The Erasure of Death | African American Burial Grounds

Season 2 Episode 24

Join host Kristin as The Grim explores African American Burial Grounds and Enslaved Persons Cemeteries throughout the United States—sacred spaces erased by time, neglect, and systemic racism.

This episode uncovers the heartbreaking truth behind America's lost burial grounds: nearly 4 million enslaved people by 1860, yet their final resting places remain largely undocumented, paved over, or forgotten. From the accidental discovery of New York's African Burial Ground (10,000-15,000 souls) to Rhode Island's God's Little Acre, we trace how slavery's horrors followed people into death.

What You'll Discover:

• The New York African Burial Ground and its controversial rediscovery in 1991

• God's Little Acre in Newport, Rhode Island, where enslaved artisan Pompe Stevens carved 250 tombstones

• Arlington National Cemetery's Section 27 and the "freedom names" chosen by formerly enslaved soldiers

• How Jim Crow laws enforced segregation even in death

• The Great Migration's impact on abandoned burial grounds

• African American benevolent societies and their cemetery preservation efforts

• The Charleston Anson Street African Burial Ground Project and descendant-led reburial ceremonies

• The failures of the African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Act

Featuring research from historians Edna Greene Medford, Glenn A. Knoblock, Ric Murphy, and journalist Brian Palmer, this episode examines how gentrification, climate change, and development continue to threaten these sacred sites today.

From Colonial New England to modern-day Charleston, discover the Gullah Geechee perspective that challenges legal definitions of "abandonment" and reveals why these burial grounds remain spiritually active—whether the state recognizes them or not.

Content Warnings: Discussion of slavery, death, systemic racism, historical trauma

Episode Type: Educational History | True Stories | Cultural Heritage