The New York African Burial ground was the topic of Professor Mack’s lecture. This lecture interested in me because it was not only history but it was the present. This burial ground was used all the way from 1650 to 1795. The burials were not discovered until the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. However, it was kept a secret from most of the community. The US government had planned on just excavating the site and then building, until they decided to just build on top of it. Finding this out honestly hurt my feelings and made me sad. To think that if I went to the sites in October, I would be stepping on an estimated 10,000 people’s burials. It hurt to think that some of those people might be my ancestors, the origins of my family that were being stepped on. It disgusted me to the fullest after hearing what these people endured and being treated with so little respect. They are being treated as if they are lower than the dirt on the bottom of someone’s shoes. These people buried went through hell just to survive and then be buried as if they were dogs. The investigations on the bones showed that 65% of the women had muscle tears from pushing or pulling things that were far to heavy for them. (Dr. Mack’s power point) Another woman’s bones showed that she had sustained much abuse. She had a bullet in her bones, a fractured jaw, and a broken arm. (Dr. Mack power point)These kinds of things happened to women all the time because women worked alone in the homes. They had no way to be safe, and if they messed up it could spell the end of their life. Men worked in large groups out in the fields, so there was a small aspect of safety in numbers.
It made slightly happy to know that the people banded together. One reason being that if they had not, they would not have survived so there would not be a large African American population in the US now. Africans buried Africans and tried to bury them the way they would be back home. Then there was a change of rules and there were no more night burials allowed, no more than 12 people allowed to witness burial and they needed permission. The fact that whites imposed these rules on a funeral is sad, and shows how afraid they were that the Africans were planning something.
I feel that I will still be conflicted when going in October, just because of the circumstances and controversy of the burial grounds. I like the idea of the monument and gallery though. The heavy symbolism adds to the historical aspect of things. By using the symbols from other cultures within Africa, it gives a thorough representation of the people that might be buried there. I say that because there is not guarantee that all the people buried came from the same location, but multiple symbols of multiple places, everything is represented in a very symbolic and beautiful way. I listened to narrations on the symbols of Legba, Yowa, Akoma,Nsibidi, and Denkyem. They were all very interesting and hearing about what they meant was very nice. However, it would have been more effective to have a video in place also so I could view the symbol. I feel I am missing information now because I cannot see the symbol but I know about it and what it means. I believe Howard was chosen to study the bones because it is the most qualified school to do so. It is a well known HBCU and everyone respects it. Howard’s involvement in this project does not “inspire” me to use academic knowledge because its involvement is not an inspiring thing. It could have just as well been another school that was chosen so this is not some kind of Cinderella type involvement story. It is not inspiring to me; however, I will still use academic knowledge to aid the community in anyway possible.
This presentation gave me mixed feelings on going to the African burial grounds. I want to go for the experience, but I do not want to step on peoples graves and disrespect them in that way. As of now I plan to go but I will most likely be reluctant to walk anywhere to close because I do not want to step on the burials. I feel the burials are sacred and should be untouched.
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