DNA Gathered From Slave Skeletons Buried in Unmarked 18th-Century Burial Grounds Reveals Their History

A group of scientists affiliated with numerous institutions in the united states, collaborating with members of The Anson Street African Cemetery Project, have found out some of the history behind some of the slaved buried in 18th century Charleston, South Carolina– home to one of the busiest slave ports in American history.

In their paper released in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team explains how they gathered tissue samples from as many of the skeletons in the burial ground as possible and what test of their DNA exposed regarding their history.

The movement of black slaves to the United States

Beginning in the early 1500s, as part of a bigger slave trade, white Europeans transported black people living in Africa by force to operate as enslaved people in the colonial America. They remained to do so for the following 3 hundred years. Many of those enslaved people started their life in America in Charleston, South Carolina.

Roughly half of all such enslaved people arrived at the port there and were summarily sold. In this new initiative, the scientists conducted a DNA analysis of skeletons of enslaved people that had been buried in an unmarked cemetery during the eighteenth century near the center of the city.

The burial ground was found out back in 2013, and also since that moment, efforts have been done to identify those that were buried there. In all, 36 skeletons were discovered in the burial ground; however, only 18 had tissue samples suitable for use in a genetic research study. Previous work on the project revealed that all of the people in the burial ground had been put in coffins before burial, which most had artifacts in the coffin with them, like pipes, beads or perhaps coins.

The findings obtained from the results of DNA tests

In looking at the DNA, the scientists discovered that all but one of the enslaved people had come straight from Africa or had forefathers that had. They also discovered that slave ancestry was not limited to the west coast of Africa– some of the enslaved people had been carried from parts of sub-Saharan regions.

The group discovered that thirteen of them had been birthed in West Africa, the rest likely in the United States. The investigators also discovered that none of the individuals buried in the burial ground were related to any other– a signal that proposes family members were divided upon arrival.

The scientists also discovered that one individual in the cemetery had Native American maternal family tree, which they propose highlights the multigenerational aspect of the American slave trade.

Read the original article on PHYS.

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