1

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument:

A Lightning Lesson from Teaching with Historic Places 

 

Credit: National Park Service photographs. Overlay map courtesy Library of Congress.

African enslavement played a key role in building European colonial settlements during the 

17th and 18th centuries. Dutch traders laid the foundations for the place now known as 

New York in 1626. They enslaved Africans for manual labor in New Amsterdam, now New 

York. The enslaved population grew when Great Britain took control of the colony in 1664. 

By the time of the American Revolution, the New York region contained the largest 

concentration of African and African-descendant populations in the northern colonies. 

For over 200 years, a forgotten cemetery stayed hidden beneath layers of concrete in 

downtown Manhattan in New York City. But in 1991, archeologists uncovered the cemetery 

and found evidence of the lives and deaths of over 8,000 Africans and Americans of African 

descent. The skeletal remains of 419 individuals were exhumed, examined, and reburied 

at the site of discovery. Today, the cemetery site is the African Burial Ground National 

Monument. African Burial Ground today is the nation’s earliest and largest known African 

American cemetery.
2

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Lesson Contents

About This Lesson (Page 3)

Authors, Objectives for students, Materials included, About the Place

Where this lesson fits into the Curriculum (Page 4)

Time Period and Topics/Themes

Relevant National Curriculum Standards for History, Social Studies, and 

Common Core

Getting Started Prompt (Page 5)

Compelling Question and Place-Based Inquiry Prompt

Locating the Site (Page 6)

Map 1: Plan of the City of New York, 1755.

Readings

Reading 1: Rediscovering the African Burial Ground (Page 9)

Reading 2: Schedule-of-Events for the “Rites of Ancestral Return” (Page 13)

Visual Evidence (Page 15)

Photo 1: African Burial Ground National Monument.

Optional Activities (Page 17)

Activity 1: Tracing Paths and Exploring Destinations of the Middle Passage.

Activity 2: Honoring Ancestors through Poetry.

Activity 3: Investigating Local and Regional History through Archeology.

References and Contributing Resources (Page 21)

Additional Online Resources (Page 22)
3

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

About This Lesson

This lesson plan is based on the National Register for Historic Places nomination for the 

African Burial Ground [http://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/93001597] in New York City, 

New York. Discover the African Burial Ground: A Lightning Lesson from Teaching with Historic 

Places was published in 2017. It was written by Dr. Beth Pruitt, National Park Service 

contractor, and developed by Historical Anthropologist Maria Lee Strohmayer and NPS

historian Katie Orr. Editing assistance came from Northeast Regional Office, National Parks of 

New York Harbor, and Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education staff in D.C. 

This lesson is one in a series that brings historic places to students around the world.

Objectives

1. To explain how and why African cultures are present in American culture;

2. To describe the African Burial Ground National Monument and archeological evidence found 

at the site;

3. To identify the ways people memorialized the dead at the “Negros Buriel Ground” in colonial 

New York and the ways people memorialized the African Burial Ground National Monument.

4. Investigate, analyze, and report on one of three topics covered in an optional activity:

1) Investigate the experiences of the Middle Passage in a global context;

2) Commemorate personal heritage through poetry;

3) Investigate local archeological evidence of spiritual practices.

Materials for students

1. Map of New York City in 1755 that shows the location of the “Negros Buriel Ground” (sic);

2. Secondary source reading about the origins, discovery, and memorialization of the African 

Burial Ground.

3. Primary source reading about the reburial of ancestral remains at the African Burial Ground 

during the “Rites of Ancestral Return”;

4. Photograph of the African Burial Ground National Monument.

About the Place

The African Burial Ground is in New York City, New York. The site is a National Historic

Landmark and a National Park unit. The visitor center is at the Ted Weiss Federal Building, 

290 Broadway, New York, NY 10007. Find visiting information at the African Burial Ground 

National Monument website [https://www.nps.gov/afbg/planyourvisit/index.htm].
4

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Where this lesson fits into the curriculum

Time Period: 17th and 18th Century Colonial Era, contemporary era.

Topics: This lesson could be used in middle and high school units relating to African-American 

history, European colonial history, and archeology.

Relevant United States History Standards for Grades 5-12

This lesson relates to the following National Standards for History from the UCLA National 

Center for History in the Schools:

US History Era 2

 Standard 3B: The student understands economic life and the development of labor 

systems in the English colonies

 Standard 3C: The student understands African life under slavery.

Relevant Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

This lesson relates to the following Curriculum Standards for Social Studies from the National 

Council for the Social Studies:

Theme I: Culture; Standards A-E

Theme II: Time, Continuity, and Change; Standards D-F

Theme III: People, Places, Environments; Standards A, C, G-I

Theme V: Individuals, Groups, & Institutions; Standards B, F, 

Theme VI: Power, Authority, and Governance; Standard H

Theme VIII: Science, Technology, & Society; Standards A-C

Relevant Common Core Standards

This lesson relates to the following Common Core English and Language Arts Standards for 

History and Social Studies for middle and high school students:

Key Ideas and Details

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.1

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.2

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.7
5

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Getting Started

How do Americans show respect for the bodies 

and memories of the deceased?

What historic place might you study to answer this question? Why?
6

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Locating the Site

Map 1: Plan of the City of New York, 1755.

Source: Library of Congress [https://www.loc.gov/item/73691802/]

Caption for Map 1: Plan of the City of New York, 1755.

The City of New York was an important hub in the transatlantic slave trade. Thousands of 

enslaved people passed through here. Some stayed. Many were enslaved for life, but not all 

Africans in New York remained enslaved. A field west of the “Fresh Water” became “Negros 

Buriel Ground.” Today it is Manhattan in New York City, a center for international trade.
7

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Questions for Map 1: Plan of the City of New York, 1755.

1) Identify the features labeled on the map. What did the colonists build or shape here? What 

features of physical geography (rivers, mountains, etc.) can you identify?

2) Locate the “Negros Buriel Ground” on the map. Who do you think was buried here? Who 

was not buried here?

3) In what ways do you think has New York City changed since 1755? How has it remained the 

same? Describe the physical changes you think have happened. Use evidence on the map 

and your prior knowledge to support your answer.
8

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Reading 1: “Rediscovering the African Burial Ground”

National Park Service

New York City in modern New York state is a crowded place. Instead of building out, 

city planners built up over the centuries. New streets and buildings are constructed on 

top of the old ones over the centuries since its founding. There is history beneath its 

surface. In1991, archeologists uncovered a cemetery of thousands of enslaved people 

in the middle of Lower Manhattan. They knew there was something important there, but 

they did not know they were about to uncover the oldest and largest urban cemetery for 

enslaved people of African descent.

Dutch traders founded New Amsterdam, later called New York, in 1626. The Dutch 

used enslaved African labor to build it. One-third of the city’s population was African or 

African American. Slavery continued when Great Britain seized the city in 1664 and 

renamed it New York. Enslaved Africans chopped down trees, tilled soil into farmland, 

built roads, buildings, and walls – including the wall in “Wall Street”, a name for the

famous business district in New York City today. 

Africans and their American descendants could not bury loved ones in the other 

cemeteries in the city. In the late 1600s, city planners found a plot of land outside of city 

limits and created a segregated cemetery for enslaved residents. An estimated 15,000 

to 20,000 men, women, and children were buried there in the 18th century as the 

population grew. The burial ground covered five city blocks when the cemetery closed in 

1794.

City planners turned the cemetery into plots for houses a year after it closed. They 

created level ground for houses by flattening hills and filling in holes with dirt. They piled 

25 feet of soil on top of the human remains at the site. The soil helped to preserve the 

bodies over the years, but it also erased the cemetery from view. It was hidden under 

sidewalks, roads, and buildings. The area became a part of the new street grid system 

for planning Manhattan in the 19th century.

The cemetery was invisible to the naked eye in the 20th century. The old “Negros Buriel 

Ground” became the site of New York’s City Hall and courthouses. In the early 1990s, a 

federal agency wanted to construct an office building on the site. The National Historic 

Preservation Act of 1966 requires government construction projects to study the history 

of the place before they start building. So, archeologists examined the site and they 

discovered human remains from over 200 years ago. 

Between 1991 and 1992, archeologists excavated the bodies of 419 individuals. Half of 

these were children under the age of 12. In 1999, they excavated nine more graves 

from under a sidewalk. The bones provided evidence about the health of the enslaved 
9

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

people in New York City, and the stress that slavery put on their bodies. Many were 

malnourished and died young. 

The graves also provide evidence for different religious and cultural practices tied to 

many different African societies. For example, archeologists identified glass beads, 

white shells, coins over eye sockets, and copper pins. In the Bakongo African tribe, 

white seashells symbolized immortality and water and allowed human spirits to stay 

afloat after death. Other tribes may have had other meanings for the same object. 

The different cultures represented at the burial ground shared similar beliefs in an 

afterlife. Scholars think some of the artifacts are thought to be placed at the graves to 

satisfy the needs of the spirits and encourage them to not haunt or torment the living. All 

the bodies were buried so they would face east, toward the African continent. 

People argued over what to do next and groups struggled for control after the discovery. 

They had different ideas about how to study, protect, and remember the people buried 

at the site. Some of the descendants wanted the archeologists to study the remains to 

learn about their past. Others did not want their ancestors' remains disturbed. 

In 1993, the U.S. Congress decided that the plans for the federal building should be 

changed to accommodate the site. Congress asked scholars at Howard University to 

lead research on the skeletal remains in Washington, DC. The University’s 

archeologists brought descendants into the research process. They worked together to 

build a research design and a memorial for the deceased. The National Park Service 

listed the African Burial Ground on the National Register for Historic Places that same 

year. In 2006, the Secretary of the Interior designated the site as a National Historic 

Landmark.

The National Park Service opened the African Burial Ground National Monument to the 

public on October 5, 2007. The opening ceremony was filled with prayers, songs, 

dances, and speeches. 419 drummers performed to honor the 419 individuals 

discovered. The memorial includes a large monument to the people buried there. The 

monument is made of dark granite and inscribed with symbols from African cultures. It is 

now a solemn space in the middle of a bustling city to reflect on the past.
10

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Questions for Reading 1: “Rediscovering the African Burial Ground”

1) Who was buried at the African Burial Ground? What did archeologists learn from this 

discovery?

2) Name one kind of cultural or religious object found at the Burial Ground. What does this item 

suggest about the person buried with it?

3) How was the African Burial Ground lost? Describe how New York City changed over 

200 years. Why did it change?

4) Imagine your ancestors’ lost graves were uncovered at a construction site today. 

Would you want archeologists to study them in a lab? Why or why not? How would you 

want them to be remembered?
11

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Reading 2: Excerpt from “Rites of Ancestral Return” Schedule-of-Events, 2003.

Note: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York Public Library) 

organized the “Rites of Ancestral Return” memorial events to honor remains found at 

the African Burial Ground in US cities. The bodies were placed in 419 hand-carved 

mahogany coffins made in Ghana, a nation on the West Coast of Africa. The slave trade

forced millions of Africans to leave the African continent from Ghana’s ocean ports.

The “Rites of Ancestral Remains” commemorative ceremony, which will 

begin with an Evening Departure Ceremony at Howard University, will both 

document and celebrate the contribution of African Americans as ancestral 

remains from the African Burial Ground are returned from Washington, 

D.C., to New York City. The remains will be given a permanent resting-place 

on October 4, 2003, at the African Burial Ground Memorial Site.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30:

6:00 p.m.

“Tribute Ceremony” at Andrew Rankin 

Memorial Chapel, Howard University, 6th

Street and Howard Place NW, 

Washington, D.C.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1:

12 noon

“Tribute Ceremony” at Willard W. Allen 

Masonic Temple, 1307 Eutaw Place, 

Baltimore, Maryland

8:15pm

“Tribute Ceremony” at Mother African 

Union Church, 9th and Franklin Streets, 

Wilmington, Delaware

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2:

11am

“Tribute Ceremony” at Mother Bethel 

A.M.E. Church, 419 South 6th Street 

(Richard Allen Ave.), Philadelphia, 

Pennsylvania

6:00 p.m.

“Tribute Ceremony” at Bethany Baptist 

Church, 275 W. Market Street, Newark, 

New Jersey

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3:

9:00 a.m.

“Flotilla Departure” at Jersey City / 

Liberty Island, New Jersey

11:00 a.m.

“Arrival Ceremony” at South and Wall 

Streets (New York's colonial slave 

market)

12:15 p.m.

“Procession to African Burial Ground 

Memorial Site”

1:00 p.m.

“Commemorative Vigil” at African Burial 

Ground Memorial Site, Duane and Elk 

Streets, New York, New York

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4:

9:00 a.m.

Vigil Ends

11:00 a.m.

“Public Tribute and Reinternment 

Ceremony” in Foley Square and African 

Burial Ground Memorial Site, New York, 

New York
12

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Questions for Reading 2: Excerpt from “Rites of Ancestral Return” Schedule-ofEvents, 2003.

1) List all of the places mentioned in Reading 2. Where did people gather? What kinds 

of places are these?

2) How did the organizers use history to plan the Rites of Ancestral Return? Use examples 

from Reading 2 and explain the role history played in the event.

3) List several ways your culture honors and memorializes the dead. How do these 

practices serve the living? How might they serve the dead?
13

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Visual Evidence

Photo 1: African Burial Ground National Monument, 2009.

Credit: Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Carol M. Highsmith Archive 

[http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010719186/]

Caption for Photo 1: African Burial Ground National Monument, 2009.

The African Burial Ground National Monument is made of dark granite and inscribed 

with many symbols from around the world. Each symbol captures a meaning or value 

that revolves around concepts like death, change, and remembrance. The buildings 

behind it are government offices.
14

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Questions for Photo 1: African Burial Ground National Monument, 2009.

1) Use the photograph to describe the African Burial Ground National Monument in your own 

words. Where are the symbols? What image do you see in the center of the memorial floor?

2) How did the Burial Ground site and New York City change between 1755 and 2009? 

Compare evidence from Photo 1 with what you learned from Map 1 and Reading 1.

3) Archeologists studied this place in the early 1990s because the National Historic 

Preservation Act of 1966 requires historians and archeologists study land that the 

government wants to develop. If there was no National Historic Preservation Act, what 

might this place look like today? Why?
15

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Optional Activity 1

Tracing Paths and Exploring Destinations of The Middle Passage 

New York was one of many trading ports located around the world during era of the 

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade or “Middle Passage.” Have students investigate the slave 

trade beyond New York by using the online Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database 

[http://slavevoyages.org/voyage/search]. 

Assign students to pick their own “Principal Place of Slave Landing” from the database. 

Then, have them research further to write an essay about how slavery was practiced in 

that place during a specific era, using information from the database and other online 

sources in their writing.

Finally, have a class discussion about how the lives of enslaved people and the laws 

controlling them were different depending on where Europeans took them. Ask for 

volunteers to read their essay or parts of their essay to the class. Finally, ask your 

students to compare and contrast what they learned from each other about African 

experiences in different parts of the world.
16

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Optional Activity 2

Still I Rise: Honoring Ancestors through Poetry

On October 5, 2007, African American poet Maya Angelou spoke at the dedication 

ceremony for the African Burial Ground National Monument. To honor the dead whose 

remains were buried there, she altered a verse in her poem “Still I Rise.” She said, “You 

may bury me in the bottom of Manhattan, I will rise. My people will get me. I will rise out 

of the huts of history’s shame.” 

In class, have students read the poem “Still I Rise.” The poem is available online 

[https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise]. Then, have your students write verses 

of original poetry to celebrate their own ancestors in their own words. Next, combine the 

students’ verses into a single poem that celebrates the ancestors and heritages of the 

whole class. 

Display the class poem on a screen so that it is visible to the students or print handouts. 

Lead a whole class discussion about what is meaningful to them about the poem overall 

and their individual experiences in contributing verses about their own personal histories 

and heritages. Ask them what values stand out among the verses. Have them look for 

similarities and differences between their contributions. 

Present the class poem to the school’s yearbook for publication and/or have students 

read each of their verses aloud during a school assembly to raise awareness of the 

students’ ancestry and diverse and international backgrounds. 
17

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Optional Activity 3

Investigating Local and Regional History through Archeology

One of the most common symbols found inside of a grave at the 

African Burial Ground National Monument was the Sankofa 

symbol. 

“Sankofa” is an Adinkra (West African culture) symbol that 

means, “return to the past to prepare for the future”. A 

photograph of the symbol is available for download or viewing 

online at the Library of Congress 

[http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/highsm.03703]. 

The meanings of other symbols displayed at the monument are available on the 

National Park Service website for the African Burial Ground National Monument 

[https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/adinkra-symbols.htm].

Have students investigate etchings, drawings, and/or symbols found at an archeological 

sites for a known cultural group in their local community, state, or region in the United 

States, such as inside burials, caves, or dwellings. Students should study the symbol’s 

shapes and details carefully and analyze evidence for how the symbol connected the 

group to the natural world, animal world, spiritual beliefs, and/or the afterlife. 

Have students create a poster presentation of their research findings, including their 

own personal drawing of their archeological findings, names of the archeological sites, 

county, city/town, and state or region that their findings were located. 
18

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

References and Contributing Resources

Blakey, Michael L., Lesley M. Rankin-Hill, Warren Perry, and Jean Howson. "The New 

York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York." 

Prepared for The United States General Services Administration, Northeastern and 

Caribbean Region. Washington DC: Howard University Press (2009). 

https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/upload/downABG-SYNTHESIS.pdf.

Hansen, Joyce and Gary McGowan. Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of 

New York's African Burial Ground. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998.

King, Charlotte. "Separated by Death and Color: The African American Cemetery of 

New Philadelphia, Illinois." Historical Archaeology 44, no. 1 (2010): 125-37.

Medford, Edna Greene. Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground: New York 

Blacks and the Diaspora. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 2009.

Moore, Christopher. "New York’s Seventeenth-Century African Burial Ground in 

History." National Park Service. 2010. 

https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/upload/Chris-Moore.pdf. 

New York Historical Society. "Fact Sheet: Slavery in New York." 2010. 

http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/PDFs/Fact_Sheet.pdf.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division, The New 

York Public Library. "Rites of Ancestral Return" New York Public Library Digital 

Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a8874750-4759-0132-e18c58d385a7bbd0.
19

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

Additional Online Resources

The websites listed below provide learners with additional information about the Middle 

Passage, slavery, African American heritage, and the African Burial Ground National 

Monument.

National Park Service

The African Burial Ground National Monument [https://www.nps.gov/afbg/] is a National 

Park Service unit and part of the National Parks of New York Harbor 

[https://www.nps.gov/npnh/]. Visit its website to learn more about the history and culture 

of the historic site, or to get in touch with rangers and interpreters who specialize in 

Colonial New York history and African Burial Ground topics.

National Parks Conservation Association

African Burial Ground National Monument is part of the National Parks Conservation 

Association [https://www.npca.org/] “hidden treasures” of New York video series. The 

virtual tour of the historic Manhattan cemetery is available on YouTube 

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJHGQgEEBko].

NPR

National Public Radio produced a 5-minute audio feature story in October 2003 about 

African Burial Ground : “New York Reburies Remains of Colonial-Era Blacks”. The 

feature piece provides a short-and-sweet history of the African Burial Ground, 

preparations to rebury the remains of 419 people found at the cemetery, and interviews 

with New York residents and preservationists to reveal feelings and perspectives on the 

reburial. [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1455525]

NPR also produced a 12-minute online radio story on “Unearthing New York’s Forgotten 

Slavery Era”. The story features interviews with two men who led the movement to 

create the African Burial Ground National Monument: Michael Blakely and Howard 

Dodson. [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15187759] 

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public 

Library

The New York Public Library’s Shomburg Center published an online exhibit about the 

African Burial Ground. The exhibit showcases images of the burial sites and artifacts 

found during the excavations, as well as videos from the October 2003 Rites of 

Ancestral Return. [http://web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/afb/shell.html] 
20

Teaching with Historic Places National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Discover the African Burial Ground National Monument

New York Historical Society

Access historical maps of “Black New York City” during the years 1785 to 1835, 

digitized and made available online by the New York Historical Society. The maps 

highlight schools, churches, theaters, newspaper companies, bookshops, and mutualaid societies created by black New Yorkers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth 

centuries in Manhattan. [https://www.nyhistory.org/web/africanfreeschool/map/mapprint.html]

The New York Historical Society’s exhibit about slavery in the city is not online but a 

companion website [http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/education.htm] offers online 

resources for teachers, including lesson plans and primary sources about the history of 

slavery in New York City.

University of Virginia Library and The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

The Digital Media Lab at the University of Virginia Library and the Virginia Foundation 

for the Humanities produced a database of over one thousand historic photographs of 

the transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Africans in the Americas, as well as 

contemporary drawings of these experiences. [http://www.slaveryimages.org/]