Slave Graves, Somewhere, Complicate a Walmart’s Path

But one aspect of the family’s long history here in northern Alabama is not so well preserved: Coffee Cemetery, an overgrown one-acre graveyard where the ancestors of her husband, Edward O’Neal, and their slaves are buried.

That has become a pressing matter in Florence because Walmart plans to build a store right next to the graveyard. The O’Neals’ biggest concern is that nobody knows exactly where their ancestors’ 80 slaves are buried.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/us/alabama-slave-graves-are-a-walmarts-hidden-hurdle.html?_r=1

Let them build elsewhere then.

But this would make the template for a hellishly scary horror movie based on the premise they did build there.

I was thinking that from a historical/anthropological view it might be interesting. To see how they were buried, what condition they were in, how old they were, how they appeared to be nutrition wise.

Walmart might be prevailed upon to then provide them with coffins and a proper burial. Maybe even to turn the cemetary into a park dedicated to them. And a skilled negotiator might be able to work it so that Walmart was responsible to pay for DNA extraction for the remains in case anyone wanted to see if they matched as family.

That is providing of course that there are any remains even present. Due to the period of time past and the fact that the remains have had no protection all this time, there may not even be a bone chip left.

In that article it says there is probably nothing more than teeth enamel left. How does one find teeth enamel in an acre of land? And if one did find teeth enamel what would one do with it? The article also says that no one has come forward to claim family rights about the slaves that might have been buried there, so I would assume there were no records kept of slave names?

I find the whole story sad. About 60 miles from where I live there was a beautiful hilly horseback riding campground and in the middle of the area there was an Indian burial ground. The powers that be decided to flood the area and make a lake. Many people protested, but they flooded the area and the Indian burial ground is now in the middle of a man made no-wake lake. Another sad story about progress and what it does to what should be sacred places.