Students Dig In: Unearthing the Hidden History of the Enslaved African Burial Ground

Lehman students participating in Students Uplifting Ancestral Spaces.

By Soleil Hendy

Located in Van Cortlandt Park, along the eastern edge of the Kingsbridge Burial Ground, is a mass grave that was identified in 2019. Inside are bones of young children, men and women, the enslaved Africans who were worked to death on the Van Cortlandt plantation. Of utmost importance to the Van Cortlandt plantation’s day-to-day operations, these individuals were “responsible for its functions and economic gains for over a hundred years,” according to the NYC Parks website.

In unearthing this hidden history, Lehman students bring Black tragedies and accomplishments to the eyes of the world; in doing so, they break the generational cycle of Black stories going unknown and unheard. Audrey Adon, a winner of the Jeanette K. Watson scholarship and the current president of the Students Uplifting Ancestral Spaces club, is one of these student researchers.

“My first encounter with this history in the Bronx was a field trip in middle school. We’d gone to... [tour] Van Cortlandt [and] had gotten to the slave quarters,” she explained. “When I asked about it... they didn’t explain it all... It was the repeated indifference towards this that inspired me to become more involved in the project when the opportunity arose.”

Adon chose to work with SUAS to research and expose more of the stories of these individuals to the light of day, forcing society to engage with and recognize the lasting effects of slavery within America. She worked extensively with Dr. Moyagaye Bedward, assistant director of the Office of Prestigious Awards, and Professor Alice Augustine, founding director of Campus Honors and Student Engagement (CHASE). Together they combed through the amassed documents relating to the Enslaved African Burial Ground; in between archival research, the cohort of student researchers worked on the beautification of the grounds. Audrey said, “I was mostly digging for people’s names… I was given the task of finding people who lived in the Bronx specifically.”

Enslaved African Burial Grounds sign in Van Cortlandt Park

The individual that who stuck out to her most during research was Henry Bikes, an enslaved person owned by Lewis Morris--—part of the family Morrisania is named after—- -who lived to a remarkably old age: around 98 at the time of his death. “It was shocking at the time, especially for an enslaved person. He also fathered over 200 children, which means he was likely forced to procreate by the Morris family.”

The Lehman students and faculty’s research mainly revolves around the Valentine Varian family, with the recovery of a missive from their belongings suggesting the existence of enslaved people on their plantation, who were used as currency in the payment of the debt. Student researcher Anthony Johnson explained how the research was assigned.

"Paula [Swanzy] was doing working with diaries of people who were living there. Amna was doing topology. I did the house structure; how they built it and how they moved it across the street. How they uprooted it, and the structure of how they rebuilt it."

Amna Ishaq, the vice-president of SUAS, chimed in: "We are still in the process of researching, but the most interesting thing I discovered was how the identities of these individuals were stolen from them. These slave owners made their fortunes and grew their businesses on the back of these enslaved people.... but treated them as property."

SUAS members presented all the information at a panel inat a conference at Lehman College on May 13th, in collaboration with the Student Research Advisory Board (SRAB). “I really felt that we had accomplished something big," Amna said.

Augustine spoke about the connection between the hidden histories program and personal spiritual experiences she had while visiting Van Cortlandt Park. “I’ve been walking in this park for a very long time...When I started doing my research I was like ‘This is... [the Van Cortlandt family] burial plot’, and they had a plantation, so where were the bodies of the people that worked the land?”

When they finally had marked the plot of land in Van Cortlandt as the Burial Ground, Augustine would take students and colleagues on walks along Van Cortlandt trails, asking them to walk reverently in the presence of her ancestors.

“It started with Vani Kannan,” (who helped co-create the summer program in 2021, before Bedward assumed Kannan’s role. “[We] started this project because we walked here in the mornings, especially through the pandemic,” Augustine recalled with a kind smile, her enjoyment of her research and appreciation for her colleagues palpable. “I think the Bronx is everything. Even back then we were a haven for people who were resisting in their own way. In the only way they could.”

“WE WERE A HAVEN FOR PEOPLE WHO WERE RESISTING IN THEIR OWN WAY.”

--Michelle Augustine, founding director of CHASE