African burial grounds

Today we visited the African burial grounds in Manhattan. It was quite the humbling experience, I learned a lot about slavery in New York and it gave me a new perspective on the city. In 1991, this burial ground was discovered where they found 419 human skeletons. It was estimated that 15,000 Africans, both enslaved and free, were buried on these ground from the 1690’s to 1794. More than 40% of the people buried there were children under the age of two. Many of the slave owners didn’t want to support so many slave kids, they often kept just 1 or 2 for house chores, but the rest were neglected. Not only children suffered tremendously, but women also. Bodies found in the burial grounds had signs of severe injury and long term stress. They had endless amounts of tedious work and it really took a toll on their body as we see in their remains. During 1731, a law in New York limited the amount of enslaved Africans who could come together for a funeral to the maximum of 12. They still gathered together for funerals of their families outside the city walls which is now the African burial grounds. This relates to Brown’s “The reaper’s garden,” because it shows the truth in our history with slavery. The slaves would rather kill themselves rather than work another day of their lives. The slave owners would also “disrespect” the dead bodies of slaves to show dominance or instill fear into other slaves. The burial grounds and the book really illustrates the death in the slave trade, how slaves would kill themselves or be killed anyways by their masters.