Saving burial sites of slaves

N.J. discovery may land in new registry

BEDMINSTER, N.J. — The slaves buried here are identified only as Richard and Zaff. A third person, recorded as a free black man, is not named at all.

The three men bought their own gravesites in this centralNewJersey townfor $3 back in 1801. It was less than 20 years after the end of the Revolutionary War. The Civil War that would determine the fate of their fellow slaves — and chart much of the course of U.S. history — was still six decades away.

Although little is known about the men, researchers are nowbattling to preserve the tiny plot, one of thousands of slave burial sites found across the country. FordhamUniversity inNew York recently launched a project to compile an online registry of such sites, part of an effort to raise national awareness of slavery.

Historians are intrigued by the New Jersey burials for two reasons: for underscoring that slavery reached beyond the Southern states that fought against the