Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of New York's African Burial Ground (Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books) - Hardcover

Hansen, Joyce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805050124 ISBN 13: 9780805050127

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 1998

Synopsis

How can we learn about the lives of African slaves in Colonial America? Often forbidden to read or write, they left few written records. But in 1991 scientists rediscovered New York's long-ignored African Burial Ground, which opened an exciting new window into the past.

A woman with filed teeth buried with a girdle of beads; a black soldier buried with his British Navy uniform, his face pointing east; a mother and child, laid to rest side by side: to scientists, each of these burials has much to tell us about African slaves in America.

Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence shows how archaeologists and anthropologists have learned to read life stories in shattered bones, tiny beads, and the faint traces left by coffin lids in ancient soil. At the same time, by blending together the insights found buried in the soil and the results of historians' careful studies, it gives us a moving, inspiring portrait of the lives Africans created in Colonial New York.

About this title

About the Author:

Joyce Hansen is a four-time Coretta Scott King Honor winner, and a former New York City schoolteacher. She and her husband reside in Columbia, South Carolina.

Gary McGowan has more than ten years of experience conserving a wide range of archaeological and art materials. He was the head conservator of the team that studied the burial ground. He lives with his wife in New Jersey.

From Booklist:

Gr. 8^-12. The monumental 1991 discovery of the mid-eighteenth-century African Burial Ground under the streets of Manhattan has uncovered the skeletal remains and artifacts of more than 400 graves as well as the history of the enslaved people whose voices had been lost. McGowan is head conservator of the team studying the burial ground; Hansen is a Coretta Scott King Award winner. They weave together the main strands of the inquiry. First, there is the painstaking analysis of the archaeologists, who can tell us much about the daily lives of the people buried there and also how the burials reflect African memories and culture. Then there is the physical anthropologists' analysis of how the buried bones reveal the causes of death and the harsh ways of life of the enslaved people. Finally, there is the work of the historians, who are piecing together how black New Yorkers lived and labored. The facts are riveting, and the book design is handsome, with lots of small black-and-white photographs, but the book is not easy reading. The narrative is disjointed, heavy, and repetitive, maybe because there are so many jumps from one kind of inquiry to the next and back again. Still, the technology will excite students as much as the history that breaks the silence. Hazel Rochman

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0805050124
• ISBN 13: 9780805050127
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 130