African Burial Ground Memorial
The African Burial Ground Memorial is
located Downtown Manhattan in the financial district. Originally
unearthed in 1991 during excavating for a new federal
building. brought light to the fact that NYC from the colonial days had a
long history of slavery. At first a dozen of remains found some twelve feet
underground by construction workers. Most of the remains were men under the age
of thirty. Later excavating the area all in total over 419 sets were
found. An estimated fifteen thousand African Americans were buried on the
grounds.
Memorial Designed
by Rodney Leon
Most Americans like
myself have the presumption that slavery was a Southern phenomenon that the
northeast was free state. But in fact at some point there were more slaves in
New York State then Georgia. Even a public slave market at the east end of Wall
Street opened up 1711 it wasn’t until the mid 1800-century were African
Americans even considered free men.
A few Google
searches in and you can see the horror that these people faced. Laws
restricting slaves to participate in any form of society.
The architect
designed a well thought out memorial to commemorate the site and teach
the sacrifice the African Americans made to build New York City.
His concept was a space that reflected a ritualistic ideas
through libation and ceremony.
References
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/slave_island_01.shtml
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