Shovels are finally in the dirt at the Pine Street African Burial Ground in Kingston.
Students from SUNY New Paltz, along with their Anthropology professors like Ken Nystrom are excavating parts of the non-descript-looking backyard to go back in time. The ground was the final resting place for enslaved Africans several hundred years ago.
“We’re not planning to do a full excavation, but we’re trying to figure out the various impact of things in the past," Nystrom said.
What You Need To Know
- Excavation at the Kingston Pine Street African burial ground looks to find out more about what happened to those buried there
- The site is considered one of the largest African burial sites in New York
- Through July, two grave markers and a headstone had been found at the site
They’ve already started piecing together some unknowns. The team uncovered the headstone of Ceazer Smith, a Black man who was born into slavery but died a free man.
Cultural non-profit Harambee, and its founder Tyrone Wilson, has been at work for more than four years to save the area and those buried there. Wilson says the work being done is surreal.
“This is what we were hoping for, to find something that’s intact, that can give us a little bit of a story," Wilson said. "And that’s the first thing we found.”
More than a dozen SUNY students dug and sifted through parts of the backyard through the start of August; from there, any remains found were to be DNA-tested. Nystrom says the goal is to find out as much as possible without being too intrusive.
“The point is to find out kind of how they were disturbed in the past, not to keep on the disruption in the present," he said.
Wilson hopes the area can become an educational community center one day. After raising over $200,000 to purchase the land, they can now honor the lives laid to rest on the grounds.
“We purchased the property for them to be free," Wilson said, “for them to have their lineages taking care of them and overseeing their place of resting.”