Self guided African American History Tour of St. Paul's

Use this map to locate the six stops on the self guided tour exploring the African American history of St. Paul's.  Please ask staff in the visitors' center if you need assistance locating any of these points of interest.

NPS

Self Guided Tour Exploring the African American History of
St. Paul's Church National Historic Site, in Mt. Vernon, NY

This is a self-guided tour exploring the lives of some of the African Americans buried at St. Paul’s, with an emphasis on military service members. To learn more about the lives of these people, we encourage you to visit our Facebook page, under Videos, and our website, www.nps.gov/sapa, under History and Culture. Use the accompanying map for the tour and please ask staff for assistance if you have difficulty locating the stops. We also have a video program which traces the steps of this self guided tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX9IOej5AZY

1. Start at the rear of the cemetery, at an American flag posted at an orange-brown gravestone, for Thomas.

There are many African Americans buried in this section, from the early 19^th to the mid-20^th centuries. Many of these people are related, and several had been enslaved at one time to prominent local families. Until the early 19^th century, enslaved Africans represented about 15-percent of Eastchester’s population, including Thomas. His sandstone marker includes the only known reference on a Westchester County cemetery monument to “servant,” a euphemism for slave.

Walk towards the church about ten yards from the Thomas stone and look for a small granite footstone, marking the burial location of Rebecca Turner, who died in 1874, at age 93. Born into slavery in 1781, Rebecca achieved her freedom in 1810, and established, with her husband Benjamin Turner, a family homestead, with a small farm bordering on the Hutchinson River, just east of the church property. They raised six children. Following Ben’s death in the mid 1830s, Rebecca owned the land for 40 years, a rare status for a black woman in the 19^th century. She established a laundry business to help sustain her family. Living well beyond life expectancy for the day, Rebecca left the homestead to her daughter and granddaughters, who maintained possession through the 1930s. A local public school was renamed the Rebecca Turner Elementary School in her honor in the 21^st century.

One of Rebecca’s daughters, Emeline, and a granddaughter, Maria, are buried at the large marble stone to the left. Nearby gravestones also mark the burials of Nathaniel and Hannah Franklin, who lived in slavery until 1824, and were released just before the legal end of slavery in New York in 1827. They lived on a small farm in Eastchester for several years. They had been enslaved to the same woman, Glorianna Franklin, as Rebecca. Buried nearby is Charlotte, daughter of Nathaniel and Hannah Franklin, who died enslaved in 1823, but had married an enslaved man in nearby Pelham.

Once you leave this area, you will be walking over to the Cityside of the St. Paul’s cemetery, along the path and then under a tree to the gravestone of:

2. George Carter, Company C, 10^th USCT. Carter has both a faded marble stone, and a new, replacement granite footstone. He was born enslaved in Virginia in 1842 but escaped to freedom in the very early stages of the Civil War. In 1864, Carter enrolled in the 10^th United States Colored Troops (USCT), one of the African American regiments created in the Union Army. Private Carter served through the remainder of the conflict, mostly in the Virginia theater. His regiment was among the first army units to enter Richmond, after the Confederate capital fell in April 1865. After the war Carter and his wife Rosa and their children moved North, first settling in Babylon, Long Island, and relocating to Mt. Vernon in about 1880. He lived in the community for more than 20 years, well known and regarded, and employed as a janitor and as a gardener at an estate in Bronxville. Carter passed away at age 60 in 1902.

3 Next, walk on a diagonal towards the front of the cemetery, about 30 yards, to the grave of Samuel Nelson, who, similarly, has an original faded marble stone, and a replacement granite footstone, located under a Mulberry tree. He appeared in the community in the 1830s, and married Sarah, daughter of Benjamin and Rebecca Turner, who lived on a homestead just off the eastern edge of the church property, where Samuel resided for the next 30 years. Samuel was employed as a gravedigger at St. Paul’s and worked for many years for the Grigg family, which lived across the road from the church. His daughters Maria and Sarah Nelson maintained the family homestead into the 1930s.

4 From there, walk over to the grave of James Polite, who was born enslaved in South Carolina, and joined the 35^th USCT, in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. He served for two years in South Carolina, confronting occasional Confederate guerilla attacks, and helping to police the early stages of Reconstruction in the state where secession began. Following his honorable discharge, he and his wife Anna moved to the north, and he lived for a time in lower Manhattan, employed as a waiter at a restaurant in New Jersey. Polite moved to Mt. Vernon about 1890 and lived on Mt. Vernon Avenue. His son, James Polite, Jr., was active in the civil rights movement in Mt. Vernon in the early 20^th century.

5 Walk directly toward the front of the cemetery, about 20 yards, to the grave of John Bird, who was born in Petersburg, Virginia in 1845, and served in the Civil War with the 117^th USCT. He enrolled, at age 19, in 1865, and served with his unit mostly in Texas, engaging in skirmishes with the final pockets of Confederate resistance. Private Bird was almost certainly in the state at the time of the Juneteenth declaration of June 19, 1865. Following an honorable discharge, he lived in Petersburg and was a member of the Colonel Steadman Post of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans’ organization, acquiring the nickname of Colonel, which he retained for the rest of his life. Bird moved to Mt. Vernon in 1902 and lived in the city for more than 30 years, passing away at age 89, at his daughter’s house on South 6^th Avenue. He was one of the last surviving Union Army veterans of the Civil War in Westchester County.

6 Walk toward the low stone wall to the grave of Morris D. Link, a Corporal in the famed 369^th Infantry, the all-black Harlem Hell-Fighters. Corporal Link was killed in action July 15, 1918, at the Second Battle of the Marne, in France, during World War I. Link was born in North Carolina. Married, with no children, and he and his wife Elizabeth were living in Mt. Vernon at the time of his enlistment. The 369^th endured considerable prejudice in recruitment, training and especially in the war theater in France, where American military authorities refused to let them into combat commands, preferring to use them as service troops. Instead, the Hell-Fighters fought with the French Army, compiling an admirable credible combat record. Corporal Link was killed in a German artillery assault, and awarded the Croix de Guerre, a French medal. Originally buried in a French military cemetery, Link’s remains were returned to America in 1921, followed by interment with full military honors at St. Paul’s.