Archaeologists Kathleen Wheeler and Ellen Marlatt spent the last two years examining remains unearthed from the cemetery discovered below Chestnut Street in 2003. They recently released a lengthy report detailing their findings.
While the remains were quite deteriorated, the team from Independent Archaeological Consulting was able to draw some conclusions about who the dead were and what their life was like in Colonial Portsmouth.
Couple the physical evidence with historical accounts of the period, and the existence of slavery in Portsmouth is undeniable, the archaeologists said.
"It’s getting past this myth that there was no slavery in the North," Marlatt said.
Valerie Cunningham, author of books about Portsmouth black history, said archaeological evidence helps correct "bad" history.
"When I first started researching slavery, people said, ‘Oh, it wasn’t really slavery. It was like indentured servitude,’" she said. "But it’s not their fault; it’s the way history has been mis-taught."
Cunningham said old public records clearly note the existence of slavery. She said archaeological information fills in the gaps of the limited historical records.
"The more documentation we have of those people, the better off we are," she said. "Physical evidence is powerful. When you are standing there on the street looking at the coffins, it’s quite different than reading it in a book."
Conclusions on the bodies
As the only known African-American cemetery of its age in New England, the burial ground holds samples that archaeiologists said help paint a picture of life for Northern blacks during the 1700s.
Archaeologists removed seven coffins containing eight bodies when the site was discovered while the city was doing sewer work in the area. They later found unrelated bones and teeth in the coffins, meaning remains from an estimated 13 people were studied. Four were confirmed to be male and one was female, while the rest are of unknown sexes.
Wheeler said she was most struck by the fact that most were young adults. Archaeologists determined that most of the eight bodies were of people who died before the age of 30, which is about a decade younger than the life expectancy of white people at that time, Wheeler said. One body was determined to be a juvenile.
Wheeler said most of the adults had strong, robust bodies at the time of death.
"It said something to me about the life conditions being enforced on them," she said.
One body showed signs of repetitive forearm rotation and possible inflammation in the right leg. Archaeologists said this is "presumably from repeated shoveling, heavy lifting or other strenuous work."
Teeth found in coffins supported DNA testing that confirmed African ancestry. Marlatt said some teeth were chipped and filed in a certain way that’s similar to African tribal practices.
The hope that further DNA tests could identify present-day descendants is pretty slim, archaeologists said. Dr. Bruce Jackson of the University of Massachusetts is still conducting DNA tests to see if the remains match people who think their ancestors may be buried there.
"Statistically, it would be a remote possibility since we only have eight bodies," Wheeler said.
Burial ground lessons
Due to the deterioration of the remains, archaeologists said the physical evidence did not provide more clues about who these people were.
Archaeologists, however, were able to draw conclusions about Colonial black people from the burial ground itself.
At the time, black people made up less than 1 percent of the total population in New Hampshire, according to the report. The percentage of blacks in Portsmouth was slightly higher, with 187 blacks in a total population of 4,466 in 1767.
Marlatt said the cemetery was probably used for most of the 18th century. Archaeologists estimated that 200 graves are probably still buried under the west lane of Chestnut Street, given the size of the area.
There are no records of exactly who was buried there or if the people buried there were related, archaeologists said.
Cunningham said most slaves were buried on their owner’s property and is not sure why some were buried in the central cemetery.
"Maybe it was for families that didn’t have land or were paupers," she said. "Maybe a black mariner was in town and died and was buried there."
Unlike the Southern plantation system, slave owners in Portsmouth only had one or two slaves, Cunningham said. The slaves lived in their owner’s house and helped with the family business. Many were literate and skilled at trades.
Historians and archaeologists also noted that the burial ground is located in what was then the city’s outskirts, which they said reinforces the separation of blacks and whites in life and in death.
The peripheral location is similar to the only other known Colonial African cemetery in the North, which was discovered in lower Manhattan in the 1990s.
"Like Portsmouth, the outlying areas of New York were also selected as suitable locations for society’s outcasts as well as a burial ground for the enslaved," the report said.
Both the Portsmouth and New York cemeteries were "overtaken by new streets and homes as the town expanded during prosperous 1790s," the report said.
State archaeologist Richard Boisvert noted that the abandonment of the cemetery also corresponded with the legal abolishment of slavery in the North.
"Because of the strong abolitionist sentiment ... slavery was something people wanted to put behind them," Boisvert said. "There was this intentional amnesia."
Marlatt said the paving over of the African burial ground shows how African-American history was disregarded for centuries. This is in stark contrast to the treatment of other Colonial cemeteries in the city, such as Point of Graves and North Cemetery.
"There were people who cared and could advocate for those cemeteries’ continued preservation," she said. "There was no one to advocate for the (African-American) cemetery."
But after 300 years of disregard, the archaeologists’ work has given recognition to the African burial ground.
Marlatt and Wheeler said the city’s plans for a memorial at the Chestnut Street site will ensure this part of Portsmouth’s history will not be forgotten again.
