NYC Slave Cemetery Is Now Hallowed Ground

NYC Slave Cemetery¹ Is Now Hallowed Ground

In New York City, on lower Manhattan Island, lie two and a half hectares of land that represent brutal² early American history. It’s where many Africans who were slaves in homes, factories and the city’s burgeoning³ port are buried. They were among untold⁴ numbers of Africans forcibly taken from their homelands and brought to the New World in chains. For hundreds of years, they were simply forgotten.

That changed in 1991 when the bones of over 400 people were unearthed⁵ during construction of a federal office building. A portion of the burial ground was set aside as a monument to the slaves and the bones were re-interred during a ceremony in 2003. It’s now hallowed ground as the African Burial Ground National Monument.

On a quiet Lower Manhattan street, a stream of water symbolizing⁶ the Atlantic Ocean flows alongside a narrow boat-like structure – an echo of the ships as they made their way to the New World heavy laden⁷ with human cargo⁸ . 

Nearby, Juanita Jones, an elderly African American fixes her gaze on grassy⁹ mounds¹¹. They are the main visible reminder¹² of the vast 17th and 18th century Negro Burial Ground - now the African Burial Ground National Monument.

“Most of these were young people but they didn’t live to be so old. They died very young. You looking down here you see babies, newborns, and young people dying. It’s very bad,” said Jones.

Like Ms. Jones, Mary Palmer is an African American, born in Harlem further north in Manhattan. She has just emerged from within the slave ship structure.

“When I walked through I felt my heart starts jumping because I’m feeling the souls coming up to me. Like your cousin or somebody you never saw before comes up to you? And then they say ‘Oh hi.’ They touch you… you feel it. So that’s what it felt like. Somebody who was part of my family might have been they touched me inside and shook me a little bit. I had to lean back and hold on. It’s very heart-wrenching¹³, kind of scary.”

Phillips: “You had such a strong reaction.”

Palmer: “Oh yes. Very much so.” 

Michael Jiwa and his family are visiting New York from Nigeria. He has a sense that some of the people buried may be his ancestors, and feels his visit has offered him a bit of closure. 

“It’s a good thing to come and see where your ancestors are buried. Even if you don’t see them alive, at least you know where they are buried. And that gives you a kind of joy at least. You always want to know where you came from, where you originated from. If you don’t know your origin, people see you as an outcast, like nobody,” he said.

Meanwhile, Billy Williams, of the Bronx, Manhattan’s neighboring borough¹⁴ to the north, stands by the mounds, shaking his head. 

“I have never been much into genealogy¹⁵ but I do know that I have some African ancestry¹⁶, and I wonder if I was just standing¹⁷ on a few. It’s horrific. It’s sad. To look at a piece of cement that says kids are buried underneath¹⁸ that is heart wrenching to anyone. It’s beyond my verbal description what I feel. I am going to make it a point to bring my grandchildren down here so they can see this important part of our history,” he said.

For Shirley Moultrie, the clean elegant feel of the monument misrepresents the actual history of African slavery in New York, when cruelty and misery¹⁹ were part of everyday life.

“It’s too modern,” she said, “They make it seem like ‘Everything is okay. They’re just buried here. They chained us, they beat us until we said ‘Massuh.’ [Master] Until we didn’t even know our name! We was almost like animals. Whatever they say do, we did. Because we was scared of the whip. We was taught sometime to hate ourselves. I think it’s very sad.”

Moultrie said for African Americans, the past continues in the present, both in the racist²⁰ ways they are often treated, and in their own attitudes towards others. 

“I think sometimes the blacks do have the hatred²¹ for others because of this. It’s the way the white man tells us something and we might say ‘yes sir,’ ‘no sir’ because we don’t know any better. Now I don’t feel it as much, but I am standoffish from them to a certain degree – whites, Caucasians, whatever you want to call them. But we have to get beyond that.”

As visitors to this place have learned, and as recent headlines have made clear, “getting beyond” the past can be a long, difficult and painful ordeal²²

The creators of the African Burial Mound¹⁰ Monument hope this site can a place to begin to discover, remember, and ultimately to heal that legacy²³.

1 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

2 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

3 burgeoning   

adj.迅速成长的，迅速发展的v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的现在分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝）

参考例句：

• Our company's business is burgeoning now. 我们公司的业务现在发展很迅速。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These efforts were insufficient to contain the burgeoning crisis. 这些努力不足以抑制迅速扩散的危机。 来自辞典例句

4 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。

5 unearthed   

出土的（考古）

参考例句：

• Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

6 symbolizing   

v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This symbol later evolved into a common hieroglyphic symbolizing victory. 这幕场景后来逐渐演化为象征胜利的普通象形文字。 来自时文部分
• Mooncakes reunion, is symbolizing the Mid-Autumn festival will feed. 月饼象征着团圆，是中秋佳节必食之品。 来自互联网

7 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

8 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

9 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

10 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

11 mounds   

土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆

参考例句：

• We had mounds of tasteless rice. 我们有成堆成堆的淡而无味的米饭。
• Ah! and there's the cemetery' - cemetery, he must have meant. 'You see the mounds? 啊，这就是同墓，”——我想他要说的一定是公墓，“看到那些土墩了吗？

12 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

13 wrenching   

n.修截苗根，苗木铲根（铲根时苗木不起土或部分起土）v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的现在分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛

参考例句：

• China has been through a wrenching series of changes and experiments. 中国经历了一系列艰苦的变革和试验。 来自辞典例句
• A cold gust swept across her exposed breast, wrenching her back to reality. 一股寒气打击她的敞开的胸膛，把她从梦幻的境地中带了回来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

14 borough   

n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇

参考例句：

• He was slated for borough president.他被提名做自治区主席。
• That's what happened to Harry Barritt of London's Bromley borough.住在伦敦的布罗姆利自治市的哈里.巴里特就经历了此事。

15 genealogy   

n.家系，宗谱

参考例句：

• He had sat and repeated his family's genealogy to her,twenty minutes of nonstop names.他坐下又给她细数了一遍他家族的家谱，20分钟内说出了一连串的名字。
• He was proficient in all questions of genealogy.他非常精通所有家谱的问题。

16 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

17 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

18 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

19 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

20 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

21 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

22 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

23 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。