SITE CHOSEN FOR MIDDLE PASSAGE MONUMENT
http://3mill.bitshop.com/MiddlePassage/mphome.htm

On July 3, 1999, a monument honoring the lives of the estimated millions of African men, women, and children who died en route to and at the hands of transatlantic slavery between the 15th and 19th centuries will be lowered onto the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, 427 kilometers due east (facing Africa) off New York's harbor.

Five replicas of the Monument will be created for placement on land in the regions of the world historically linked to transatlantic enslavement, namely Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, North America, and South America. Efforts have begun to have the United Nations declare the spot a sacred burial ground for Black people.

The Homeward Bound Foundation, sponsor of the Middle Passage Monument Project, chose the site in honor of the 427 skeletal remains of African people who were unearthed in 1991 when the United States General Services knowingly began excavating a city-block-sized portion of a built over, 18th-century cemetery (then designated for New York City's Black population), in what is now downtown Manhattan, in order to construct a Federal office tower.

At the time of the Independence War, New York's harbor was the second most active port involved in the handling of enslaved African people, and it is estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 African and early African American people were buried in the African Burial Ground between the late 1600s and when it was reportedly closed in 1796.

For more information on the Homeward Bound Foundation and its Middle Passage Monument Project, contact the Foundation at: Toll Free: 888-334-9229, Phone: 202-333-0911, Fax: 202-362-7684, mailto:Lydia_English@Brown.edu or visit the Web site; Or write to: P.O. Box 25333, Washington, DC 20007.