Page A12 December 2022 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A www.vischerfuneralsupplies.com enslaved people, their families, and later African Americans who did not suffer slavery. The cemetery, which may have 1,000 graves, was active from the 1850s to early 1900s. The land was repossessed and auctioned in the 1950s for back taxes. It was paved over and now serves as the parking lot for 7-eleven, Metro PCS, Sherwin-Williams, and Santander Bank. The local NAACP is hoping to restore this as a cemetery. At the Belvoir Plantation near Annapolis, Maryland, graves of enslaved people were discovered in 2015. The tobacco plantation was once owned by relatives of Francis Scott Key. Archeologists, descendants, and cadaver dogs investigated the area and determined graves were present. “I could tell right away that this was a sacred place that had been lost to time,” said Julie Schablitsky, chief archaeologist for the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration. “But we needed more evidence that it was used as a burial ground.” Salem Street Burying Ground in Medford, Massachusetts contains more than 50 unmarked graves, discovered by a teacher researching the local history. Medford was in the rum trade, producing and shipping. The Europeans who owned these businesses were buried in the Salem Street Burying Ground and their slaves were buried there also, but many of those enslaved never had markers. Students from Medford Public Schools organized a monument to be placed in the cemetery to recognize these forgotten slaves. The treatment of deceased slaves often left the family without a proper way to mourn or a place to visit to remember. Some slave owners sold their bodies to the medical cadaver peddlers. Many burials for slaves were held at night or on Sundays to allow other slaves to attend without disrupting their work. Cemeteries for slaves were usually located in a part of a plantation that could not be used for any other purpose, such as scrub tree land or rocky hills. The family marked the graves any way they could, usually with a large stone, and without inscription, as no tools would have been made available, and most could not read. “Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.” Sir William Gladstone’s well-worn quote tells us a lot about our postmortem treatment of the enslaved. “Today and always, we honor the enslaved people buried here and elsewhere in unmarked graves.” –Inscribed on a monument over slave burials in Salem Street Burying Ground, Medford, MA Observations “Memorialization keeps us connected to what is most significant about those who are no longer with us.” –Sandra Arnold, The New York Times Kenneth Spellman is an African American who overcame adversity to build a successful construction business. He wanted to buy two acres of land in Henderson, North Carolina to have a home for he and his wife and a yard with play equipment, zip lines and other attractions for his grandchildren so that they would spend a lot of time there. Spellman was approached to purchase another 14 acres next to his two. The seller told him that he might find a few graves on the property. He then began to learn about the land he bought. When Spellman and his crew began to clear the grounds to join his two parcels, he came across dozens of large stones, which he learned were gravestones of slaves. “We actually found about 40 to 50 stones. It was chilling. It was eight of my guys and myself and there wasn’t a dry eye on the ground when we found that,” Spellman told WTVD in September 2022. Spellman contacted the Vance County Historical Society, and they provided a great deal of background on the land. The Wortham Tobacco Plantation had 135 acres and 15 slaves in the 1830s, according to a census. There was a large house for the family, buildings to house the slaves and two cemeteries: one for the Wortham family and one for the slaves. Additionally, records showed that in 1893 the grave of an infant was found in the family cemetery. Investigators at the time reported that the grave held the remains of a mixed-race baby buried in a soapbox. Nancy Bobbitt, president of the Vance County Historical Society paid tribute to Spellman: “So many old cemeteries like that get bulldozed, but because Ken so faithfully looked and found that cemetery and preserved it, it will last another few generations.” Over the years, in many places, graves of the enslaved have been discovered and groups are working to give these remains and their resting places, the dignity they deserve. In Lexington, North Carolina, community activist Tyrone Terry discovered an area in the Lexington City Cemetery that is believed to be a site of slave graves. There are no individual markers, but a monument on top of the hill indicated what was beneath the ground. Terry told WGHP in October 2022, “These were human beings. These weren’t animals; these were human beings that were treated like this. It should have never happened, and it By Steven Palmer never should have taken this long for our city to acknowledge what we’ve discovered now.” A $6,000 grant was obtained from the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office and $2,500 from the city hope to fund archeologists to study the unmarked grave site. In February 2022, during Black History Month, the University of Alabama in Huntsville started to research the graves of slaves believed to be located on the campus. The campus was once part of a family’s large cotton plantation. There were originally 20 slaves on the plantation in the 1820s, and by the end of the civil war there were 121 recorded people enslaved there. The university researchers have discovered one area where there may be 60 graves. An appropriate monument is planned once the research is completed. The seventh fairway of the Capital City Country Club in Tallahassee, Florida, was found to be the site of 40 graves for people enslaved on a 500-acre plantation previously on those grounds. Delaitre Hollinger, NAACP past president, and Jeffrey Shanks, a park service archaeologist, have been investigating this site. There is believed to be over one thousand deserted or unmarked slave cemeteries in Florida alone. Florida State Senator Darryl Rouson told Newsweek in 2019, “We want to identify covered-up graves that have been built upon, or destroyed, or obliterated from history. Once identified, we’d like to do some type of memorial for those souls.” On June 19, Juneteenth, 2022, residents of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio dedicated a granite monument for John and Emily Hansparker. Freed slaves who met and married in Ohio, the Hansparkers were well known and respected in the community, which was also a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Hansparkers were hard workers who also produced plays and took in boarders, including other freed slaves who they assisted in starting their new lives. John was particularly known for teaching himself to read (which forbidden as a slave) and practicing with the neighborhood children, who became very fond of him. However, they were buried in an unmarked grave, and that has been corrected. Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina discovered over 667 unmarked graves at Woodland Cemetery, which is now part of the campus, in 2020 and 2021. The unmarked graves belonged to slaves, domestic workers, sharecroppers, and convict laborers. The land itself has a complex history, including Native American and African American communities, as well as Fort Hill Plantation, which was given to the state to create and expand the university. In 2021, on the north shore of Staten Island, New York, a search of a parking lot is being done. The spot was once an African Methodist Episcopal Church cemetery. It became the resting place of Long Delayed Dignity Steven Palmer entered funeral service in 1971. He is an honors graduate of the New England Institute of Applied Arts & Sciences. He has been licensed on both coasts, he owned theWestcott Funeral Homes of Cottonwood and Camp Verde, AZ, where he remains active in operations. Steve offers his observations on current funeral service issues. Hemay be reachedbymail at POBox 352, Cottonwood, AZ 86326, by phone at (928)634-9566, by fax at (928)634-5156, by e-mail at steve@westcottfuneralhome.comor throughhiswebsite at www.westcottfuneralhome.com or on Facebook. F U N E R A L H O M E & C E M E T E R Y N E W S w w w . 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Just $2.90 each*. * Bags sold in multiples of 10 Choose from Black, Blue, or Burgundy J t $3.20 each* Choose fr m Black, Blue, rgundy, Green or Gray Education Exhibit is to bring communities together and teach about the organization’s mission,” said Trish Gardner, Manager, Mobile Education Exhibit, Wreaths Across America. “The exhibit serves as a mobile museum, educating visitors about the service and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes as well as to serve as an official ‘welcome home’ station for our nation’s Vietnam Veterans.” When the MEE pulls into your area, all veterans, active-duty military, their families, and the local community members are invited and encouraged to visit, take a tour, and speak with WAA Ambassadors and volunteers. The public tour stops for the MEE are free and open to all. Members of the media, dignitaries, veterans, and other interested groups are urged to come, ask questions, share stories, and experience this one-of-akind exhibit. To learn more about the Mobile Education Exhibit or submit a request for it to come to your community in 2023 visit https://learn.wreathsacrossamerica.org/ mobile-education-exhibit. Wreaths Across America Announces Its Mobile Education Exhibit’s 2023 National Tour Map Plan for the Wreaths Across America 2023 Mobile Education Exhibit COLUMBIA FALLS,ME— Wreaths Across America (WAA) is overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from communities throughout the country for its Mobile Education Exhibit (MEE). The MEE is a rolling interactive museum that shares the organization’s mission to Remember the nation’s fallen veterans, Honor those who serve, and Teach the next generation about the value of freedom. WAA has announced the MEE plans for 2023. Next year’s national tour will begin in California in January, then heads to Arizona in March, and New Mexico and Southern Colorado in April. Starting in May, it returns to Texas, and then turns to Kentucky and Tennessee in June. It will visit North Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia in July. In August, the MEE will make stops in Maryland, Delaware, and Southern New Jersey. In September, it will return to Pennsylvania, New York, and Northern New Jersey. From there, the MEE will make its way up through New England for the next two months visiting all six New England states before heading home to Maine. “The goal of the Wreaths Across America Mobile SEND US YOUR NEWS! PO Box 5159 Youngstown, Oh 44514 1-800-321-7479 info@nomispublications.com
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