It was always hot. It was always a long, boring car ride.
But my mom and dad made sure to do it every time we went to our second home in South Carolina. We drove on a long dirt road leading to a small clearing in a forest in Kingstree, SC, a small town outside of Lake City — which most people don’t know but about an hour outside Charleston.
We drove down that long dirt road with my head banging against the side of the car. My cheek was raw from the hot Southern sun. The sun shone through the tall trees that weren’t native to Miami, where I was from. Finally, we’d turn onto a little bend and were there.
It was the overgrown place where my dad’s grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great grandparents and all their siblings were buried.
As a child, I looked at the “primitive” grave site as something that was shameful.
I was angry that people who picked cotton and supplied the United States with “economic manpower” had no “proper” gravestone. It was a slab of concrete etched in with some sort of knife or pen with their names and dates of birth. Some didn’t have a marker on them at all—maybe just a large nail with their names etched into it.
This small gravesite in South Carolina did not include pictures of the deceased, marble or elaborate benches to sit on.
According to records, Florida has 238,000 recorded historic sites, 5,000-7,000 of which are cemeteries. However, it’s estimated that three-quarters of them are not recorded.
I attended the Tallahassee Science Fair earlier this semester and spoke to Tristan Harrenstein, who explained that archeologists find “unmarked slave graves.”
I was shocked. I asked him about the process and found out that there’s a lot that’s done ”unearthing graves” in Florida.
During a live Zoom meeting hosted by the Florida Division of Historical Resources, several people dedicated to public outreach and assisting the government in preserving unmarked graves (many being African American graves) spoke on the importance of people filling out the “Historic Cemetery Form” online.
According to Ruben Acosta, with the National Registry of Historic Places, Section 106 “protects properties from the negative impact of government.” He highlighted several graves across Florida that were saved from overdevelopment and purely rescued from abandonment.
Acosta also explained how the 1966 National Preservation Act was created to preserve graves (and historical sites). In many cities, the National Preservation Act protects homeowners and residents from disturbing graves.
This Act takes into consideration the impact of developments and the government.
Anyone with information about a cemetery that may not be filed can go to the Florida Master Site File — the state’s inventory of historical resources.