African Burial Ground National Monument

The African Burial Ground National Monument serves as a solemn tribute to an estimated fifteen thousand free and enslaved Africans who were interred here during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For decades, this site remained entirely forgotten, buried beneath layers of urban development and landfill as the city expanded northward. It only reemerged in nineteen ninety-one when construction crews digging the foundation for a federal office building unexpectedly unearthed human remains thirty feet below the modern street level. This discovery remains one of the most significant archaeological projects in the history of the United States. Following the excavation, public outcry and intense community activism halted construction, ultimately leading to the preservation of this sacred space and the eventual reinterment of four hundred and nineteen skeletal remains in a traditional ceremony.