The Harlem African Burial Ground, a segregated cemetery created in 1668, served as the final resting place for enslaved and freed Africans in the Dutch colony of Harlem. It is located at what is presently 2460 Second Avenue in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Elmendorf Reformed Church, the successor of the Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem
The Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem maintained these segregated cemeteries for white parishioners and parishioners of African descent until 1858. The church moved a few blocks from its original site in the mid-19th century and sold the African burial grounds to a parishioner who used the land for grazing livestock.
Although historians of New York and Harlem, as well as church historians, were aware of the cemetery's existence, the East Harlem community was largely unaware of its history until the late 1990s when the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) began planning the reconstruction of the nearby Willis Avenue Bridge. The investigation revealed that the construction might affect a colonial site and historic burial ground which was under the decommissioned East 126th Street Bus Depot.
History and Rediscovery
Historical evidence suggests that New Harlem was originally settled by the Dutch in the early 1600s. The Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant acknowledged New Harlem in 1658 and the settlement later incorporated into a town and established a Dutch church. There were reports of white Europeans as well as both free and enslaved African Americans living there.
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A quarter acre burial plot around present-day 1st Avenue and 126/127th Streets was set aside as a “Negro Burying Ground” in 1665.
Ruling from a stub of Lower Manhattan that ended at Wall Street, Stuyvesant “ordered enslaved Africans to build a nine-mile road from lower Manhattan to the city known then as Nieuw Haarlem."
New Yorkers of European and African descent continued to be buried in separate sections of the cemetery until the middle of the 19th century. After contacting descendants for permission, the remains of the white parishioners were disinterred and reburied in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx; the remains of the African parishioners were left behind.
The Low Dutch Church eventually sold the site in 1853, allowing for the re-division of the land, including the burial grounds, into private parcels that would become City Block 1803. The land was subsequently used for a variety of purposes including an amusement park, a beer garden, barracks for a National Guard infantry unit, and a film studio owned by William Randolph Hearst. At this point, a popular destination was built on top of the burial ground: the Harlem Casino, also known as Sulzer’s Harlem River Park.
Map situating the African Burial Ground in Harlem. Credits: Hunter College Report for the Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force.
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In 2015, more than 140 bones and bone fragments had been discovered. “Most compelling of all was a skull, its cranium intact, that most likely came from an adult woman of African descent,” wrote David W. Dunlap in The New York Times.
In 2011, a group of students from Hunter College's Urban Planning Studio submitted a report to the task force about memoralization options of the site and recommended archeological assessment.
The Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force
Many Harlem community leaders, historians, and advocates insisted that there was an unidentified African burial ground somewhere in East Harlem. The Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force was founded in 2009 in conjunction with Elmendorf Reformed Church to memorialize and preserve the burial ground, although the precise location was at that point unknown.
The reverend of Elmendorf Reformed Church, Dr. Patricia A. Singletary, has served as co-chair with former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito since the task force's inception.
The Task Force’s ultimate goal was, from the start, to remove the MTA bus depot to allow for a proper memorialization. To that effect the group commissioned the Urban Planning Studio at Hunter College to create a conceptual vision for the site.
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The report “Reclaiming Cultural Heritage: A Plan for the Harlem African Burial Ground” was released in December 2011. It offers three memorial alternatives. In the first one, the bus depot and the memorial coexist; the second has the sprawling building transformed into an educational, artistic, community, and economic development structure; and the third removes the bus depot altogether “to reclaim the area as a memorial site.
Ongoing Research and Future Plans
Research into the history of the Harlem African Burial Ground continues. Ongoing research by the Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force and other community members interested in the site’s preservation and memorial is contributing new knowledge and plans are being considered to redevelop the site into a memorial park.
The next phase of archaeological work hopes to establish the complete distribution of human remains across the bus depot site.
It will be led by Michael Pappalardo and Dr. Rachel Watkins, biocultural anthropologist, and Dr. Aja Lans, bioarcheologist, both well-established experts specializing in the discovery and analysis of human remains of African descent.
Through research and advocacy, community advocates are now bringing this history to light, and now the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is leading the memorial efforts.
The Harlem African Burial Ground: History Beneath Our Feet
The site was “rediscovered” by the public in the late 1990s when reconstruction of the nearby Willis Avenue Bridge revealed a colonial site and historic burial ground under the old Bus Depot. Per New York State law, the NYC Department of Transportation conducted a Phase I-A historical and archeological survey, which verified the existence of the burial ground.
The remains identified at the former burial ground were re-consecrated in a ceremony conducted by Dr. ^ Meade, Elizabeth D (2020). 'Prepare for Death and Follow Me': An Archaeological Survey of the Historic Period Cemeteries of New York City (Thesis).
Harlem African Burial Ground excavation site inside the Bus Depot
