Jaspers Study History of Slavery in the Bronx

How do we find the history that has been forgotten? 

In the Spring 2019 semester, Dr. Adam Arenson offered a new community engaged learning course, History 100, Slavery in the Bronx. As Arenson told his students in the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, "We will work with a community partner—the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground project—to explore how the history of slavery continues to reverberate in the Bronx, and to understand what it means for the local community in Hunts Point, especially its elementary-school students. In consultation with the HPSBG group, we will extend their research and discuss possible ways to memorialize the enslaved people buried at the site, all of which we will present in a public setting at the end of the semester."

Dr. Adam Arenson shows the students the headstones of the Hunt family. 

In 2013, Philip Panaritis, a retired official with the Department of Education, and Justin Czarka, a teacher at P.S. 48, began exploring the history of the unmarked burial ground. Their website chronicles their efforts, along with their students and other community partners to find out exactly where people are buried, who is buried there, and to advocate for the effective commemoration of the people buried there. Through their research, they were able to get the area recognized as the burial place for enslaved people, and got the Parks descriptive sign in the park revised to include mention of it. 

Philip Panaritis talks to the Manhattan College students.

Arenson and his class partnered with them to contribute to their efforts.  Over the course of the semester, they visited Hunts Point five times -- the final time to present the results of their research at a public forum in the Hunts Point branch of the New York Public Library. 

They also visited the Van Cortlandt House Museum, and the Slave Burial Ground there, and partnered with the Kingsbridge Historical Society. They learned about and employed the techniques historians use to discover and uncover historical information, and discussed ways to make this information accessible to the community -- both traditional methods, like oral presentations and signs, and digital methods, like mapping software. 

In May, the HIST 100 students made a public presentation about what they learned. In closing, one student referenced the respect shown the Hunt family, whose burial ground is gated off, and the burial ground of the enslaved persons, which, because it is unmarked, people walk on without being aware of the people buried below.    

To learn more about the course -- and the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground -- see the coverage on ABC7 and Manhattan College's own website. 

Professor Arenson will be continuing this project in the Fall 2019, as he teaches an Arches class which will also partner with these groups to forward the work of learning about and educating the public about the enslaved persons who lived in these communities.