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.