Archeologists and historians have made a significant find deep beneath the streets of downtown Portsmouth.
New Hampshire Public Radio Correspondent Roger Wood has details.
The plaque on a downtown building reads in part, "City officials approved a plan in 1705 that set aside this city block for a Negro burying ground."
The plaque is one of many marking the Black Heritage Trail.
It honors African Americans who worked and lived in the city in colonial times.
But a recent find only a few yards from this plaque has brought history into clear focus.
Crews have been digging up a downtown street for an improvement project.
And they?ve unearthed deteriorated coffins and remains now believed to be part of that burial ground.
Valerie Cunningham, founder of the black heritage trail, watched on friday as one set of remains and a coffin were removed from below street level.
(Cunningham) :31
"It's incredible that they actually have found some physical evidence of what we have known all along, Which is that this was the designated site for the Negro burial ground. According to a 1705 map of the city of Portsmouth. What we haven't known was where the bodies were, if there were bodies, how many, who they were, and why, and we still don't know those answers."
Steve Parkinson is Public Works Director for the City.
He?s in charge of the street project.
He said that, to date, eight sets of remains have been unearthed.
(Parkinson) :06
"We do not know if there are additional remains in other areas that we are not going to get into"
From a practical point of view, Parkinson said that the important historical find shouldn't hold up the street improvement project.
(Parkinson) :13
"The main part of the project is continuing. This is an area of Chestnut Street that abuts Court Street. So that area we're not doing any work in at the present time, but the remainder of the project continues."
From an emotional point of view, finding the location of the "Negro burying ground" is poignant for Valerie Cunningham.
(Cunningham) :08
"i've been doing this for over thirty years, but bittersweet is a good way to describe my feelings about this."
As she was speaking, employees from the J. Verne Wood Funeral Home, were moving a deteroriated coffin from the site.
This reporter spoke to Tom Laberge, Funeral Director.
(Laberge) :18
(Roger questions)
R: "You have removed, what, one badly decayed coffin and set of human remains from this site here?" Laberge: "I assume so."
R: "What is the disposition of this now?" Laberge: "Just transferring to Strawbery Banke for analysis."
At Strawbery Banke, the historic preservation project nearby, the retrieved remains will be stored, at least temporarily.
Asked how many remains might eventually be recovered, Valerie Cunningham wouldn't hazard a guess.
(Cunningham) :18
"I want to know just as much as anybody else. And we just don't know yet. That's why we have archeologists and other experts on this site to try to find out as much as we can, and not necessarily just as quickly as we can, because we want to do it right."
Cunningham also doesn?t know yet where the remains will eventually be re-buried
Since all the remains discovered so far are in extremely poor condition, it will also be a challenge to identify them.
If any of the 18th century graves had been marked, those markers are not gone.
The hope is that published accounts of the find may turn up some descendants.
For NHPR News, this is Roger Wood.
