"The men and women listed here were slaves in Rumney Marsh in Chelsea during the 18th century. Their remains lie interred in unmarked graves along this wall. We should never forget that they were human beings who contributed to our community's history."

 

Along the north wall of Rumney Marsh Burial Ground are two plaques which commemorate the

burials of African American men, women and children, most of whom were enslaved in Rumney

Marsh and Chelsea during the Eighteenth Century.

 

Slavery not only existed in Revere/Chelsea, but throughout New England. Most worked as house servants or in the port cities of Newport & Boston. At the time, Revere/Chelsea was rural, the men and women who lived and died

there worked on small farms for several of the wealthy landowners or in their homes.

 

The information on the plaques, based in part of an 1897 map of the burial ground, provide

us with names, dates of death, approximate ages, and occasionally the names of the people

they served.