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Monday, November 9, 2026Nov 9

14 long-forgotten slave remains reburied in NY ceremony

In this photo provided by the Albany Diocesan Cemeteries, the remains of 14 slaves are transferred to awaiting pallbearers for reinterment at St. Agnes Cemetery in Albany, N.Y., Saturday, June 18, 2016. Archeologists found the remains in 2005 after a backhoe operator uncovered a skull during sewer construction just north of Albany. (Jonathan Cohen/Albany Diocesan Cemeteries via AP)
In this photo provided by the Albany Diocesan Cemeteries, the remains of 14 slaves are transferred to awaiting pallbearers for reinterment at St. Agnes Cemetery in Albany, N.Y., Saturday, June 18, 2016. Archeologists found the remains in 2005 after a backhoe operator uncovered a skull during sewer construction just north of Albany. (Jonathan Cohen/Albany Diocesan Cemeteries via AP) In this photo provided by the Albany Diocesan Cemeteries, the remains of 14 slaves are transferred to awaiting pallbearers for reinterment at St. Agnes Cemetery in Albany, N.Y., Saturday, June 18, 2016. Archeologists found the remains in 2005 after a backhoe operator uncovered a skull during sewer construction just north of Albany. (Jonathan Cohen/Albany Diocesan Cemeteries via AP)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – The long-forgotten remains of 14 slaves discovered more than a decade ago in upstate New York have been reburied.

Albany Diocesan Cemeteries’ spokesman Jonathan Cohen says Saturday the ceremony included prayers from a Ghanaian priestess, an imam and others.

Archeologists found the remains in 2005 after a backhoe operator uncovered a skull during sewer construction just north of Albany.

No personal items from the graves were exhumed. But experts believe they were slaves buried in the 18th or early 19th centuries.

A local group called the Schuyler Flatts Burial Ground Project wanted to make sure the seven adults, five infants and two children are never forgotten again.