited by WarrenR. Perry, Jean Howson,
and BarbaraA. Bianco, pp.129148. The
New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New
York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
2009b The Middle Group. In The Archaeology
of the New York African Burial Ground,
edited by WarrenR. Perry, Jean Howson,
and BarbaraA. Bianco, pp.149172. The
New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New
York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
2009c The Late-Middle Group. In The Archaeology of the New York African Burial
Ground, edited by WarrenR. Perry,
Jean Howson, and BarbaraA. Bianco,
pp.173189. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
2009d The Late Group. In The Archaeology of the
New York African Burial Ground, edited
by WarrenR. Perry, Jean Howson, and
BarbaraA. Bianco, pp.191211. The New
York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New
York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
Perry, Warren R., and Robert Paynter
1999 Artifacts, Ethnicity, and the Archaeology of African Americans. In I, Too,
Am America: Archaeological Studies of
African-American Life, edited by Theresa
A. Singleton, pp.299310. University
Press of Virginia, Charlottesville.
Perry, Warren R., and Janet L. Woodruff
2009 Coins, Shells, Pipes, and Other Items. In
The Archaeology of the New York African

References 327
Burial Ground, edited by WarrenR. Perry,
Jean Howson, and BarbaraA. Bianco,
pp.349366. The New York African Burial
Ground: Unearthing the African Presence
in Colonial New York, vol.2, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Perzigian, A. J., P. A. Tench, and D. J. Braun
1984 Prehistoric Health in the Ohio River Valley. In Paleopathology at the Origins of
Agriculture, edited by M.N. Cohen and
G.J. Armelagos, pp.347366. Academic
Press, New York.
Piersen, William D.
1996 From Africa to America: African American
History from the Colonial Era to the Early
Republic, 15261790. Twayne, New York,
and Prentice Hall International, London.
Pindgord, J. J.
1982 Aetiology of Developmental Enamel
Defects Not Related to Fluorosis. International Dental Journal 32:123134.
Platt, Virginia
1969 The East India Company and the Madagascar Slave Trade. William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 26(4):548577.
Pomeroy, Melanie C.
2005 Assessing the Cultural Significance of
World Heritage Sites: A Case Study from
Avebury, Wiltshire, England. In Heritage
of Value, Archaeology of Renown: Reshaping Archaeological Assessment and Significance, edited by Clay Mathers, Timothy
Darvill, and BarbaraJ. Little, pp.301316.
University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
Posnansky, Merrick
1999 West Africanist Reflections on AfricanAmerican Archaeology. In I, Too, Am
America: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life, edited by TheresaA.
Singleton, pp.2138. University Press of
Virginia, Charlottesville.
Praetzellis, Adrian, Mary Praetzellis, and Marley
Brown III
1987 Artifacts as Symbols of Identity: An
Example from Sacramentos Gold Rush
Era Chinese Community. In Living in Cities: Current Research in Urban Archaeology, edited by Edward Staski, pp.3847.

Special Publication Series No.5. Society

for Historical Archaeology, Pleasant Hill,
California.
Price, T. Douglas, Gisela Grupe, and Peter Schroter
1994 Reconstruction of Migration Patterns in
the Bell Beaker Period by Stable Strontium
Isotope Analysis. Applied Geochemistry
9:413417.
Price, T. Douglas, Clark M. Johnson, JosephA.
Ezzo, Jonathan Ericson, and JamesH. Burton
1994 Residential Mobility in the Prehistoric
Southwest United States: A Preliminary
Study using Strontium Isotope Analysis.
Journal of Archaeological Science 21:315
330.
Prince, Sabiyah Robin
2006 Manhattan Africans: Contradiction,
Continuity, and Authenticity in a Colonial Heritage. In Afro-Atlantic Dialogues:
Anthropology in the Diaspora, edited by
KevinA. Yelvington, pp.291326. School
of American Research Press, Santa Fe,
New Mexico, and James Currey, Oxford,
Great Britain.
Puckett, Newbell Niles
1926 Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel
Hill.
Quimby, George Irving
1966 Indian Culture and European Trade
Goods: The Archaeology of the Historic
Period in the Western Great Lakes Region.
University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Radin, E. L., I. C. Paul, and R.M. Rose
1972 Mechanical Factors in Osteoarthritis. Lancet 1:519522.
Rael, Patrick
2005 The Long Death of Slavery in New York.
In Slavery in New York, edited by Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris, pp.111146. New
Press, New York.
Rankin-Hill, Lesley M.
1997 A Biohistory of 19th-Century AfroAmericans: The Burial Remains of a
Philadelphia Cemetery. Bergin & Garvey,
Westport, Connecticut.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

328 References
Rankin-Hill, Lesley M., M.L. Blakey, J.E. Howson, S.D. Wilson, E.Brown, S.H.H. Carrington,
and K.J. Shujaa
2009 Demographic Overview of the African
Burial Ground and Colonial Africans of
New York. In Skeletal Biology of the New
York African Burial Ground, edited by
MichaelL. Blakey and LesleyM. RankinHill, pp.119140. The New York African
Burial Ground: Unearthing the African
Presence in Colonial New York, vol.1,
pt.1. Howard University, Washington,
D.C.
Rathbun, Ted A.
1987 Health and Disease at a South Carolina
Plantation: 18401870. American Journal
of Physical Anthropology 74:239253.
Rathbun, Ted A., and R. H. Steckel
2002 The Health of Slaves and Free Blacks
in the East. In The Backbone of History:
Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere, edited by R.H. Steckel and J.C.
Rose. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
Rattray, Robert Sutherland
1927 Religion and Art in Ashanti. Oxford University Press, London.
Rauschenberg, Bradford L.
1990 Coffin Making and Undertaking in
Charleston and Its Environs, 17051820.
Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts
16(1):1863.
Reinhard, Karl J.
2000 Parasitic Disease at Five Points: Parasitological Analysis of Sediments from
the Courthouse Block. In An Interpretive
Approach to Understanding Working-Class
Life, edited by Rebecca Yamin, pp.391
404. Tales of Five Points: Working-Class
Life in Nineteenth-Century New York,
vol.2. John Milner Associates, West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Richardson, David
2001 Shipboard Revolts, African Authority, and
the Atlantic. William and Mary Quarterly,
3rd ser., 58(1):6992.
Richardson, Ruth
2000 Death, Dissection, and the Destitute. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
The New York African Burial Ground

Riordan, Timothy B.
1997 The 17th-Century Cemetery at St. Marys
City: Mortuary Practices in the Early
Chesapeake. Historical Archaeology
31(4):2840.
Rodney, Walter
1969 Gold and Slaves on the Gold Coast. Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana
10:1328.
1982 How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Howard University Press, Washington, D.C.
Rogers, Juliet
2000 The Palaeopathology of Joint Disease.
In Human Osteology in Archaeology and
Forensic Science, edited by Margaret Cox
and Simon Mays, pp.163182. Greenwich
Medical Media, London.
Rose, Jerome C.
1985 Cedar Grove and Black American History.
In Gone to a Better Land: A Biohistory of
a Rural Black Cemetery in the Post-Reconstruction South, edited by JeromeC. Rose,
pp.146152. Research Series No.25.
Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.
Rose, Jerome C., and Lawrence Gene Santeford
1985a Burial Descriptions. In Gone to a Better
Land: A Biohistory of a Rural Black Cemetery in the Post-Reconstruction South,
edited by Jerome C. Rose, pp.39129.
Research Series No.25. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.
1985b Burial Interpretation. In Gone to a Better
Land: A Biohistory of a Rural Black Cemetery in the Post-Reconstruction South,
edited by Jerome C. Rose, pp.130145.
Research Series No.25. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.
Rose, Peter G.
1988 Dutch Colonial Foodways. Journal of Gastronomy (4):319.
Rothschild, Nan A.
1990 New York City Neighborhoods: The 18th
Century. Academic Press, San Diego, California.
Rothschild, Nan A., and Arnold Pickman
1990 The Archaeological Excavations of the
Seven Hanover Square Block. Manuscript

References 329
on file with the New York City Landmarks
Preservation Commission.
Rothschild, Nan A., Diana diZerega Wall, and
Eugene Boesch
1987 The Archaeological Investigation of the
Stadt Huys Block: A Final Report. Manuscript on file at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Rucker, Walter
2001 Conjure, Magic, and Power: The Influence
of Afro-Atlantic Religious Practices on
Slave Resistance. Journal of Black Studies
32(1):84103.
Ruppel, Timothy, Jessica Neuwirth, Mark P. Leone,
and Gladys-Marie Fry
2003 Hidden in View: African Spiritual Spaces
in North American Landscapes. Antiquity
77:321335.
Rutsch, Edward S., and staff
1992 A Research Design for the Broadway Block
including an In-Progress Field Work Summary Report. Historic Conservation and
Interpretation, Newton, New Jersey.
Salas, Antonio, Martin Richards, Mara-Victoria
Lareu, Beatriz Sobrino, Sandra Silva, Mireya Matamoros, Vincent Macaulay, and ngel Carracedo
2005 Shipwrecks and Founder Effects: Divergent Demographic Histories Reflected in
Caribbean mtDNA. American Journal of
Physical Anthropology 128:855860.
Samford, Patricia
1996 The Archaeology of African American
Slavery and Material Culture. William and
Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 53(1):87114.
Sattenspiel, Lisa, and Henry Harpending
1983 Stable Populations and Skeletal Age.
American Antiquity 48:489498.
Saul, Mahir [Bill: first letter is S with a tail]
2006 Islam and West African Anthropology.
Africa Today 53:333.
Saunders, Shelley R.
2000 Subadult Skeletons and Growth-Related
Studies. In Biological Anthropology of the
Human Skeleton, edited by M.A. Katzenberg and S.R. Saunders, pp.135161.
Wiley-Liss, New York.

Scher, A. T.
1978 Injuries to the Cervical Spine Sustained
while Carrying Loads on the Head. Paraplegia 16:94101.
Scheuer, L., and S. Black
2000 Developmental Juvenile Osteology. Academic Press, San Diego, California.
Schoeninger, Margaret J., MichaelJ. DeNiro, and
H.Tauber
1983 Stable Nitrogen Isotope Ratios of Bone
Collagen Reflect Marine and Terrestrial
Components of Prehistoric Human Diet.
Science 220:13811383.
Schwarcz, H. P., L.Gibbs, and M.Knyf
1991 Oxygen Isotope Analysis as an Indicator
of Place of Origin. In An Investigation of
a Military Cemetery from the War of 1812,
edited by S.Pfeiffer and R.F. Williamson,
pp.263268. Dundurn Press, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
Schwarcz, H. P., and M.J. Schoeninger
1991 Stable Isotope Analysis in Human Nutritional Ecology. Yearbook of Physical
Anthropology 34:283321.
Sciulli, P. W.
1994 Standardization of Long Bone Growth in
Children. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 4:257325.
Scott, G. R., and C. G. Turner II
1997 The Anthropology of Modern Human
Teeth: Dental Morphology and Its Variation in Recent Human Populations. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Scott, James C.
1985 Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of
Peasant Resistance. Yale University Press,
New Haven, Connecticut.
Scott, Kenneth
1961 The Slave Insurrection in New York in
1712. New York Historical Society Quarterly 45:2165.
Scrimshaw, Nevin S.
1964 Ecological Factors in Nutritional Disease.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
14:112122.
Scrimshaw, Nevin S., C.E. Taylor, and J.E. Gordon
1968 Interactions of Nutrition and Infection.
World Health Organization, Geneva.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

330 References
Sealy, Judith, Richard Armstrong, and Carmel
Schrire
1995 Beyond Lifetime Averages: Tracing Life
Histories through Isotopic Analysis of
Different Calcified Tissues from Archaeological Human Skeletons. Antiquity
69:290300.
Sealy, J. C., N.J. van der Merwe, A.Sillen, F.J.
Kruger, and H.W. Krueger
1991 87Sr/86Sr as a Dietary Indicator in Modern and Archaeological Bone. Journal of
Archaeological Science 18:399416.
Seeman, Erik R.
1999 Justise Must Take Plase: Three African
Americans Speak of Religion in Eighteenth-Century New England. William and
Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 56(2):393414.
Seibert, Erika Martin
2000 African-American Archaeological Sites
and the National Register of Historic
Places: Creating a Public Memory. African-American Archaeology 27.
Serjeant, G. R.
1981 Observations on the Epidemiology of
Sickle Cell Disease. Transactions of
the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine
75:228233.
Shafer, William G., MaynardK. Hine, and BarnetM. Levy
1983 A Textbook of Oral Pathology. 4th ed.
Saunders, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sharpe, John
1881 Proposals for Erecting a School, Library
and Chapel at New York. Publication Fund
Series, vol. 13, pt. 5. Collections of the
New-York Historical Society. New-York
Historical Society, New York.
Shaw, J. H., and E.A. Sweeney
1980 Nutrition in relation to Dental Medicine. In
Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease,
6th ed., edited by RobertS. Goodhard and
MauriceE. Shils, pp.852891. Lea and
Febinger, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sinclair, D.
1998 Human Growth After Birth. 6th ed. Oxford
Medical Publishers, Oxford, Great Britain.
Singleton, Theresa A.
1984 The Slave Tag: An Artifact of Urban Slavery. South Carolina Antiquities 16:4168.
The New York African Burial Ground

1990

The Archaeology of the Plantation South:

A Review of Approaches and Goals. Historical Archaeology 24(4):7077.
1995 The Archaeology of Slavery in North
America. Annual Review of Anthropology
24:119140.
1998 Cultural Interactions and African American Identity in Plantation Archaeology. In
Studies in Culture Contact: Interaction,
Culture Change, and Archaeology, edited
by JamesG. Cusick, pp.172188. Occasional Paper No.25. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois
University, Carbondale.
1999 An Introduction to African-American
Archaeology. In I, Too, Am America:
Archaeological Studies of African-American Life, edited by TheresaA. Singleton,
pp.117. University Press of Virginia,
Charlottesville.
2001a An Americanist Perspective on African
Archaeology: Toward an Archaeology of
the Black Atlantic. In West Africa during
the Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological
Perspectives, edited by ChristopherR.
DeCorse, pp.179184. Leicester University Press, London.
2001b Class, Race, and Identity among Free
Blacks in the Antebellum South. In Race
and the Archaeology of Identity, edited by
CharlesE. Orser,Jr., pp.196207. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2006 African Diaspora Archaeology in Dialogue. In Afro-Atlantic Dialogues: Anthropology in the Diaspora, edited by Kevin
A. Yelvington, pp.249287. School of
American Research Press, Santa Fe, and
James Currey, Oxford, Great Britain.
Singleton, Theresa A., and Mark D. Bograd
1995 Archaeology of the African Diaspora in
the Americas. Guides to the Archaeological Literature of the Immigrant Experience
in America, no.2. Society for Historical
Archaeology, Glassboro, New Jersey.
Singleton, Theresa A., and Marcos Andr Torres de
Souza
forthcoming Archaeologies of the African Diaspora:
Brazil, Cuba, and the United States. In
International Handbook of Historical
Archaeology, edited by Teresita Majewski
and David Gaimster. Springer, New York.

References 331
Skinner, David E.
1978 Mande Settlement and the Development
of Islamic Institutions in Sierra Leone.
International Journal of African Historical
Studies 11(1):3262.
Smith, B. H.
1991 Standards of Human Tooth Formation
and Dental Age Assessment. In Advances
in Dental Anthropology, edited by M.A.
Kelly and C.S. Larsen, pp.143168.
Wiley-Liss, New York.
Smith, Hale G.
1965 Archaeological Excavations at Santa Rosa
Pensacola. Notes in Anthropology, vol.10.
Florida State University, Tallahassee.
Smith, Samuel D.
1976 An Archaeological and Historical Assessment of the First Hermitage. Research
Series2. Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Tennessee Department of Conservation, Nashville.
1977 Plantation Archaeology at the Hermitage: Some Suggested Patterns. Tennessee
Anthropologist 2(2):152163.
Solecki, Ralph
1947 An Indian Burial at Aqueduct, Long Island.
Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of
Connecticut 21:4449.
Stavney, Anne
1998 Mothers of Tomorrow: The New Negro
Renaissance and the Politics of Maternal
Representation. African American Review
32:533561.
Steckel, Richard H.
1996 Women, Work, and Health under Plantation Slavery in the United States. In More
Than Chattel, edited by D.C. Gaspar and
D.B. Hine, pp.4360. Indiana University
Press, Bloomington.
Steckel, Richard H., and Jerome C. Rose (editors)
2002 The Backbone of History: Health and
Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great
Britain.
Steinbock, R. T.
1976 Paleopathological Diagnosis and Interpretation: Bone Disease in Ancient Human
Populations. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois.

Stewart, T. D.
1939 Negro Skeletal Remains from Indian Sites
in the West Indies. Man 39:4951.
Stewart, T. D., and J. R. Groome
1968 The African Custom of Tooth Mutilation
in America. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 28:3142.
Stine, Linda France, Melanie A. Cabak, and Mark
D. Groover
1996 Blue Beads as African-American Cultural Symbols. Historical Archaeology
30(3):4975.
Stokes, I. N. Phelps
19151928 Iconography of Manhattan Island,
14981909. 6 vols. Robert H.
Dodd, New York.
Stone, L.
1997 Monitoring, Testing, and Mitigation of
Impacts to Archaeological Resources
within the 3152 Chambers Street Utility
Trench Project, Manhattan, New York City.
On file, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Stone, Lyle M.
1974 Fort Michilimackinac, 17151781: An
Archaeological Perspective on the Revolutionary Frontier. Anthropological Series
Vol.2. Publications of the Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing.
Storey, Rebecca
1985 An Estimate of Mortality in a Pre-Columbian Urban Population. American Anthropologist 87(3):519535.
Stuart-Macadam, Patricia L.
1987 Porotic Hyperostosis: New Evidence
to Support the Anemia Theory. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
74(4):521526.
1989 Nutritional Deficiency Diseases: A Survey
of Scurvy, Rickets, and Iron-Deficiency
Anemia. In Reconstruction of Life from
the Skeleton, edited by M.Y. Iscan and
K.A.R. Kennedy, pp.201222. Alan R.
Liss, New York.
1992 Porotic Hyperostosis: A New Perspective.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 87:3947.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

332 References
1998

Iron Deficiency Anemia: Exploring the

Difference. In Sex and Gender in Paleopathological Perspective, edited by A. L.
Grauer and P. Stuart-Macadam, pp.4563.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Great Britain.
Stuckey, Sterling
1987 Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the
Foundations of Black America. Oxford
University Press, New York.
1999 African Spirituality and Cultural Practice in Colonial New York, 17001770.
In Inequality in Early America, edited
by Carla Gardina Pestana and SharonV.
Salinger, pp.160182. Dartmouth College. University Press of New England,
Hanover, New Hampshire.
Sullivan, C. H., and H. W. Krueger
1981 Carbon Isotope Analysis of Separate
Chemical Phases in Modern and Fossil
Bones. Nature 292:333335.
Sutch, Richard
1976 The Care and Feeding of Slaves. In
Reckoning with Slavery, by P.A. David,
M.G. Gutman, R.Sutch, P.Temin, and
G.Wright, pp.231301. Oxford University
Press, New York.
Sutphen, James L.
1985 Growth as a Measure of Nutritional Stress.
Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and
Nutrition 4(2):159181.
Swan, Robert J.
1993 First Africans into New Netherland, 1625
or 1626? De Halve Maen 66(4):7582.
1998a Slaves and Slaveholding in Dutch New
York, 16281664. Journal of the AfroAmerican Historical and Genealogical
Society 17(1):4881.
1998b The Other Fort Amsterdam: New Light
on Aspects of Slavery in New Netherland.
Afro-Americans in New York Life and History22(2):1942.
Sweeney, E. A., A.J. Cabrera, J.Urrutia, and L.Mata
1969 Factors Associated with Linear Hypoplasia
of Human Deciduous Incisors. Journal of
Dental Research 48:12751279.
Sweeney, E. A., A. J. Saffird, and M. de Leon
1971 Linear Hypoplasia of Deciduous Incisor
Teeth in Malnourished Children. American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition 24:2931.
The New York African Burial Ground

Sweet, James H.
2003 Recreating Africa: Kinship, Culture, and
Religion in the African-Portuguese World,
14411770. University of North Carolina
Press, Chapel Hill.
Tanner, James M.
1978 Foetus into Man: Physical Growth from
Conception to Maturity. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Thomas, Brian W.
2002 Struggling with the Past: Some Views
of African-American Identity. International Journal of Historical Archaeology
6(2):143151.
Thompson, Robert Farris
1983 Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. Vintage Books,
New York.
Thornton, John
1984 The Development of an African Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Kongo,
14911750. Journal of African History
25(2):147167.
1992 Africa and Africans in the Making of the
Atlantic World, 14001680. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
1998 The Coromantees: An African Cultural
Group in Colonial North America and the
Caribbean. Journal of Caribbean History
32:161178.
1999 Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 15001800.
UCL Press, London.
2001 Religious and Ceremonial Life in the
Kongo and Mbundu Areas, 15001700. In
Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the African Diaspora, edited by
LindaM. Heywood, pp.7190. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
2003 Cannibals, Witches, and Slave Traders
in the Atlantic World. William and Mary
Quarterly 60(2):273294.
Tong, Shilu, Yasmin E. von Schirnding, and Tippawan Prapamontol
2000 Environmental Lead Exposure: A Public
Health Problem of Global Dimensions.
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
78(9):10681077.
Torday, E.
1919 The Northern Babunda. Man 19:4955.

References 333
Trigger, Bruce
1989 A History of Archaeological Thought.
Cambridge University Press, New York.
Trotter, M.
1970 Estimation of Stature from Intact Long
Limb Bones. In Personal Identification in
Mass Disasters, edited by T.D. Stewart,
pp.7183. Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington, D.C.
Tryon, Rolla Milton
1917 Household Manufactures in the United
States, 16401860. University of Chicago
Press, Chicago.
Ubelaker, Douglas H.
1978 Human Skeletal Remains: Excavation,
Analysis, Interpretation. Aldine, Chicago.
1989 Human Skeletal Remains: Excavation,
Analysis, Interpretation. 2nd ed. Manuals
on Archeology2. Taraxacum, Washington,
D.C.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)
2006 The Slave Route. Electronic document,
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/
ev.php-URL_ID=25659&URL_DO=DO_
TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) and the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World
Cultural and Natural Heritage (ICPWCNH)
2005 Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris.
U.S. Bureau of the Census
1909 A Century of Population Growth: From
the First Census of the United States to
the Twelfth, 17901900. U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Congress Subcommittee
1992 Foley Square Construction Project and the
Historic African Burial Ground, New York,
New York. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds of the
Committee on Public Works and Transportation, House of Representatives, One
Hundred and Second Congress, Second
Session, Document 102-80. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

2005 Health Matters: Syphilis. Electronic document, http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/
stdsyph.htm, accessed 2007.
Valentine, David T. (compiler)
1860 Manual of the Corporation of the City of
New York. Published annually, 18471866.
New York Common Council, New York.
van der Merwe, N. J., and J.C. Vogel
1978 13C Content of Human Collagen as a Measure of Prehistoric Diet in Woodland North
America. Nature 276:815816.
Van Gerven, Dennis P., and GeorgeJ. Armelagos
1983 Farewell to Paleodemography? Rumors of
Its Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.
Journal of Human Evolution 12:353360.
VanPool, Christine S., and Todd L. VanPool
1999 The Scientific Nature of Postprocessualism. American Antiquity 64:3353.
Van Reenen, J. F.
1964 Dentition, Jaws, and Palate of the Kalahari
Bushman. Journal of the Dental Association of South Africa 19:115.
1986 Tooth Mutilating and Extracting Practices
amongst the Peoples of South West Africa
(Namibia). In Variation, Culture and
Evolution of African Populations: Papers
in Honour of Dr.Hertha de Villiers, edited
by Ronald Singer and JohnK. Lundy,
pp.159169. Witwatersrand University
Press, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Vigilant, L., M. Stoneking, H.Harpending,
K.Hawkes, and A.C. Wilson
1991 African Populations and the Evolution
of Human Mitochondrial DNA. Science
253:15031507.
Vink, Markus
2003 The Worlds Oldest Trade: Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in
the Seventeenth Century. Journal of World
History 14(2):131177.
Vivian, Brian C.
1992 Sacred to Secular: Transitions in Akan
Funerary Customs. In An African Commitment: Papers in Honour of Peter
Lewis Shinnie, edited by Judy Sterner and
Nicholas David, pp.157169. University
of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

334 References
Vlach, John Michael
1978 The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative
Arts. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland,
Ohio.
1998 Studying African American Artifacts:
Some Background for the Winterthur
Conference Race and Ethnicity in American Material Life. Winterthur Portfolio
33(4):211214.
Vogel, Joseph O.
1993 A Question of Identities: An Anthropological Inquiry and a Historical Narrative. In
The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals
and Towns, edited by Thurstan Shaw, Paul
Sinclair, Bassey Andah, and Alex Okpoko,
pp.399408. Routledge, London.
Vogt, John L.
1979 Portuguese Rule on the Gold Coast,
14691682. University of Georgia Press,
Athens.
von Hunnius, Tanya E., Charlotte A. Roberts,
Anthea Boylston, and Shelley R. Saunders
2006 Histological Identification of Syphilis in
Pre-Columbian England. American Journal
of Physical Anthropology 129:559566.
Von Ihering, H.
1882 Die knstliche Deformirung der Zahne.
Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie 14:213262.
Waldstreicher, David
1999 Reading the Runaways: Self-Fashioning,
Print Culture, and Confidence in Slavery
in the Eighteenth-Century Mid-Atlantic.
William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser.,
56(2):243272.
Walker, Philip L., Rhonda R. Bathurst, Rebecca
Richman, Thor Gjerdrum, and Valerie A.
Andrushko
2009 The Causes of Porotic Hyperostosis and
Cribra Orbitalia: A Reappraisal of the IronDeficiency-Anemia Hypothesis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
139:109125.
Walker, Philip L., and S.E. Hollimon
1989 Changes in Osteoarthritis Associated with
the Development of a Maritime Economy
among Southern California Indians. International Journal of Anthropology 4:171
183.

The New York African Burial Ground

Wall, Diana diZerega

2000 Twenty Years After: Re-Examining
Archaeological Collections for Evidence
of New York Citys Colonial African Past.
African-American Archaeology 28:16.
Watson, E., P. Forster, M. Richards, and H. Bandelt
1997 Mitochondrial Footprints of Human
Expansions in Africa. American Journal of
Human Genetics 61(3):691704.
Watt, James
1994 [1974] Journal of James Watt: Expedition to
Timbo Capital of the Fula Empire in 1794.
Edited by Bruce Mouser. African Studies
Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Watts, John
1928 Letter Book of John Watts, Merchant
and Councillor of New York, January1,
1762December22, 1765. John Watts De
Peyster Publication Fund Series Vol.61.
Collections of the New-York Historical
Society. New-York Historical Society, New
York.
Weik, Terry
1997 The Archaeology of Maroon Societies
in the Americas: Resistance, Cultural
Continuity, and Transformation in the
African Diaspora. Historical Archaeology
31(2):8192.
Weiss, K. M.
1973 Demographic Models for Anthropology.
Memoir No.27. Society for American
Archaeology, Washington, D.C.
Weiss, Rick
2005 Study Concludes Beethoven Died
from Lead Poisoning. Washington Post
6December:A08.
Wentzel, P. J.
1961 Die Fonolgie en Morfologie van Westelike
Shona. Universiteit van Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
White, Christine D., MichaelW. Spence, Hilary
LeQ. Stuart-Williams, and HenryP. Schwarcz
1998 Oxygen Isotopes and the Identification of
Geographical Origins: The Valley of Oaxaca versus the Valley of Mexico. Journal
of Archaeological Science 25:643655.

References 335
White, Shane
1989 Pinkster: Afro-Dutch Sycretization in New
York City and the Hudson Valley. Journal
of American Folklore 102(403):6875.
1991 Somewhat More Independent: The End
of Slavery in New York City, 17701810.
University of Georgia Press, Athens.
2005 Black Life in Freedom: Creating a Popular
Culture. In Slavery in New York, edited by
Ira Berlin and LeslieM. Harris, pp.147
180. New Press, New York.
White, Shane, and Graham White
2005 The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech. Beacon Press, Boston,
Massachusetts.
White House, Office of the Press Secretary
2006 Establishment of the African Burial
Ground National Monument. Electronic
document, http://www.whitehouse.gov/
news/releases/2006/02/20060227-6.html,
accessed March 2007.
Wienkler, C. W., and J. E. Wood
1988 Osteological Individuality Indicative
of Migrant Citrus Laboring. Journal of
Forensic Science 33(2):562567.
Wilczak, C. A.
1998 A New Method for Quantifying Musculoskeletal Stress Markers (MSM): A Test
of the Relationship between Enthesis Size
and Habitual Activity in Archaeological
Populations. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell
University, Ithaca, New York. University
Microfilms, Ann Arbor.
Wilczak, C. A., and K. A. R. Kennedy
1998 Mostly MOS: Technical Aspects of
Identification of Skeletal Markers of
Occupational Stress. In Forensic Osteology: Advances in the Identification of
Human Remains, edited by K.J. Reichs,
pp.461490. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois.
Wilczak, C. A., R. Watkins, C. C. Null, and M. L.
Blakey
2009 Skeletal Indicators of Work: Musculoskeletal, Arthritic, and Traumatic Effects. In
Skeletal Biology of the New York African
Burial Ground, edited by MichaelL.
Blakey and LesleyM. Rankin-Hill,
pp.199226. The New York African Burial

Ground: Unearthing the African Presence

in Colonial New York, vol.1, pt.1. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Wilkie, Laurie A.
1995 Plantation Archaeology: Where Past and
Present Can Collide. African-American
Archaeology 13.
1997 Secret and Sacred: Contextualizing the
Artifacts of African-American Magic
and Religion. Historical Archaeology
31(4):81106.
2001 Race, Identity, and Habermass Lifeworld.
In Race and the Archaeology of Identity,
edited by CharlesE. Orser,Jr., pp.108
124. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake
City.
2004 Considering the Future of African American Archaeology. Historical Archaeology
38(1):109123.
Wilkie, Laurie A., and KevinM. Bartoy
2000 A Critical Archaeology Revisited. Current
Anthropology 41:747761.
Williamson, Kay
1993 Linguistic Evidence for the Use of Some
Tree and Tuber Food Plants in Southern
Nigeria. In The Archaeology of Africa:
Food, Metals and Towns, edited by
Thurstan Shaw, Paul Sinclair, Bassey
Andah, and Alex Okpoko, pp.139153.
Routledge, London.
Williamson, Matthew A.
2000 A Comparison of Degenerative Joint
Disease between Upland and Coastal
Prehistoric Agriculturalists from Georgia. In Bioarchaeological Studies of Life
in the Age of Agriculture: A View from
the Southeast, edited by P.M. Lambert,
pp.134147. University of Alabama Press,
Tuscaloosa.
Wilson, Sherrill D.
1994 New York Citys African Slaveowners: A
Social and Material Culture History. Garland, New York.
Winterbottom, Thomas
1969 [1803] An Account of the Native Africans in
the Neighborhood of Sierra Leone to which
Is Added an Account of the Present State
of Medicine among Them. 2nd ed. Frank
Cass, New York.

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

336 References
Wood, James W., George R. Milner, Henry C.
Harpending, and Kenneth M. Weiss
1992 The Osteological Paradox: Problems of
Inferring Prehistoric Health from Skeletal
Samples. Current Anthropology 33:343
358.
Wood, Peter
1974 Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South
Carolina from 1670 through the Stono
Rebellion. W.W. Norton, New York.
Wray, C. F., and H. L. Schoff
1953 A Preliminary Report on the Seneca Sequence in Western New York,
15501687. Pennsylvania Archaeologist
23(2):5363.
Wright, Robert O., Shirng-Wern Tsaih, Joel
Schwartz, Rosalind J. Wright, and Howard Hu
2003 Association between Iron Deficiency
and Blood Lead Level in a Longitudinal
Analysis of Children Followed in an Urban
Primary Care Clinic. Journal of Pediatrics
142(1):914.
Yamin, Rebecca
2000 Working-Class Life in Nineteenth-Century
New York. In An Interpretive Approach
to Understanding Working-Class Life,
edited by Rebecca Yamin, pp.501507.
Tales of Five Points: Working Class Life in
Nineteenth-Century New York, vol.2. John
Milner Associates, West Chester, Pennsyl-

The New York African Burial Ground

vania. Prepared for Edwards and Kelcey

Engineers, Livingston, New Jersey, and
the U.S. General Services Administration
Region2, New York.
Yelvington, Kevin A.
2001 The Anthropology of Afro-Latin America
and the Caribbean: Diasporic Dimensions.
Annual Review of Anthropology 30:227
260.
Young, Amy L.
1996 Archaeological Evidence of AfricanStyle Ritual and Healing Practices in the
Upland South. Tennessee Anthropologist
21(2):139155.
1997 Risk Management Strategies among
African-American Slaves at Locust Grove
Plantation. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1(1):537.
Zaino, Edward
1967 Symmetrical Osteoporosis, a Sign of
Severe Anemia in the Prehistoric Pueblo
Indians of the Southwest. In Miscellaneous
Papers in Paleopathology, edited by William Wade, pp.4047. Technical Series
No.7. Museum of North Arizona, Flagstaff.
Zias, Joseph E.
2000 The Cemeteries of Qumran and Celibacy:
Confusion Laid to Rest? Dead Sea Discoveries 7(2):220253.

Contributors

Contributors to the Technical Volumes in the

Series The New York African Burial Ground:
Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial
New York

Contributors to Skeletal Biology of the

New York African Burial Ground
Project Director and Scientific
Director
Michael L. Blakey, Ph.D.
Laboratory Director and
Osteologist
Mark E. Mack, M.A.
Office Manager and Administrative
Assistant
Reba Brewington, B.A.
Osteologist
M. Cassandra Hill, M.A., Ph.D.*
Osteological Technicians
Autumn Barrett, M.A. A.B.D.*
Allison Davis
Reynard Davis (deceased)
Ena Fox
Shannon Mahoney, M.A., A.B.D.*
Susan Good-Null, M.A., Ph.D.*
Monde Imoh, Ph.D.
Christopher Null, M.A., A.B.D.*
Kenya Shujaa, M.A.*
Rachel Watkins, M.A., Ph.D.*
Osteological Technician Assistants
Valarian Abrams
Paula Allen
Marc Alston
Darious Annis
Augustus Billy
Alan Blanc
Antonia Christian
Jeffrey Coleman
Lauren Collins
Cyndi Douglas Jacinta Elder-Arrington
Nardos Fessaha, Ph.D.*

April Flint
Gabriel Franke, M.A.
Paul Gattis
Oumuyiwa Gbadegesin
Richlyn Goddard, Ph.D.
Karyn Goodwin
Yasin Gregg
Janna Gruber
Fayola Herod
Michael Hunter
Keisha Hurst
Joseph Jones, M.A.*, A.B.D.*
Antoinette Kearney
Irina Koretsky, M.S.
Dannette Lambert
Teresa Leslie, M.A.,* Ph.D.*
Arion Mayes, M.A., Ph.D.*
Moses Nwulia
Auriel Perkins
Keisha Rankine
Clifford Russell
Joann Sampson
Jobita Smith
Azhar Talibi, M.A., M.D.*
Brent Terry, M.A.
Emile Webster
Shani Wright
Research Assistants
Pamela Brown
Songhai Carter
Christa Dickey
Lesley Payne
Arana Hankin
Nicole Harvey
Jeffrey Lim
Chad Taylor
Walidah West

340 Contributors
Senior Medical Photographer
Otto Edwards
Data Systems Manager
Douglas Fuller, M.A.
Javier Urcid, Ph.D.
Christopher Null
Secretaries
Denise Joseph
Marna Lewis
Andrea Reid
Raquel Scott
Percival Taylor
Sharon Wiltshire
Botanists
Lafayette Frederick, Ph.D.
Monde Emoh, Ph.D.
Consultants for this report
Richard Kittles, Ph.D.
Matthew George, Ph.D.
Thomas Stafford, Ph.D.
Shomarka O.Y. Keita, M.S., M.A., M.D.
African Burial Ground Project
Directors
Michael L Blakey, Ph.D., Scientific Director,
College of William and Mary, and Howard
University

The New York African Burial Ground

Edna Medford, Ph.D., Associate Director for

History, Howard University
Sherrill D. Wilson, Ph.D., Director, Office of Public
Education and Interpretation
Alan H. Goodman, Ph.D., Associate Director for
Chemical Studies, Hampshire College
Jean Howson, Ph.D., Archaeology Laboratory
Director, Howard University
Fatimah L. C. Jackson, Ph.D., Associate Director
for Genetics, University of Maryland
Mark E. Mack, M.A., Cobb Laboratory Director,
Howard University
Warren Perry, Ph.D., Associate Director for
Archaeology, Central Connecticut State
University
Lesley M. Rankin-Hill, Ph.D., Associate Director
for Skeletal Biology, University of Oklahoma
Warren Barbour, Ph.D., Associate Director
(19921994)
African Burial Ground Project
Administration/Management
O. Jackson Cole, Ph.D., Executive in Charge,
Howard University
James A. Donaldson, Ph.D., Project Manager,
Howard University
*Degree received post-recordation.

Contributors to Archaeology of the New York

African Burial Ground
Director for Archaeology
Warren R. Perry, Ph.D., Central Connecticut State
University
Associate Director for Archaeology
Jean Howson, Ph.D.
Laboratory Director
Leonard G. Bianchi, M.A.
Research Associate
Barbara A. Bianco, Ph.D.
Historical and Archaeological
Consultants
E. Kofi Agorsah, Ph.D., Portland State University
Steven Barto, M.A., M.L.S., New York Municipal
Archives
Christopher R. DeCorse, Ph.D., Syracuse
University
Augustin F. C. Holl, Ph.D., University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor
Meta F. Janowitz, Ph.D.
Research Assistants
Shannon Mahoney, M.A.
Ruth Mathis, M.A.
Janet L. Woodruff
Archaeological Technicians
Jean-Marie Cerasale
Tarik Holmes
Tamara Kelly
Iciar Lucena Narvaez
Allison Manfra
Amy Page
Paula Saunders
Cristine Whibby

Digital Mapping
Robert Bethea, M.A.
Marques Roberts
Percival Taylor, M.A.
Ed Zeltmann, The RBA Group
Faunal and Floral Analysts
Patricia Fall, Ph.D., Arizona State University
Gerald K. Kelso, Ph.D.
Lisa Lavold-Foote, Arizona State University
Marie-Lorraine Pipes
Leslie Raymer, R.P.A., New South Associates
Advisory Review Board
Francis P. McManamon, Ph.D., RPA, Chief
Archaeologist, National Park Service
Theresa A. Singleton, Ph.D., Syracuse University
Diana diZerega Wall, Ph.D., City University of
New York City College
African Burial Ground Project
Directors
Michael L. Blakey, Ph.D. (College of William and
Mary), Scientific Director
Edna Greene Medford, Ph.D. (Howard University),
Director for History
Warren R. Perry, Ph.D. (Central Connecticut State
University), Director for Archaeology
Sherrill D. Wilson, Ph.D., Director, Office of Public
Education and Interpretation
Lesley M. Rankin-Hill, Ph.D. (University of
Oklahoma), Director for Skeletal Biology
Alan H. Goodman, Ph.D. (Hampshire College),
Director for Chemical Studies
Fatimah L. C. Jackson, Ph.D. (University of
Maryland), Director for Genetics

342 Contributors
Jean Howson, Ph.D., Associate Director for
Archaeology
Leonard G. Bianchi, M.A., Archaeology Laboratory
Director
Mark Mack, M.A. (Howard University), Cobb
Laboratory Director

The New York African Burial Ground

African Burial Ground Project

Administration/Management
O. Jackson Cole, Ph.D. (Howard University),
Executive in Charge
James A. Donaldson, Ph.D. (Howard University),
Project Manager

Contributors to Historical Perspectives of the

African Burial Ground: New York Blacks
and the Diaspora
DIRECTOR OF AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND
HISTORY COMPONENT
Edna Greene Medford, Ph.D. (Howard University)
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
Emilyn L. Brown, M.A. (Independent Researcher)
Selwyn H. H. Carrington, Ph.D. (Howard University)
Linda Heywood, Ph.D. (Boston University)
Edna Greene Medford, Ph.D. (Howard University)
John Thornton, Ph.D. (Boston University, Consultant)
RESEARCHERS
Allison Blakely, Ph.D. (Boston University)
Emilyn L. Brown, MA (Independent Researcher)
Selwyn H. H. Carrington, Ph.D. (Howard University)
Michael Gomez, Ph.D. (New York University)
Linda Heywood, Ph.D. (Boston University)
Jean Howson, Ph.D. (Independent Researcher)
Edna Greene Medford, Ph.D. (Howard University)
Arnold Taylor, Ph.D. (Emeritus Professor,
Howard University)
John Thornton, Ph.D. (Boston University)
Jeanne Toungara, Ph.D. (Howard University)
GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCHERS
Miranda Booker
Roger Davidson, Ph.D.*
Milagros Denis*
Lisa Y. King, Ph.D.*
Talitha LeFlouria
Learie Luke, Ph.D.*
Wendi Manuel-Scott, Ph.D.*
Habib Warmack
Charles Wash*
Erika Watkins
Louis Woods*

UNDERGRADUATE ASSISTANTS
Ana Cardoso (Howard University Ronald McNair
Scholar)
Rashauna Johnson (Howard University Ronald
McNair Scholar)
Tiffany Johnson (Howard University Ronald
McNair Scholar)
Lark Medford (Howard University Volunteer)
Moja Mwaniki (Howard University Ronald
McNair Scholar)
Natalie Richardson (Howard University Ronald
McNair Scholar)
Marlena Skinner (Howard University Work
Study Student)
Benjamin Talton, Ph.D.* (Howard University
Ronald McNair Scholar)
SPECIAL ASSISTANCE
Sherrill Wilson, Ph.D. (Office of Public
Education and Information, New Yorks African
Burial Ground Project)
Sheila Walker, Ph.D. (Spelman College)
Trevor Hall, Ph.D. (Northern Caribbean University)
Jean-Michel Makebo-Tali, Ph.D. (Howard
University)
ILLUSTRATOR
Michael Colbert
AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND PROJECT
ADMINISTRATION/MANAGEMENT
O. Jackson Cole, Ph.D., Project Executive Officer
Executive Assistant to the President, Howard
University
James A. Donaldson, Ph.D., Project Manager
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Howard
University
* Degree

awarded after assignment completed with African

Burial Ground Project.

Index

Individuals who are mentioned in historical accounts

but for whom no surname is given are listed here
alphabetically by first name.
Key to locators: Numeral without an accompanying
letter is the page number for a mention in text only;
numeral followed by f refers to a figure on that page;
similarly, n refers to a footnote and t to a table.

abika, 196
abolition of slavery, 4041, 209, 279. See also
emancipation of enslaved laborers; manumission
abscesses, dental, 133, 137, 138, 139, 139t, 265
academic archaeology. See cultural resource
management (CRM): academic archaeology,
relationship with
Accra, 84f, 279
acculturation, 108, 109, 110, 263, 274
Act to Prevent the Kidnapping of Free People of
Colour, An, 41
Adanse, 84f, 230
Address to the People of Great Britain, 40
Adegbolola, Egunfemi, Chief Alagba of New York,
282f
Adinkra, 116
Adja, 85, 110
aDNA. See ancient DNA (aDNA)
adornment. See personal adornment
adults and children buried together. See shared
graves: children with adults
advertisements for runaways. See runaways:
advertisements for
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 9, 10,
13, 15, 16, 17n, 18, 19, 34, 273
Affimetryx Corporation, 105
African agency. See resistance to enslavement:
African agency; transatlantic trade in enslaved

Africans: African agency

African American, use of term. See black and
African American, use of terms
African American archaeology, 73, 76, 110, 112,
271
African American involvement in archaeology, 14,
273
African archaeology. See African Diaspora
archaeology: African archaeology, relationship to
African Burial Ground
closure of, 37, 42, 61, 64, 66, 212, 267
constriction of extent, late-eighteenth century, 47
cultural property, national and international
significance as, 276280
date of first use, hypothetical, 60, 61
date of last regular use, hypothetical, 61
date of rediscovery, 1, 267
dates of excavation, 2f, 68
definition of, 3
dumping of waste at (see pottery waste, disposal
at African Burial Ground; tannery waste,
disposal at African Burial Ground)
eligibility for listing in the National Register of
Historic Places, recommendations for, 276
fence lines within (see fences and fence lines)
first cartographic reference, 61
first known record of use, 60
as heritage site, 276, 278, 280
influence on African American institutions after its
closing, 72
landownership in and around, sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, 4647, 72
largest sample in the Americas of a colonial
African American burial population, 1
as locus of resistance to enslavement, 212, 267
New York African churches and other institutions,
link to development of, 72, 212, 267

346 Index
ownership of, 4647
as sacred space, 216, 259260, 261, 277, 280, 282
See also altars for ancestors from African Burial
Ground; filling in of Collect Pond and African
Burial Ground; interpretive center, African
Burial Ground; memorial, African Burial
Ground
African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic
District, 2f, 20, 66, 68, 69, 71
African Burial Ground National Historic Landmark,
2f, 3, 20, 261, 276
African Burial Ground National Monument, 3, 34,
261, 276
African cultural groups
enslaved laborers as part of, 160
kinship structure, 174
African cultural identity. See identity of diasporic
Africans: African cultural identity, continuity of,
in New York
African Diaspora, 1, 4, 5, 13, 22, 28, 37, 38, 68, 76,
109, 123, 176, 177, 178, 216, 223, 228, 234, 242,
244, 247, 250, 251, 254, 255, 260, 261, 262, 268,
272, 273, 274, 276, 277, 278, 280, 281, 282
African Diaspora archaeology, 261, 262, 268, 269,
271273, 274, 275, 280, 281
African archaeology, relationship to, 272273
African Diaspora studies, 3, 4, 14, 18, 22, 28, 75,
125, 259, 261, 262, 267269, 273, 274, 275, 280,
281
African Free School, 40, 201
Africanisms, 112113, 116, 215, 272. See also
African survivals
African Marine Fund, 201
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 19, 21t,
41, 66, 69, 72, 201
African survivals, 75, 109, 112113, 254, 271, 272.
See also Africanisms
African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church, 201
African Zion Church. See African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church
Afrocentrism, 6, 203, 262
age and age at death, determination of, 25
age-at-death distribution, New York African Burial
Ground population. See mortality, New York
African Burial Ground population
age range, composite, 25
aglets, 231. See also Burial 22; Burial 213; Burial
342
Ahinsan, 230
Akan (ethnic group), 109, 110, 111, 116, 122, 160,
196, 204, 230. See also Coromantee
The New York African Burial Ground

Akan (language), 81, 102, 110, 158, 204, 248, 249.

See also Coromantee
Akan-Asante, 80, 100, 196. See also Asante
akao pa, 196
Akwamu, 83, 84f
Akwapim, 84f, 248
Akyem, 83, 84f
akyere, 196
alcohol consumption by New York Africans, 101,
131132, 206. See also mourning rites: drinking
alignment of graves, 70, 71, 120t, 226, 228
Allada, 43, 84f, 85, 86f, 87
Almshouse (on the Common), 52f, 56, 66, 69, 71,
238
Almshouse cemetery, 61, 218
altars for ancestors from African Burial Ground, 14
amendment, 1731 (limiting number of individuals
attending funerals and prohibiting use of palls
and pallbearers), 199
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH),
95t, 101, 102
American Pragmatism, 6
American Revolution. See Revolutionary War
Amina. See Elmina
Aminer. See Elmina
Aminra. See Elmina
AMNH. See American Museum of Natural History
(AMNH)
amulets, 116, 247, 264. See also luck ball;
talismans
ana murinda, 196
anchor designs, on buttons, 116, 123, 238, 240f. See
also Burial 6
ancient DNA (aDNA), 104, 105, 119
anemia, 128, 132, 145, 150
hereditary hemolytic anemia, 150
iron-deficiency anemia, 145, 146, 149, 155
megaloblastic anemia, 146, 149, 150
sickle-cell anemia, 150
Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts. See Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG)
Anglican Trinity Church. See Trinity Church
(Anglican)
Angola (polity), 33, 37, 43, 75, 81, 89, 91, 93, 94t,
95t, 109, 110, 159, 200, 215, 230, 251, 257
map of, 88f
See also Angola, Reino de
Angola (surname), 81
Angola, Assento, 55t
Angola, Domingo, 55t

Index 347
Angola, Paulo, 42, 54, 55t
Angola, Reino de, 76
Anlo, 84f, 85, 86f
Ann Street, 61, 63f, 65f. See also Elk Street
antemortem tooth loss, 133, 137. See also tooth loss
Anthony, Catalina, 55t
Anthony, Cleyn. See Anthony, Little
Anthony, Domingo. See Antony, Domingo
Anthony, Little, 42, 55t
Anthony, Mathias, 55t
Anthony of the Bowery, 55t
Anthony the Blind Negro, 55t
Anthony Street, 61, 63f. See also Duane Street
Antigua, 45, 89, 90t
Antony, Domingo, 54, 55t
appendicular joint degeneration, New York African
Burial Ground population, 169171
apprenticeship of children, 165
Arabs, 83
archaeography, 270
archaeological sites, Lower Manhattan, seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. See cultural resources
in Lower Manhattan, seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, investigated
Ardos, Governor Edmund, 207
Ardra, 85, 110
Arkansas, 135, 138, 139, 140, 219, 231
arson, 199, 204205, 267. See also resistance to
enslavement: arson
Artex, 28
arthritis. See osteoarthritis
artifacts in direct association with burials, 13,
33, 34, 114, 237, 259. See also calcite crystal
(artifact); ceramic (clay) ball with copper-alloy
band (artifact); cluster of copper rings (artifact);
coral artifact, New York African Burial Ground;
glass sphere (artifact); knives: artifacts at
New York African Burial Ground; metal mass
(artifact); mica schist disk (artifact); ornament,
hair (artifact); peach pit (artifact); pottery sherd,
burial with; quartz disk (artifact); shells: shelland-iron composite artifacts
artifacts of possible spiritual significance, New
York African Burial Ground, 115, 245, 247248
Asante, 80, 83, 84f, 85, 93, 102, 116, 248, 279. See
also Akan-Asante; Ashanti (Asante)
Asante Traditional Buildings World Heritage Site,
279
Ashanti (Asante), 95t, 102
asiento, 44
assault. See under resistance to enslavement

Assay site, 67
Assine, 83
Atlantic creole societies, 252
Atlantic maritime trade. See Atlantic shipping
industry
Atlantic shipping industry, 39
Atlantic World, 5, 6, 42, 125, 195, 272, 276, 280
Austin, Richard, 17
avika, 196
awowa, 196
Axim, 84f, 230

Bahia, 77, 78
Bakongo, 93, 95t, 255
banganga, 255, 258
Bantu, 105, 109
baptisms of Africans, 60, 200, 266
in Dutch Reformed Church, 200, 253
Barbados, 37, 43, 45, 77, 87, 89, 90t, 93, 95t, 108,
128, 134, 135t, 187, 212, 233, 263
barracks (on the Common), 52f, 56, 58f, 61, 218
Barwick, Kent, 17n
Bastien, Francisco, 54, 56
Battery Park, 58
Batuque, 255
Bayard, Peter, 66, 67
beads, 28, 34, 67, 85, 114
amber, 115, 233
blue, symbolism of, 112, 233234
cultural significance of, 233
glass, 115, 121t, 233, 234, 245 (see also Burial
250)
made in Venice, Italy, 115
made in West Africa, 115 (see also Burial 226;
Burial 434)
powder-glass, 115, 233
as symbols of status and wealth, 233, 234
types, in Yoruba terminology, 234
types, New York African Burial Ground, 233234,
235f, 236f, 239f
See also Burial 187; waist beads
Beckelman, Laurie, 20
Bedouin burials, 252
Beeling, Abraham, 60n
Belinda, 248
Belleview Plantation, 138, 139t
Bengo, 76, 158
Benguela, Reino de, 76, 87, 88f
Benin (polity), 85, 86f, 87, 106t, 215, 233, 234,
249, 279

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

348 Index
Benin, Bight of. See Bight of Benin
Benin, Republic of, 85
Benin gap, 85
Bermuda, 90t, 237
Betty, 206
Biafra, Bight of. See Bight of Biafra
Bianchi, Leonard, 26
Bight of Benin, 43, 81, 105, 110, 122, 130, 158,
159, 233, 257, 263
centralization of power, seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, 85
European struggle for control of trade in enslaved
Africans, 85, 87
map of, 86f
modern nations included in, 85
polities, 85
trading networks, 85, 87
Bight of Biafra, 78, 87, 89, 91, 105, 110. See also
Niger Delta
Big Manuel. See Manuel, Big
Bioanthropology Research Laboratory, University
of Maryland, 105
bioarchaeological approaches, 4, 5, 15, 19, 37, 61,
6871, 68n, 75, 9182, 114, 122, 125, 133156,
157, 195, 196, 209211, 261, 264266, 268, 275,
276
biocultural approaches, 4, 22, 3738
contrast with forensic anthropology, 101
black and African American, use of terms, 6
black and white, use of terms, 67
blackbirders, 41
Black Code of 1712, 176
black community, first geographically designated,
in New York City, 54
black loyalists, 180, 208
emigration to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
England, and Sierra Leone, 40, 208
blackness, concepts of, 199, 271
Blakeley, Mother Delois, 33f
Blakely, Allison, 33
Blakey, Michael, 1, 3, 14, 15, 17n, 18, 19, 22, 23f,
37, 262
Bleeker Ten Eyck, Margaret. See Ten Eyck,
Margaret Bleeker
Block, Adrian, 4546
Block 154, 2f, 46, 56
Board of Accounts on New Netherland, 43
Board of Health (New York City), 6
body placement and orientation. See body position
body position

The New York African Burial Ground

extended supine burial, 71, 114, 216, 226, 226f,

227f, 250, 254, 258, 264
head-to-west orientation, 70, 71, 114, 216, 226
228, 228f, 250, 254, 258, 264
non-westward-oriented burials, 70, 71, 226227,
252 (see also Burial 237/264)
traditional African practices, 227228, 258
See also Burial 375; burial practices, Christian:
body position; burial practices, Muslim: body
position; flexed burials
body practices, 5, 69, 75, 93, 123. See also burial
practices, Muslim: preparation of body for burial;
washing the body of the deceased
Bogee, John, 206n
Bolting Act (1680), 44
Bosman, Willem, 157158, 222, 230, 249
Boston, 45, 89
bounty hunters, 40, 41, 201
bouweries, 46, 58
Bowery, the, 39, 175
bowing of lower limbs, New York African Burial
Ground population, 144, 145f, 149150, 153. See
also saber shin
bracelets, 115, 240, 241. See also Burial 340
Bradford, William, 48f. See also Lyne-Bradford
Plan
Brath, Elombe, 17n
Brazil
burial practices, 260
divination and spirit possession, 247, 256257,
260
importation of enslaved Africans to, 42, 43, 76,
77, 78, 79, 85, 87
Brewington, Reba, 22, 24
Bridewell, 56, 69
British, the. See emancipation of enslaved laborers:
in exchange for supporting British troops
during the Revolutionary War; landownership
by Africans in New York: during the British
period; New Amsterdam: capture by the British
in 1664; New York City: British period, dates of;
provisions trade: British, between New York and
West Indies; slavery in New York: worsening of
oppression during the British period; Teller, Isaac:
fence and houses, destruction of, by the British
during the Revolutionary War; transatlantic trade
in enslaved Africans, British involvement
British Headquarters Map, 58f
Broad Financial Center site, 67
Broadway, 2f, 34, 47, 52f, 54, 59f, 60, 63f, 227. See
also 290 Broadway

Index 349
Bronx, the, 20
Brooklyn, 20, 201
Brooklyn African Woolman Benevolent Society,
201
Brown, Emilyn L., 33
Buchnerd, Mrs., 61, 62f
Buchnerds Plan, Mrs., 61, 62f
Burger, Harmanus, 206n
Burial 6, 95, 95t, 98, 106t, 116, 238, 240f
Burial 10, 238
Burial 12, 106t, 119, 120t, 177
Burial 13/43, 228
Burial 14, 119, 120t, 177
Burial 18, 228
Burial 22, 228, 231, 234, 236
Burial 23, 95t, 228
Burial 25, 106t, 120t, 182t, 211, 212
Burial 29, 228
Burial 43. See Burial 13/43
Burial 47, 95, 95t, 106t, 228
Burial 48, 244, 244f
Burial 71, 106t, 238
Burial 72, 120t, 177
Burial 83, 120t, 177
Burial 84, 120t, 177
Burial 89, 106t, 120t, 210
Burial 101, 95, 95t, 98, 106t, 117f, 118, 138f, 223,
264
Burial 115, 95t, 106t, 238
Burial 126, 120t, 177
Burial 135, 106t, 244245, 246f, 247, 254
Burial 138, 106t, 223
Burial 142, 120t, 177
Burial 143, 120t, 177
Burial 144, 106t, 120t, 177
Burial 147, 116
Burial 149, 120t, 177
Burial 158, 106t, 242, 243
Burial 159, 120t, 222
Burial 165, 95t, 97f, 98, 242, 243
Burial 171, 107t, 210
Burial 176, 107t, 118, 222f, 223
Burial 180, 107t, 210
Burial 181, 238
Burial 183, 222
Burial 186, 231
Burial 187, 115, 233
Burial 194, 95t, 107t, 114, 228
Burial 197, 223
Burial 203, 238
Burial 205, 210

Burial 210, 224

Burial 211, 241, 241f
Burial 213, 27f, 222, 231
Burial 214, 239f, 241, 244, 244f
Burial 217, 116
Burial 221, 115, 121t
Burial 222, 118, 223
Burial 226, 107t, 115, 121t, 233, 236f
Burial 230, 144, 145f, 244245, 246f, 254
Burial 237/264, 252
Burial 242, 107t, 238, 240f, 244245, 254
Burial 250, 233, 236f, 239f, 245
Burial 252, 118119, 121t, 219
Burial 254, 241, 242f
Burial 256, 223
Burial 259, 238, 239f
Burial 264. See Burial 237/264
Burial 310, 107t, 238, 240f
Burial 313, 222, 239f
Burial 325, 238, 239f
Burial 326, 95t, 122t, 238
Burial 328, 237, 238f
Burial 330, 210, 210n
Burial 331, 210, 210n
Burial 332, 118, 118f, 123, 223, 241
Burial 335, 107t, 119, 122t, 177
Burial 340, 95t, 97f, 107t, 115, 233, 235f, 236f,
242, 242f, 264
Burial 342, 231
Burial 348, 234, 236
Burial 352, 234, 236
Burial 356, 119, 122t, 177
Burial 360, 228
Burial 362, 210, 210n
Burial 364, 211
Burial 365, 231, 234, 236, 237f
Burial 368, 231
Burial 371, 238, 239f, 240, 241f
Burial 372, 210, 210n
Burial 375, 115, 245, 247, 247f
Burial 376, 237, 238f
Burial 377, 95t, 238, 250
Burial 381, 250
Burial 387, 234, 236
Burial 398, 238, 240f, 241f
Burial 405, 97f, 122t, 234, 236, 239f
Burial 415, 238, 239f
Burial 434, 115, 236f
burial attire, 71, 114, 216, 218, 224, 225, 227, 231,
232f, 248, 251, 252, 254, 264

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

350 Index
shoes, lack of evidence of, at New York African
Burial Ground, 231
See also chin cloths; clothing and textile
fragments; shrouding; shroud pins; winding
sheets
burial numbers, assignment of, 12, 13
burial population, New York African Burial Ground
burial of Native American, possible, 19, 92, 101,
217218 (see also Burial 377)
burials of Europeans, possible, 19, 92, 101, 217
burials of individuals not of African descent, 19,
97f, 101, 217218
estimates of size of, 46
Muslim burial, possible, 252 (see also Burial
237/264)
See also Early Group; Late Group; Late-Middle
Group; Middle Group; New York African Burial
Ground; and individual burials (e.g., Burial 25)
burial practices, African Burial Ground
Christian European practices, overlap with, 215,
216, 254, 258
homogeneity of, 5, 216, 217, 218, 258259, 264
influence of field methods on interpretation of,
259
Revolutionary War, effects of, 56, 61, 114, 184,
187, 224, 258
See also burial practices, New York African Burial
Ground; obstacles to study of burial practices,
African Burial Ground
burial practices, Christian, 248, 258
absence of burial goods other than clothing and
ornaments, 254
body position, 227, 254, 258
coffins, use of, 254, 258
coins, use of, on eyes of deceased, 254
headstones, use of, 227, 254
burial practices, Muslim, 216
body position, 252
coffins, absence of, 251, 252, 258
grave markers, 252
lack of evidence for, New York African Burial
Ground, 252, 258
preparation of body for burial, 248, 251, 252
shrouding and grave clothes, 251252, 258
simplicity, 251
burial practices, Native American, 216, 250251
burial practices, New York African Burial Ground,
218250
burial practices of Africans, in Africa. See body
position: traditional African practices; body
practices; burial practices, Muslim; coffin
The New York African Burial Ground

decoration; coffin use: in West Africa; coral;

cowrie shells; crystals; divination: in West
and West Central Africa; Gold Coast: burial
practices; grave goods; grave markers; graveside
deposits; memorialization practices in Africa;
mortuary material culture; mourning rites; music
and dance: at funerals; personal adornment;
processions, mortuary; shared graves; shells;
shrouding; washing the body of the deceased;
witchcraft: searching for signs of, as burial
practice
burial practices of Africans, in New York. See
also burial practices, Muslim; cowrie shells;
festivals, celebration of, by enslaved Africans;
grave goods; grave orientation; graveside rituals;
mortuary material culture; mourning rites; music
and dance; night burials; personal adornment;
shared graves; shells; shrouding; witchcraft:
searching for signs of, as burial practice
burial practices of Africans, in the diaspora, 217,
223224, 250, 254, 259, 260, 264. See also
amulets; body position; body practices; conjuring
bundles; graveside deposits; grave markers;
shared graves
burial records, 60, 60n, 191
burial sites for Africans, in New York, 58f, 60, 61,
66, 67, 69, 122, 267
African camp at Dutch West India Company
lumber mill on the Saw River, 58
farm plots, 58
Stuyvesant, Peter, bouwerie of, 58
types of, 58
See also African Burial Ground; African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; Chrystie
Street cemetery; churches in New York: as
burial sites for Africans; Common, the: burials
at; Delancey estate, as site of new African
cemetery; Moravian Church; Negro Burying
Place; Negroes Burial Ground; Negroes
Burying Ground; New York African Burial
Ground; town cemeteries, burials of Africans
at; Trinity Church (Anglican); Trinity Church
African cemetery; Trinity Lutheran Church
burial sites for Africans, outside New York.
See Belleview Plantation; Catoctin Furnace
burial population; Cedar Grove Baptist Church
Cemetery; Charleston elites; Cobern Street
cemetery; First African Baptist Church (FABC)
burial population; Kapanda, cemetery at; Kongo
(polity): cemeteries in; Newton Plantation;
Parting Ways; Remley Plantation; Rochester

Index 351
Poorhouse; Seville Plantation; Site 38CH778; St.
Peter Street Cemetery; Vredendal, cemetery at
Bush, George H. W., 20
Bush, George W., 34
Bush, Robert, 17n
Butler, Rose, 205
buttons, 28, 34, 71, 114, 225, 231, 241, 241f, 245,
252
conjuring bundles, as possible contents of, 238
decorative buttons, 123, 238, 240f
designs, with, 116, 238
types of, New York African Burial Ground, 238,
239f
See also anchor designs, on buttons; Burial 6;
Burial 10; Burial 181; Burial 203; Burial 211;
Burial 250; Burial 259; Burial 325; Burial 326;
Burial 371; Burial 415; cuff links; fasteners,
clothing

Cabinda, 87, 88f, 251

Calabar, New. See Elem Kalabari (New Calabar)
Calabar, Old, 108
calando, 257
calcite crystal (artifact), 245, 246f, 264
calcium deficiency, 132, 150, 155
Calk Hook Farm, 2f, 4647
fence line, possible, as southern boundary, 47
Lots 14, 46, 47
Lots 517, 61, 67
survey into lots, 46, 61, 63
Calvinists, Dutch, 253. See also Dutch Reformed
Church
Cameroon, 81, 87, 94t, 248, 269
Canal Street, 54
Candombl, 201, 254
Cape Coast Castle, 108
Capetein, Jacobus Eliza, 40
Cape Town, 93, 95t, 222, 224, 252
capitalism, comparison with kin-based production,
270
Caribbean, 5, 19, 28, 37, 38, 42, 43, 44, 77, 78, 85,
87, 89, 90t, 94, 98, 125, 126, 128, 133, 144, 150,
206, 207n, 217, 237, 249, 262, 263, 264, 265,
268. See also West Indies
caries, dental, 26, 133, 137139, 138f, 139t, 155,
265
Carrington, Selwyn H. H., 33
Cartagena, 127
Cartagena, Francisco, 55t
Carters Grove, 227

Carwitham, John, 49f

Carwitham Plan, 49f
Castello Plan, 59f
catalog numbers, New York African Burial Ground,
problems with, 12
Catherine, 45
Catherine Market, 203
Catholicism, 108, 253, 254
Catoctin Furnace burial population, 135t, 150
dental enamel hypoplasias in, 134, 135
dental pathologies in, 138
mean age at death in, 186, 187
musculoskeletal stress markers in, 174
skeletal indicators of pathology in, 140
Cavazzi, Giovanni Antonio, 159f, 230
Cayenne, 43
Cedar Grove Baptist Church Cemetery, 135t, 150,
219, 222, 224, 231
cribra orbitalia in, 149, 149f
mean age at death in, 186187
osteoarthritis in, 171
periostitis in, 140, 142, 151, 151f
porotic hyperostosis in, 147, 149, 151, 151f
skeletal indicators of pathology in, 140
survivorship and life expectancy in, 187, 188f,
189, 190
cementum, 93, 94, 96f
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 153
Central America, 176
Centre Street, 47
ceramic (clay) ball with copper-alloy band
(artifact), 115, 245, 247, 247f, 264. See also
Burial 375
Chambers Street, 47, 56, 61, 68n, 69, 69n, 70
Charles II, King, 43
Charles Carroll house, 247
Charleston, 44, 77, 134, 138, 139t, 149, 170, 172,
186, 187, 222
Charleston elites, 138, 139t
Charon, 254
Chesapeake, the, 39, 43, 7879, 89
childbearing by enslaved African women, 157, 176,
179, 191, 266
child labor. See labor, in colonial New York:
children
Child Research Council, 152
child-to-female ratio, New York African Burial
Ground population, 191, 266
change over time, 185, 185f
possible interpretations of, 185
chin cloths, 225226, 231

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

352 Index
chipped teeth. See dental modification
Christiaensen, Hendrick, 45
Christianity, 60, 87, 175, 198, 215, 217, 228, 264,
282
conversion of enslaved Africans to, 108, 200201,
253254
as justification for enslavement, 40, 199200, 201
in Kongo, 252253, 254, 255, 256, 257258
traditional African religions, blending with, 201,
216, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257258
See also baptisms of Africans; burial practices,
Christian; Great Awakening
Christ Lutheran Church, 60n
Chrystie Street cemetery, 61, 66
churches in New York, 46, 58f, 64, 72, 178, 195,
201, 209, 212, 217, 260
African membership in, 60, 197, 200, 218, 253
as burial sites for Africans, 58, 60n
See also African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church; African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal
Church; Christ Lutheran Church; Dutch
Reformed Church; First Baptist Church; John
Street Methodist Church; Moravian Church;
St. Philips African Church; Trinity Church
(Anglican); Trinity Lutheran Church; United
Lutheran Church
Church of England, 40, 201
Church Street, 60
City Hall, 22
City Hall Park, 2f, 46, 56, 68n, 69n, 70, 71
clam shells. See shells
Clarke, John Henrik, 17n
cleaning procedures for skeletal material, New York
African Burial Ground, 24, 24f, 25, 26
Cleyn Anthony. See Anthony, Little
Cleyn Manuel. See Manuel, Little
clothing, burial in. See burial attire
clothing and textile fragments, 225, 245, 246f
clothing in New York, 115, 125, 131, 205, 207, 209,
232f, 265. See also resistance to enslavement:
clothing
clustering of graves. See grave clusters
cluster of copper rings (artifact), 116. See also
Burial 147
coasting. See transatlantic trade in enslaved
Africans: shipborne trade
Cobb Laboratory. See W. Montague Cobb
Biological Anthropology Laboratory
cobbles, as grave markers. See grave markers:
cobbles

The New York African Burial Ground

Cobern Street cemetery, 222, 224, 252

coffin decoration, 117119, 118f, 218, 219, 222
223, 237, 251
heart-shaped symbols, 116117, 117f (see also
Burial 101)
painted coffins, 222223 (see also Burial 159;
Burial 183; Burial 213; Burial 313)
tacks, 116, 117f, 118, 118f, 219, 223 (see also
Burial 101; Burial 176; Burial 222; Burial 332)
See also Burial 252; Sankofa symbol
coffin furniture. See coffin hardware
coffin handles. See coffin hardware
coffin hardware, 70, 71, 218, 219, 222, 222f, 223
coffinless burials. See coffins, burials without
coffin lids, 12, 13, 33, 98, 116, 117, 117f, 118, 118f,
123, 219, 222, 223, 236, 237, 259, 264
coffin makers, 222
coffin nails, 68, 70, 118, 219, 234, 236
coffin screws, 219
coffin shapes
dating of burials, used for, 28
four sided coffins, definition of, 218
hexagonal (shouldered) coffins, 218, 219, 219f,
220t, 221t
rectangular coffins, 218, 219, 219f, 220t, 221t
tapered (trapezoidal) coffins, 218219, 219f, 220t,
221t
temporal groups at New York African Burial
Ground, for, 28, 219
coffin types, 219, 220t, 221t
gable-lidded coffins, 218
coffin use, 216, 218, 254
disease, as possible preventative measure against,
223
in West Africa, 223
coffin wood, 219, 222, 223, 240, 244f, 250
and hardware assemblage, 70
samples collected, 12, 33
See also Burial 381
coffins, burials without, 95, 114, 184, 224, 226,
258. See also Burial 210; Burial 377
coffins, providers of, 117, 223224, 258, 267
coffins, shared. See shared graves
coins, 28, 34, 67, 114, 128, 244245, 244f, 245f,
246f, 247, 254. See also Burial 135; Burial 214;
Burial 230; Burial 242
Cole, O. Jackson, 22
Collect Pond, 2f, 46, 47, 50f, 54, 56, 60, 62f, 64,
66, 184, 199, 248, 259, 266
Collegiate School, 200
Colonial period, date range of, 5, 211

Index 353
Colonial Williamsburg, 34, 225f, 232f
Colored School No. 1 (P.S. 67), 201
Colve, Governor Anthony, 47
Committee of the Descendants of the Ancestral
Afrikan Burial Ground, 277
Committee on Public Works and Transportation of
the House of Representatives, 9
Common, the, 46, 47, 48f, 69, 72
appropriation of, by the city of New York, 56
burials at, 56, 60, 61, 70, 71
Dutch period, during the, 56
executions, as site of, 56, 194f, 204, 210
palisades on, 56
structures on, 56
uses of, 56
See also Almshouse (on the Common); barracks
(on the Common); powder house (on the
Common); powder magazine (on the Common)
Common Council. See New York City Common
Council
Common Whipper of Slaves, 198
conditional freedom, 197n, 198
children of freed persons remaining enslaved, 41
half-freedom, 54, 54n, 197n, 211
reasons for granting, 54n, 197n, 211
Congo, Anthony. See Congo, Antony
Congo, Antony, 54, 55t
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, 94t, 95t
Congo, Simon, 42, 54, 55t
Congo, as surname. See Kongo (Congo), as
surname
Congo, the, 75
congregational yards, burials of Africans at. See
churches in New York: as burial sites for Africans
Congressional Hearing. See Subcommittee Hearing,
U.S. Congress, on African Burial Ground
Congressional Subcommittee. See Subcommittee
Hearing, U.S. Congress, on African Burial
Ground
conjunctivitis, 133, 155, 156
conjurers, 108, 116, 123, 204, 215, 247
conjuring bundles, 114, 115116, 123, 238, 240,
247, 264. See also Burial 147; Burial 217; Burial
375; buttons: conjuring bundles, as possible
contents of; cluster of copper rings (artifact)
conservation techniques for human remains and
artifacts, New York African Burial Ground, 14,
26
Conspiracy of 1741, 56, 111, 131, 204205, 206,
267
consumption. See tuberculosis

contour lines of Owen, 93

Cooley, John, 199
coral, 114, 222, 234, 245, 264
coral artifact, New York African Burial Ground,
237, 238f. See also Burial 376
Coriell Institute for Medical Research, 105
Cormantines, 85
Cornbury, Lord (born Hon. Edward Hyde), 45
Coromantee, 84f, 85, 91, 109, 110, 116, 122, 196,
203n, 204. See also Adja; Ardra; Asante; Fon
(ethnic group); Gur; Popo (ethnic group); Yoruba
correctionism. See vindicationism
Correia Leito, Manoel. See Leito, Manoel Correia
Corselius Pottery, 57f
Cortelyou, Jacques, 59f
cotton, 38, 43, 45, 79, 85, 128, 158, 225, 232f
cowrie shells, 85, 112, 115, 233234. See also
Burial 340
craniometry, 91, 103f, 268
forensic anthropology, use in, 101
geographic origins, as a means of determining, 92
measurements taken, 101102
New York African Burial Ground population,
results for, 101102
racialization of, 101
creolization, 110, 111, 215, 257, 274
Cresee, 198n
cribra orbitalia, 145146
cribra orbitalia, New York African Burial Ground
population, 132, 146f, 149
age and sex differences, 147, 147t, 149t
possible causes, 145146, 149151, 155, 265
crime and punishment, 42, 57f, 80, 101, 160, 161,
196, 198, 199, 203, 204, 206n, 207n, 266
punishment, bioarchaeological indicators of, 210,
210n, 212
punishment, forms of, 210
punishment, violent forms of, 194, 206, 210,
211, 261, 267 (see also Burial 330; Burial 331;
Burial 362; Burial 372)
trials for crimes committed by Africans, 41, 204,
206, 266267
violation of municipal or colony laws,
consequences of, 210
See also executions: as punishment for theft;
mutilation as a form of punishment
Cripplebush, 54, 60
critical theory, 6, 262
CRM. See cultural resource management (CRM)
Crolius Pottery, 47, 48f, 49f, 57f
Cross Street, 66

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

354 Index
Crown Gallery, 45
crystals, 114, 245, 246f, 247, 264. See also artifacts
of possible spiritual significance, New York
African Burial Ground; calcite crystal (artifact)
Cuba, 41, 93, 95t
Cuffee, 111
cuff links, 34, 114, 122t, 241f, 243
as personal adornment, 231, 238, 240241
See also Burial 158; Burial 211; Burial 371
culturally modified teeth. See dental modification
cultural resource management (CRM), 10, 15, 261
academic archaeology, relationship with, 273, 274
contributions and strengths of, 273, 274
criticisms of, 273, 274
New York African Burial Ground in the context
of, 274276
theoretical frameworks, lack of explicit attention
to, 273
cultural resources in Lower Manhattan, seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, investigated, 6668
Cumbe, 210
Curaao, 43, 89, 90t
Customs House, U.S., 3, 26, 28

Dagbon, 85
Dahomey, Kingdom of, 84f, 85, 86f
damage to burials during excavation, 14, 15, 17, 18
Damara, 93, 95t
Damen, Jan Jansen, 46, 53f
Damen patent for Calk Hook Farm, 4647, 53f. See
also Calk Hook Farm; Damen, Jan Jansen
Danckaerts, Jasper, 54
DAngola, Anna, 55t
DAngola, Francisco, 55t
DAngola, Gracia, 55t
dAngola, Lucie, 200n
DAngola, Paulo. See Angola, Paulo
dating of burials, relative, methods of, 26, 28. See
also terminus post quem
datum, site, 12, 13
da Verrazzano, Giovanni. See Verrazzano, Giovanni
da
Davis, Allison, 24f
decoration of coffins. See coffin decoration
degenerative joint disease (DJD). See osteoarthritis
de Gerrit de Reus, Manuel. See Reus, Manuel de
Gerrit de
Delancey estate, as site of new African cemetery, 61
Delaplaine, Joshua, 223
Delaware River, 43
The New York African Burial Ground

demand for enslaved labor, industries that created,

in the Americas, 7879
Dembos, 87, 88f
demographic nonstationarity, 179
demography, 5, 68n, 105, 125, 157, 166t, 177178,
179
Denkyira, 83, 84f
Denniston, Daniel, 61, 65f
dental crowding, 137
dental enamel. See enamel, dental
dental enamel hypocalcification. See enamel
hypocalcification
dental enamel hypoplasias. See enamel hypoplasias
dental modification, 123, 226
African birth, as an indication of, 92, 9395, 98,
100, 115, 224, 236
in New York African Burial Ground population,
9395, 98, 100, 100f, 116, 133, 250, 264
patterns, comparison of, New York African Burial
Ground with African and African Diaspora
reference populations, 93, 94t, 95t
persistence in the Americas, possible, 98, 100
types of, 93
See also Burial 101; Burial 165; Burial 340;
Burial 377
dental morphology, 268
geographic origins, as a means of determining, 91,
92, 102104
New York African Burial Ground population,
results for, 103104
dental pathologies, comparative samples for
Arkansas, African Americans from, 138, 139t
South Carolina, black soldiers from, 138, 139t
Texas, African Americans from, 138, 139t
See also Belleview Plantation; Catoctin Furnace
burial population; Charleston elites; First
African Baptist Church; Remley Plantation;
Rochester Poorhouse
dental pathologies, New York African Burial
Ground population, 134f
age and sex differences, 137138
comparison of frequencies with those of
cemeteries elsewhere, 138139, 139t
frequencies, 137138
as indicators of access to dental care, 138, 139
See also abscesses, dental; antemortem tooth loss;
caries, dental; dental pathologies, comparative
samples for; dentin; enamel hypocalcification;
enamel hypocalcification, New York African
Burial Ground population; enamel hypoplasias;

Index 355
enamel hypoplasias, New York African Burial
Ground population; molar agenesis
dentin, 93, 94, 96f, 98, 99f, 116, 244
dentine. See dentin
Deposition Concerning the Erection of Fort
Amsterdam and Other Work Done by the
Companys Negroes, 161
de Reus, Manuel. See Reus, Manuel de
de Reus, Manuel de Gerrit. See Reus, Manuel de
Gerrit de
de Reus, Manuel Gerrit. See Reus, Manuel Gerrit
de
de Sandoval, Alonso. See Sandoval, Alonso de
descendant community, African Burial Ground, 1,
17, 38, 119, 216, 260, 261, 268, 269, 270, 271,
273, 274, 275, 277, 278, 280281, 282
issues of principal concern, 3, 4, 15, 1819, 37,
125
points of disagreement, 13, 14, 34
deserters and prisoners of war, burials of, 56, 61,
71, 218
Deslondes, Charles, 203n
development in New York area, 38, 48, 56, 72, 277,
280
constraints imposed by, on African Burial Ground,
4647, 61, 66, 72
northward expansion, 46
de Villiers, Sieur, 208
Diamond, William, 14, 15, 17n
diarrhea, 126, 133, 140, 150, 155, 156
Dickson, William, 128
Dickson Mounds, 167
diet of Africans, in West and West Central Africa, 5,
28, 125, 126
European contact, before and after, 129, 130
See also nutritional deficiency; protein deficiency;
vitamin D deficiency; vitamin deficiencies
diet of enslaved Africans, in New York, 5, 28, 125,
126, 132, 151, 155, 156, 265
staple foods, 129, 130, 149
supplementation, 130, 131, 264
underground food economy, 130131, 264
See also nutritional deficiency; protein deficiency;
vitamin D deficiency; vitamin deficiencies
diet of enslaved Africans, in the West Indies, 5, 28,
125, 126, 264
barter and trade in stolen goods, 128
house plots, 128
maize, reliance on, 127
provision fields, 127, 128

See also geophagy; nutritional deficiency;

protein deficiency; vitamin D deficiency;
vitamin deficiencies
Dinkins, Mayor David, 15, 16f, 17n
diphtheria, 131, 265
Dircksen, Barent, 54
disease. See disease among enslaved Africans, in
New York; disease among enslaved Africans, in
the West Indies; infectious disease; and names of
specific diseases
disease among enslaved Africans, in New York, 5,
28, 100, 125, 126, 133, 144, 155, 156, 223, 265
environmental contributors to, 131
disease among enslaved Africans, in the West
Indies, 5, 28, 100, 125, 144
environmental contributors to, 128
mortality, 128
treatment, 127
dislocations (skeletal), 25
dissection, 61, 68n, 211. See also Burial 364
divination, 215, 259
cause of death, of, 249, 249f
material objects used for, 233, 241, 247, 257
in West and West Central Africa, 251, 256257
See also Brazil: divination and spirit possession;
conjurers; traditional African religions: healing
and divination
diviners. See conjurers
DNA analysis, 26, 104105, 106107t, 119, 268.
See also ancient DNA (aDNA); genetic analysis;
mtDNA, use in genetic analysis
Dock Ward, 39, 203
Doctors Riot, 61
Dodd, R. H., 53f
Dodson, Howard, 16f, 17, 17n, 18, 20
domination and resistance, models of, 4, 110, 111,
193, 195, 199, 209211, 212, 274
Dominican Republic, 42
Donaldson, James A., 22
Dongan, Governor Thomas, 200
Drake, St. Clair, 267
drawings, burial, 12, 13, 118f
dropsy, 128
Duane Street, 2f, 9, 10, 20, 47, 61, 63f
DuBois, W. E. B., 117, 267
Dukes laws, 44. See also James, Duke of York
Dunham, Katherine, 267
Dutch, the. See Common, the: Dutch period, during
the; landownership by Africans in New York:
during the Dutch period; Native Americans:
Dutch trade with; New Amsterdam: establishment

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

356 Index
as a Dutch trading post; New York City: Dutch
period, dates of; provisions trade: Dutch, between
Chesapeake and West Indies; transatlantic trade
in enslaved Africans, Dutch involvement
Dutch East India Company, 42, 45
Dutch Reformed Church, 58, 60n, 200, 253
Dutch West India Company, 4243, 46, 47n, 54,
54n, 58, 59f, 85, 87, 161, 162, 175, 197n, 211
Duyckink, Gerardus, 50f
dysentery, 126, 127, 128
amoebic dysentery, 128
bacillary dysentery, 128

Early Group, 28, 115, 120t121t, 150, 180, 183,

184, 187, 219, 220t, 225, 236, 244, 245, 252
date range of, 28
earrings, 238, 241. See also Burial 332
East River, 66, 67, 162
East River wharf system, 66
East Ward, 39, 205
Edwards and Kelcey, 10
rndnlgn, 233
Efe, 217
EIS. See Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
elemental-signature analysis (ESA), 75, 97f, 115,
116, 144
geographic origins, as a means of determining, 92,
9395, 98, 99f, 100, 119, 236
Elem Kalabari (New Calabar), 87, 108
elephantiasis, 128
elevations, recorded in the field, 12, 26
Elizabeth, 126
Elk Street, 2f, 9, 63f, 65f
Ellison, John, 198
Elmina, 81, 130, 242, 244
Elm Street. See Elk Street
Emancipation Day, 41, 209
emancipation law of 1799, 41
emancipation of enslaved laborers, 4, 40, 41, 54,
162, 197n, 198, 201, 209210, 253
in exchange for supporting British troops during
the Revolutionary War, 40
in the state of New York, date of, 38, 39, 40
See also abolition of slavery; conditional freedom;
manumission
enamel, dental, 26, 9394, 95, 96f, 98, 99f, 100,
116, 133, 244
enamel hypocalcification, 137
enamel hypocalcification, New York African Burial
Ground population, 134f
The New York African Burial Ground

age differences, 137

as an indicator of childhood stress, 133, 137, 155
enamel hypoplasias
evidence for differences in childhood stressors,
African vs. New York birth, 135, 136
as indicators of physiological stress, 134, 135136
prevalence in young New York Africans, 135, 266
enamel hypoplasias, New York African Burial
Ground population, 26, 266
age and sex differences, 134135, 136, 155
comparison of frequencies with those at
cemeteries elsewhere, 134, 135, 155
frequencies, 132, 155
England, 33, 40, 41, 44, 197, 208, 225, 254
enslavement of Africans by Africans, 79, 195196
entertainment of enslaved Africans, forms of, 203,
209
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), 10
Environmental Impact Statement, New York
African Burial Ground, 10
epidemics, 64, 66, 101, 131, 176, 223, 265
on board ships transporting enslaved Africans and
spread in ports, 127
ESA. See elemental-signature analysis (ESA)
escape. See resistance to enslavement: escape;
runaways
essentialism, racial, 113, 270
ethnicity, 79, 105, 109, 110, 112, 116, 271, 272, 273
ethnic markers, 112, 234
ethnie, 109
ethnocentricity, 19, 262
ethnogenesis, diasporic, 111, 122
ethnonyms, diasporic, 109
Eurocentrism, 262, 275, 278
Evertse, Anthony John, 54
Ewe, 85, 251, 257
excavation, New York African Burial Ground, 1, 2f,
3, 10, 1516, 16f, 1717, 19f32f, 68, 71, 177,
230, 276
desecration, regarded as, by members of
descendant community, 3, 14, 259, 260, 275,
282
hand, 12
mechanical, 12
plan map, 11f
procedures, 1213
See also damage to burials during excavation
executions, 56, 122, 194, 194f, 204, 206n, 210, 211,
212
as punishment for theft, 128

Index 357

FABC. See First African Baptist Church (FABC)

burial population
factionalization. See sociopolitics of scientific
research
factory system, 80, 81
family life of enslaved Africans, in New
Amsterdam, 175, 176
family life of enslaved Africans, in New York, 4, 5,
119, 157, 179, 191
prevention of interaction and procreation, effects
of, 174, 175, 191, 266
sale of family members, effect of, 175, 193
family relationships, New York African Burial
Ground population, evidence for, 123, 157, 264
children buried near adults, 176, 177
clustered graves, 176, 266
grave markers, 176177, 266
jewelry, burial with, 176, 266
shared graves, 176, 177, 224, 266
Faneuil, Benjamin, 45, 198
Fante, 84f, 130, 223, 248, 249
fasteners, clothing, 28, 71, 224, 225, 231, 238, 240.
See also aglets; buttons; cuff links; grommet
feasting, as mourning ritual. See mourning rites:
feasting
Federal Emergency Management Agency, 28
Federal period, date range of, 5, 211
Federal Steering Committee, 1718, 1920
fences and fence lines, 28, 47, 61, 227, 231, 250
Ferguson, Catherine, 201
fertility, 5, 115, 157, 174, 176, 177, 178, 191, 194,
233, 248
fertility, New York African Burial Ground
population, 179181, 185
festivals, celebration of, by enslaved Africans,
109110, 199, 203
filed teeth. See dental modification
fill, grave-shaft, 10, 1213, 17, 18, 68, 70, 98, 230,
240f
filling in of Collect Pond and African Burial
Ground, 26, 56, 61, 64, 66, 70, 72, 177, 259
First African Baptist Church (FABC) burial
population, 135t
dental enamel hypoplasias in, 134
dental pathologies in, 138, 139, 139t
mean age at death in, 186187
osteoarthritis in, 171
periostitis in, 142, 151, 151f
porotic hyperostosis in, 147, 148f, 149, 151, 151f
Schmorls nodes in, 172

skeletal indicators of pathology in, 140, 143f, 150

survivorship and life expectancy in, 187, 188f,
189, 190
First Baptist Church, 201
Five Points, 15, 150
fixed melancholy, 126
flexed burials, 227, 250
floral tributes, 230
flux. See dysentery
Foley Square, 2f, 10, 20
purchase of, by General Services Administration,
9, 10
folk medicine, African, 129, 132
Fon (ethnic group), 85, 110, 217, 251, 257
Fon (polity), 85
forcible migration of Africans to New York, 37,
42, 89, 129, 156, 176, 187, 190, 251, 266, 270,
279. See also importation of enslaved Africans
to New York and entries for transatlantic trade in
enslaved Africans
forensic anthropology, 19, 69, 101, 138
forms, field, 13
Fort Amsterdam, 46, 161
Fort Orange, Jan, 42
Fort Saint James, 83
Fort Saint-Joseph, 83
Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and
Western Regions World Heritage Site, 279
Fortune, 89
Fortune, Isaac, 61
Fortune, John, 176
Fortuyn, 45
fractures, 166, 172
fractures, New York African Burial Ground
population, 25, 145f, 190, 210211, 212
perimortem, 210211 (see also Burial 89; Burial
171; Burial 180; Burial 205)
violence, as evidence of, 194, 211, 212 (see also
Burial 25)
France. See French, the
Francisco, Jan, 42, 55t
Franklin Street, 54
free blacks in New York, 165, 194, 206n, 208,
209210, 218
legal restrictions on, 94, 199
See also purchase of kin by free Africans;
reenslavement of free Africans
freedom. See emancipation of enslaved laborers
Freedoms Journal, 209
French, the, 39, 105, 110, 126, 207. See also
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, French

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

358 Index
involvement
French structuralism, 262
Fresh Water. See Collect Pond
Friends of the African Burial Ground, 277
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, 41, 207
Fula, 79, 82f, 158, 251
Fulah. See Fula
Fulao, 85
Fulbe, 104, 106107t, 159
Fuller, Douglas, 24f
funeral attire. See burial attire
fungus infestation of skeletal remains, 25
fur trade, 40, 42, 45, 46, 161, 174
Futa Tooro, 82f, 83

Gabon, 101, 251

Gabriel, 203n
Gajaaga, 82f, 83
Gambia (polity), 81, 91, 279
Gambia River, 81, 82f, 83, 108, 279
gangs, African (criminal), 206n, 207
gangs, labor. See labor gangs
Garcia, Anthony Portuguese, 42
Geechee, 111
General Services Administration, United States
(GSA), 1, 3, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 17n, 18,
19, 20, 22, 26, 28, 34, 261, 262, 268, 273, 274,
275
genetic analysis, 19, 75, 123, 176, 177, 224, 268
geographic origins, as a means of determining, 68,
91, 92, 104, 119, 263
New York African Burial Ground population,
results for, 104105, 106t107t, 119
genetic diversity. See genetic analysis, New York
African Burial Ground population, results for
geophagy, 128
Georgia, 208
Gerrit de Reus, Manuel. See Reus, Manuel Gerrit
de
Ghana, 34, 35f, 37, 81, 83, 85, 95, 97f, 98, 99f, 102,
115, 129, 130, 223, 230, 233, 242, 244, 248, 251,
272, 279
Ghezo, King, 279
Gideon, 43
gifts given to family members, 176
gifts given to mourners. See under mourning rites
glass sphere (artifact), 245, 246f
Gold Coast, 81, 8385, 109, 110, 158159, 196,
204
burial practices, 222, 223, 230, 249
The New York African Burial Ground

centralization of political power, eighteenth

century, 83
gold and enslaved Africans, trade in, 81, 83
map of, 84f
migration of displaced African people to, 83
See also origins of enslaved Africans in New
York: Gold Coast
Gold Street, 61
Gold Street cemetery, 61
gold trade. See Gold Coast: gold and enslaved
Africans, trade in
Gomez, Michael, 33
Gore Island, 83, 279. See also Island of Gore
World Heritage Site
Gracie Mansion, 17
Gramercy Park, 54
grave clusters, 110, 119, 120t, 176, 266. See also
Burial 101; Burial 176; Burial 332; family
relationships, New York African Burial Ground
population, evidence for: clustered graves
grave diggers, 113114, 199, 216, 258259
grave goods, 3, 5, 15, 34, 115, 211, 216, 222, 224,
227, 230, 233, 234, 250, 252, 254, 259, 275
grave markers, 114, 116, 157, 177, 216, 217, 218,
228230, 229f, 252, 266
cobbles, 114, 177, 228, 229f (see also Burial
13/43; Burial 22; Burial 23; Burial 29; Burial
47)
headstones, 60, 254
stone slabs, 114, 177, 228 (see also Burial 18;
Burial 23; Burial 47; Burial 360)
See also Burial 194; family relationships, New
York African Burial Ground population,
evidence for: grave markers
grave orientation, 70, 71, 216, 218, 226228, 228f,
252, 254, 258
grave robbing, 26, 61, 211
grave-shaft materials, decision not to reinter. See
under reinterment of remains, African Burial
Ground
graveside deposits, 230231, 237, 259
graveside rituals, 177, 201, 212, 224, 231, 248250,
249f
Great Awakening, 40
Great Kill, 54
Greenwich Village, 54
Grim, David, 57f
gris-gris, 251
grommet, 231. See also Burial 368
Groot, Manuel. See Manuel, Big

Index 359
ground surface, destruction of eighteenth-century,
12, 26, 33, 217, 230, 266
growth status, 125, 128, 132, 133, 151155, 153f,
154f, 155156, 265
GSA. See General Services Administration, United
States (GSA)
Guadeloupe, 77, 101
Guatemalan children, enamel hypoplasias among,
133
guerra preta, 160
Guinea, 43, 45, 81, 94t, 129
Guinea, Gulf of. See Gulf of Guinea
Guinea, Lower. See Lower Guinea
Guinea, Rivers of. See Rivers of Guinea
Guinea, Upper. See Upper Guinea
Guinea-Bissau, 81
Gulf of Benin. See Bight of Benin
Gulf of Guinea, 76
Gulf of Mexico, 237
Gullah, 111
gun-slave cycle, 83
Gur, 85, 110

Haiti, 42, 203n

half-freedom. See under conditional freedom
Half Moon, 45
Hall, Anna, 54
Hallett family, 206n
Hamilton, Alexander, 40, 201
Hamilton, William, 201
Hanover Square, 66, 67
Hans, 67
haplogroups, 104105, 106t107t
Harlem, 21t, 39, 175, 207
Harry, 206n
Hausa, 87, 104, 106t
HCI. See Historic Conservation and Interpretation
(HCI)
headstones. See under grave markers
head-to-west orientation. See under body position
heart-shaped symbols. See under coffin decoration
Heermans, Augustine, 43, 66
hereditary slavery, 195, 197, 198, 211, 266
Herskovits, Melville, 75
Herson, Milton, 17n
heterogeneity, hidden, 179
Heywood, Linda, 33
Hill, M. Cassandra, 22
Hispaniola, 79, 89, 90t. See also Dominican
Republic; Haiti

historical archaeology, 261, 262, 268, 270271

historical creolization, 111, 274. See also
creolization
historical research, New York African Burial
Ground Project. See under New York African
Burial Ground Project
Historic Conservation and Interpretation (HCI), 10,
13, 14, 15, 16f
History of Jamaica, 127
Holst, Mary, 206n
Honduras, 45
hookworms, 128
Hosey (Jose), 204
House of Assembly (New York City), 129
Howard University, 1, 3, 12, 14, 17n, 1819, 22, 24,
26, 28, 33, 34, 261, 268, 275, 277, 281
transfer of remains to, 22, 23f, 261, 282
Howson, Jean, 26, 33
Hrdlicka, Ale, 19
Hudson, Henry, 45
Hudson River, 45, 46, 162
Hudsons Bay, 44
Hudson Valley, 44, 46
Hueda, 85, 130
Hula (Pla), 85
human dignity, 4, 5, 111, 115, 193213, 261, 264,
267, 276, 279
Hunter, Governor Robert, 198
Hurst, Keisha, 24f
Hurston, Zora Neale, 267
hypertrophy of musculoskeletal attachments, 172,
173, 173f, 174, 190
hypocalcification. See enamel hypocalcification
hypoplasias, enamel. See enamel hypoplasias

Ibani, 86f, 87
Ibibio, 248
Ibo, 248
ICPWCNH. See Intergovernmental Committee for
the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage (ICPWCNH)
identity of diasporic Africans, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 110112,
193, 212, 213, 217, 218, 257
African cultural identity, continuity of, in New
York, 203
formation and continuity during enslavement in
Africa, 108
formation at African Burial Ground, 76, 113114,
122, 123, 215
formation in New York, 48, 109110, 122, 201

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

360 Index
lines of evidence for inferring, 113
types of, 113
use of artifacts to infer, 114119, 243
If, 251
Igala, kingdom of, 86f, 87
Igbo, 86f, 87, 109, 110, 251, 257
ijiko, 196
Ile-Ifa, 251
Ile-Ife, 234
Ilora, 233
Imbangalas, 76, 80, 160
Imbundus, 159
importation of enslaved Africans to New York, 41,
42, 78, 87, 129, 136, 144, 179, 185, 191
direct, from Africa, 45, 85, 89, 91, 91t, 110, 130
federal ban on, 41
increase during New Yorks economic recession,
1730s, 4445
role in the citys economy, 39, 4445
via the West Indies, 45, 77, 89, 90t, 91t, 160, 209
See also forcible migration of Africans to New
York and entries for transatlantic trade in
enslaved Africans
indentured servants, 44, 79, 112, 161, 162, 193,
196, 203, 205, 206, 209, 218, 223
indentured servitude, of children when parents
were freed, 41
India, 92
Indian Ocean, 42, 115, 233, 252
infectious disease, 132, 133, 139, 140, 142, 153,
155, 265
interaction with nutritional deficiency, 151
prevalence in young New York Africans, 155, 266
See also disease among enslaved Africans, in New
York; disease among enslaved Africans, in the
West Indies; and names of specific diseases
influenza, 131, 155, 265
inoculation of children by exposure to disease, 128
insubordination. See under resistance to
enslavement
Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection
of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
(ICPWCNH), 278
International Advisory Board (genetic analysis),
105
International Years to Commemorate the Struggle
against Slavery and its Abolition (20042007),
279
interpretive center, African Burial Ground, 3, 14,
20, 22, 34, 261, 273
iron-deficiency anemia. See under anemia
The New York African Burial Ground

Islam, 160, 196, 215, 216, 234, 264, 279, 282

African Diaspora religion, overlooked component
of, 251
in Atlantic Africa, 251
traditional African religions, blending with, 108,
251, 252, 254, 255, 257, 258
See also burial practices, Muslim; Senegambia:
Islam, influence of, on trade in enslaved
Africans
Island of Gore World Heritage Site, 279
isotopic analyses, 19, 75, 91, 92, 93100, 99f, 115,
116, 119, 123, 144, 150, 224, 233, 236, 244, 250,
252, 263, 268
Isoya, 233
Ivory Coast, 80, 81, 83, 110, 249

Jackson, Fatimah, 105, 269

jaji, 257
Jamaica, 37, 77, 87, 89, 90t, 108, 109, 128, 203n,
242, 244, 249f, 263
James, Duke of York, 43. See also Dukes laws
James Island and Related Sites World Heritage Site,
279
Jay, John, 40, 201
Jea, John, 130
Jericho, 254
jewelry. See personal adornment
Joe, 199
John (Juan), 204
John Milner Associates, Inc., 1, 3, 13, 15, 16, 16f,
17, 1819, 26, 28, 37, 275
John Street Methodist Church, 201
Jolof, 82f, 251
Jones, Joseph, 24f
Jorde, Peggy King, 16f, 277
Jose. See Hosey (Jose)
Juan. See John (Juan)

kafan, 251
Kalckhook. See Collect Pond
Kalkhook. See Collect Pond
Kapanda, cemetery at, 230
Kapsee, 46
Kasanje, 88f, 160
khatt ar-raml (sand writing), 251
kidnapping of Africans or African Americans
in Africa, 42, 79, 80
on the North American continent, 41
Kieft, Governor Willem, 54

Index 361
Kiersted, Blandina, 66, 67
Kiersted, Catherine, 65f
Kiersted, Hans, 47, 47n
Kiersted, Lucas, 47, 65f
Kiersted, Rachel, 65f
Kiersted, Sara Roeloff. See Roeloff, Sara
Kiersted family, 47n, 61
Kikongo, 217, 247
kilundu, 255
Kimbundu, 247, 256
kin-based production. See capitalism, comparison
with kin-based production
King Jorde, Peggy. See Jorde, Peggy King
Kings House Tavern, 66, 67
King Street, 54
Kip, Henry H., 61
Kip, Johannis, 47
kitebela, 256
kiteke, 247
kitomi, 256
kixila, 255
Klima, Don, 15
knives, 46, 67, 204
artifacts at New York African Burial Ground, 114,
241, 244, 244f, 252
See also Burial 48; Burial 214
Koch, Mayor Edward, 9
Kocundy, 158
koins, 109
Kongo (Congo), as surname, 81
Kongo (ethnic group), 93, 159f, 196, 230, 247, 253,
254, 255, 257, 258
Kongo (polity), 76, 80, 87, 110, 130, 158, 252253,
256
cemeteries in, 230, 256
Kingdom of, 43, 80, 252, 253
Kongoland, 253
map of, 88f
Kongolese Christianity. See Christianity: in Kongo
Kormantine, as surname, 81
kubba. See kafan
Kumasi, 85
Kwango, 76, 87
Kwanza River, 88f, 160

labor, in colonial New York, 30, 38, 157, 158, 265

changes for enslaved Africans during the
Revolutionary War, 40
children, 5, 136, 164165, 166

competition between enslaved and non-enslaved

labor, 162
roles of enslaved men and women, 162, 164
types of, 39, 79, 107, 161162
See also occupations of New York Africans
labor, in New Amsterdam, 39, 72, 78
agricultural work, 161
domestic work, 161
fighting Native Americans, employment of
enslaved Africans for, 43, 79, 161
types of, 161
labor, in the West Indies, 28, 79, 128, 265
effects on the body, 160
sugar production, rigors of, 160
types of, 160
labor, in West and West Central Africa
agricultural work, 157, 158, 159f, 160
cattle raising, 159
effects on the body, 158
metalworking, 157158
mining, 158, 159, 160
regional differences, 158159
roles of men and women, 158
warfare and raiding, participation in, 80, 160
laboratory analysis, nonskeletal, 26, 28
laboratory analysis, skeletal, 12
age at death, determination of, 25
data collected, 25
pathologies, anomalies, and nongenetic traits,
assessment of, 2526
photographs and radiographs, 24, 25, 26
sex of individuals, determination of, 25
tissue samples, 26, 104
laboratory facilities, 3, 12, 13, 22, 26, 28, 105
labor gangs, 158, 161, 183, 202, 207
labor practices, New York. See labor, in colonial
New York; occupations of African New Yorkers
labor practices, West and West Central Africa. See
labor, in West and West Central Africa
Lachantaer, Rmulo, 267
lactose intolerance, 132, 156
Lafayette Street, 54
Lagos channel, 85, 86f
Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), 13,
14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 34, 68, 273
landmarks relevant to history of African Americans
in New York City, 20, 21t
land of the blacks, 54
landownership by Africans in New York, 47
during the British period, 54, 56, 266
during the Dutch period, 5354, 55t, 72

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

362 Index
land grants awarded to blacks, mid-seventeenth
century, 5354, 55t
LaRoche, Cheryl, 26
Late Group, 28, 95, 115, 116, 118, 120121t, 180,
184, 187, 210, 221t, 224, 241, 243, 244, 245
date range of, 28, 95, 115, 116, 118, 221t, 224,
241, 243, 244, 245
Late-Middle Group, 28, 118, 119, 120t121t, 180,
184, 187, 221t, 223, 237, 241, 250
date range of, 28, 118, 119, 221t, 223, 237, 241,
250
law, 1680 (requiring enslaved laborers to carry
passes when traveling), 197
law, 1682 (limiting gatherings of enslaved laborers
to four people and requiring passes for enslaved
laborers to participate in sports), 197, 203
law, 1684 (precluding enslaved persons from
selling commodities), 131
law, 1696 (restricting Africans and Native
Americans from the military), 197
law, 1700 (reducing number of enslaved laborers in
gatherings to three), 197
law, 1702 (making enslavement hereditary), 197
law, 1702 (precluding enslaved persons from
selling commodities), 131
law, 1706 (precluding emancipation of enslaved
individuals of African or Native American
descent or their children on the basis of baptism),
200, 218, 253
law, 1706 (restricting enslavement to Africans and
discounting religion in determining enslavement),
200, 218, 253
law, 1715 (precluding enslaved persons from
selling commodities), 131
law, 1722 (restricting funerals of African New
Yorkers and enslaved Native Americans to
daylight hours), 199, 248
law, post-1741 (prohibiting the sale of produce
and foodstuffs by enslaved Africans and Native
Americans), 131
Law for Regulating Negro and Indian Slaves in
the Night Time, 198
laws, regulations, and ordinances, 216, 223.
See also Act to Prevent the Kidnapping of
Free People of Colour, An; amendment, 1731;
emancipation law of 1799; Law for Regulating
Negro and Indian Slaves in the Night Time;
ordinances, 1680s and 1690s; proclamation,
1681; and entries for law and laws
laws, post1712 Uprising (limiting interactions
between enslaved and free Africans, rescinding
The New York African Burial Ground

right to own real estate, and limiting

manumission), 56, 198, 199
laws, 1692 (stipulating punishment for noise, street
play, and bar patronizing by enslaved laborers),
197
lead content, analysis of, in teeth, 95, 100, 100f,
115, 116, 119, 155, 236, 244, 265
lead poisoning, 92, 100101, 119, 131, 132, 149,
155, 156, 191, 265, 280
pewter as a source of, 100, 101, 132
silent epidemic among enslaved Africans in
New York, 100101
Lehman College, 10, 13, 14
Leito, Manoel Correia, 160
Lenape, 46
Lon, Rodney, 20
Leonard Street, 66
leprosy, 128
lesions, active vs. healed, 140, 142, 144, 147, 265
Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery, 279
Levy, Asser, 198n
Levy, Maria, 198n
libations as a mourning rite. See mourning rites:
libations
Liberia, 80, 122
life expectancy. See survivorship and life
expectancy, New York African Burial Ground
population
life tables
New York African Burial Ground, for, 189t, 190t
problems with interpreting, 178, 187
Linpro, 17
Little Anthony. See Anthony, Little
Little David, 45
Little Manuel. See Manuel, Little
Loango, 87, 88f, 93, 95t, 255, 256
Loango Bay, 87
Loango Coast, 116
lockjaw, 128
London, 45, 223
Long, Edward, 127
Long Island, 54, 131, 207
Lord Cornbury. See Cornbury, Lord (born Hon.
Edward Hyde)
Lot 12, 10
Lot 14, 12, 67
Lot 15, 12
Lot 16, 12
Lot 17, 12
Lot 18, 31f
Lot 20, 10

Index 363
Lot 20, 10, 12
Lot 21, 10
Lot 22, 12
Lots 14. See Calk Hook Farm: Lots 14
Lots 517. See Calk Hook Farm: Lots 517
Louisiana, 37, 203n
Lower Guinea, 81
Lower Manhattan, 1, 5, 9, 13, 22, 46, 56, 66, 67,
68, 72, 73, 226227, 228f, 277
LPC. See Landmarks Preservation Commission
(LPC)
Luanda, 76, 77, 87, 88f
luck ball, 247
Lutherans, 253. See also Christ Lutheran Church;
Trinity Lutheran Church; United Lutheran
Church
Lyne, James, 48f
Lyne-Bradford Plan, 48f, 49f

MacDonald, Robert, 17n

Mack, Mark, 3, 22, 24f
macrobotanical, palynological, and parasitological
analyses, 13
macroethnic diversity, New York African Burial
Ground population, 19, 75, 92, 93, 106t107t,
109, 123, 263
Madagascar, 45, 87, 89, 217, 279
Madeira, 45
Maerschalk, Francis, 50f
Maerschalk Plan, 47, 50f, 51f
maize, 126, 127, 129, 130, 137, 149, 151, 156, 158,
160, 162, 167
Makua, 93, 95t
Malagasy, 45, 87, 89, 217, 279. See also
Madagascar
malaria, 131, 150
Maldives, 115
Malemba, 87
Mali, 81, 82f, 251
Malinke, 79
Manatus Map, 59f
Mande, 110
Mandinga. See Mandingo
Mandingo, 109, 251
Mandinka, 79, 104, 106107t
Manhatta, 45
Manhattan, 5, 12, 20, 21t, 37, 38, 39, 43, 44, 45,
46, 53f, 54, 56, 58, 66, 67, 71, 72, 98, 112, 175,
191, 194, 199, 200, 201, 211, 212, 218, 242, 253,

263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 275. See also Lower

Manhattan; Manhattan Island
Manhattan, Lower. See Lower Manhattan
Manhattan Island, 45, 46, 47, 207
Manhattan Land Book, 2f
Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice (William Murray, 1st
Earl of Mansfield), 41
Manuel, Big, 42, 54, 55t, 197n
Manuel, Cleyn. See Manuel, Little
Manuel, Little, 42, 55t, 197n
Manuel Groot. See Manuel, Big
Manuel the Spaniard, 55t
manumission, 175176, 195, 197, 198, 207, 266
by last will and testament, 198
restrictions on, in colonial New York, 176, 197,
198, 200201, 211, 266
See also abolition of slavery; conditional freedom;
emancipation of enslaved laborers; New York
Manumission Society
maps, African regions of origin. See Angola
(polity): map of; Bight of Benin: map of; Gold
Coast: map of; Kongo (polity): map of; Niger
Delta: map of; Senegambia: map of
maps, field, 13, 119, 122
maps, plan, 13
of burials, 13, 29f, 30f, 31f, 32f
of excavation site, 11f
maps of New York, historical. See British
Headquarters Map; Buchnerds Plan, Mrs.;
Carwitham Plan; Castello Plan; Dodd, R. H.;
Grim, David; Lyne-Bradford Plan; Maerschalk
Plan; Manatus Map; Ratzer Map; 1787 surveyors
map of partition of Calk Hook Farm into lots;
1795 surveyors map of lots assigned to Sara
Roeloffs heirs; Taylor-Roberts Plan; Townsend
MacCoun Map
maps of New York, modern. See Sanborn Map
Maravi, 93, 95t
Mariners Temple Baptist Church, 22
Market House, 44f
maroon communities, 110, 207
marriage of Africans, 174, 177, 233, 256
in Dutch Reformed Church, 200
in New Amsterdam, 175, 176
in New York, 109, 110, 176, 266
restrictions on, 41, 175
marronage, 207
Martinique, 45
Martins Hundred, 218
Mary, 206n
Marya, 176

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

364 Index
Marycke, 55t
Maryland, 28, 34, 37, 44, 45, 105, 134, 135, 135t,
174, 208, 247
Massachusetts, 230
mass graves, lack of, at New York African Burial
Ground, 56, 70, 71
Matamba, 88f, 159, 159f
Mauritania, 76, 81, 83
mavata, 196
Mayors Task Force, 15
Mbundu, 160, 255, 256
McGowan, Gary, 26
measles, 129, 131, 156, 265
Medford, Edna Greene, 28, 33
medical care in colonial New York, 132, 153, 280
Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), 10
amended, Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, General Services Administration,
and Landmarks Preservation Commission
(December 20, 1991), 1314, 16, 17, 20, 22, 33,
262, 273, 275
General Services Administration and Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation (March 15,
1989), 9
General Services Administration and Mayor
Edward Koch (March 11, 1988), 9, 1314
memorial, African Burial Ground, 3, 14, 16, 17, 20,
261, 273
Memorial Advisors, 277
memorialization practices in Africa, 230231, 237,
259. See also graveside deposits: in Africa
meningeal reactions, 142
Merritt, Mayor William, 203, 206n
Mesoamerica, 93, 152
metal mass (artifact), 245. See also Burial 250
Metropolitan Forensic Anthropology Team
(MFAT), 10, 13, 14, 19
Mexico, 78, 176, 203n
MFAT. See Metropolitan Forensic Anthropology
Team (MFAT)
mica schist disk (artifact), 245, 246f, 247, 264. See
also Burial 135
Michalius, Domine Jonas, 200
Middle Group, 28, 115, 120t122t, 180, 183, 184,
187, 220t, 225, 236, 237, 241, 250
date range of, 28, 115, 220t, 236, 237, 241, 250
Middle Passage, 115, 203n, 237
disease, 126, 127
health of enslaved Africans, effects on, 125, 126
127, 135136, 155, 266
kinship relations, effect on, 175, 176
The New York African Burial Ground

malnutrition and dehydration, 126

mortality rates of enslaved Africans, 45, 127
overcrowding and poor sanitation, 126, 127
restricted mobility of captive Africans, 126
migration, forcible. See forcible migration of
Africans to New York
Mina (alternate name for Elmina). See Elmina
Mina (alternate name for Gold Coast), 83, 257
Minas Gerais, 79
Minetta Creek. See Minetta Lane
Minetta Lane, 54
minkisi, 247248, 255, 258
Minority Environmental Lawyers Association, 15,
18
Minuit, Peter, 46
miscegenation, 112
Mississippi, 77
MOA. See Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)
molar agenesis, 137
Montgomerie Charter, 56
Montserrat, 89, 90t
Moravian Church, 60n
Moroccans, 54, 83, 251
Morris Street, 58
mortality, New York African Burial Ground
population, 5, 128, 140, 142, 144, 147, 151, 152,
153, 157, 176, 177178, 179180, 180f, 181t,
182t
age-at-death distribution, 178, 179, 185, 266
age-at-death distribution, comparison with that of
European burial population at Trinity Church,
185186, 186f, 186t
mean age at death, change over time, 180181
mean age at death, comparison with those of
burial populations at other sites, 186187
sex differences, 181, 183184
mortality rates, 77, 126, 174, 184, 189t, 190t
mortuary material culture, 231248
spiritual significance of, 245, 247248
mortuary practices. See entries for burial practices
mortuary program, African Burial Ground, 224,
226. See also burial practices, African Burial
Ground; burial practices, New York African
Burial Ground
mortuary treatment. See entries for burial practices
Mossel, Thijs, 45
mourning rites, 216
drinking, 249, 250
feasting, 249, 250
gifts given to mourners, 248
libations, 230, 248, 282

Index 365
wailing, 248249, 252
Mozambique, 94t, 105, 115
Mpunda, 87
MSMs. See musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs)
mtDNA, use in genetic analysis, 104, 106t107t
mubires, 87
Mulatto, as racial term, 107
mulattoes, 46, 54, 60
multilingualism of New York Africans, 110
Munsees, 217
murder
by enslaved Africans and Native Americans, 195,
199, 204, 206n, 267
of enslaved Africans by enslavers, 194, 199, 206,
210
See also resistance to enslavement: murder
musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs), 157, 172
musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs), New York
African Burial Ground population, 26, 166
activities inferred from patterns of, 173174
age and sex differences, 172173
frequencies, 172173
incidence in other burial populations, comparison
with, 174
methods for assessing, 172
See also skeletal stress markers, New York
African Burial Ground population
Museum of the City of New York, 20
music and dance
at funerals, 199, 201, 231, 248, 249
among New York Africans, 22, 107, 108, 109,
110, 122, 190, 203, 272
Muslim. See burial practices, Muslim; Islam
mutilation as a form of punishment, 199, 204, 210
Mzinga Mbamba, 253

Nachtegael, 45
NAGPRA. See Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
nails, coffin. See coffin nails
names used by New York Africans, 42, 81, 111,
176, 193, 195, 212. See also Kongo (Congo), as
surname; Kormantine, as surname
Namibia, 93, 95t
National African DNA Bank, 105
National Archaeological Database, 273
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), 153
National Historic Landmark, designation of African
Burial Ground as. See African Burial Ground
National Historic Landmark

National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), 3, 9,

276
criteria for establishing significance, 276
See also National Register of Historic Places
(NRHP)
National Monument, designation of African Burial
Ground as. See African Burial Ground National
Monument
National Museum of African American History and
Culture, 20
National Park Service, U.S. (NPS), 22, 34, 273
assumption of stewardship for New York African
Burial Ground, date of, 3
listening sessions and public meetings, 277
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), 10,
273
eligibility for listing in, 18, 276
scarcity of African American sites listed in, 276
277
See also National Historic Preservation Act
(NHPA)
nations, diasporic, 108110, 113, 122123, 175,
203, 263
Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 277278, 281
as potential model for legislation to protect
African American sites, 278
Native Americans, 6, 7, 10, 19, 47, 54n, 72, 92, 111,
112, 119, 122, 129, 131, 153154, 194, 197, 198,
199, 200201, 203, 206n, 208, 211, 247, 248,
253, 261, 264, 271, 272
Dutch trade with, 46, 47n
enslavement of, 42, 45, 217
enslavement of, ban on, 1679, 207, 218
See also burial population, New York African
Burial Ground: burial of Native American,
possible; burial practices, Native American;
labor, in New Amsterdam: fighting Native
Americans, employment of enslaved Africans
for; Lenape; Munsees; murder: by enslaved
Africans and Native Americans
Ndongo, 76, 80, 88f, 196
Ndoni, 87
Neau, Elias, 200, 203, 253254
necklaces, 115, 233, 236, 240, 241, 250. See also
Burial 214; Burial 226; Burial 377
Negretto, Pedro, 197n
Negro, Bastiaen, 55t
Negro, Claes, 55t
Negro, Jan, 55t
Negro, as a term

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

366 Index
historical use, 45, 184t, 218
identity, in relation to, 107
Negro Burying Place, 62f
Negroe Causeway. See Minetta Lane
Negroes Burial Ground, 19, 60, 218
Negroes Burying Ground, 63f
Negro kitchen, 131, 164, 165f
Nero, 198
Netherlands, 33
Nevis, 89, 90t
New Amsterdam, 19, 40, 47n, 5354, 59f, 66, 72,
89, 127, 129, 131, 162, 175, 176, 183, 195, 197,
197n, 199, 200, 217, 218, 251, 253
capture by the British in 1664, 43, 56, 77, 161,
211
date of founding, 38, 39, 161, 211
establishment as a Dutch trading post, 42, 46, 161
New Brunswick, 40, 208
New Calabar. See Elem Kalabari (New Calabar)
New England, 43, 110, 162
New Guinea, 92, 103
New Jersey, 33, 34, 38, 44, 45, 105, 131, 208, 209
New Netherland, 43, 46, 54n, 129, 250, 253
New Orleans, 135t, 140, 166, 174, 187
Newport, 203n
New Project of Freedoms and Exemptions, 43
Newton Plantation, 128, 134, 135t, 140, 160, 187,
212, 233
New York African Burial Ground
closing date of, official, 12, 18
collection of curated artifacts, databases, and
documents, 28, 34, 275
definition of, 3
number of burials not excavated and left in situ,
12
number of individuals entered into the
anthropometric record, 166
percentage of original African Burial Ground
excavated, 46
total number of graves identified, 12
total number of individuals with skeletal material
inventoried, 12
See also conservation techniques for human
remains and artifacts, New York African Burial
Ground
New York African Burial Ground Project, 1, 3, 5, 6,
9, 38, 68, 69, 267269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274,
278, 281
analytical, interpretive, and reinterment phases,
successes of, 22, 2426, 275
fieldwork phase, criticisms of, 274, 275
The New York African Burial Ground

historical research, 1, 2833, 7172, 125, 191,

263, 266
postexcavation analytical phase, 22
theoretical approach, 37, 262
See also public engagement, New York African
Burial Ground Project; research design, New
York African Burial Ground Project; research
themes, New York African Burial Ground
Project
New York African Society, 201
New York African Society for Mutual Relief, 61,
72, 201
New York City, 1, 2f, 5, 17, 20, 28, 34, 38, 44, 61,
66, 67, 68, 72, 75, 79, 87, 109, 110, 119, 129,
132, 136, 150, 156, 164, 179, 180, 181, 183, 184,
187, 194, 195, 197, 202, 205, 206, 207, 208209,
211, 216, 217, 223, 228, 238, 253254, 255, 260,
267, 270, 276, 277, 280
British period, dates of, 39, 40, 42, 45, 54, 56,
162, 198, 200
Dutch period, dates of, 19, 174, 175, 218, 253
New York City Common Council, 61, 131, 162,
197, 197n, 198, 199, 203, 207. See also petitions
to New York City Common Council
New York City Landmark, designation of African
Burial Ground as. See African Burial Ground and
the Common Historic District
New York Manumission Society, 40, 41, 201
New York Public Library, 20, 21t, 48f, 57f, 58f,
59f, 62f, 64f, 163f, 277, 279
New York State, 20, 175
New York State Historic Preservation Office
(NYSHPO), 10, 34
New York State legislators and legislature, 20, 40,
41
New York Times, 10, 13
New-York Weekly Post-Boy, 203n
nganga Kiteke, 256
Ngumbi, 93, 95t
NHPA. See National Historic Preservation Act
(NHPA)
Nicolls, Governor Richard, 44
Niger Delta, 80, 81, 87, 263
map of, 86f
modern nations included in, 87
Nigeria, 85, 87, 106t107t, 233, 272, 279
Niger-Kordofanian, 104
Niger River, 82f, 87
night burials, 199, 248
nitrogen isotope analysis, 150

Index 367
North America, 37, 38, 42, 43, 46, 54, 72, 77, 89,
127, 137, 151, 193, 200, 208, 230, 231, 251, 255,
262, 267, 280
northern colonies, enslavement of Africans in. See
slavery in northern colonies
North Ward, 39
Northwest Passage, 45
Nova Scotia, 44
relocation of enslaved Africans to, 40, 208
NPS. See National Park Service, U.S. (NPS)
NRHP. See National Register of Historic Places
(NRHP)
numbers, burial. See burial numbers, assignment of
Nupe (ethnic group), 251, 257
Nupe (polity), 87
nutritional deficiency, 147
evidence for, New York African Burial Ground
population, 132, 265
interaction with infectious disease, 132, 140, 149,
151, 155, 156, 191, 265
See also calcium deficiency; lactose intolerance;
protein deficiency; vitamin D deficiency;
vitamin deficiency
NYSHPO. See New York State Historic
Preservation Office (NYSHPO)
nzambi, 255
Nzambi Mpungu, 255

obeah, 215
obstacles to study of burial practices, African Burial
Ground
archaeological sampling, 179, 186, 217
identification of individuals in burial population,
lack of, 217218
overgeneralization of African cultures and
religions, 217
spatial and temporal variation in belief systems,
lack of data on, 217
occupations of New York Africans, 79, 116, 171,
264
agricultural labor, 161, 265
domestic labor, 39, 78, 136, 161, 164, 165, 171,
265
maritime trades, 39, 116, 123, 265
physician, first black, in New York colony, 54n
See also grave diggers; labor, in colonial New
York; labor, in New Amsterdam; porters; sailors,
enslaved African
ocher, red. See red ocher

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

(OSHA), 12, 25
odonko, 196
Office of Public Education and Interpretation
(OPEI), 22, 28, 33, 261, 268, 277, 281
Office of the Mayor, New York City, 19, 20
Offrah, 108
Ohio River Valley, 153, 154
Old Calabar. See Calabar, Old
Olokun, 234
OPEI. See Office of Public Education and
Interpretation (OPEI)
pl, 233
Orange, Jan Fort. See Fort Orange, Jan
ordinances, 1680s and 1690s (prohibiting Africans
from working as cart men or porters), 162
orientation of burials. See body position; burial
practices, Christian: body position; burial
practices, Muslim: body position; grave
orientation
origins of enslaved Africans in New York, 5, 37,
108, 112, 264
Bight of Benin, 81, 85, 87, 105, 110, 122, 263
bioarchaeological approaches to determining, 4,
75, 9192, 122, 196
Gold Coast, 81, 85, 89, 93, 95t, 102, 104105,
122, 263
Madagascar, 45, 87, 89, 217
maps showing African regions (see map entries
under names of individual regions)
Niger Delta, 81, 87, 263
research questions, 92
Senegambia, 81, 83, 89, 104105, 122, 203n, 251,
263
Southeast Africa, 72, 81, 87, 89, 93, 122, 263
West Africa, 28, 43, 72, 80, 81, 87, 89, 196, 217,
263
West Central Africa, 28, 43, 72, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81,
87, 89, 93, 119, 122, 157, 196, 263, 264
West Indies, transshipped from, 28, 43, 45, 72, 77,
81, 87, 89, 90t, 91, 91t, 119, 127, 217
origins of New York African Burial Ground
population, 4, 5, 18, 19, 22, 67, 79, 114, 115, 260,
263, 269
methods for determining, 19, 28, 68, 69, 75, 76,
9192, 93, 101, 102, 104, 119, 122, 123, 224,
233, 261262, 264, 267268, 282
See also dental morphology: geographic origins,
as a means of determining; genetic analysis:
geographic origins, as a means of determining;
origins of enslaved Africans in New York;

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

368 Index
strontium-isotope analysis: geographic origins,
as a means of determining
ornament, hair (artifact), 231. See also Burial 186
OSHA. See Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA)
osteoarthritis, 166167, 190
osteoarthritis, New York African Burial Ground
population, 167f, 168f, 169t, 170t, 171t, 172, 174,
210
activities inferred from patterns of, 157, 168, 169,
170, 265
age and sex differences, 167168, 169170, 190
frequencies, 167, 170
incidence in other burial populations, comparison
with, 170171
methods for assessing, 167
osteoarthrosis. See osteoarthritis
osteological paradox, 140, 179, 181
osteomyelitis, 140, 141f, 142
osteophytes, 167
osteophytosis, 166, 167
osteophytosis, New York African Burial Ground
population, 167, 167f, 169t, 172, 190
activities inferred from patterns of, 157, 169, 265
age and sex differences, 168
frequencies, 168
Osun, 279
Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove World Heritage Site,
279
Ouidah, 85, 86f, 87, 108, 279
Out Ward, 175
Ovimbundu, 76
Owampo, 93, 95t
oxygen-isotope analysis, 93
Oyo Empire, 85, 86f
oyster shells. See shells

Pach Huys, 43
Pagano, Dan, 14
paleodemography, 125
limits on reconstruction, 178179
paleodemography, Africans in colonial New York,
191
child-to-female ratio, 185
in-migration, 179, 180, 185, 187, 191
population growth, comparison of African and
European, 180181
population growth, estimates of, 180
sex ratio, 183184, 183f, 184t

The New York African Burial Ground

paleodemography, New York African Burial

Ground population. See child-to-female ratio,
New York African Burial Ground population;
fertility, New York African Burial Ground
population; mortality, New York African Burial
Ground population; sex ratio, New York African
Burial Ground population; survivorship and life
expectancy, New York African Burial Ground
population
palisades. See Common, the: palisades on; Van
Borsum patent: palisade wall across property
Palo Mayombe, 255
PANYC. See Professional Archaeologists of New
York City (PANYC)
Paquet Real, 93
Parrington, Michael, 10, 16f
Parting Ways, 230
paste. See rings: materials for
paternalism, 222223
Paterson, Senator David, 13, 17n
patroonships, 43
Pawpaws, 196, 204
peach pit (artifact), 116. See also Burial 217
Pearl Street, 47n
pendants, 114, 230, 231, 241, 242f. See also Burial
254
Pennsylvania, 15, 33, 34, 139t
periostitis
causes of, 132, 140, 142
interpretation of, 140
sclerotic periostitis, 141f
periostitis, New York African Burial Ground
population, 26, 133, 141f, 144, 155
age and sex differences, 142
comparison of frequencies with those at
cemeteries elsewhere, 142, 143f, 151, 151f
frequencies, 142
Pernambuco, 43, 85, 215
Perry, Warren, 26
personal adornment, 266
burials with, New York African Burial Ground,
231, 238, 240, 241 (see also Burial 6; Burial 10;
Burial 181; Burial 259; Burial 325; Burial 326;
Burial 415)
copper and copper-alloy as material for, 116, 231,
238, 239f, 240, 240f, 241, 241f, 243, 250
See also beads; bracelets; buttons; cuff links:
as personal adornment; earrings; family
relationships, New York African Burial Ground
population, evidence for: jewelry, burial with;
fasteners, clothing; necklaces; pendants; rings

Index 369
Peter the Doctor, 201, 204, 215
Petit, William, 199
petitions to New York City Common Council
by Africans to purchase plot of land for new burial
ground, 61
by African Zion Church for burial space in
potters field, 66
by members of New York African Society for
Mutual Relief to develop and manage Chrystie
Street cemetery, 61
by Van Borsum patent holders to lay streets within
patent, 61
pewter. See lead poisoning: pewter as a source of
Philadelphia, 10, 34, 40, 89, 134, 135t, 138, 139t,
142, 171, 172, 186, 218, 223
Philipse, Adolph, 45
Philipse, Frederick, 198n
photographs, field, 13, 14
Pieters, Barent Jan, 200
Pieters, Lucas, 54, 54n
Pieters, Solomon, 54
Pinkster, 109, 203, 203n
pins, 28, 34, 114, 225f, 231, 247
location of, in burials, 116, 225, 226, 240
shrouding, as evidence for, 224225, 226, 231,
252
See also Burial 147; shroud pins
pinta, 142, 144
pinworms, 150
pipes, smoking, 28, 67, 114, 241, 242, 242f, 243,
243f, 252, 264
unused pipes as possible talismans or mementos,
115, 241242, 244
See also Burial 158; Burial 165; Burial 340
pirates, trade in enslaved Africans by, 89
Pla. See Hula (Pla)
plan maps. See maps, plan
plantation archaeology, 67, 271, 280. See also
Belleview Plantation; Newton Plantation;
Remley Plantation; Seville Plantation; Waterloo
Plantation
Plymouth, 230
Pointer, Noel, 17n
Popo (ethnic group), 85, 109, 110
Popo (settlement), 84f, 85, 86f
population counts, Africans, 89, 152, 161, 176,
184t, 208, 217
enslaved Africans, in New York vs. in the southern
colonies, 39, 44, 77
New York County, 16981800, 78t, 182

population counts, Euroamericans

in New York, 180, 181, 266
New York County, 16981800, 78t, 182t
population growth, New York Africans, 78, 176,
180, 181, 183, 187, 209
in-migration rather than reproduction, as a result
of, 157, 179, 180, 187, 191, 266
porotic hyperostosis, 145146
porotic hyperostosis, New York African Burial
Ground population, 26, 133, 140, 146f, 147t, 153,
155
age and sex differences, 146147
comparison of frequencies with those at
cemeteries elsewhere, 147, 148f, 149, 151f
possible causes, 132, 145146, 149151, 265
porters, 107, 157, 158, 162, 164, 171, 172
Portugal, 33, 42, 76, 77
Portuguese, Anthony, 55t
Portuguese, the, 7, 42, 44, 7677, 80, 81, 83, 85,
87, 93, 108, 158, 160, 234, 251, 253, 255. See
also transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans,
Portuguese involvement
Portuguese Inquisition, 251
Postillion, 45
pottery factories, 33, 47, 48f, 49f, 52f, 57f, 61, 70,
231. See also Corselius Pottery; Crolius Pottery;
pottery waste, disposal at African Burial Ground;
Remmey Pottery; stoneware pottery near Van
Borsum property
pottery sherd, burial with, 237, 238f, 247. See also
Burial 328
pottery waste, disposal at African Burial Ground,
28, 33, 47, 70, 122, 230, 231. See also pottery
factories
poverty, New York African Burial Ground
population, evidence for, 114, 222, 224, 264
powder house (on the Common), 56, 57f
powder magazine (on the Common), 56
preservation assessment, 2728, 217
Price-Mars, Jean, 267
Prince, 206n
privateers, 45, 89, 126, 162, 207, 208
processions, mortuary, 20, 22, 23f, 33f, 34, 249
proclamation, 1681 (prohibiting commercial
transaction with or provision of liquor or
entertainments to enslaved persons), 197
Professional Archaeologists of New York City
(PANYC), 17
protein deficiency, 129, 132, 140. See also
nutritional deficiency
provenience controls, 26

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

370 Index
provenience designations, 12
provisions trade
British, between New York and West Indies, 39,
42, 45, 72, 89, 160, 162
Dutch, between Chesapeake and West Indies, 39,
85
Portuguese, 85
P.S. 67. See Colored School No. 1 (P.S. 67)
Public Archival Reading Room, 22
public engagement, New York African Burial
Ground Project, 4, 18, 19, 268, 269, 275, 277,
281
pumbeiros, 80
punishment. See crime and punishment
purchase of kin by free Africans, 175176

Quacko, 111
Quakers, 40, 201
quartz disk (artifact), 245, 246f
Quashi, 111
Queen Annes War, 44
Queens, 20
quilondo, 257

race, 34, 5, 6, 101, 105, 195, 248, 268, 269, 272,

280
as ideological construction, 19, 101, 261, 271, 272
studies of, 270271
racial assessment, 19
racial discrimination, 193, 209, 279, 280
racial hierarchy, 271
racial segregation, in schools, 201
racial typology, 7, 101, 112, 267, 268, 270
racism, 5, 6, 19, 194, 195, 260, 261, 270, 273, 275,
276, 279280
rape. See sexual exploitation of enslaved women
and children
Ratzer, Bernard, 52f
Ratzer Map, 47, 52f
Reade Street, 2f, 56, 60, 61, 65f
re-Africanism, 215
rebellion, reactions of enslavers to, 91, 108, 194,
198, 200, 204, 212
rebellion as a form of resistance. See Conspiracy
of 1741; rebellions by enslaved Africans, outside
New York; resistance to enslavement: rebellion;
revolts; revolts, Coromantee; 1712 Uprising
rebellions by enslaved Africans, outside New York,
91, 160, 209
The New York African Burial Ground

in Haiti, 203n
in Jamaica, 203n
in Louisiana, 203n
in Mexico, 203n
on Middle Passage voyages, 203n
in Newport, 203n
in Richmond, 203n
in Saint Domingue, 203n
in South Carolina, 203n
in St. Croix, 203n
recataloging of materials salvaged after destruction
of World Trade Center, 28
recordation standards, field, 13
red ocher, 250251. See also Burial 377
Reed Street. See Reade Street
reenslavement of free Africans, 197
reincarnation, 256
Reino de Angola. See Angola, Reino de
Reino de Benguela. See Benguela, Reino de
reinterment of remains, African Burial Ground, 3,
4, 14, 16, 20, 28, 3334, 261, 273, 274, 275
ceremonies, vigil, and procession, 3, 20, 22, 33f,
282
date of, 3
grave-shaft materials, decision not to reinter,
3334
of possibly dissected individual burial, 226
See also Ties that Bind, The
reinterment of remains in archaeology, 269, 281
relative dating. See dating of burials, relative,
methods of
religions, African diasporic, 201, 254, 259
Remley Plantation, 138, 139, 139t
Remmey Pottery, 57f
repetitive stress, skeletal effects of, 166167, 190
replication of artifacts, 34, 225f
Republican Alley, 10, 12, 61, 65f
research design, New York African Burial Ground
Project, 4, 13, 75, 259, 262263, 268, 275, 276
criticisms of, 15, 16, 17, 18, 104, 262, 275
General Services Administration, prepared by, 14,
15, 17
Howard University and John Milner Associates,
prepared by, 1819, 37, 275
John Milner Associates, prepared by, 1516
research themes, New York African Burial Ground
Project, 3, 4, 5, 6, 19, 38, 75, 125, 193, 262,
263267, 281
resistance to enslavement
in Africa, 7980
African agency, 195, 267

Index 371
arson, 204205, 267
assault, 195, 202, 206n, 267
clothing, 205, 207, 209
escape, 110, 194, 195, 202, 204, 203n, 206209,
212, 267
forms of, 202
insubordination, 206, 211212, 267
murder, 195, 204, 206, 206n, 267
rebellion, 110, 160, 194, 195, 200, 203204, 203n,
206, 209, 212, 267, 280
theft, 194, 195, 202, 204, 205206, 206n, 207,
210, 212, 267
unconscious resistance, 202
See also African Burial Ground: as locus of
resistance to enslavement; domination and
resistance, models of; rebellions by enslaved
Africans, outside New York; revolts; revolts,
Coromantee; runaways
resistant accommodation, models of, 111, 274
Reus, Manuel de, 197n
Reus, Manuel de Gerrit de, 42, 197n
Reus, Manuel Gerrit de, 55t
revolts, 109, 160, 203n, 207, 210. See also
Conspiracy of 1741; rebellion, reactions of
enslavers to; rebellions by enslaved Africans,
outside New York; revolts, Coromantee; 1712
Uprising; Stono revolt
revolts, Coromantee, 91, 196, 203n, 204
Revolutionary War, 10, 40, 42, 58f, 61, 114, 116
burials in African Burial Ground, relationship to,
56, 61, 69, 71, 72, 184, 224, 258
demography of Africans in New York, effects on,
114, 180, 181, 184, 187, 267
emigration of loyalist blacks from New York after
the war, 40, 180, 207
slavery in New York, relationship to, 40, 56, 116,
195, 208209, 267
See also deserters and prisoners of war, burials of
Rhode Island, 38
rickets, 145, 150
Riddell, John, 248
rings, 238
copper alloy, 116, 238, 240, 240f, 250
materials for, 34, 231, 238
as personal adornment, 114, 231, 238, 250
as possible ritual paraphernalia, 116, 240
See also Burial 71; Burial 115; Burial 147; Burial
242; Burial 310; Burial 377; Burial 398
rituals. See traditional African religions
Rivers of Guinea, 83
Roberts, John, 64f

Rochester Poorhouse, 138, 139t

Rodrigues, Jan, 46
Roeloff, Sara, 47, 61, 65f, 66, 67
Roos, Gerrit, 46
Roos, Peter, 46
ropewalk, 48f, 164f
Rose, Jansen, 198n
Rosedale, Susannah, 60n
Rossi, John, 13
roundworms, 150
Royal African Company, 4344, 45, 87
Royal Hill of Ambohimanga World Heritage Site,
279
Royal Palaces of Abomey World Heritage Site, 279
runaways, 41, 72, 110, 194, 195, 202, 203n, 204,
206, 206n, 209, 212, 256, 267
advertisements for, 109, 207, 208
demography of, 207, 208
fines for harboring, 207
privateering, aided by, 208
Revolutionary War, increase during, 40, 187, 207,
208
temporary absence, 207, 207n
See also resistance to enslavement: escape
rural frolics, 203
Rutgers, Anthony, 4647
Rutgers family, 46, 57f
Rutsch, Edward, 15

saber shin, 100, 144, 145f, 155

sailors, enslaved African, 39, 45, 107, 116, 162
Saint Domingue, 203n
Saint-Louis, 83
Salaga, 85
Sally, 45
Sam, 198
San, 103
Sanborn Map, 2f
Sanders, Manuel, 55t
Sandoval, Alonso de, 126
sand writing. See khatt ar-raml (sand writing)
Sankofa conferences, 4
Sankofa symbol, 98, 100, 116117, 117f, 122123,
264. See also Burial 101
Santera, 201, 217, 255
San Tom, Pieter, 54, 55t
Santomee, Peter, 42
So Tom, 85
Savage, Representative Gus, 16, 17, 17n, 18
Savi, 81, 85, 130

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

372 Index
Saw River, 58
Scandinavia, 102
Schmorls nodes, 167, 171
Schmorls nodes, New York African Burial Ground
population, 157, 166, 167f
age and sex differences, 171172, 172t
frequencies, 172
incidence in other burial populations, comparison
with, 172
Schomburg, Arthur A., 267
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,
16f, 17, 17n, 18, 20, 28, 34, 277, 279
screws, coffin. See coffin screws
scurvy, 145, 149
Seales, John, 197n
seasoned and unseasoned enslaved Africans,
91, 217
Section 106, National Historic Preservation Act,
910, 15, 17, 273, 275. See also National Historic
Preservation Act (NHPA)
Section 110, National Historic Preservation Act,
910. See also National Historic Preservation Act
(NHPA)
selective mortality, 152, 153, 179, 187
Senate Appropriations Committee, 20
Senate Task Force, African Burial Ground, 13, 19
Senegal, 75, 81, 83, 94t, 106t107t, 272, 279
Senegal River, 81, 82f, 83
Senegambia, 8183, 89, 104105, 122, 158, 159,
203n, 217, 263
conflict, political and military, 83
European struggle for control of trade in enslaved
Africans, 42, 81, 83
Islam, influence of, on trade in enslaved Africans,
81, 83, 251, 257
map of, 82f
modern nations included in, 81
September 11, 2001, 28, 219, 241
1712 Uprising, 56, 112, 196, 198, 200, 204, 215,
267
1741 conspiracy. See Conspiracy of 1741
1787 surveyors map of partition of Calk Hook
Farm into lots, 63f
1795 surveyors map of lots assigned to Sara
Roeloffs heirs, 65f
Seventh Ward, 61
Seventy-fourth Street, 58
Seven Years War, 208
Seville Plantation, 242, 244
sex ratio, 7778, 176
sex ratio, New York African Burial Ground
The New York African Burial Ground

population, 191, 266

change over time, 183184, 183f, 184t
possible interpretations of, 184
sextons, 113114, 216, 258259
sexual exploitation of enslaved women and
children, 127, 145, 176
Shadrack, 206n
shared graves, 110, 120t122t, 176, 221t, 266
adults buried together, 177
children buried together, 177 (see also Burial 126;
Burial 143)
children with adults, 119, 177, 224 (see also
Burial 12; Burial 14; Burial 72; Burial 83;
Burial 84; Burial 142; Burial 144; Burial 149;
Burial 221; Burial 335; Burial 356)
See also family relationships, New York African
Burial Ground population, evidence for: shared
graves
Sharpe, Chaplain John, 60, 248
shells, 43, 85, 112, 233, 234, 236237
burials, found with, 28, 67, 114, 234, 236, 237f,
245, 250, 264 (see also Burial 22; Burial 348;
Burial 352; Burial 365; Burial 387; Burial 405)
nonmortuary deposits, New York African Burial
Ground, 234
shell-and-iron composite artifacts, 234, 236, 237f
symbolism of, 234, 245, 247, 257
See also coral; coral artifact, New York African
Burial Ground; cowrie shells
ships involved in the transatlantic slave trade, 43,
45, 80, 81, 87, 93, 126, 127. See also Catherine;
Crown Gallery; Gideon; Little David; Paquet
Real; Postillion; Sally; St. John; Tamandare;
Witte Paert
ships transporting enslaved Africans, conditions on
board. See Middle Passage
shrouding, 28, 71, 114, 216, 218, 223, 224226,
227, 231, 246f, 251252, 264
age and sex, relation to, 225
temporal group, relation to, 225
See also chin cloths; shroud pins; winding sheets
shroud pins, 28, 68, 71, 114, 224226, 225f, 231,
240, 247, 252. See also Burial 210; pins
sickle-cell anemia. See under anemia
Siderastrea siderea, 237, 238f
Sierra Leone, 40, 80, 83, 94t, 122, 158, 208, 251
Singleton, Theresa, 112, 272
Site 38CH778, 134, 135t, 140, 142, 149, 172, 186,
187
Sixth Avenue, 54
skeletal indications of trauma, New York African

Index 373
Burial Ground population, 120t, 140, 193194,
210211, 212213. See also Burial 25
skeletal indicators of pathology, 212
methods for establishing, 2526, 140
skeletal indicators of pathology, New York African
Burial Ground population, 2526, 69, 133, 134f,
144, 156, 165174, 210
comparison of frequencies with those at
cemeteries elsewhere, 135t, 140
frequencies, 140, 155
See also dental pathologies, New York African
Burial Ground population
skeletal stress markers, New York African Burial
Ground population, 165166, 167
demography of sample used in analysis, 166, 166t
See also musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs),
New York African Burial Ground population
slave and enslaved African, use of terms, 19
Slave Coast. See Bight of Benin
slave codes, 44, 194, 211, 266
1702 (comprehensive) slave code, 197, 198
1730 slave codes, 40, 197, 199
slaveholding households in New York, frequency
of, 3940, 78t, 162, 182t
Slave Route Project, United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
279280
slavery and slave trade, recognition by United
Nations as crime against humanity, 279
slavery in Africa. See enslavement of Africans by
Africans
slavery in New Amsterdam, 38, 39, 72, 161, 162,
175, 183, 195, 197, 211, 218
importation of the first 11 enslaved Africans, 42,
46, 161, 197n
slavery in New York, 161162, 164165
comparison with slavery on southern plantations,
39, 44, 67, 202, 208, 265
continuation after formal emancipation in 1827,
38, 39, 40
dates of first occurrence, 40
legislation to end the trade in enslaved Africans
and initiate gradual emancipation, 41
movement to end, late-eighteenth century, 40
shipping and the provisions trade as shaping New
York Citys role in, 39
worsening of oppression during the British period,
43, 211212, 266
year of official ending, 38, 39, 40, 41, 209
See also demand for enslaved labor, industries
that created, in the Americas; hereditary

slavery; indentured servants; northern colonies,

enslavement of Africans in; reenslavement
of free Africans; sugar industry, demand for
enslaved labor for
slavery in northern colonies, 45, 6, 3840, 44, 67,
77, 110, 111, 200, 261262, 263, 271, 280
archaeological record, reasons for scantiness of,
67
slavery misrepresented as mostly a southern
phenomenon, 3839, 67, 271
slave trade. See entries for transatlantic trade in
enslaved Africans
Slave Trade Archives project, 279
Slow, Thomas, 198
smallpox, 127, 131, 156, 265
Smithsonian Institution, 20
social gatherings of enslaved Africans, 110, 112,
197, 198, 199, 201, 202203, 203n, 211, 212
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts (SPG), 60, 253
Society of Friends. See Quakers
sociopolitics of archaeological practice. See
sociopolitics of scientific research
sociopolitics of scientific research, 269270, 273
Soglo, Nicphore Dieudonn, 279
soil samples, 13, 26, 150
Somerset decision, 41
Songhay Empire, 82f, 251
South Africa, 93, 94t, 100, 101, 103, 104, 222, 224,
252, 279
South America, 37, 41, 44, 77, 218
South Carolina, 37, 39, 42, 44, 77, 111, 134, 135t,
139t, 170, 174, 187, 203n, 208
Southeast Africa, 72, 75, 81, 93, 122, 263
enslaved Malagasy from Madagascar, 87, 89
South Sea Company, 44
South Street Seaport laboratory, 13
South Ward, 39
Spain, 42, 44, 45, 77, 206n, 218, 254
Spanish Indians, 45, 217
Spanish Negroes, 204, 217, 218
SPG. See Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts (SPG)
spondylolysis, 172
spondylolysis, New York African Burial Ground
population, 157, 166, 167, 167f
frequencies, 172
spondylolysis deformans. See osteophytosis
stable carbon isotope analysis, 150151
Stadt Huys, 66, 129
Stadt Huys Block, 67

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

374 Index
Staten Island, 20
Statistical Research, Inc., 3
stature, 132, 133, 152, 153155, 153f, 154f
status of enslaved laborers, 80
in African societies, 174, 196
in New Amsterdam, 195, 197
in New York, 107, 112, 122, 175, 193, 195197,
198, 202, 209, 264
St. Croix, 203n
stellate scars, 144, 145f
St. Eustatius, 89, 90t
St. John, 43
St. Kitts, 89, 90t
St. Marys Bay, 89
Stoffelsen, Jacob, 161
stoneware pottery near Van Borsum property, 47
Stono revolt, 203n
Stouthoff, Elbert, 47
St. Peter Street Cemetery, 135t, 140, 174, 186187
St. Philips African Church, 19, 201
stratigraphy, overall site, reconstruction of, 13, 26,
28
stress markers, musculoskeletal. See
musculoskeletal stress markers
Stria of Retzius, 93
strontium-isotope analysis, 92, 99f, 100, 115, 116,
233, 236, 244
age at which individual was forcibly migrated, as
a means of determining, 9495, 98
geographic origins, as a means of determining, 93,
94, 95, 98
strontium-isotope distribution, 95, 98, 99f
St. Thomas, 45, 89, 90t
Stuyvesant, Judith, 54
Stuyvesant, Peter, 43, 54, 54n, 58, 66, 127, 161,
162, 197n
Styx, River, 254
subadult growth and development, 151152
subadult growth status, New York African Burial
Ground, 133
age-assessment methods, 152
comparison with populations of enslaved laborers
elsewhere, 153155
long-bone measurements as indicators of, 152,
153
sex differences, 153, 153f, 154f, 154155
Subcommittee Hearing, U.S. Congress, on African
Burial Ground
first, 16, 17n, 18, 19
follow-up, 18
Sudanese army, 160
The New York African Burial Ground

sugar industry, demand for enslaved labor for, 78,

85, 87, 160
Sukur Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site, 279
superannuated laborers, 160, 208, 249
Suriname, 135t, 140
surnames, assignment of, to enslaved Africans. See
names used by New York Africans
survivorship and life expectancy, New York African
Burial Ground population, 5, 157, 178, 191, 266
comparison with those of burial populations at
other sites, 187, 189190
life table, 187, 189, 189t, 190, 190t
syphilis, 145f
congenital syphilis, 100, 142, 144, 145, 155, 265
endemic syphilis, 142, 144
venereal syphilis, 144, 155, 265

tacks. See Burial 138; Burial 197; Burial 256; coffin

decoration: tacks
talismans, 115, 116, 237, 241, 242, 244. See also
amulets; luck ball
Tamandare, 43
tannery waste, disposal at African Burial Ground,
28, 33, 70
tapeworms, 150
Task Force. See Senate Task Force, African Burial
Ground
task system, 162
Taylor, Arnold, 33
Taylor, Benjamin, 64f
Taylor, James, 10
Taylor-Roberts Plan, 64f
Teasman, John, 201
Tea Water Pump, 163f, 203
Teke, 87
Teller, Isaac, 47
fees charged for burials, 47
fence and houses, destruction of, by the British
during the Revolutionary War, 61
fence around portion of African Burial Ground,
building of, 47
Teller, William, 47
Teller family, 61, 65f
temporal groups, 28, 150, 219, 224. See also Early
Group; Late Group; Late-Middle Group; Middle
Group
Ten Eyck, Margaret Bleeker, 232f
terminus post quem, 61
test excavations, Lot 12 and Republican Alley, 10,
11f

Index 375
Texas, 37, 138, 139t, 276
theft. See executions: as punishment for theft;
resistance to enslavement: theft
38CH778. See Site 38CH778
Thirty-fourth Street, 54
Thomas Paine Park, 47
Thompson Street, 54
Thornton, John, 33
thrush, 133
Ties that Bind, The, 22, 23f
Tijger, 45
tobacco, 39, 43, 45, 67, 7879, 128, 162, 164, 264
Togo, Republic of, 85, 94t, 130
tooth loss, 26, 137, 138, 139. See also antemortem
tooth loss
Toungara, Jeanne, 33
Toussaint, Pierre, 10
town cemeteries, burials of Africans at, 10, 58, 58f,
60, 60n, 61, 66, 69, 267
Townsend MacCoun Map, 163f
trace element analysis. See elemental-signature
analysis (ESA)
trace elements, 250, 263
effects of taphonomic processes on, 95
elemental-signature analysis of teeth, used in, 95,
97f
trade in enslaved Africans, Saharan, 272, 279
trade in enslaved Africans, transatlantic. See entries
for transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans
traditional African religions, 111
ancestral spirits, 224, 234, 255, 256, 257, 258
Christian and Islamic elements, incorporation of,
108, 201202, 215, 216, 227228, 248, 252
255, 256, 257258, 264
connections between the living and the dead, 224,
247, 253, 255, 256, 257, 259
deities, 234, 253, 255256, 279
healing and divination, 108, 116, 129, 215, 233,
241, 247, 249, 249f, 251, 256257, 259
illness and soul, relationship between, 256
spirit possession, 248, 257
See also divination; folk medicine, African;
reincarnation; witchcraft: traditional African
religion, in relation to
traditional African religions, among New York
Africans, 111, 215, 216, 248, 249, 250, 255
Tragedy of the Commons, 56
Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CDROM, The, 6, 77, 80, 87
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, 4, 5, 6, 40,
75, 110, 125, 195, 255, 272

African agency, 79
children, proportion of, among the enslaved, 78
demographic consequences, 78, 79
enslaved Africans traded for commodities on
western African coast, 80
European influence on conflict and enslavement in
West and West Central Africa, 79
gold, connection to trade in, 81, 83
international efforts to end, early-nineteenth
century, 41
mortality rates of enslaved Africans in transit, 127
occurrences, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 42,
76, 279
political and civil unrest in West and West Central
Africa as a contributor to, 79
sex ratio of enslaved Africans, 7778
shipborne trade, 80, 81, 108
See also Brazil: importation of enslaved Africans
to; forcible migration of Africans to New York;
importation of enslaved Africans to New York;
Middle Passage; pirates, trade in enslaved
Africans by; ships involved in the transatlantic
slave trade; ships transporting enslaved
Africans, conditions on board; trade in enslaved
Africans, Saharan
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, British
involvement, 4344, 45, 76, 77, 78, 81, 83, 87, 89
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, Dutch
involvement, 4243, 45, 76, 81, 83, 85, 87
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, French
involvement, 81, 83, 87, 126
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, New Yorks
involvement, 4245, 77, 89
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, Portuguese
involvement, 42, 44, 80, 81, 83, 85, 87
conquest states, role of, 76
numbers of Africans forcibly migrated by, 7677
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, Spanish
involvement, 42, 89, 108
transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans,
transshipment within the Americas, 43, 77, 81,
127
transfer of human remains to Howard University.
See under Howard University
trauma, 91, 125, 212
causes of, 136, 191, 193194, 210, 213, 267
skeletal indications of (see skeletal indications of
trauma, New York African Burial Ground)
Treasury, Postal, and General Government
Appropriations Bill of 1993, 20
Treaty of Utrecht, 44

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

376 Index
treponemal infection
pathogens responsible for, 144, 145, 176
types of, 142, 144
See also pinta; saber shin; syphilis; yaws
treponemal infection, New York African Burial
Ground population, 133, 140, 142, 145, 176
age and sex differences, 144
frequencies, 144, 155, 265
type of infection causing lesions, 140, 144
trials for crimes committed by Africans. See under
crime and punishment
Trinity Church (Anglican), 254
ban on burials of Africans in its cemetery, 60, 61,
200
burial population, comparison of demography
with that of New York African Burial Ground,
185, 186f, 186t, 191, 266
establishment of separate burial ground for
Africans, 60
Trinity Church African cemetery, 60
Trinity Lutheran Church, 60n
trismus nascentium. See lockjaw
Trumpeter, Manuel, 55t
tuberculosis, 128, 140
Tukalor, 251
Tweed Courthouse, 68n, 69, 69n, 70, 71
Twenty-third Street, 54
290 Broadway, 1, 9, 15f, 20, 22, 46
date of initial construction, 10
purchase of, by General Services Administration,
10
typhoid, 127, 131

Umbanda, 254
unconscious resistance. See under resistance to
enslavement
underground caches, possible, 67, 247
UNESCO. See United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
UNESCO Slave Route Project. See Slave Route
Project, United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
United Lutheran Church, 60n
United Nations, 279
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), 278, 279280
United States, 3, 37, 39, 40, 41, 79, 116, 154, 155,
195, 209, 271, 273, 276, 277, 278, 281
University Biohazards Committee, 25

The New York African Burial Ground

University of Maryland, 105

University of Yaounde I College of Medicine, 105
Upper Guinea, 76, 105
uprisings. See Conspiracy of 1741; Maroon
uprising; 1712 Uprising; Stono revolt
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District,
Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation
and Management of Archaeological Collections,
28
U.S. Customs House. See Customs House, U.S.
Utrecht, Treaty of. See Treaty of Utrecht

Valentine, David, 248

Van Angola, Anthony, 200n
Van Borsum, Cornelis, 47, 53f
Van Borsum patent, 46, 52f, 65f
palisade wall across property, 47
survey into lots, 61
vandalism at New York African Burial Ground, 15,
118, 223. See also Burial 222
van Guinea, Mareitje, 60n
Van Salee, Anthony Jansen, 54, 251
van Schaick, Adrian, 54
van Tienhoven, Cornelis, 66
Vantilborough, Peter, 204
Van Tweenhuysen Company, 45
Van Vleck, Abraham, 47
Van Vleck, Maria, 47
Van Vleck family, 61, 65f
Van Voorhis, Daniel, 66
Van Zandt, John, 199
Varick Street, 54
venereal disease, 144, 145, 176
Venice, 115
Vera Cruz, 127
Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC). See
Dutch East India Company
Verhulst, Willem, 46
Verrazzano, Giovanni da, 45
vertebral joint degeneration, New York African
Burial Ground population, 167169, 169t
vertebral pathology, 25, 166, 167, 167f, 170, 171,
172, 174, 210
Vigne, Jan, 46, 47
vilis, 87
Villiers, Sieur de. See de Villiers, Sieur
vindicationism, 19, 37, 262, 268, 275
violence, evidence of, African Burial Ground
population, 185, 191, 193194, 210211, 212.

Index 377
See also dislocations (skeletal); fractures;
fractures, New York African Burial Ground
population; trauma
Virginia, 39, 43, 44, 45, 162, 176, 197, 208, 218
vitamin D deficiency, 132, 150, 156
vitamin deficiencies, 131, 146, 149, 150, 151
VOC. See Dutch East India Company
Vodoun, 201, 217, 255
Volta River, 83, 84f, 85, 279
Vredendal, cemetery at, 222, 227

wailing as burial practice. See mourning rites:

wailing
waist beads, 115, 233, 241, 242, 264. See also
Burial 340
Wall, Diana, 67, 129, 131
Wall Street, 33f, 34, 59f, 60
wards, in Manhattan, 39, 48f. See also Dock Ward;
East Ward; North Ward; Out Ward; Seventh
Ward; South Ward; West Ward
warfare, West and West Central Africa
Africans enslaved as a result of, 76, 79, 160
Warri, 86f, 87
washing the body of the deceased, 248, 251, 252
Washington, D.C., 34
Washington Square Park, 54, 66, 69, 70, 71
Washington Square Park Potters Field, 64, 66, 68,
68n, 69, 69n, 70, 71, 223
Waterloo Plantation, 135t, 140
Water Street, 66
Watts, John, 248
Webber, Wolfort, 46
weeping, public. See mourning rites: wailing
Werpoes, 46
West Central Africa, 28, 38, 42, 43, 72, 75, 78, 79,
89, 93, 106t107t, 108, 112, 116, 119, 122, 123,
125, 129, 130, 157160, 195, 196, 215, 217, 230,
237, 252, 253, 254, 255256, 257, 259, 263, 264,
266, 272
major overland trade routes, 87
map of Kongo-Angola region, 88f
West India Company. See Dutch West India
Company
West Indies, 5, 100, 101, 107, 110, 111, 125, 127
129, 157, 160, 176, 215, 237
individual islands as sources of enslaved Africans
in New York, eighteenth century, 87, 89
provisions trade and trade in enslaved Africans,
connection between, 39, 43, 45, 89

See also Barbados; Bermuda; Caribbean;

Dominican Republic; Haiti; Hispaniola; origins
of enslaved Africans in New York: West Indies,
transshipped from
West Ward, 39
whipworm, 150
Whitehall Street, 47n
whiteness, concepts of, 112, 199, 271
Whydah. See Ouidah
Williamsburg, Colonial. See Colonial Williamsburg
William Street, 40, 201
Wilson, Isaac, 126
Wilson, Sherrill, 22, 33, 43, 175176
winding sheets, 224, 225, 258. See also shrouding
witchcraft, 127
searching for signs of, as burial practice, 249
traditional African religion, in relation to, 253,
256, 259
Witte Paert, 43
W. Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology
Laboratory, 3, 14, 22, 23f, 28
Wolof, 79
World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance, 2001, 279
World Heritage Convention, 276, 278
World Heritage List, 278
World Heritage sites
African Burial Ground, efforts to nominate, 278
geographic and cultural biases, 278
sites associated with enslavement and the trade
in enslaved Africans, 279 (see also names of
individual sites)
World Trade Center, 3, 22, 26
destruction and results for New York African
Burial Ground materials, 28
See also recataloging of materials salvaged after
destruction of World Trade Center; September
11, 2001
worms (parasitic), 128. See also hookworms;
pinworms; roundworms; tapeworms; whipworm

Xang, 254
xenophobia, 279, 280

Yao, 93, 95t

yaws, 100, 128, 142, 144, 155, 265
yellow fever, 64, 127, 131, 156, 223, 260, 265

The Skeletal Biology, Archaeology, and History of the New York African Burial Ground: A Synthesis of Volumes 1, 2, and 3

378 Index
Yoruba, 85, 87, 104, 106t, 109, 110, 217, 234, 248,
251, 257, 279, 282, 282f
Yorubaland, 233, 234
Young-Husband, Isaac, 248

The New York African Burial Ground

Zanzibar, 115
Zion Church. See African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church
zizumina, 256