Dignity in Death
For African peoples, death and the end-of-life rites that accompanied this transition have always been a crucial dimension of their local cultures. During the era of the Atlantic slave trade, people in diverse West African and West Central African societies cared for the dead and paid homage to them at their departure just as they do today.
Families and communities assigned a dignified burial site to their dead ones, thus connecting them to the land of their ancestors. By doing so, they would be always remembered. The Atlantic slave trade disrupted these critical components of the transition from life to death. The remains of most enslaved persons who died during the Atlantic crossing were thrown into the sea. The bodies of many deceased slaves were abandoned along African and American shores. Despite being baptized as Catholics, the cadavers of many enslaved persons were also discarded in waste dumps and buried in shallow, unmarked graves. Only a small number of bondspeople received a dignified burial in graveyards, churchyards, and even inside church buildings. With the end of slavery and the growing process of urbanization of cities that had formerly served as slave-trading ports in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, these burial grounds were gradually forgotten and erased from the urban space. But as cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Lagos, Charleston, and New York City underwent transformation, construction projects have led to the rediscovery of forgotten burial grounds where enslaved people were put to rest. Local and international Black communities reclaimed these sites, which were transformed into vital reminders of the importance of slavery in these cities. By recovering these sites, Black communities reassigned their Black ancestors the humanity they lost by also reaffirming their own dignity.