New York

Honor at last: Former slaves reburied centuries later

Associated Press
Published | Updated

In this April 27, 2016 photo, Lisa Anderson, curator of bioarchaeology at the New York State Museum, poses in Albany, N.Y., with facial reconstructions of slaves found at an unmarked cemetery. The reconstructions were done by the museum. Fourteen slaves will be buried a second time, a decade after construction workers accidentally uncovered their remains north of Albany. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) (The Associated Press)

In this April 27, 2016 photo, Lisa Anderson, curator of bioarchaeology at the New York State Museum, poses in Albany, N.Y., with facial reconstructions of slaves found at an unmarked cemetery. The reconstructions were done by the museum. Fourteen slaves will be buried a second time, a decade after construction workers accidentally uncovered their remains north of Albany. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) (The Associated Press)

In this April 27, 2016 photo, Lisa Anderson, curator of bioarchaeology at the New York State Museum, poses in Albany, N.Y., with facial reconstructions of slaves found at an unmarked cemetery. The reconstructions were done by the museum. Fourteen slaves will be buried a second time, a decade after construction workers accidentally uncovered their remains north of Albany. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) (The Associated Press)

Remains of 14 presumed slaves will soon be reburied near the Hudson River, 11 years after their unmarked graves were discovered.

This time, local volunteers are honoring the seven adults, five infants and two children in a way that would have been unthinkable when they died. They will be publicly memorialized and buried beside prominent families in old Albany.

Archeologists found remains in 2005 after a backhoe operator uncovered a skull during sewer construction just north of Albany

Boxes with the remains will lie in state on Friday, June 17, at the nearby Schuyler Mansion, a state historic site once inhabited by relatives of the farm operators. They will be buried the next day on a landscaped cemetery hillside not far from where they were first buried.