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AFRICAN BURIALS IN NEW YORK
Slavery in the North
Slavery in the North has been largely overshadowed by Southern slavery. A common misconception present in the teachings of slavery is that the practice of slavery was only (or worse) in the South rather than in the North. Dutch enslavers in New York had their own system for integrating the enslaved into the economy and had their own ways of isolating enslaved people from all forms of social and economic mobility. Slavery in the North, similar to the South, was implemented by force and abuse, especially as laws and regulations surrounding slavery became more strict during British rule in the North than under the Dutch.
Pictured left is one of the earliest depictions of Dutch colonial Nieu Amsterdam. Dutch settlers appear in the foreground and African slaves in the background.
Laying Out the Law
These rules encompassed all aspects of enslaved lives, including the laws in relation to the burial of enslaved starting in 1684. To prevent the covering up of murder, private burials of enslaved by their enslavers was prohibited and subjected to a fine. In 1722, a law was enacted to only allow slave burials by daylight and in 1731 a law was passed to allow up to twelve enslaved to attend a funeral. Penalties for breaking these laws included fines and public whippings. It is no coincidence that these laws were enacted during the rise of fires and slave insurrections in New York and throughout the country. New York amateur archaeologist William L. Calver also observed,“It was a custom, more forcible than law— though laws there were, too— that the servant could not be consigned to consecrated ground” (Brown 1919:153).
Pictured left is a 1731 law forbidding enslaved from being out after dark.
Choosing a Location
The locations designated for African burial grounds in New York City were decided by city planners and enslavers, typically selecting areas based on desirability, choosing unattractive and undesirable regions. When New York City only extended to Wall Street, the African burial ground was placed just outside the wall, where today’s African Burial Ground National Monument stands. In Inwood, the burial was high up on a knoll that was also used for Indigenous ceremonies utilizing burial pits and a burial site for Revolutionary soldiers’ remains.
Pictured right is a map of New York in 1763. North of the wall (today’s Wall Street) was the “Negros Burial Ground.”
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