Message from Deputy Mayor Ellen Zimmerman | Oct. 20, 2023
There is an important fundraiser happening Monday morning at Shady Rest Country Club to raise money for “313+ Ancestors Speak,” a project designed to give voice to the lives of the 313+ enslaved and free African ancestors buried on the grounds of Siloam-Hope First Presbyterian Church (formally First Presbyterian Church) in Elizabeth. Many lay in unmarked graves.
The story of the 313+ focuses on three distinct entities: Siloam-Hope First Presbyterian Church, Old First Cemetery, and Snyder Academy of Elizabethtown, at 14-42 Broad Street in Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Police Chief Giacoma Sacca shared in published reports that he used to walk a beat that included the church grounds. Sometimes, he said, he would wander the rows of headstones – an estimated 2,000 or so of them, dating from 1687.
Sacca didn’t know the history of the slaves interred there. That was until Wanda Lundy, pastor of the Siloam-Hope First Presbyterian Church since 2019, took him into the cemetery in February 2020, pointed to one section and said, “You know, we have 313 buried slaves here,” in unmarked graves.
That discovery led to the creation of the 313 Project — an effort led by Lundy to identify as many of those persons as possible, enslaved and free, to know their names and their stories and to erect a monument in their honor, according to a feature story in The Presbyterian Outlook.
The number 313 is not precise, and organizers with the 313 Project assume there are more unmarked graves – even suspected under the paved parking lot. The 313+ project is determined to give names to those interred in the graves, holding meetings to do research.
Records some 200 years ago simply referred to “my Negro boy, my Negro girl, mulatto or wench.” Often, slaves did not even have formal names.
Some of the names of those buried in unmarked graves are known, The Presbyterian Outlook notes. Some records kept by sextons for First Presbyterian have survived — including a book one sexton apparently took home by chance the night a fire burned down the church. Earlier records were destroyed.
On All Saints Day in 2020, Siloam Hope First Presbyterian Church read aloud the names, one by one, of the 117 Blacks buried in the cemetery who have so far been identified. The goal is to make that reading a regular event and constant reminder.
If you want to learn more about the 313+ Ancestors Speak project, it will be highlighted during Union County’s “Four Centuries in a Weekend,” an annual event taking place tomorrow and Sunday.
There will be guided and self-guided tours of Snyder Academy and Siloam-Hope First Presbyterian Church, which also has the designation as the oldest English-speaking congregation in New Jersey.
Because of the project, attendees can learn about the 313+ freed and enslaved African people buried in unmarked graves as well as walk through restored Revolutionary War burial grounds and other areas that date to Elizabeth’s beginnings. I can only assume these slaves are ancestors of people who now reside in our community and likely have no idea that their families are forever part of the darker history of Union County.
For those who can’t attend the golf outing, but want to contribute to the cause, there is also an online fundraising project. Donors can purchase engraved bricks to raise funds for a monument unveiled June 19, dedicated to honor 381 ancestors engraved.
To learn more about the golf outing, please reach out to Matt Hopkins at
