The Memorial
The Anson African Burial Memorial (AABM) will commemorate the site of the reinterment of thirty-six (36) enslaved Africans/African Americans on George Street in Charleston. It will serve as a memorial for not only those Ancestors but also as a memorial to the thousands of enslaved African/African Americans buried in unmarked graves throughout Charleston. The memorial will recognize their contributions in building and supporting the economy of the City of Charleston.
The Fountain
Stephen Hayes has proposed a fountain whose basin will be earth-formed and collected from sites where Africans and African Americans were buried prior to 1865. Each of the individuals will be memorialized by a pair of hands extending from the basin. Each pair of hands has been cast from living individuals whose age, gender, and ethnicity match those of the deceased. Behind each pair of hands will be an individual jet of water.
About The Artist
The AABM commissioned the noted sculptor Stephen Hayes to develop a plan for the memorial. Hayes’s work centers around finding beauty and understanding between himself, as a black male artist, and the nature of the object. His work fuses the past and the present and is generally based on sociocultural and economic themes. Hayes’s work highlights American history as it relates to race, identity, and stereotypes in the areas of capitalism, commodification of beings, and the subsequent effects of cultural representation
Contribute
The Anson African Burial Memorial seeks additional private support for both the construction of the Memorial and for a maintenance fund to preserve the Memorial for generations to come. A special fund has been created at the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina to which contributions can be made that are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
