Silent Spaces

Contents: About the Collection | Tech

Collection History

In December 2022 the Senate passed the African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Act which directs the Department of the Interior to make grants available to state and local agencies as well as to tribal governments, public groups, educational institutions, nonprofits, and historic preservation organizations for the following purposes:

• The identification of historic African-American burial grounds.
• The preservation and restoration of African-American burial grounds.
• The interpretation of African-American burial grounds.
• Related research and documentation for historic African-American burial grounds.

This project takes inspiration from that legislation and seeks to identify, interpret, and document African-American burial grounds in the Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill areas of North Carolina so that living relatives may know where their ancestors are buried and so that these sites may be preserved from development, researched in order to identify the deceased, and when possible, restored so that living family members can have access. In addition, this project seeks to offer a starting place for historical and genealogical research using links to databases, cemetery censuses, narratives, deeds, and other records.

For each cemetery there will be several photographs of the site including some of the individual graves as well as the larger cemetery grounds. For each photograph you will find details including:

• Name of the cemetery
• Name of the deceased, including birth and death dates when possible
• Epitaphs
• Location in the cemetery as well as the coordinates of the cemetery
• The condition of the burial site
• Notes about the historical significance of the cemetery and/or resident
• A link to the cemetery census
• Links to resources used in this project

There are also pages under development for Featured Cemeteries and Stories. The Featured Cemeteries page will include information on the history of the land these cemeteries rest on as well as on the communities that evolved around them and continue to support them. On the Stories page you will be able to read about some of the inspiring individuals interred in these cemeteries including their lives, accomplishments, and contributions to society. So many of the individuals buried in these cemeteries rose from slavery to become integral parts of the social, cultural, political, and financial growth of North Carolina and of the larger United States as well.

Link to the African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Act of 2022