In its most recent session, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (NYC LPC) met to consider landmarking Joseph Rodman Drake Park’s burial ground for enslaved Africans. The park is in Hunts Point, Bronx.
“We are pleased with the news that the NYC LPC is considering the Bronx’s own Joseph Drake Park & Enslaved African Burial Ground for designation as a landmark,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson in a statement. “From the moment a group of students and administrators at P.S. 48 pieced together a tangible link between the park and our nation’s colonial history in the discovery of an enslaved African burial ground in 2013, it brought to life a critical piece of our past that should never be forgotten.”
According to LPC researchers, the site contains two colonial-era cemeteries: one for the area’s early colonist families and another for African and indigenous people enslaved by those families.
The neighborhood’s land was first settled by the Munsee-speaking Siwanoy native American tribe. They were violently displaced in 1663 by white settlers.
The beginnings of a town were established in 1720 and the park was built in 1910. It was named after American poet Joseph Rodman Drake, who was a “friend” of the enslaving families and was buried in the park. The Hunts Point neighborhood was colonized by the Hunt, Willett, and Leggett families.
“During the 1700s, New York’s enslaved population was the largest in the north. By 1750, half of the households had enslaved people who made up 20% of the population,” said the LPC.
It’s believed that about 16 unidentified enslaved individuals were buried in haphazardly marked graves at the cemetery on the southside of the park, according to information found in the Hunt, Willett, and Leggett family wills. This cemetery lacked fences and was largely forgotten. By 1920, the accounts of the grave sites’ few headstones were either relocated, destroyed, or buried, said LPC.
“This discrepancy and treatment of the two burial grounds exemplifies the erasure of enslaved people from the city’s history and the elevation of their enslavers,” said LPC.
About 10 years ago, the Department of Education (DOE) ran a state-funded archeological study for students at the nearby P.S. 48 (the Joseph R. Drake School) that helped unearth the African and native burial site. Reflecting the new research and community input, the park was renamed Joseph Rodman Drake Park and Enslaved African Burial Ground in 2021.
The LPC says it will hold a public hearing about the possible landmark soon.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.