Discover the African Burial Ground: A Lightning Lesson from Teaching with Historic Places

African Burial Ground National Monument (located in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City).

African enslavement played a key role in building European colonial settlements during the 17th and 18th centuries. Dutch traders laid the foundations for the place now known as New York in 1626. They enslaved Africans for manual labor in New Amsterdam, now New York. The enslaved population grew when Great Britain took control of the colony in 1664. By the time of the American Revolution, the New York region contained the largest concentration of African and African-descendant populations in the northern colonies.

For over 200 years, a forgotten cemetery stayed hidden beneath layers of concrete in downtown Manhattan in New York City. But in 1991, archeologists uncovered the cemetery and found evidence of the lives and deaths of over 8,000 Africans and Americans of African descent. The skeletal remains of 419 individuals were exhumed, examined, and reburied at the site of discovery. Today, the cemetery site is the African Burial Ground National Monument. African Burial Ground today is the nation’s earliest and largest known African American cemetery.

Click here for the full lesson plan.

Essential Question

How do Americans show respect for the bodies and memories of the deceased?

Objective

1. Explain how and why African cultures are present in American culture;
2. Describe the African Burial Ground and archeological evidence found there;
3. Identify ways people memorialized the dead at the “Negros Buriel Ground” in colonial New York and ways people memorialized the African Burial Ground National Monument;
4. Complete an optional project about the Middle Passage, local history, or family heritage

Background

Time Period: 17th and 18th Century Colonial Era, contemporary era.
Topics/Themes: This lesson can be used in middle and high school units about African and American histories, religion and spirituality, the Middle Passage and Slavery, and local cultural investigations.

Preparation

African enslavement played a key role in building European colonial settlements during the 17th and 18th centuries. Dutch traders laid the foundations for the place now known as New York in 1626. They enslaved Africans for manual labor in New Amsterdam, now New York. The enslaved population grew when Great Britain took control of the colony in 1664. By the time of the American Revolution, the New York region contained the largest concentration of African and African-descendant populations in the northern colonies.

For over 200 years, a forgotten cemetery stayed hidden beneath layers of concrete in downtown Manhattan in New York City. But in 1991, archeologists uncovered the cemetery and found evidence of the lives and deaths of over 8,000 Africans and Americans of African descent. The skeletal remains of 419 individuals were exhumed, examined, and reburied at the site of discovery. Today, the cemetery site is the African Burial Ground National Monument. African Burial Ground today is the nation’s earliest and largest known African American cemetery.

Lesson Hook/Preview

How do Americans show respect for the bodies and memories of the deceased? What historic place might you study to answer this question?

Full Lesson Plan