Welcome to the Park of the Month newsletter for February 2026. This month we’re featuring the oldest and largest known burial ground in North America for free and enslaved Africans.
African Burial Ground National Monument
Location
New York, New York, United States
Claim to fame
Considered the largest colonial-era cemetery in America for enslaved and free Africans, African Burial Ground National Monument is the end result of one of the most important urban archaeological projects in the US. During the initial excavation, the remains of 419 people were discovered and later reinterred, but it was determined that there were too many graves to do a complete excavation, as there are over 15,000 burials at the site.
Reason to visit
Located at 290 Broadway, the monument features a public memorial on the burial ground (pictured above) and a visitor center in the adjacent Ted Weiss Federal Building. The visitor center boasts a theater, gift shop, and exhibits that tell the story of the cemetery itself as well as the often overlooked importance of Africans and their descendants to the city of New York.
Wild Fact
Though used as a burial site for thousands of free and enslaved Africans during the colonial era, the cemetery closed in 1794, after which all memory of its use as a burial site was forgotten. The site was developed and used for residential and commercial structures, including the A.T. Company Store, the nation’s first department store.
In 1991, an archaeological team conducting a survey for a proposed federal building discovered the first remains. Public outcry led to the alteration of the building site, which now includes the memorial and visitor center. The excavated remains, found in wooden boxes and some with trinkets and other features of African burial traditions, were sent to Howard University, a historically Black university, for study, after which all excavated remains were reinterred at the burial ground during a memorial ceremony.
Want to learn more about African Burial Ground National Monument? Visit the park’s website.
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