Located in one of the oldest sections of Manhattan, at the intersection of Duane and Elk Streets, New York’s African Burial Ground has emerged from obscurity to become one of the city’s most prominent historic sites. Although today only a small portion of the site is visible, the African Burial Ground has established itself as a public landscape of vast proportions, dramatically changing our understanding of life in colonial New York and providing a point of origin for members of New York’s diasporic African-American community. Set beyond New York City’s early boundaries, the African Burial Ground began as part of New York’s Commons or publicly held land. The Commons were established in 1653, the same year that the Dutch government granted