African Burial Ground National Monument

The African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan is the oldest and largest known excavated burial site in North America for both free and enslaved Africans, holding the remains of an estimated 15,000 people buried from the 1690s to 1794, when New York had one of the largest enslaved populations in the colonies. Rediscovered in 1991 during federal building construction, the site is now marked by an outdoor memorial with a Circle of the Diaspora and a Wall of Remembrance.

Explore the visitor center's self-guided museum and the park film, walk the outdoor memorial at Duane and Elk Streets, and join a ranger-led tour; young kids can take part in the monument's Junior Ranger activities. For a challenge, follow a ranger-led walking tour of colonial-era African American history across Lower Manhattan and study the visitor center's burial artifacts and 18th-century maps in depth.