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In historic Williamsburg, Virginia, with the dramatic discovery of the First Baptist Church’s foundation and evidence of a burial site, archaeologists are unearthing an untold story.This video was produced in collaboration with NOVA and is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

For centuries, the roles that African Americans played in shaping the U.S. have been buried. When it comes to telling the full history of our country, their significance is often dismissed.

For centuries, the roles that African Americans played in shaping the U.S. have been buried. When it comes to telling the full history of our country, their significance is often dismissed.

For centuries, the roles that African Americans played in shaping the U.S. have been buried. And when it comes to telling the full history of our country, their significance is often dismissed. In historic Williamsburg, Virginia, with the dramatic discovery of the First Baptist Church’s foundation and evidence of a burial site, archaeologists are unearthing an untold story.

A dramatic discovery in Williamsburg, VA gives historians insight into America’s past.

Buried History: First Baptist Church

Tech & Engineering

Buried History: First Baptist ChurchPublished: August 18, 2021Narrator: 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 postholes from what appears to be the late 1700s. Excavating further revealed a grave site that could hold the keys to America's very beginnings.Connie Matthews Harshaw: We started looking for artifacts, had no idea that there were intact burials there.Dr. Joseph Jones: 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. We know from historical research, including people's own genealogical stories. And then together, of course, those become a collectiveNarrator: For decades, the church's rich beginnings were hidden by asphalt to provide parking for tourists, but are now being uncovered by archaeologists and devices, like ground-penetrating radar.Eric Schweickart: 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 archaeological team to dig it out.Deshondra Dandridge: 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 to be a part of something that's gonna tell a bigger history here at Colonial Williamsburg.Narrator: Part of that bigger story lies just a few yards away, where archaeologists discovered more than a dozen graves.Meredith Poole: 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 archaeologists 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.Jones: 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 hypoplasias. 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 a chemistry or DNA analysis, if there's enough protein present, you put together a really complete individualized life histories. The biology becomes another unique window onto the social experiences.Harshaw: 1858. This is amazing. This is the record, your family's record of marriages.Reverend Julie G. Grace: Marriages and deaths, yes.Harshaw: Wow.Narrator: 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.Harshaw: 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.James Ingram: 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.Grace: 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, it's, 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.Harshaw: 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.

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Buried History: First Baptist Church

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