16. Flatbush African Burial Ground
The Flatbush African Burial Ground at 2286 Church Avenue is what remains of a burial ground established likely in the early 1700s by the Dutch Reformed Church. In Dutch Flatbush, about one in three people were enslaved, and their labor was used for to clear land for roads, churches, and farms. This burial ground appeared on an 1855 map by politician Teunis Bergen to the northeast of Erasmus Hall High School. A Coalition of residents, activists, and local organizations, which includes a number of Caribbean figures from the neighborhood, has fought to stop development on the property and reclaim any ancestral remains from the site.
A sign on the outside gate of the burial ground honors Phyllis Jacobs, born around 1785, who was enslaved by Jacob Lefferts and died around 1800. Another woman known as Eve, who was said to have lived to the age of 110, from 1700 to 1810, was enslaved by Lawrence Ditmas, Lawrence Voorhes, and others. She was described as “lively and cheerful, a woman of strong intellectual capacity” who was “delighted in a garden,” according to the sign.