Dear Editor:
Recently I submitted a letter in regard to the controversy of the forgotten dead at a site in the Southern end of Secaucus. That letter was in response to the reporting of Mr. Sullivan. I concluded the letter with a comment on the former “Slave Cemetery” and suggested that it might have been destroyed as a result of the construction of the New Jersey Turnpike. With research I learned that even though it was not destroyed as a result of the New Jersey Turnpike, it is true that this former “slave cemetery” has been built upon. While speaking to a resident who recalled playing on that burial ground as a child, he related to me some interesting information. He stated that he recalls having seen the coffins of those slaves which had been un-earthed during the construction of the building which now stands above that gravesite. As some of the wood of the simple coffins of those African-American slaves had been broken open it was clear that skeletal remains were inside. I am not certain if those coffins were later covered by the concrete footings or removed. I do not know if other coffins of slaves in that cemetery remained un-detected and were simply built over. This building is located several hundred feet off of the North West corner of the intersection of County Avenue and Secaucus Road near the inspection station.
I give you the information contained in a book of the history of Secaucus, which being published in 1950 for the fiftieth anniversary of Secaucus, speaks about the subject of the slave cemetery. Of that cemetery it states this:
“Representing a second type of cemetery, is the slave grave yard on what is now Schmitt’s farm on Secaucus Road, near the fork of County Avenue. Shaded by a peach and cherry tree, the area is unmarked and unused. The last Negro was buried there about 1902, old “Nigger Tom”, who had been a slave of Abel I. Smith, and when freed, his former master gave him a plot of land near Snake Hill which he farmed until his death. The gravestones, made of perishable sandstone, have long since deteriorated. In purchasing the ground the present owner had to agree to leave the ground unused for a period of years.”
Michael Seyfried.