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CNN Sunday Morning
Returned to Rest
Aired October 05, 2003 - 09:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: In Manhattan, more than a decade after the soil surrendered a shameful past, those who lived those horrors of slavery are returned to rest, but no longer buried in obscurity. CNN's Michael Okwu explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 400 remains of African men, women, and children. Former slaves. Remnants of broken lives. Vestiges of a city's racial past.
The bones had been buried here before. More than three centuries ago.
OKWU (on camera): The burial site, closed in 1794 and long forgotten, was the final resting place for thousands of African- Americans not allowed to share graves alongside whites. When the 300- year-old remains were uncovered in 1991, during the construction of a federal office building, the discovery made headline news around the world.
(voice-over): The government agreed to preserve a portion of the site and to fund the study of the remains. Archaeologists spent nine years investigating.
MICHAEL BLAKEY, HOWARD UNIVERSITY: We see a very unique peak in mortality between 15 and 25 years of age that we don't see, even in later African-American sites. Evidence that they're under very arduous labor regimes.
OKWU: Researchers say they had been forced to carry loads weighing 100 to 200 pounds.
SHERRILL WILSON, URBAN ANTHROPOLOGIST: This is a part of American history. We all need to understand there was slavery in the original 13 colonies, in every single one of them.
OKWU: Burial number 25 was a woman with a musket ball embedded in her ribcage. Burial numbers 335 and 336, a mother and infant child in her arms. Half of the remains were from children.
The re-interment was a culmination of a week of activities, including a five-state tour of these four symbolic coffins, and private reflection by hundreds.
HOWARD DODSON, DIRECTOR, AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND: We should bury the ancestors, not bury the past. The past needs to be a part of what shapes our future.
OKWU: More than 400 souls laid to rest, centuries later. And yet, feelings today still raw. Michael Okwu, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 5, 2003 - 09:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: In Manhattan, more than a decade after the soil surrendered a shameful past, those who lived those horrors of slavery are returned to rest, but no longer buried in obscurity. CNN's Michael Okwu explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 400 remains of African men, women, and children. Former slaves. Remnants of broken lives. Vestiges of a city's racial past.
The bones had been buried here before. More than three centuries ago.
OKWU (on camera): The burial site, closed in 1794 and long forgotten, was the final resting place for thousands of African- Americans not allowed to share graves alongside whites. When the 300- year-old remains were uncovered in 1991, during the construction of a federal office building, the discovery made headline news around the world.
(voice-over): The government agreed to preserve a portion of the site and to fund the study of the remains. Archaeologists spent nine years investigating.
MICHAEL BLAKEY, HOWARD UNIVERSITY: We see a very unique peak in mortality between 15 and 25 years of age that we don't see, even in later African-American sites. Evidence that they're under very arduous labor regimes.
OKWU: Researchers say they had been forced to carry loads weighing 100 to 200 pounds.
SHERRILL WILSON, URBAN ANTHROPOLOGIST: This is a part of American history. We all need to understand there was slavery in the original 13 colonies, in every single one of them.
OKWU: Burial number 25 was a woman with a musket ball embedded in her ribcage. Burial numbers 335 and 336, a mother and infant child in her arms. Half of the remains were from children.
The re-interment was a culmination of a week of activities, including a five-state tour of these four symbolic coffins, and private reflection by hundreds.
HOWARD DODSON, DIRECTOR, AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND: We should bury the ancestors, not bury the past. The past needs to be a part of what shapes our future.
OKWU: More than 400 souls laid to rest, centuries later. And yet, feelings today still raw. Michael Okwu, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
