A Fork in the Road to American Slavery

My Road Trip to the African Burial Ground National Monument, New York

Aerial view of the African Burial Grounds National Monument. The Circle of the Diaspora is on the left, the Ancestral Chamber in the middle, and the burial mounds are on the far right side of the photo. Source: National Park Service.

In a pocket park in downtown Manhattan, seven mounds hold the remains of 419 people found during the building of a skyscraper. Some of the remains were enslaved Africans, part of a six-acre cemetery that holds thousands of burials. Near the burial mounds, cars rush on Duane Street…