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Course: Special topics in art history > Unit 1
Lesson 4: Place and identity- Palmyra: the modern destruction of an ancient city
- Ancient Babylon: excavations, restorations and modern tourism
- Venice's San Marco, a mosaic of spiritual treasure
- The Renaissance Synagogues of Venice
- Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor
- A Jewish house in Damascus, Bayt Farhi
- African Burial Ground, New York City
- Seneca Village: the lost history of African Americans in New York
- Reclaiming history, a Kwakwaka'wakw belt
- Voyage to the moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
- The Gwoździec Synagogue
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African Burial Ground, New York City
The African Burial Ground National Monument in Manhattan honors the memory of enslaved Africans buried there. With seven burial mounds, an ancestral chamber, and a libation court, it's a sacred space reminding us of New York's history of slavery. The monument's design connects to African heritage and emphasizes the importance of remembering the past. Rodney Leon, African Burial Ground National Monument, 2006, New York City, An ARCHES video, speakers Dr. Renée Ater and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Smarthistory.
Want to join the conversation?
- why is there so much symbolism?
there should only be one symbol, that's the mark of God.(1 vote)- that would probobly offend sane people, not like you know what that means.(1 vote)
Video transcript
(gentle music) - [Steven] We're at the corner of Duane and Elk street in Lower Manhattan. And we're walking into the African Burial
Ground National Monument, a small grassy plaza surrounded
by large federal buildings. - [Renee] What's the most striking to me as we enter this space is
the seven burial mounds. And they're a reminder
that there are sarcophagi that have been reburied with
the remains of 419 Africans who were buried in this cemetery. - [Steven] But it's important to remember that that's a tiny fraction
of the thousands of people that were buried just north of
what was then New Amsterdam, and later New York City. - [Renee] This is a small
space, less than 1/3 of an acre. And the cemetery was originally
about five to six blocks, which would have made it several acres. - [Steven] Although this particular space has been set aside, under the
buildings that surround us is a much larger burial
field for men, women, and children who were
enslaved in early New York. - [Renee] And as you
move through the space, you see the very large ancestral chamber and you hear the faint
sounds of running water. - [Steven] The sound of
the water creates a kind of audio envelope for me. It allows me to enter a
more contemplative space that is almost insulated from the sounds of the city outside. - [Renee] The flow of
the water is now evident as we make our way closer
to the ancestral chamber. - [Steven] There's an
inscription that's been engraved into the granite. It reads, "For all those who were lost, for all those who were stolen, for all those who were left behind, for all those who were not forgotten." - [Renee] It restores to
humanity to these people who were once buried in this cemetery. And also what these words remind us is we cannot ever forget that
slavery was an integral part of New York City in the colonial period, the largest slave population
outside of South Carolina. - [Steven] The Dutch
and West India Company brought the first enslaved
peoples to New York and the enslaved population
of New York only grew from that point on. By the 18th century,
according to some estimates, one out of every five, perhaps out of every four New Yorkers
was an enslaved person. - [Renee] It suggests a much more diverse and multicultural community living in New York City at this time. So we are walking closer
to the ancestral chamber, which takes the form of a mastaba. - [Steven] These were burial structures that date all the way back
to the Old Kingdom in Egypt. - [Renee] Rodney Leon, who
designed this memorial, is making that connection
back to Egypt and Africa. Next to the words, there
is a heart shape design called a sankofa. It is an Adinkra symbol from
the Akan people of Ghana, and it means to go back,
to return to one's history and to learn lessons from the past. - [Steven] The doorway frames
a much darker interior space. It's also quieter. - [Renee] Leon very deliberately
created a pause moment within the memorial. - [Steven] The walls lean in, and although there is a soaring quality, there's also a sense of entrapment. And there seems to be an analogy to being within a ship's hull, perhaps being within the prow of a ship, as an enslaved person. - [Renee] The other thing is
the enormous slabs of granite that make up this triangular tomb. - [Steven] And this black
granite was imported from Africa. - [Renee] Selecting where
your granite comes from says something about the monument itself. - [Steven] There's
something really deliberate about the way we're invited
to walk down eight steps to this lower platform. First, we have to cross a bridge and then we get to this large,
inscribed, circular map. - [Renee] It feels as if
we are docked in a ship and then we'll go across the gangplank, so to speak, and enter
into the larger space, called the Ancestral Libation Court. I notice, as we descend the staircase, the sound of the water
becomes more pronounced. Water as transport, but water as a spiritual
passageway as well, that allows the ancestors to move from this world to the next world. - [Steven] And that
becomes even more powerful when I remember that there are
still bodies buried below us. - [Renee] We are in a sacred
space that is now a monument. - [Steven] And by libation,
we're talking about a ritual which remains common in many
cultures in West Africa. - [Renee] These libations
can be palm wine. They could be alcohol. They could even be blood offerings. - [Steven] That liquid is
poured onto the ground. - [Renee] You're offering
the ancestors this libation. You're recognizing the power of their presence within this space. - [Steven] These practices
were not always allowed in the 18th century. - [Renee] So the cemetery comes into being because of the notion that
Africans could not be buried in the Trinity Cemetery, which was a white only burial space. - [Steven] In fact,
there were rules passed that not more than 12 people
could attend an African funeral and that the funerals had to
take place during the day. And remember, where
we're standing was north of the city itself. In fact, there was a palisades, that is, a wooden wall, that separated this space from the city to the south. - [Renee] There's a fear
that congregation might lead to insurrection,
rebellion, resistant acts. And so that regulation
of even burial practice, essential to how New York
City slave owners thought about the enslaved persons
who worked for them. - [Steven] So we're in a circular space, with a ramp that spirals up, but in the center, inscribed in the paving is a map of the world. We can make out the East
Coast of the United States, of where New York is located, and see it in relationship
to the triangle trade, in relationship to West Africa, to South America, and even to Europe. - [Renee] This is a really
enormous capitalist movement, this push to harness black labor to profit in the United States, the Caribbean and South and Central America. - [Steven] And in New York,
enslaved labor was used to clear roads, to build palisades, clear land and every
other form of hard labor. - [Renee] Around the parameters, we see the burial site numbers. - [Steven] There's something
really powerful and immediate about seeing the description of the dead, but there's also something troubling about the language that's used. - [Renee] We do not have a document that records everybody
who was buried here, and so what Leon and his
partners are relying on in this memorial is the
archeological evidence. - [Steven] But it's also a stark reminder of how much we've lost, of the identities of these people, of their lives. - [Renee] But it also tells us
something really significant for the time period, and that is the disregard for black lives, particularly in death. - [Steven] Even when you
look at maps of old New York, you see, early on,
representations of what was marked as the Negro Burial Ground. But then, as we move
into the 18th century, those references are erased. And then buildings appear,
including alms house, a hospital, and a prison. - [Renee] They have to address
very real needs in the city, but at the same time, there's a desecration that takes place. - [Steven] Let's walk up the ramp. - [Renee] These engravings are called the Circle of Diaspora. The ramp is called the
Spiral Processional Ramp, but what's interesting
about these engravings is they are meant to represent
ideograms from Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean that were familiar to African and New World African communities. There's a haptic relationship
with the monument, where you want to trace
them with your finger. - [Steven] We just saw a
group of school children walk through the monument and each one wanted to touch these engravings. - [Renee] And then we
come to a series of images that represent religion. We see the ankh, the
Egyptian symbol of life. We see a medicine wheel from a Native American circle of life, the Latin cross for the Christian faith, and then we see the Islamic
crescent with a star. - [Steven] And it's an important reminder of the cosmopolitan nature of early Dutch and English New York. - [Renee] There are three last symbols. One is an image of a turtle denkyem, which means adaptability. We move on to a symbol of a heart, akoma, endurance, and we end with the nsibidi, love and unity. So there's a way in which
the monument offers us a promise of a different kind of future. - [Steven] And this is just
as we rise out of the monument and rejoin the city itself. But before we do walk
back out onto the street, let's swing around to the opposite side, because there's one
part that we've missed. - [Renee] On the side
of the ancestral chamber is a map of the former cemetery, as a reminder of how extensive
this cemetery used to be. - [Steven] This monument is
such an important reminder of the enslaved labor that
was used to build the city, a history that has been
almost completely erased. - [Renee] And this notion of
erasure is really significant when it comes to the
memorialization of the past and of slavery, about who gets
remembered in public space, who has the right to have a monument. How do we go about deciding what these monuments
are going to look like? (gentle music)