The Black Past , 2012

Historical Archaeology, 1997

The New York African Burial Ground Project embodies the problems, concerns, and goals of contemporary African-American and urban archaeology. The project at once has informed and has been informed by the ever-watchful African Americans and New York public. It is a public that understands that the hypothetical and theoretical constructs that guide research are not value-free and are often, in fact, politically charged. An ongoing dialogue between the concerned community, the federal steering committee, the federal government, and the archaeological community has proved difficult but ultimately productive. The project has an Office of Public Education and Interpretation which informs the public through a newsletter, educators' conferences, and laboratory tours. The public, largely students, attends laboratory tours which often provide initial exposure to archaeology and physical anthropology. Much of this public involvement, however, was driven by angry public reaction to the excavation of a site of both historical prominence and spiritual significance. 1933 The Mi s-edu cation of the Neg ro.

Northeast Historical Archaeology, 2012

Comparative examination of the treatment and memorialization of two enslaved African burial grounds in Guadeloupe and the African Burial Ground National Monument in lower Manhattan.

2013

Although many old sites are well preserved, many sites of historical and cultural value in the United States are disappearing due to their abandonment. In some cases, the condition of these sites makes restorers' work very difficult. In other cases, in order to recover blighted local economies, administrations and cultural institutions are adopting strategic spatial plans to attract tourists or accommodate historical theme parks. However, recent scholarly interest in the interaction of history and collective memory has highlighted these sites. Even if the memory of some historical sites is fading quickly, this memory is receiving greater attention than in the past in order to enhance local identity and strengthen the sense of community. This article examines a number of plans and strategies adopted to give shape to the memorial landscape in Alabama, thereby documenting and exploring some key relations between city planning and the commemoration of African-American history.

This thesis focuses on the archaeological study of the Slave Cemetery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Here, methodological and theoretical principles are utilized to study the area that many enslaved workers call their final resting place. Through the use of this space, it is hypothesized that Mount Vernon’s enslaved community practiced distinct traditions, instilling in that spot a sense of place, and reinforcing their individual and communal human identities. This thesis will also investigate the cemetery within its broader regional and cultural contexts, to attain a better understanding of the death rituals and culturally resistant activates that slaves at Mount Vernon used in their day-to-day battle against the system that held them in bondage.

For part of its short tenure, the Mt. Pleasant Plains Cemetery (1870-1890), served as the largest African American cemetery in the District of Columbia. However, no sooner than it was founded, local residents and city officials conspired to have it subsequently condemned and the land reappropriated. Largely succeeding in their efforts to remove the cemetery and the memory of those interred, the lives of more than 8,400 African Americans and several European Americans remain concealed underground for more than a century. In 2005, soil erosion revealed the remains of several burials and with it the memory of the historic cemetery resurfaced. Using data acquired from an on-going archival and archaeological survey, this paper will demonstrate how deliberate attempts to erase the historical memory of the African American presence have coincided with the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the capital of the United States of America. Furthermore the case of Mt. Pleasant Plains Cemetery serves as an ardent reminder of importance of maintaining public memory in the face of urban development.

Southeastern Archaeology, 2011

A cemetery survey was completed in July of 2009 at two African American cemeteries in coastal South Carolina. The objective of this research was to study above-ground artifacts and features in the cemeteries in an effort to better understand life and death for enslaved African and African American communities as evidenced through their mortuary practices. This paper seeks to explore the relationship among African American ideologies about death, cemetery landscape, and the symbolic nature of grave goods.