FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Press Release #08-216
Lead Scientist of Team that Discovered NY African Burial Ground Speaks Nov. 19
(St. Mary’s City, MD) Nov. 10, 2008—The lead scientist on the team that made what has been called one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the United States—the New York African Burial Ground—will speak at St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Dr. Michael Blakey, the SMCM Anthropology Department’s 2008 Distinguished Scholar lecturer, will speak at 4:45 p.m. in the Cole Cinema of the Campus Center. For more information, contact Julia King, 240-895-4398. The talk is sponsored by the SMCM Department of Anthropology and the Africa and African Diaspora Studies Program.
The New York African Burial Ground is today a National Monument, the result of partnerships forged in large part by and with the African-American community in New York and throughout the United States. Bioarchaeologist Blakey, a National Endowment for the Humanities Professor and director of the Institute of Historical Biology at the College of William and Mary, was instrumental in forging these partnerships, and was the lead scientist on the team that analyzed and excavated this 18th-century site. In his talk at SMCM, Blakey will describe the real story behind the discovery, excavation, and interpretation of the cemetery, and recount the struggle to declare the site a National Monument. He’ll also discuss the importance of the descendant community in memorializing the lives of the people buried in the cemetery.
In 1991, while construction on a new Federal office building in Lower Manhattan was underway, archaeologists began uncovering a number of 18th-century skeletons. More than 400 were eventually uncovered and were soon linked with an 18th-century “Negros Burial Ground.” The majority of the men, women, and children interred in this nearly seven-acre cemetery were enslaved Africans brought to New York, where they worked in the city’s growing number of households.
At the College of William and Mary, Blakey teaches about human biology and its relationship with history and culture. His classes explore not only how culture influences human biology, but how culture shapes the study of human biology.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, and Kiplinger’s. Founded in 1840 as Maryland’s “monument school” commemorating the state’s first capital, SMCM is the state’s only public honors college, offering “an Ivy-level College with a public-school price tag” (Newsweek).
Some 2,000 students attend the college, which has the highest graduation rate for all Maryland public colleges and universities, and an SAT average for student admissions of 1252. The school’s waterfront campus along the St. Mary’s River in Southern Maryland is home to the 2007 National Intercollegiate Sailing Association Women’s, Sloop and Team champions.
###
