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In
this image taken from video, a sign for Bruslie Cemetery circa 1830s stands by
a burial ground for slaves in New Orleans, Wednesday, June 13, 2018. The Shell
Oil Company has spruced up, marked and blocked off tracts of its land in the
Convent community west of New Orleans where archaeologists confirmed the
presence of slave burial grounds in 2013. (AP Photo)
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A major oil company is
taking steps to honour once-forgotten slaves buried on its land west of New
Orleans in an area where sugar plantations once abounded, an effort that some
hope will grow into a larger movement to recognize and protect such cemeteries
around the country.
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In
this image taken from video, burial grounds for slaves are located in the
wooded area in New Orleans, Wednesday, June 13, 2018. The Shell Oil Company has
spruced up, marked and blocked off tracts of its land in the Convent community
west of New Orleans where archaeologists confirmed the presence of slave burial
grounds in 2013. (AP Photo)
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The
Shell Oil Company marked, blocked off and spruced up the tracts near its
Convent refinery west of New Orleans and held dedication ceremonies in March,
about five years after archaeologists confirmed the presence of slave burial
grounds in 2013. The company also has been working with the nearby River Road
African American Museum to arrange commemorative events and accommodate
visitors.
It's
the latest example of the South's decades-long path to acknowledging unsavoury
aspects of its history.
For
Kathe Hambrick, the director of the River Road museum, the work is the
culmination of years of efforts to ensure that Shell honoured and remembered
those buried on what used to be the Monroe and Bruslie sugar plantations, just
two of many plantations that once abounded along the road. Hambrick said there
are likely hundreds more such graveyards between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Some
of the restored plantations are themselves undergoing a rediscovery, moving
away from their romanticized "Gone with the Wind" portrayals of the
past to offer a more realistic look at the South's history of human bondage.
One, the Whitney Plantation in the town of Wallace, opened in 2015 as a
full-fledged museum with an unvarnished look at the cruelties of slavery.
"We
ought to work together to figure out how ... to evaluate the things that we
want to preserve, protect and teach about in terms of how this country was
really developed," said A.P. Tureaud Jr., the son of a revered New Orleans
civil rights lawyer who counts slaves and slaveowners among his ancestors.
Tureaud,
who traveled from his current home in New York to attend March dedication
ceremonies for the Monroe and Bruslie sites, has joined with Hambrick in an
effort to give slave gravesites federal protection. The two have brought their
idea to the attention of U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, whose district includes
most of New Orleans.
Vincent
deForest, a civil rights activist who helped preserve two slave cemeteries in
Washington, D.C., said he and others are urging the Congressional Black Caucus
to get involved. DeForest would like to see the National Parks Service
undertake a study to identify ways to preserve such sites in every state.
"The
wholeness of the living is diminished when the ancestors are not honored,"
deForest said, quoting one of his favorite epitaphs.
Sandra
Arnold, a fellow at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown
University, is leading a project to compile a database of slave burial grounds,
but notes there is a dearth of records.
"It's
as if their humanity is erased," Arnold said.
Thurston
Hahn, an archaeologist with Baton Rouge-based Coastal Environments Inc., said
it's reasonable to believe many of the slave graveyards along the River Road
have been farmed over or covered by levees or petrochemical plants.
"The
problem with the slave cemeteries - we just do not know where they are,"
he said.
It's
a problem researchers working farther south, in the Louisiana city of
Thibodaux, can relate to.
Anthropologists
and geophysics experts from Tulane University are among those using radar and
soil samples in hopes of discovering the burial sites of dozens of
African-American victims of Reconstruction-era racial violence that came to be
known as the Thibodaux Massacre.
The
descendants of massacre victims and Confederate plantation owners have formed a
committee to honour the victims of that violence and, if possible, find a mass
grave. If a grave is eventually discovered, they want any remains exhumed and
reburied on consecrated ground.
No
such grave has yet been discovered.
The
Monroe and Bruslie sites were found during land surveys commissioned by Shell
as it prepared for a construction project that has since been abandoned for
economic reasons not related to the cemetery discoveries.
Ground-penetrating
radar and the careful scraping away of topsoil exposed variations of colour and
texture in the dirt, indicating the presence of graves, Hahn said. The remains
of the slaves were not uncovered and the number of graves could only be estimated.
"We
don't want to disturb them at all," Hahn said. "We are just looking
for a shaft that the gravedigger dug to put the burial in."
Hugues
Bourgogne, general manager of the Convent refinery, said Shell wants to honour
and respect those buried at the sites. In addition to protecting, preserving
and marking the cemeteries, Shell has installed iron benches where visitors can
sit, reflect and pay their respects.
Visitation
opportunities are limited, however. One day a year will be set aside for
planned activities at the sites and Shell will work with descendants and other
interested groups to arrange safe access at other times, he said.
Malaika
Favorite, an artist and lifelong area resident, says she knows she has
ancestors who were enslaved and buried at plantations, but hasn't been able to
isolate the burial sites. Now she feels a little closer to doing that.
"Just making this step with the graves here is a step forward," she said. "And we need more of that."
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