African Burial Ground National Monument - "Negros Burial Ground"

"Negros Burial Ground"

The burial ground in use for city residents in the late 1600s was located at what is now the north graveyard of Trinity Church. The public burial ground was open to all for a fee, including to enslaved Africans. Some burials of deceased slaves were made just south of the public burial ground to avoid the fee.

After Trinity was established in 1697, the vestryman of the church began taking control of land in Lower Manhattan, including existing public burial grounds. When Trinity purchased the land at Wall Street and Broadway for the construction of their church, they passed a resolution on October 25, 1697:

"That after the Expiration of four weeks from the dates hereof no Negro's be buried within the bounds & Limitts 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 Limitted to break up any ground for the burying of his Negro, as they will answer it at their perill & that this order be forthwith publish'd."

The "rear of the present burying place" did not include the city cemetery (now the north churchyard). The church petitioned for control of this burial ground, which was granted by the colony on April 22, 1703.

This prohibition against the burial of those of African descent necessitated finding an area acceptable to the colonial authorities. What would become the "Negro's Burial ground" was located on what was then the outskirts of the developed city just north of present-day Chambers Street and west of the former Collect Pond. The area was part of a land grant issued to Cornelius van Borsum on behalf of his wife Sara Roelofs (1624-1693) for her services as an interpreter between the city and the various Native American tribes in the area, such as the Lenape and Wappinger. The land would remain part of her estate until the late 1790s when the grade was raised with landfill in anticipation of development, and the land subdivided into building lots.

Labelled on old maps as the "Negros Burial Ground," the 6.6-acre area was first recorded as being used around 1712 for the burials of enslaved and freed people of African descent. The first burials may date from the late 1690s after Trinity barred their burial in the former city cemetery. The burial ground would remain in use until 1794.

The area of the burial ground was in a shallow valley surrounded by low hills on the east, south and west which enveloped the southern shore of the Collect Pond and the Little Collect. The burial ground was outside the stockade which marked the northern boundary of the city (The stockade in this area ran northeast from the present-day corner of Broadway and Chambers Street to Foley Square) after it had expanded northward, similar in form and function to the former stockade on Wall Street.

After the city closed the cemetery in 1794, the area was platted for development and the grade of the land was raised with up to 25 feet (7.6 metres) of landfill at the lowest points covering the cemetery, thus preserving the burials and the original grade level. As urban development took place over the fill, the burial ground was largely forgotten. The first large-scale development on the land was the construction of the A.T. Stewart Company Store the country's first department store which opened in 1846 at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street.

In October 1991, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced the discovery of intact burials during a survey and excavation for the construction of a new $275 million federal office building at 290 Broadway. The agency had done an environmental impact statement (EIS) prior to purchase of the site, but the archeological survey had predicted that human remains would not be found because of the long history of urban development in that area.