February 12, 2022 NYC Black History 50
Welcome, runners, to the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground! On February 12, the NYC Black History 50 will take runners on a historical route "to key moments and sights important to understanding black history in New York City" across all 5 boroughs. Sign up to run, all of the route or some of it. All proceeds will support and preserve the Sandy Ground community in Staten Island. Sandy Ground is "America's oldest continuously-inhabited free black community." Run and donate. Or only donate. Just make sure to engage and advocate for the preservation of places and spaces that help tell a more full recounting of the history of NYC and beyond.
January 2020 Update: FUNDS for Memorial REMAIN Unallocated
Five years after funds were allocated, the money has still not been directed towards a permanent memorial and preservation of the park where many enslaved rest without recognition. Follow the coverage in the Hunts Point Express and on News 12- The Bronx.
Where do we go from here? Please contact local, state, and national officials, and connect with us.
Where do we go from here? Please contact local, state, and national officials, and connect with us.
June 8, 2019 '5 Boros to Freedom'
CelebrateS New York's African American History
5 Boros to Freedom looks to celebrate the themes of self-reliance, supporting others, self-assertion, and community through a variety of program offerings in each of the five boroughs on June 5-16, 2019, including at the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground.
Join us for Remember the Forgotten- A Walking Tour of the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground on Saturday, June 8, 2019, from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. This family friendly tour begins at PS 48, the Joseph Rodman Drake School (1290 Spofford Avenue, Bronx NY 10474) and ends at Drake Park.
For more information and to register for the Remember the Forgotten- A Walking Tour of the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground, please RSVP using the registration form.
Join us for Remember the Forgotten- A Walking Tour of the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground on Saturday, June 8, 2019, from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. This family friendly tour begins at PS 48, the Joseph Rodman Drake School (1290 Spofford Avenue, Bronx NY 10474) and ends at Drake Park.
For more information and to register for the Remember the Forgotten- A Walking Tour of the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground, please RSVP using the registration form.
MAY 28, 2019: World Premiere of Elio VillaFranca's 'Don't Change My Name'
Free Latin Jazz Concert in Hunts Point at Barretto Point Park
6:00 p.m. | May 28 (rain date: June 3rd) | Hosted by the Bronx Arts Ensemble
The performance represents many years of research into the Arara music of Cuba, tracing its roots to the religion and culture of Dahomey, in present day Benin, and telling the story of Florentina, an important Arara figure in Cuba and the Cuban slave rebellions. See the Don't Change My Name Flyer for more information or visit the Bronx Arts Ensemble website.
6:00 p.m. | May 28 (rain date: June 3rd) | Hosted by the Bronx Arts Ensemble
The performance represents many years of research into the Arara music of Cuba, tracing its roots to the religion and culture of Dahomey, in present day Benin, and telling the story of Florentina, an important Arara figure in Cuba and the Cuban slave rebellions. See the Don't Change My Name Flyer for more information or visit the Bronx Arts Ensemble website.
May 8, 2019: Manhattan College Students Present at NYPL Hunts Point
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Come and engage with the student researchers from Manhattan College who have spent the 2019 spring semester researching slavery in the Bronx, including at the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground. They will share what they have learned and answer questions.
New York Public Library (NYPL): Hunts Point Branch Address and Directions:877 SOUTHERN BLVD, BRONX, NY 10459 Wednesday, May 8, 2019, 6:00PM-8:00PM. Unable to attend? View the Manhattan College Urban Studies Program video of the student presentations. |
2019: The Ongoing Effort for Recognition is Featured on ABC
February 2019
BRONX, New York (WABC) -- A black and white photograph taken at the turn of the 20th century still reverberates today in the Bronx.
On the front, rough-hewn gravestones in a patch of grass; on the back, simple text written in cursive: "Slave burying ground Hunts Point Road." Learn more about current efforts underway to write the forgotten back into our city's story.
BRONX, New York (WABC) -- A black and white photograph taken at the turn of the 20th century still reverberates today in the Bronx.
On the front, rough-hewn gravestones in a patch of grass; on the back, simple text written in cursive: "Slave burying ground Hunts Point Road." Learn more about current efforts underway to write the forgotten back into our city's story.
2019: Manhattan College Community Based Learning Course
During Spring 2019, Adam Arenson, Manhattan College Associate Professor of History and Director of the Urban Studies Program, leads a college course "to learn more about the history of slavery in the Bronx, and to see what this history means for the current residents of these neighborhoods, and for those whose families have roots here. We want to use our research skills as historians to help people learn more about their history and their connections. And we plan to consider what kind of memorial is right for this legacy of slavery, and the enslaved people buried in unmarked graves, in the Bronx and elsewhere."
Moving Towards Permanent REMEMBRANCE
Since inception, the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground Project has been a multi-year journey to 'write the forgotten back into history' and engage Hunts Point youth in learning about the history of their neighborhood, their city, and use that lens to take control of current issues and lead to new improved outcomes in the future. Nearly $180,000 in funding has been secured for a permanent memorial. Now it's time to complete the project after all these years. Our motto is to 'Transform Learning About History to Doing Something About History.'
Bronx Ink Coverage on the 'Inequity in the Greenest Borough'
"When an elementary school class discovered a slave burial ground at a public park in Hunts Point, the Parks Department gave it official recognition in 2014. But plans for a memorial have since stalled at the local level."
NEW YORK TIMES: READY TO ROLL? A WORKS IN PROGRESS REPORT
In a January 2018 follow up on the progress of many Works in Progress, New York Times' journalist Helene Stapinski updates us all on the progress surrounding many amazing projects, including the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground.
New York Times: Honoring a Hidden Slave Burial Ground
In November 2017, The New York Times' Helene Stapinski covered the current progress of the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground (HPSBG) Project in her column, Works in Progress, where she writes about the ongoing advocacy for developing a community-designed permanent memorial and educational outreach to remember those once forgotten in Hunts Point.
Johnnie Butler’s favorite spot to practice trombone is near a small burial ground for slaves.
Credit David Dee Delgado for The New York Times
SUMMER 2017: Archaeology Report released confirmS the Site
"The historical photographic and documentary evidence supports the existence of a slave burial ground historically located on the south side of Old Hunts Point Road across from the family burial ground of the Hunt, Leggett, and Willett families known today as Drake Cemetery." Read the entire archaeology report from the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission on the HPSBG site. Then, join the community Facebook discussion on where do we go from here?
RECENT HPSBG EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING
In Spring 2017, students became archaeologists! During the South Bronx English Intensive Sessions after school program sponsored by PS 48, developed analytical skills and career-readiness, alongside literacy, science, and mathematics understandings as they researched historical artifacts from archaeological digs in New York City. These skills contextually prepare the students for critically investigating the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground Project during May and June. The student research culminated in a student-led Drake Park Needs Assessment, where students designed improvements for Drake Park, site of The HPSBG.
HPSBG Vision
The Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground (HPSBG) Project seeks to definitively locate and commemorate the lives of slaves that lived in Hunts Point, Bronx, New York. Though the graves may have been obliterated their lives shall be remembered. The project works with students from PS 48, a New York City public school, alongside local historians, community organizations, museums, and city agencies to investigate the final resting place of the slaves from various historical and prominent New York families. View the HPSBG Project Trailer.
HPSBG Mission
"Few neighborhoods in the Bronx have so many historical connotations as Hunts Point"
John McNamara, April 1, 1971 McNamara's Old Bronx
It is well known in the historical reference that the New York City area's wealthy landowners had slaves, yes, even here locally in the Bronx. Alongside the well to do landowners that are buried in Hunts Point in the Hunt family cemetery was the family slave burial cemetery. In here lies the mystery: where is that cemetery? Local students saved the Hunt family cemetery (now a city park) from obliteration in the 1960s yet the slave burial grounds were leveled and lost to history much earlier.
The clues leading us back to those hallowed grounds revolve around an circa 1910 photo from the MCNY collections and a clue that the slave burial grounds was located "across the street" from the family cemetery. The MCNY photo (ca 1910) has documented the slave burial ground's very existence and geographic location. In concert with various other source materials, today, NYC public school students and their teachers located in the Bronx, alongside local historians, are seeking to uncover the mystery and commemorate the forgotten lives and last resting spots of these individuals. They rest here, somewhere nearby, unknown and unrecognized. They now deserve to now be written back into our history.
John McNamara, April 1, 1971 McNamara's Old Bronx
It is well known in the historical reference that the New York City area's wealthy landowners had slaves, yes, even here locally in the Bronx. Alongside the well to do landowners that are buried in Hunts Point in the Hunt family cemetery was the family slave burial cemetery. In here lies the mystery: where is that cemetery? Local students saved the Hunt family cemetery (now a city park) from obliteration in the 1960s yet the slave burial grounds were leveled and lost to history much earlier.
The clues leading us back to those hallowed grounds revolve around an circa 1910 photo from the MCNY collections and a clue that the slave burial grounds was located "across the street" from the family cemetery. The MCNY photo (ca 1910) has documented the slave burial ground's very existence and geographic location. In concert with various other source materials, today, NYC public school students and their teachers located in the Bronx, alongside local historians, are seeking to uncover the mystery and commemorate the forgotten lives and last resting spots of these individuals. They rest here, somewhere nearby, unknown and unrecognized. They now deserve to now be written back into our history.
THE HPSBG Project and the Periwinkle Initiative
The Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground Project has been included in the Memory and Landmarks: Reports of the Burial Database Project of Enslaved Americans. The burial database has been developed through the efforts of the Periwinkle Initiative, which is "a public humanities and education initiative dedicated to preserving cultural heritage associated with enslaved Americans. The Initiative’s core project is the National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans – which will be the first and only national repository to document individual burials and burial grounds of enslaved Americans." The work of the HPSBG has been recognized in the Periwinkle Initiative's Spotlight on Local Work.
