The search for the cemetery of enslaved individuals at President Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, a Tennessee plantation, culminated in late 2024 after a year-long archaeological project. Conducted with advanced techniques like ground-penetrating radar and aerial imaging, the effort revealed 28 possible graves on less than an acre of land, previously overgrown and largely undocumented. This critical discovery contributes to a longer narrative of slavery and aims to better educate the public about the lives and legacy of those who were enslaved there.
"The Hermitage has been doing archaeology and genealogy research into the lives of the people who were enslaved going back to the late 1970s..."
"The cemetery was finally located in a year-long project that culminated in late 2024..."
"This work was supported by an anonymous donor and concentrated on five acres of undesirable agricultural land near a creek bottom."
"The part of the Hermitage where the site is, and where we had suspicions that it was, was grown over for decades..."
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