The African Burial Ground is the oldest and largest known excavated burial ground in North America for both free and enslaved Africans. In 1991, construction workers were working on a building when they discovered several intact human skeletal remains. There was a 6-acre burial ground containing upwards of 15,000 skeletal remains of enslaved and free Africans who lived and worked in colonial New York. The Burial Ground dates from the middle 1630s to 1795. Currently, the Burial Ground is the nation’s earliest and largest African burial ground rediscovered in the United States. The burial site was proclaimed as a national monument in 2006 to show the historic role slavery played in building New York. Click here for more information.