The site is the first physical location of one of America’s oldest churches founded by free and enslaved Blacks, and the project aims to help tell the story of the church and the people who worshiped at the historic site.
Human remains found at Virginia archaeology dig lmtonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lmtonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
CBS News CBS News February 21, 2021, 9:32 AM
Inside the search for tombstones from the Columbian Harmony Cemetery, where 37,000 Black D.C. residents were once buried
Four years ago, Virginia State Senator Richard Stuart and his wife Lisa were exploring their new farm on the Potomac River when they saw something in the water that brought tears to her eyes and made him feel ill. Lisa and I looked at each other, and both of us said, is that a headstone? Then we looked, and we saw another and another and another, the lawmaker told CBS News Chip Reid. It was just a horrible feeling to think that this person s headstone was here on our shoreline… and not where it belonged with her body, where her family could grieve and mourn and remember her life, Lisa said.
The African Burial Ground National Monument in lower Manhattan, New York, is the oldest and largest known such burial ground excavated in North America.
In 1991 an archaeological crew surveying the site of a proposed new $275 million federal office building dug up more than 400 skeletons.
The bodies were mostly those of enslaved Africans who built New York City, who for years were forgotten their memories and contributions erased.
Experts say there are roughly 15,000 bodies interred in a 6.6-acre plot of land covered by centuries of construction and landfill. Enslaved people provided essential labor for what would become present-day New York City.