Boonslick African American Burial Customs and Cemeteries

Boonslick African American Burial Customs and Cemeteries

excerpt: 

Arriving in the Boonslick region as slaves brought by the white, English settlers, this group obviously lacked the freedom of choice available to the other two ethnic groups, the Upland South, English settlers and the German immigrants.  An antebellum black death probably meant burial near the white cemetery in an unmarked grave, although a few graves were marked with stones.  No stones in burial grounds were found during the course of this survey inscribed with a single name that would indicate slave status, although it is definitely known that the stones in the Angell burial ground (B9) indicate deceased slaves and in adjacent Randolph County (which is outside the boundary of this particular survey), at least one private, family and community burial ground has fieldstone markers at the east end of the burial ground for slaves.¹  The Jewell cemetery (B37) also contains markers for deceased slaves, again without names.

     It was not until after the War Between the States with the accompanying freedom for slaves, that the African American community established cemeteries and separate churches.  As would be expected given the cultural bias of this Boonslick region, the land available to this group was the poorest, the most hilly, and least developed in all of the counties.  During the course of this cemetery survey, still a major characteristic of the African American cemetery is the difficulty of locating it and then driving to it.  Always isolated and usually on poorly maintained gravel roads, these cemeteries suffer from a lack of upkeep whether they are private, family and community related burial grounds, or larger church graveyards.  Of the 177 cemeteries surveyed, 31 or approximately 17.5% contained known and visible African American burials. These cemeteries are shown in Table 9.

To read the rest of this information, visit:

http://mo-river.net/history/boonslick/appendix_a.htm

Popularity: 5% [?]

673 views