Slave cemetery discovered under Florida country club opens old wounds

Delaitre Hollinger, the immediate past president of the Tallahassee branch of the NAACP, visits the Capital City Country Club in Tallahassee, Fla., on Dec. 17. The discovery this month of 40 graves _ with perhaps dozens more yet to be found _ has spawned discussion about how to dignify the souls who lay in eternal rest at the golf course. Hollinger says the slaves buried at the country club deserve to have their dignity restored. (AP)

An archaeological investigation has confirmed that dozens of slaves were buried under Tallahassee, Fla.’s semi-private Capital Country Club. There are no plans to exhume the 40 bodies known to be resting under the greens. It’s also thought there are more graves to be discovered on the sprawling property, which became a golf course in 1908. The findings have locals wondering what’s next.

"It’s a really serious problem,” park service archaeologist Jeffrey Shanks said of the newly discovered burial ground. “It’s not just a Florida problem. It’s really a problem across the Southeast.” 

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Shanks said the discovery is noteworthy because many slaves were buried in unmarked graves where their existence was lost to history. They were regarded by their masters as property, whose lives and deaths occurred unceremoniously. There are thought to be up to 1,500 unmarked slave and African-American cemeteries spread across the Sunshine State.

It’s unlikely the golf course’s architects knew what laid beneath their links when the nearly 23,000 square-foot course was designed more than a century ago. Though rectangular indentations under the manicured lawn fueled speculation over the years that there were graves under the greens, it took ground-penetrating radar, aided by two cadaver-sniffing dogs, to finally confirm those suspicions earlier this month.

Floridians like Tallahassee NAACP leader Delaitre Hollinger now find themselves wondering how to handle delicate situation like this one. The 26-year-old civil rights leader’s family worked the area’s plantations as slaves when the Houstoun family owned many of the fields around the state capitol prior to Emancipation.

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"They deserve much better than this,” Hollinger said.

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938


70 years after they were freed from slavery, 500 African-American men and women posed for a stunning black-and-white photo series as they shared their first-person accounts of the experience of being a slave in "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938." Here, Bill and Ellen Thomas from Hondo, Texas smile for the camera as they pose next to a carriage 70 years after they were freed from slavery. (Library Of Congress)


Donning a top hat and coat, a man poses for the camera while seated, featured in the "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938."


Holding a broom, former slave Clara Brim poses for a photo outside her home in Beaumont, Texas as she shared her story of hardship along with thousands of others, featured in "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938."


Posing on what appears to be a ranch, former slave Abe Livingston of Beaumont, Texas is among the thousands of African-Americans featured in "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938."


Donning a crisp white dress and hat, liberated slave Patsy Moses poses next to a car in Waco, Texas, 70 years after being liberated from slavery.