This is a different type of cemetery than what I usually feature on this blog. It's the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, which I visited today as part of a project I'm currently working on. Between 1690 and 1794, fifteen thousand people were buried in this spot. Some were slaves, and some were free black people. Then, in the nineteenth century, the site was buried under landfill and forgotten until 1991, when the construction of a federal building unearthed human remains.
The memorial, which is located just around the corner from the visitors' center (which features exhibits and a documentary film), is quite moving and beautiful. The ramp takes you down to the level in which the people were originally buried.
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