(somber music) - [Narrator] A recent discovery in Colonial Williamsburg uncovered the foundations of one of the country's oldest African American churches.

Founded in 1776 by free and enslaved Blacks, First Baptist Church once stood on this lot on Nassau Street.

In addition to a structure built in 1856, they found a smaller, much older brick foundation as well as intact post holes from what appears to be the late 1700s.

Excavating further revealed a grave site that could hold the keys to America's very beginnings.

- We started looking for artifacts, had no idea that there were intact burials there.

- We can go back and study bone fragments and it's going to tell you what was going on during the lifetime of the person, but we know from historical research, including people's own genealogical stories, and then together, of course, those become a collective.

- [Narrator] For decades, the church's rich beginnings were hidden by asphalt to provide parking for tourists, but have now been uncovered by archeologists and devices like ground-penetrating radar.

- The radar typically sees down about maybe a meter, a meter and a half.

We've got a series of things reflecting back up at us and those reflections we know are start about right here and then continue to about right here.

So, it's about here in space, which is right about where the wall is.

- [Narrator] Technology has aided in finding two brick foundations.

The first belonging to a small wood frame church believed to have been built in the early 1700s.

Historic accounts say that structure was destroyed by a tornado in 1834.

On top of that foundation, a larger one that matches the brick building built in 1856.

The second church stood near the corner of Nassau and Francis Streets for 100 years before it was torn down and paved over in 1957.

While radar detects what's beneath the surface, it takes the skillful hands of this archeological team to dig it out.

- I've uncovered a multitude of different types of artifacts.

One, that I think was pretty interesting.

It's called a fish scale, also known as a trim.

So basically, it's a 3 cent silver coin that we actually excavated out here.

For me personally, it's been a very humbling experience.

Just be a part of something that's going to tell a bigger history here in Colonial Williamsburg.

- [Narrator] Part of that bigger story lies just a few yards away where archeologists discovered more than a dozen graves.

- What you see in the ground in the bottom of these trenches, these sort of orange soil discolorations here are places where people have dug so deep into the ground in order in this case to put a coffin or a burial that they have pulled up all sorts of deep orange subsoil clay.

So, I see one that comes out here and turns a corner and runs back this direction and then into the wall.

We'd love to know whether the graves line up with the first church or whether they are associated with the second church.

- [Narrator] While archeologists in the field study the deeper orange colored soil to determine the number of graves below, experts at the lab work to identify some 250 bone fragments uncovered during the excavation.

Four of which were human teeth.

- You know, there are overarching questions, challenging some of what we, you know, think we know.

The teeth, for example, that would tell us something about the age of the individual.

We can look at markers or lines in the teeth, which we call hyperplasias.

These are stress lines from any type of nutritious and or disease stress.

We can read the outsides of the skeletons for signs of infection and things of that nature.

Even doing chemistry or DNA analysis, if there's enough protein present.

We put together really complete individualized life histories.

The biology becomes another unique window onto the social experiences.

- 1858.

- This is amazing.

- [Narrator] This is the record, your family's record of marriages.

- Marriages and deaths, yes.

- [Narrator] Wow.

The members of First Baptist are eager to learn, if any of their ancestors are buried there, and are ready to submit DNA samples to find out.

- To stand in that space and to realize that for so many years that asphalt covered what should have been a burial ground.

And so, that's been the most surprising part for me.

- [Narrator] Founded in secret by free and enslaved blacks in 1776, the congregation would meet in the brush arbors of the Green Springs Plantation.

- We're not called by King George, we're not called by the Bishop of Canterbury, we are called by God.

- [Narrator] Displaced by the Revolutionary War, the congregation would move once more before the 600 members would settle at this location on Nassau Street.

Reverend Julie Grace is among those whose family ties are deeply woven in the church's archival fibers.

She was christened in the larger brick church just eight years before it was torn down in 1957.

- You know that I'm the baby in the old church.

On this picture, you'll see me in the arms of my godfather, Hulon Willis, who was the first African-American admitted to William and Mary.

I am so excited to go out and be on the grounds and actually, be there where your ancestors were and where they worshiped, and also to know that this was a brick church built by Black people.

You know, I get emotional when I think about it.

- [Narrator] With the help of modern science, local descendants are unearthing stories of the rich history woven in the fabric of this country's foundation.

- We're hoping that this story will lead the nation to do the right thing, to look around the country, and to do what we call historic justice.

And that is happening in so many places, because the intentional coverup of the African American story as well as other groups, you can't just tell history from one perspective.

We were all here, and we all contributed, and the story needs to be told.

- [Narrator] 18 months later, Colonial Williamsburg archeologists led by Jack Gary and his team would discover three graves, but that number would continue to grow.

They were soon looking at 23 graves, then 40, and by the time the dig was complete, there were 62 graves identified on the site.

Throughout this process, there were questions.

Who were these people?

How long had they been there?

What was life like during their time on Earth?

And were they of African descent?

The First Baptist family and descendant community made the decision to excavate three of the graves in hopes of getting answers.

- We wanted to make sure that we got a feel for the scope of who were buried there and whether or not they belonged to the church.

Working with the archeologists and the investigators, we wanted to confirm that they were of African descent.

That was the most important thing, not so much who they were, but whose they were.

- [Narrator] They worked with historical biologists, Dr. Michael Blakey, Dr. Raquel Fleskes, and Dr. Joe Jones, who analyzed remains from three graves and confirmed in April of 2023 that those buried at the site were of African descent.

- Once we found that out, I think that the community then thought, okay, we're good now.

We're good, because they are our dead.

We will honor them, we will memorialize them on that site.

They will not be moved, they wanted to be there, they wanted to rest there, and that's what we're deciding to let them do.

- At one point in time, Williamsburg was 52% African American, and so, we are finally telling a more full story, which includes all those who lived and worked here.

And that just means a lot to me, because for so long those voices have been unheard, untold, giving dignity to our ancestors who were part of this community is just really powerful.

- We are going to return the human remains to the three graves that we took them from so that they can rest in peace.

And then we're gonna cover the site and we will let the descendants decide how they're going to honor them.

- [Narrator] The process to determine the best way to remember those buried on the site began with a great deal of planning and resulted in the creation of 62 markers, reading adult, child, and infant to acknowledge this once forgotten resting place.

- It wasn't simply just looking at a piece of stone.

Once we saw it, it took our breath away and it brought tears to our eyes, because we knew that we are paying tribute to the ancestors in a way that could not be done or have even been conceived many years ago.

- [Narrator] More than 100 descendants got an up close look at the markers during a ceremony next to the site on June 19th, 2024.

- Our ancestors whose graves we mark today were more than victims of history.

They represent warriors of spirit and they represent the battle of dignity for human rights.

They endured the undurable, they survived the unspeakable, and yet, even in death, they speak to us now, they empower us now, - yes, sir.

- their descendants to stand free and to stand proud to honor them is to remember that we are the sum of their hopes and dreams.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - [Narrator] And four months later, a once untold piece of Williamsburg history is remembered in a way that can be viewed around the world as historic justice as the ancestors of the historic First Baptist Church Williamsburg take their rightful place in the American history narrative.

(somber music)