African Burial Ground

The African Burial Ground was an interesting experience for me. I was able to learn more about a certain part of the country that I had never really known much about. I have noticed that, over time, people have chosen to not mention much of the fact that areas in the North had slaves, just as the South did. The African Burial Ground was able to better enlighten me to that fact and was able to show me a bit of history concerning the nation that I lived in. I was able to learn about an area in New York where thousands of slaves had been buried, as their way of still holding on to their traditions and the humanity that they had been denied. I found the different items that were associated with what the slaves had to do for work back then to be interesting as well. I remember trying to push that heavy barrel and it being difficult for me. I felt sympathetic for the person who had to do that every day, maybe even multiple times a day. What was normal for the slaves of that time, are not even heard of in this time that I live in. Going to the African Burial Ground made me feel less detached from the history that I had been learning about, and closer to the actual meanings. The history was more than just words when I realized that I was standing right above so much of this significant history. I found this experience to be extremely rewarding.

Shayna McCormack