Synopses & Reviews
How can we learn about the lives of African slaves in Colonial America? Often forbidden to read or write, they left few written records. But in 1991 scientists rediscovered New York's long-ignored African Burial Ground, which opened an exciting new window into the past.
A woman with filed teeth buried with a girdle of beads; a black soldier buried with his British Navy uniform, his face pointing east; a mother and child, laid to rest side by side: to scientists, each of these burials has much to tell us about African slaves in America.
Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence shows how archaeologists and anthropologists have learned to read life stories in shattered bones, tiny beads, and the faint traces left by coffin lids in ancient soil. At the same time, by blending together the insights found buried in the soil and the results of historians' careful studies, it gives us a moving, inspiring portrait of the lives Africans created in Colonial New York.
Review
"The fully intact, well-preserved skeleton under the streets of lower Manhattan was one of the most important archaeological discoveries of our lifetime." --from
Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence"A moving and enriching story of the discovery of an African burial ground located in lower Manhattan... The painstaking methods of archaeologists, and their detective work, reveal much about the lives of Africans in colonial times." --Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
In September 1991, archaeologists began to turn up graves and bodies in lower Manhattan. Well-known maps had shown that this was the site of New York's first burial ground for slaves and free blacks. "Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence" uses the rediscovery of the burial grounds as a window on a fascinating side of colonial history and as an introduction to the careful science that is uncovering all of the secrets of the past.
About the Author
Joyce Hansen is a four-time Coretta Scott King Honor winner, and a former New York City schoolteacher. She and her husband reside in Columbia, South Carolina.
Gary McGowan has more than ten years of experience conserving a wide range of archaeological and art materials. He was the head conservator of the team that studied the burial ground. He lives with his wife in New Jersey.