TOW #22- Why Slaves' Graves Matter

Sandra A Arnold is the founder of the National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans whose essay, 'Why Slaves' Graves Matter' was featured in the New York Times. In this piece, she describes the community in which she grow up in, where they would recognize all of the graves within the African American cemeteries even though several were unmarked and unrecognizable. She brings to light the current problem that the African American community is facing. There are often unmarked burial grounds for former slaves and, when a developer comes and plans to build on top of it, they find that they are often disturbing the resting places of many generations. She believes that we should be more considerate in recognizing the locations fo these graves and keep a sharper lookout on where they may be located. Thus, she created the National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans in order to keep a record of where these bodies are located so that they can be left to rest properly.

This has not been an idea that I've considered before, as most of my familiarity comes to the common marked graves. However, understanding that there are so many places in which ancestry is stored, I agree that more research should be done in order to be able to adjust the boundaries and maintain records of where bodies may be located. Not only is it unsanitary to unearth them, but unintentionally disrespectful of the person who was digging up the corpse didn't expect there to be a corpse in the first place.

Arnold also brings up the idea of a community. As a child, her family would follow the tradition of putting a bouquet of flowers on every single grave at the cemetery in order to pay respects of those that were lost within enslavement. Despite not actually knowing them, or despite them not being family, hey still continued to treat everyone equally within the cemetery. Thus, this created a stronger sense of community among them and allowed them to create a bit more of a social unity. If we are able to spread this type of idae and find more slave graves that have been developed, we may find that the unification of our African American community can grow even larger.

I believe what Arnold is doing will create a positive influence and allow old wounds to heal, perhaps not completely, but to a degree that more people can live happily.