The African Burial Ground

Goals:

Aim
How does the discovery of the African Burial Ground change our understanding of African American communal life in early New York?

At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Identify important factual information about the African Burial Ground
• Hypothesize about the lives of enslaved Africans in colonial New York from the evidence uncovered at the African Burial Ground
• Develop empathic understanding of the significance of the loss and rediscovery of the remains of those buried at the African Burial Ground

Essential Questions:

• How did the existence of slavery shape African American communal life and cultural expression?
• How is community defined?
• How was the African American community defined?