Artifacts of Mourning: Archaeology of the Historic Burial Ground of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia

By George M. Leader

A fascinating, lavishly illustrated account, aimed at a non-specialist audience, of the excavation of over 500 burials unexpectedly discovered during development work associated with the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

In 2016, construction workers in Philadelphia unexpectedly uncovered a long forgotten burial ground. Archaeologists quickly discovered this was the location of the burial ground of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, used as early as 1722. It was thought to have been exhumed and moved in 1859. Months of excavations revealed almost 500 individual burials still remained.

This book shares the complex story of the discovery and excavations. It provides backgrounds of the church, Philadelphia, and the religious climate of the time to give context to the thousands of artifacts that were discovered and are presented in their entirety. The numerous coffin handles and plaques link directly back to English production and are embedded with powerful mortuary symbols. Highlighting cultural exchange between colonial America and England, Artifacts of Mourning provides an important record of 18th- and 19th-century funerary culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Release date: Mar 31, 2024
• ISBN: 9798888571118

George M. Leader

George M. Leader is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at The College of New Jersey. He holds a PhD from University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. His archaeological research and academic publications cover a wide range of time from the Stone Age of Africa to Historical America.

Book preview

Preface

Historic burials grounds are commonplace in Philadelphia. Doug Mooney, President of the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum, along with his colleagues, have spent countless hours putting together an online resource (phillyarchaeology.net) to document the known historical burial grounds so that incidents like the disturbance of the burial ground in this book can be avoided. This does not even include every single one of the many small family plots, unmarked, or forgotten burial grounds. It goes without saying that in historic cities like Philadelphia, anywhere you sink a shovel you are likely to find an archaeological site. Philadelphia’s Washington Square is atop a potter’s field (or burial ground). These rediscovered burial grounds will appear again and again. It is up to the City Council to enact the proper laws to protect these sacred places and to only excavate them to be moved when absolutely necessary, by professional archaeologists. Strong archaeological intervention is a much more common practice in places like London and other European cities but in the United States many loopholes exist which too often result in destruction of this history.

Perhaps what many people outside of the archaeological community do not realize is that burial grounds still hold important cultural and scientific value. Many archaeologists, including myself, agree that these burials grounds should not be disturbed unless absolutely unavoidable. Unlike many other archaeological sites, the remains of the deceased buried in cemeteries were placed there intentionally and with the reasonable expectation that they would remain there forever. Only if disturbance is entirely unavoidable should there be an excavation. When such an excavation must happen there is still much to be learned from burial ground grave goods and biological remains. For example, at the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia’s burial ground discussed in this book, there are 22 unique handle grip plates produced on copper alloy. These are adorned with many various styles of cherubs and urns among other motifs. This variety was unexpected – few contemporaneous burial grounds, in the United States or England, have such a number. Immediately, this raises questions surrounding importation of goods from England, the rise of local production of metallurgical ornamentation, and the cultural values surrounding funerary practice. Paired with our understanding of Baptists of the day as practicing a simplistic and non-materialistic lifestyle, it again appears surprising. When analyses of the biological remains are complete, they will offer us a glimpse into the health and hardships of some of Philadelphia’s earliest citizens. Trauma and developmental stress skeletal signatures can be indicators of status and access to healthcare. The active duration of the burial ground spans no less than 28 epidemics in the city of Philadelphia. New technologies are allowing for non-destructive sequencing of genetic and pathogenic material. Pathogens that may have been the cause of an individual’s death can now even be detected in the sediments that spent hundreds of years in contact with the body. Some pathogens, from a pre-antibiotic age and often ancestral to their modern counterparts, can inform modern researchers as to the evolution of disease and possibly the human genetic signatures of the individuals who were most likely to survive. Thus, these sites can even help inform modern medicine.

Historical archaeology provides an opportunity to fill in the gaps of written history. Often in colonial American history, documents were written by educated, white, landowning males. Of the many types of documents, whether diaries or account books, the records kept may omit what is considered obvious or unimportant. The material culture, that is the artifacts recovered from a site, serve to act as the physical evidence of such behavior to confirm or refute historical documentation.

In all, burial grounds are hallowed ground and as such, disturbance should be avoided at all costs. Yet, in our ever-expanding world these grounds will consistently lose the battle to development and expansion. In such instances the descendant communities must be consulted, their desires respected, and the remains properly excavated and re-interred, as was done for these individuals and artifacts. Working with the descendant communities is important for a multitude of reasons. Different cultures have different beliefs associated with death and the afterlife. Religious beliefs also often mandate the specifics of burial rituals and treatment of the body. For centuries, burial grounds around the world have been mistreated or even pillaged in the name of science, often with highly racist practices. In this case, the descendent community has been supportive of the research conducted during this project. Because there are no names on headstones, the current First Baptist Church of Philadelphia and the overseers of Mt Moriah Cemetery were consulted and acted to help ensure the ethical treatment, study, and eventual re-interment of the remains. Between exhumation and re-interment, however, much knowledge can be gained. It is at this time that history has a chance to be revisited and possibly revised.

An additional terminological note I would like to make is on the use of the term ‘burial ground’. In fact, though today the words cemetery, graveyard, and burial ground are often used interchangeably, the words historically have slight difference in their meanings. A graveyard is typically used to refer to a burial ground specifically associated with a church, while a cemetery may be public or private or have no religious affiliation. Burial ground can also be used to refer to either a graveyard or cemetery, but it can also be used to refer to a less formal tract of land which was not intentionally demarcated for interments.

Despite the small differences in the three terms, I often, and without reservation, use them interchangeably, though I prefer the term burial ground. When this term is used, I am referring to the FBCP’s burial ground, as it is the focus of this book or, if discussing another burial ground, I provide the name so that its association with a church can be deduced.

Of great importance to note is that throughout this book I shall refer to the 18th and 19th centuries in Philadelphia as ‘early Philadelphia’, or individuals as ‘early citizens’ of Philadelphia. I use these terms with the understanding that the focus of the book is an 18th–19th century Baptist burial ground. However, the land that Philadelphia now occupies has at least 12,000 years of history prior to the arrival of William Penn, other Europeans, and enslaved Africans. The once rich waters of the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers and the lush woodlands are part of the wide area of land home to the Lenape peoples and their ancestors. The European arrival and, with them, enslaved Africans displaced these groups of Native Americans to establish urban centers such as Philadelphia. With that acknowledgement in mind, ‘early’ Philadelphia is a reference to citizens of the city that took form by the late 17th century.

It has been a great privilege to be charged with the study of the material culture from this burial ground. The weight of responsibility of the project has been felt by our entire team from the first day of recovery. It is our responsibility therefore, to study and record the hundreds of biological remains, and thousands of artifacts, prior to their re-interment. In accomplishing this, we will have helped to tell their story. Accuracy, efficiency, and coordination are critical elements of such a large research project. Hopefully, upon re-interment, these individuals and their personal effects will never be disturbed again, as they should never have been disturbed in the first place. We are fortunate to have one final opportunity to learn from these individuals about life as some of Philadelphia’s early citizens.

George M. Leader

Chapter 1

Introduction

In November of 2016 The Philadelphia Inquirer published a story detailing the unexpected discovery of human remains at a construction site at 218 Arch Street (Salibury 2016). Just a few blocks from Independence Hall, this neighborhood is among the oldest sections of the city of Philadelphia (Fig. 1.1). It was quickly confirmed that this property was part of the location of the burial ground for the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia (FBCP) during the 18th and 19th centuries. Referred to at times in historical documents as La Grange Place, the burial ground was used from about 1722 to 1859, at which time it was contracted to be exhumed and moved to Mount Moriah Cemetery in West Philadelphia, or so it was thought for 160 years. It is unclear as to how many burials, if any, were moved to Mount Moriah cemetery in 1859.

Figure 1.1. Map of Philadelphia showing locations mentioned in this chapter.

By February of 2017 it was apparent that more than just a few sets of human remains were still beneath the sediments of the property and professional archaeologists, along with volunteers, began the first excavations. By the conclusion of the excavations, in September of 2017, almost skeletal remains of almost 500 individuals had been recovered from the site along with thousands of artifacts. Because the burial ground’s period of use (ca 1722–1859) spans colonial (pre-American Revolution), revolutionary (1776–1783), and young republic (post-Revolutionary War) eras in one of the most historically important cities in the United States, it is of paramount importance to our understanding the unique culture and practices associated with death and mourning at the