The City of Charleston Public Burial Ground (1794–1807)

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Between July 2020 and January 2021, more than 500 unmarked graves were recovered using ground penetrating radar in the cemetery on the Clemson University campus. The graves are believed to be those of African American enslaved persons, sharecroppers, domestic workers, tenant farmers, convicted laborers, as well as wage workers and their families. The history of the land on which the cemetery is located is a complex narrative that includes the life, culture, and forced removal of the Eastern Band of the Cherokees, the settlement of Scots-Irish colonists, the development of plantations with enslaved laborers and Black sharecroppers, and the establishment and expansion of Clemson University on John C. Calhoun's Fort Hill Plantation.

The ASABG Project is part of the Charleston African Burial Grounds Coalition, a Black-led, community-engaged effort in Charleston, South Carolina, to honor African-descended ancestors and their burial places. Our team includes community leaders, educators, archaeologists, and scientists working together through historical, archaeological and DNA research, community engagement, exhibition design, and public education.

"When the burial site was first discovered in 2015, it was assumed to be the resting place of a few White people. When it was revealed that it was a site holding the remains of 105 people who almost certainly were enslaved, it became a much more complicated conversation."

These humans, mainly of African descent, were not shown the respect they were due, neither in life nor in death. The university is committed to moving forward in a manner reflecting the dignity that should be accorded these individuals and has created the East Marshall Street Well Project to facilitate a process with the community that ensures the remains receive appropriate study, memorialization and reburial.

In 2018, a forgotten cemetery was uncovered in Sugar Land, Texas, holding the remains of 95 people — victims of the brutal convict leasing system that followed slavery. This discovery sparked a deeper investigation into who they were, what happened to them, and how their story reveals hard truths about power, exploitation, and the fight over history.

"It is expected to take two years to collect bones, many of which are commingled, sort them, and use DNA to try to identify them with relatives like Corrigan."

"The students were really motivated to make this happen, not just a website or a paper, they wanted to re-shape the landscape itself so future students wouldn't be as surprised by this story," Nelson says. "So many people, frankly, think of the Old South as something that is removed. Having interpretive signs in spaces like this help us do the work of remembering we actually live in that landscape that is that legacy." 

Earlier this year, a historical African American burial ground from the 1800s was discovered under Penn property in West Philadelphia. Now experts are saying human remains are likely still beneath the lot, and Penn officials say they are in the process of hiring an outside expert to advise in the appropriate next steps for the University to take.