What do you think?
Rate this book
Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of New York's African Burial Ground
How can we learn about the lives of African slaves in Colonial America? Often forbidden to read or write, they left few written records. But in 1991 scientists rediscovered New York's long-ignored African Burial Ground, which opened an exciting new window into the past.
A woman with filed teeth buried with a girdle of beads; a black soldier buried with his British Navy uniform, his face pointing east; a mother and child, laid to rest side by side: to scientists, each of these burials has much to tell us about African slaves in America.
Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence shows how archaeologists and anthropologists have learned to read life stories in shattered bones, tiny beads, and the faint traces left by coffin lids in ancient soil. At the same time, by blending together the insights found buried in the soil and the results of historians' careful studies, it gives us a moving, inspiring portrait of the lives Africans created in Colonial New York.
A woman with filed teeth buried with a girdle of beads; a black soldier buried with his British Navy uniform, his face pointing east; a mother and child, laid to rest side by side: to scientists, each of these burials has much to tell us about African slaves in America.
Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence shows how archaeologists and anthropologists have learned to read life stories in shattered bones, tiny beads, and the faint traces left by coffin lids in ancient soil. At the same time, by blending together the insights found buried in the soil and the results of historians' careful studies, it gives us a moving, inspiring portrait of the lives Africans created in Colonial New York.
130 pages, Hardcover
First published April 15, 1998
87 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Hansen
43 books41 followersJoyce Hansen has been writing books and stories for children and young adults for over twenty years. Joyce was born and raised in New York City, the setting of her early contemporary novels. She grew up with two younger brothers and her parents in an extended family that included aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, all living nearby in the Morrisania section of the Bronx.
Attending Bronx public schools, she graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1960. While working secretarial jobs during the day, Joyce attended Pace University in New York City at night, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree. She then began her teaching career in the New York City public schools and earned a Master of Arts degree from New York University. She also taught writing and literature at Empire State College (State University of New York).
Joyce’s first children’s book, The Gift-Giver, published in 1980, was inspired by her own Bronx childhood and by her students. She continued to teach and write until retiring from teaching in 1995. Joyce Hansen presently lives in South Carolina with her husband and writes full-time.
Attending Bronx public schools, she graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1960. While working secretarial jobs during the day, Joyce attended Pace University in New York City at night, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree. She then began her teaching career in the New York City public schools and earned a Master of Arts degree from New York University. She also taught writing and literature at Empire State College (State University of New York).
Joyce’s first children’s book, The Gift-Giver, published in 1980, was inspired by her own Bronx childhood and by her students. She continued to teach and write until retiring from teaching in 1995. Joyce Hansen presently lives in South Carolina with her husband and writes full-time.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 28, 2022
This book takes already documented historical events and add what may have been the names of African-Americans that have been omitted. At least it tries to. What you probably bought the book for, to gather what information may have been gathered from the remains of those early/Colonial era Americans hasn’t been added to this history but sometime in the future it will be. The index and footnotes are organized enough that a grade schooler would find this book useful-but if you want to know about those bones. Don’t bother. The researchers know next to nothing as well.
April 13, 2025
Very interesting & informational book about the experience of slaves in New York in the 1600-1800’s (and their continued mistreatment after being freed). Shares a wealth of information about the discovery & exploration of “the” African burial ground of that time. The authors’ intention was to share this story with much-deserved respect & humanity.
April 26, 2021
Book focuses much more on Black History and less on the burial ground. The information was good but I was looking for a book more on the burial ground.
June 28, 2012
I was excited to find a book about Manhattan's African Burial Ground, which I visited in May 2002. At that time, it was merely a patch of grass inside a chain-link fence with an historic plaque, not much of a remembrance for the thousands of Africans, slaves and free, who were interred there. Of course, after 9/11, commemorating the long-dead became less of a priority. Thankfully, the site has been made right at last.
The subtitle of this book is "The Story of New York's African Burial Ground." Unfortunately, when the book was published in 1998, not much seems to have been known about the graveyard. Perhaps Howard University was still performing the analyses of the 400+ bodies that were recovered, but only a handful of the reclaimed bodies are discussed here. Maybe the archaeologists were busy writing their papers for other publications, but there's not much information about what they found. What's there is fascinating, but scant.
Apparently there are few historical documents pertaining to the space, other than old maps. The authors pad out the book with history lessons drawn from legal records about the treatment and lives of the Africans brought to the colony by the Dutch, then the British, then the new-fledged Americans. The history was new to me, but not nearly as interesting as the contents of the graveyard -- for which I'd purchased the book.
My hope is that there will be a new book available when I revisit the African Burial Ground (now a national monument) this summer.
ETA: The African Burial Ground National Monument gift shop sells a small paper-bound booklet called New York's African Burial Ground, but it lacks coherent structure and the text is repetitive. There still seems to be no solid book about this important graveyard.
The subtitle of this book is "The Story of New York's African Burial Ground." Unfortunately, when the book was published in 1998, not much seems to have been known about the graveyard. Perhaps Howard University was still performing the analyses of the 400+ bodies that were recovered, but only a handful of the reclaimed bodies are discussed here. Maybe the archaeologists were busy writing their papers for other publications, but there's not much information about what they found. What's there is fascinating, but scant.
Apparently there are few historical documents pertaining to the space, other than old maps. The authors pad out the book with history lessons drawn from legal records about the treatment and lives of the Africans brought to the colony by the Dutch, then the British, then the new-fledged Americans. The history was new to me, but not nearly as interesting as the contents of the graveyard -- for which I'd purchased the book.
My hope is that there will be a new book available when I revisit the African Burial Ground (now a national monument) this summer.
ETA: The African Burial Ground National Monument gift shop sells a small paper-bound booklet called New York's African Burial Ground, but it lacks coherent structure and the text is repetitive. There still seems to be no solid book about this important graveyard.
June 21, 2012
A brief and very interesting non-fiction narrative about the African American graveyard that was discovered in busy Manhattan in the 1990s when developers were preparing to build on the site. The writers do an an outstanding job of making one appreciate this historic graveyard by telling the history of African Americans in New Netherlands and then New York in the 16 and 1700s. Once you hear the story of the enslaved people from this bygone era and appreciate their lives and their struggle, you realize THIS is who is buried in this historic place and why their resting place should be respected. An important little book. (I like how the authors eschew applying the noun "slave" to early African Americans, using instead the noun "people" and appending the adjective "enslaved." How tragic it is that in this historical period African Americans were not treated as people! The use of the root word "slave" as an adjective ["enslaved"], rather than a noun, puts the onus for this injustice rightly on those who "enslaved" the "people" who should have been treated as human equals but tragically were not.)
March 16, 2020
Dead men do tell tales.
The discovery of a long-lost African burial ground under Manhattan in a 1991 construction project re-opened a haunting chapter of American history that had long been forgotten. The site, outside the original city limits on cheap unconsecrated land, provided a perfectly preserved cultural heritage of the hardships, loves, and endurance of a community of uniquely precious individuals, owned by other humans.
Casket artwork, position and condition of bones, clothing and artifacts reveal the relationships and attitudes of a people yearning back to ancestral freedoms in homelands across the sea. Romances, drama queens, philosophers, martyred war heroes: the tales are tragic, relatable, poignant, and devastatingly repeatable, reminding us of the hidden atrocity in our nature.
Though denied the means of writing their history in their own time, these families and friend now share their stories through the archeological and anthropological study of their remains by author Joyce Hansen and conservator Gary McGowan in Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence .
With knowledge comes a responsibility. When the dead speak, are we willing to listen?
The discovery of a long-lost African burial ground under Manhattan in a 1991 construction project re-opened a haunting chapter of American history that had long been forgotten. The site, outside the original city limits on cheap unconsecrated land, provided a perfectly preserved cultural heritage of the hardships, loves, and endurance of a community of uniquely precious individuals, owned by other humans.
Casket artwork, position and condition of bones, clothing and artifacts reveal the relationships and attitudes of a people yearning back to ancestral freedoms in homelands across the sea. Romances, drama queens, philosophers, martyred war heroes: the tales are tragic, relatable, poignant, and devastatingly repeatable, reminding us of the hidden atrocity in our nature.
Though denied the means of writing their history in their own time, these families and friend now share their stories through the archeological and anthropological study of their remains by author Joyce Hansen and conservator Gary McGowan in Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence .
With knowledge comes a responsibility. When the dead speak, are we willing to listen?
July 6, 2013
An adequate analysis of the history of the African Burial Ground. Having visited the site in 2013, now part of the National ParkService, this book added to the story. This is more about the history of Africans slave/ free in NY, late 1700s to the Revolution than it is about the discoveries of the burials.
February 21, 2008
Non-fiction of the African burial ground discovered in lower Manhattan in 1991. Excavations revealed facts about slave life in Colonial New York. History of the times was interesting - the slave market on (now) west Wall St., slaves who enlisted in the military, etc.
September 9, 2007
Fascinating that the largest African burial ground (outside of Africa) is in New York City!
ps. although this book is somewhat subjective, it is worth the read.
ps. although this book is somewhat subjective, it is worth the read.
Want to Read
February 21, 2009Interested to read more about this after reading Chains.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews