Maryland Church Works to Restore Graves of Enslaved People

Orange flags rise up like wildflowers from the ground of the old cemetery behind the Sacred Heart Church in Bowie, Maryland. Each of them marks a grave, or the likely spot of a grave.

Some graves are denoted by weathered stone markers. But others received no gravestone or marker, a fate common for enslaved people.

"Burials that are in wooded areas. Burials that are overgrown. Burials that are marked by stones. This is typical, sadly, when you’re looking at enslaved cemeteries," said Dr. Laura Masur, an assistant anthropology professor at Catholic University.

Masur estimates there are nearly 200 graves of African American Marylanders, both those who were freed and people who were enslaved, at the cemetery behind Sacred Heart.

The cemetery is on the grounds of the White Marsh plantation, a vast amount of land given to the Jesuits in 1729.

Tenant farmers and hired overseers ran the land back then.

Now, the Archdiocese of Washington has been part of an effort to see that the burials are recognized.

"You don’t always see this kind of goodwill and this sense that, no, it's time we’re going to confront this story. We’re going to put all of our resources into doing what we can," Asur said.

That includes surveying and mapping the burial site using everything from church records to ground-penetrating radar to locate graves hidden by time, nature and neglect.

Where the people who were buried are located and how they’re buried says so much about the times in which they lived and died.

"It’s a reality that even within a Catholic community, where people are supposed to be valued, there are very clear racial divides," Asur said. "Clear divides of freedom and unfreedom.

The descendants of some of those buried there still reside in Prince George's County.

On Monday, Catholic University students will join descendants to clear brush and leaves, bringing some order and dignity to those who may not have known it in life.