African Burial Ground at Historic St. Agnes Cemetery

Jan 17

Site Brief:

Founded: 1867

Location: Menands, NY

Additional name(s): N/A

Affiliate group(s): N/A

History:

The African Burial Ground at Historic St. Agnes Cemetery is the final resting place of 14 former enslaved people—6 women, 1 man, 2 children, and 5 infants. St. Agnes Cemetery was established in 1867 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. In 2005, 13 human remains were disturbed in an undocumented burial ground during a construction project in Colonie, New York. The remains were placed in the care of the New York State Museum, along with one other individual whose remains were found during a construction project in 1998. Historical and bioarchaeological studies identified the unmarked burial ground as a place once used by individuals enslaved by the prominent colonial Schuyler family, and the analysis determined that most of the individuals were of African ancestry, with one woman of mixed Native American and African ancestry. The burials date to the 1700s to the early 1800s. The area of the former Schuyler estate is known today as Schuyler Flatts and is located along the Hudson River about 5 miles north of Albany, New York.

The Schuyler Flatts Burial Ground Project Committee worked with archaeologists, artists, woodworkers, and historians, creating individually decorated burial containers and a reburial ceremony to honor these individuals. In 2015, St. Agnes Cemetery donated this burial site and the Town of Colonie funded the tombstone and marker. The day before the ceremony, the burial containers with the remains laid in state at the Schuyler Mansion, a state historic site once inhabited by relatives of the estate operators. On June 18, 2016, an interdenominational memorial ceremony honored the individuals as their remains were laid to rest with dignity and respect. On June 17, 2017, a bronze plaque was dedicated to mark the Historic African Burial Ground site at Historic St. Agnes Cemetery. The original African Burial Ground site at nearby Schuyler Flatts has a historical marker describing the discovering of the remains and the reburial project.