Levi Bueno 11/5/24

 Lost History Turned into Common Knowledge 

New York is a city that is always portrayed as overpopulated, dirty, expensive, which all these things are true but there is so much value in this city. That value is the history that is embedded in each borough. In Lower Manhattan one of the largest burial grounds of African American slaves was discovered which is now called the African burial ground monument. Although this land is filled with history, construction always finds its way to harm our history. But with a city like New York is it better to preserve our history or let it be taken over for modernization? Preserving any kind of history is important because it helps us learn about the events that lead to our modernization today and help society make better decisions.    

In pre colonial times New York was very much different than what it is today. Before all the skyscrapers, vast population and modernization did not exist back then it looked completely contrary to what it is today. The landscape before consisted of many trees, hills, mountains, various water sources and beaches, The Lenape which is a native american tribe were known as the original inhabitants of nyc as far as historians know. According to Besty Mcully, a researcher of the Lenape people, she states that the Native Americans called their homeland Lenapehoking, a swath of land that stretched from the Lower Hudson region to Delaware Bay, including portions of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Among Algonquians — Indians of diverse tribes who are united by a common root language — the Lenapes are “the Grandfathers,” the first Algonquian-speaking people from whom all others are descended (Mcully, pg 1. 2018).  This evidence gives us insight of where the Lenape people originated and what set them apart from other native american tribes. Around there discovery by colonists in the 16th century it has been said that their numbers ranged around 20,000 Unfortunately for the Lenape many of them have perished due to their contact with the colonists which in the text it explains, “Between 1600 and 1700, the Lenapes were decimated by diseases and war. Numbering up to 20,000 prior to European Contact, by 1700 their numbers were reduced to 3,000 at most. Smallpox, malaria, measles, bubonic plague, and other diseases imported by the white man took a terrible toll. Compounding the death toll exacted by killer epidemics were ongoing wars with the Lenapes’ enemies, the Iroquois to the north and the Dutch to the south.” What led to their downfall was not only the many diseases brought on to them, but enemy tribes cornering them as well since not all Native American tribes were fond of each other and would fight and kill each other if necessary. They lost a lot of their history and who they were because of the elders’ death who had held an abundance of knowledge about their traditions and cultures. Without preserving their history and trying to learn more about their past they would have forever forgotten their history, culture, and what set them apart from other Native Americans. Even though almost all of the Lenape people perished there still are thousands still alive and preserving their culture, identity, and language to keep their traditions. 

Many years after discovering the land of the Lenape people the colonists brought in the first eleven African slaves in 1626, According to both articles by Andrea. E. Frohne, and the national monuments website: they were given their own farmland and certain freedoms in exchange for the crops they produced, and the land they owned would soon be called the “land of the blacks”. African slaves were heavily influenced by christianity by the colonists and their names would be changed to names in the bible like, “Simon, Paulo, Peter, Antonio, Jan (Dutch for John), and Manuel (variation of Immanuel)”. According to the source the intention of bringing the African slaves was, “to build the infrastructure of the settlements while Europeans focused largely on the fur trade. New york city came into existence because of the beaver and its fur, which was considered a valuable commodity and the height of fashion in northern europe”. Historically every conquered land by the colonists in the new world would produce a certain good to be traded with other countries that were created and provided by the slaves they brought to do their labor which made them rich by trade. By 1664 New Amsterdam would now be called New York City because it was now conquered by the British, and now the partial freedom they had was revoked since the Dutch’s form of slavery was different from the rest of Europe’s “definition” of slavery was.

In 1682 laws would be created by the british to take away the rights they were given by the dutch which in the text it says, In 1682, a law stated that not more than four slaves were allowed to congregate publicly, Secondly the British did not recognize marriages and baptisms as the Dutch largely had, and families were separated more frequently, (Fronhe, pg 24, 2015)  and by 1702 a law was made that a slave could not be bought without the owner’s permission and by resisting these laws the slaves would revolt against their owners but it would lead to harsh and cruel punishments. Ever since African slaves arrived they had their own land for their cemetery which was called the Negros burial ground which was much later discovered as the African Burial Ground. According to the park’s website it says, “Despite extraordinary assaults on their humanity, these Africans and their descendants found dignity and community through familiar cultural rituals, including burial of the dead”. Referring to “assaults” it would be the deprivation of their human rights since they were not allowed to own poetry, be married, be baptized, and instead be given cruel punishments like beatings and other sorts of physical abuse. Burying their loved ones is what builds a sense of community for African Americans but by 1697 since Trinity church purchased their land in that year and made it against the law for there to be any more burials. By 1794 the burial ground was fully shut down and became land to be bought. Century by century more land and construction would be layered on top of the burial which made it long forgotten until the late 20th Century. 

Since the confinement of the Negros Burial Ground it had almost became lost history until it was faithfully discovered in 1991. The GSA ( U.S General Services Administration) planned on constructing at 290 Broadway to build a federal office building. They planned the construction all the way in 1987 to investigate what plots of land they needed to buy to continue with their plans, and just like any other construction planning they had to get in touch with the businesses they were buying the land from, gathering the workers needed, signing many papers to authorize their plans. By 1991 once they had started digging into the earth to start constructing they found several human remains. They soon after evacuated the site and they accidentally altered many graves which caused uproar considering they weren’t careful at the time since it wasn’t their intention of preserving what they found. By 1992 many concerns were received by how the GSA were handling the corpses and many African activists, scientists, archaeologists, and others that were interested in the matter spoke against the GSAs actions and demanded that they halt the evacuation in order to preserve the lost history that was discovered. According to“African Art, Interviews, Narratives: Bodies of knowledge at work” by Joanna Grabski and Carol Magge  say, “The group, the Committee of Descendants of the Afrikan Ancestral Burial Ground, then called for immediate reburial. The leader of the committee, Ollie McClean, explained that she had sent a letter to the new GSA regional administrator, Bill Lawson, dated September 27, demanding that the dead be reburied during Kwanzaa 1999. Now that the GSA had new leadership and had purportedly taken the side of the community, the Committee of Descendants directed antagonistic comments toward the head of the project, Michael Blakey, suggesting that he was keeping the remains and postponing reburial on purpose in the name of science”. Due to the many protest’s outcries the people’s voices were heard and the construction was halted and planned to make space for a memorial although that’s what they supposed but didn’t take matters into their hands yet which aggravated many people. It became a constant back and forth rally between the activist and the GSA. A decade later what occurred was, “The GSA entered into an interagency agreement in Sep­ tem­ ber 2003 with the National Park Service (NPS) under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which would take over managing the competitions and their future incarnations”. After four years of analyzing the bodies and making the right coffins for each skeleton they officially opened the national monument in 2007. Currently, in 2024 the site has become much more immersive with realistic statues of a black family mourning over the death of their loved ones, more information being added to exhibit and interactive learning like videos and walk through information on the walls and artifacts. They often have live shows showing African traditions, culture, and dances. 

In the near future of 2200 I can see this monument having its own study headquarters because according to the scientists studying the bodies of the deceased they haven’t been able to find much of their history or what part of Africa they have originated from. I believe that technology will evolve to a point where it will be possible for these questions to be answered so many black studies can be pursued which will inspire more growth and desire to learn more about African American history because of the park’s strong desire to preserve New York’s once lost history. The reason I believe this is because every year that passes by we learn more new information everyday by investigating, studying, and clarifying things that can be confusing. It’s human nature to want to find clarification in things that don’t make sense and grow more in knowledge. This desire to learn will influence the way the national park grows because that desire to learn will lead to more investigation about the past of the site and new york as a whole and will inspire others to investigate as well. 

In conclusion, history preservation is very important and crucial, and we can see how preserving history doesn’t mean that it has to get in the way of modernization or gentrification. These are two terms that can coexist as long as there is space dedicated for both and soon all history should be treasured and be taken into more consideration. Although GSA couldn’t build the office, they wanted on top of the burial ground that sacrifice allowed one lost history for many people to reconnect with their roots and culture because if a city like New York is culturally diverse than it should fully embrace every background and more importantly embrace the history of those who had built it from the ground up.