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February 18, 2015

Lost African American Burial Ground Discovered in Philadelphia

Archaeologists in  Philadelphia unearthed what may be the resting place of nearly 3,000 African Amerians buried under a playground in the city’s Weccecoe Park.

Lost African American Burial Ground Discovered in Philadelphia
Screen Shot from Liberty Voice
" Historian Terry Buckalew accidentally stumbled on a mention of the cemetery while researching the 19th century civil rights activist Octavius Catto for a documentary film project. He found a record of family members of Catto’s fiancĂ© buried in something called Bethel Burying Ground, a site he had never heard of."

The names of almost half of those buried have been discovered and historians hope to be able to find the names of everyone laid to rest in that spot.

One stone that has been uncovered reads "Amelia Brown, 1819, Aged 26 years” with this epitaph: “Whosoever lives and believeth in me, though we be dead, yet shall we live.”


Continue reading this story at Thousands of African-American Graves Found Beneath Philadelphia Playground

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