Life was very different in small towns across the United States a hundred years ago. Technology was meager; financial ruin seemed to be one step away; war was ongoing in Europe; Americans walked everywhere; segregation was an unfortunate reality, and many lived hand-to-mouth existences, working long hours in very harsh conditions. No electricity, no running water—the rhythm of life revolved around the daylight hours and varied with the seasons.
This physically demanding life took a toll, with a high mortality rate, including poor diet, lack of access to medicine, and inadequate hygiene. Life expectancy for men and women averaged 64-66 years old.
Additionally, although the Northern States had abolished slavery by 1830, Black American residents in Northern cities still faced immense racial discrimination and mistreatment, barred from all employment except for menial labor.
All this and more culminated in many mass burial grounds for Americans, many of which have been lost to time. However, several groups and people within current-day America are working diligently to rediscover these abandoned cemeteries to give them their voice and place in American History.
Bonnet Carré Spillway, Louisiana
The Bonnet Carré Spillway is a flood control operation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. It is located in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, and is roughly twelve miles west of New Orleans, allowing floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico.
There are also two cemeteries located within the spillway. It was rediscovered in 1975 by the US Army Corps of Engineers when they excavated a ditch in the spillway. The Army Corp of Engineers recovered a tombstone and casket during the process.
In 1996, the corps ordered a historical study of the spillway and discovered a second cemetery. The two cemeteries, Kugler and Kenner, were placed on the National Register of Historic Places a year later and artifacts found during the study included coffin furniture, coffins, grave markers, cultural remains, and human remains. These two cemeteries are Black American burial plots that appear to date from the early 1800s and were in use until 1929. Several Black American US Army Civil War Veterans were discovered and respectfully moved from the spillway to the Chalmette National Cemetery in 1930. The number of burials is still unknown, and the site adjoins 19th and 20th-century sugar plantations in St. Charles Parish.
The cemeteries contain the remains of enslaved Black Americans of African descent and free Black Americans, with the historic ground surface being under several feet of sediment. Several archaeologists and members of the National Endowment for the Humanities professors and scholars hope that more thorough research and study can be conducted to fill in the information on a much-neglected record of the former enslaved to be updated.
Currently, after any flood, the Corps of Engineers's archaeologists assess to ensure the two cemeteries aren't exposed. Nearly 300 Black African Americans are buried there, and a Corps Master in 2019 began plans that would call for placing plaques and markers in the area, aimed at making the place more visitor-friendly, as well as plans to reinter remains once plans were in place. Operating the Bonnet Carré, they are sharing essential cultural and historical information and sites by rediscovering these forgotten cemeteries.
Wimauma, Florida
Wimauma, Florida, was founded in 1902 by Captain C.H. Davis, who named the town using the first few letters of his daughter's names, Will, Maude, and Mary. It was located on a 55-mile railroad route built south from Durant to Manatee County and into Sarasota, with construction beginning in 1895.
Shirley Brown's loved ones are buried in Wimauma Cemetery. Brown, a fellow with the Allegany Franciscan Ministries Fellowship of the Common Good under the program, was tasked with launching a project that benefitted the community. What began as a beautification project for the Wimauma Cemetery—adding flowers and grass and cleaning gravemarkers- quickly evolved into Brown, realizing they had ground indentations that indicated the presence of a grave, but no markers were placed on them.
Brown was quoted in an article by ABC Action News, "I realized we had graves that you couldn't easily see. I could tell by the depressions that we have graves with no markers, nothing on the graves. So, I sat my project to the side. "Brown, sister Jackie, and others in the community quickly embarked on a journey to bring a voice to the people's previously forgotten history.
The First Baptist Church and Cemetery was established in 1878, thirteen years after the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Before its official establishment, the cemetery was known as Potter's Field, a place for those without family funds and for the many enslaved field workers and railroad workers. This information is known because, at the time of the Church's official establishment, records indicated there were roughly 129 or more existing graves. These neglected history graves included Black African American Military Veterans, ordinary men, women, and children, whom Wimauma, Florida, considers well deserving to be honored in their final resting places.
Descendants of these men and women still live in Wimauma today, and, as their ancestors, their final resting place must be preserved. The Church changed its name to First Prospect Missionary Baptist Church, and in July 2022, the cemetery's name was changed to The Wimauma Heritage Cemetery.
Preserving the cemetery became personal for Brown, as her great-grandfather is buried there. After Tampa's Zion Cemetery was rediscovered, Representative Fentrice Driskell sponsored legislation creating the Historic Cemeteries Program and Advisory Council, making the goal for communities around the United States to reach out to the Historic Cemeteries Program and get the answers and resources they need.
In July 2023, a search through GeoView Associates, Inc. found 98 suspected unmarked graves within the cemetery's boundaries. A ground scan conducted in December 2023 revealed an astonishing additional 31 potential unmarked graves scattered across the Church and neighboring property.
Historically Significant and Priceless
While the reasoning behind these mentioned forgotten and abandoned cemeteries is generally unpleasant, and American history is filled with complex topics, preserving our roots, our families, our lineage, and understanding what happened in the past—to ensure that it does not occur in the future—is a critical part of being human. Cemeteries hold secrets to the past, good and bad, and those buried within deserve to be remembered.