Given the negligence in keeping records of the burial of persons of color historically, we often rely on other than an ideal primary source such as a cemetery burial record. In this situation we rely on an 1870 Poughkeepsie newspaper account that quotes an older resident as saying, upon discovery of multiple coffins and human remains while digging at the equivalent of what is today 204 Main Street (between Washington & Vassar Street, south side), that this was a “Negro burial ground” created by a slave owner “near the vicinity” between 1800 and 1810.
Above: click to enlarge.