February is Black History Month, so for this month’s cemetery book review, I wanted to talk about Love Cemetery: Unburying the Secret History of Slaves by China Galland. Galland, an award-winning author and lecturer, tells a compelling story of rediscovery and reconciliation.
Love Cemetery follows Galland’s journey to restore Love Cemetery, a forgotten burial ground for enslaved people in Texas, and uncovers a painful history of racism, land theft, and environmental destruction.
Here is a snippet from the book synopsis on Goodreads:
“By the eve of the Civil War, there were four million slaves in North America, and Harrison County was the largest slave-owning county in Texas. So when China Galland returned to research her family history there, it should not have surprised her to learn of unmarked cemeteries for slaves. “My daddy never let anybody plow this end of the field,” a local matron told a startled Galland during a visit to her antebellum mansion. “The slaves are buried there.” Galland’s subsequent effort to help restore just one of these cemeteries—Love Cemetery—unearths a quintessentially American story of prejudice, land theft, and environmental destruction, uncovering racial wounds that are slow to heal.”
Love Cemetery: Unburying the Secret History of Slaves by China Galland.
I read the paperback edition that I got secondhand, which contains a smattering of black-and-white photos that add to the emotional weight of the story. It took me a bit of time to finish this one because the material is a bit heavy, but I was completely invested in the journey and how the story would unfold.
Galland’s personal quest to restore Love Cemetery reveals a painful history of racial injustice. It digs into hard truths, but it’s also a story about finding hope and connection in the face of that history.
I was drawn to how Galland handled these difficult subjects with care and determination. The efforts made to restore the cemetery are a powerful example of how remembering the past—and confronting it—can be a step toward reconciliation. It really is a thought-provoking read.
I recommend Love Cemetery to anyone interested in learning about the history of slavery, the ongoing impact of racial injustice, and the importance of remembering and confronting the past.
Thanks for reading!
I am always on the hunt for cemetery-related book recommendations. If you are an author and have a cemetery-related book you would like me to review, please reach out at hello@chantallarochelle.ca. I would love to hear from you.
Last October, My mother and I took a little road trip to Mattawa. We planned on doing some hiking, visiting cemeteries, and enjoying the fall colors. We always like to visit local museums when we visit new places, and the Mattawa Museum did not disappoint. We had a great time touring the grounds and learned a lot about the history of the city, including that it has the distinction of having Canada’s first elected Black mayor.
Mattawa, located in northeastern Ontario is a little over two hours drive from me. Mattawa is located where the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers merge, in Nipissing District. The name Mattawa means “Meeting of the Waters” in Ojibwa.1 It is the oldest settlement in the Nipissing District, and today showcases that historic past with beautiful wooden sculptures. Many wooden sculptures of historic figures, important to Mattawa’s history, can be found scattered throughout the town.1
It was an overcast day when we visited Mattawa, but it didn’t deter us from exploring. We admired the two wooden sculptures on the museum grounds and looked for the three white crosses, that stand high on Québec Hill across the Mattawa river. The three crosses were erected in 1686 by missionary priests to mark the place where the two rivers meet.2
Inside the museum, we found a treasure trove of artifacts; paintings by a well-known Mattawa painter, many indigenous artifacts, and a large exhibit about Canada’s first Black Mayor, Dr. S. F. Monestime. The exhibit features large panels with many photos and a history of what brought Monestime to Mattawa, and how he changed the community for the better. The exhibit also includes some of his personal items, like his signature fedora and a medical skull used in his practice. My Mother and I were both interested in this exhibit the most, and were surprised that we had never heard of him before. We made it a point to pay our respects at the cemetery.
Saint Firmin Monestime was born in Cape Haitian, Haiti in December of 1909. Monestime grew up during the United States occupation of Haiti, which took place from 1916 to 1935. He graduated with a medical degree from the University of Haiti Medical School, and after graduation was named Medical Officer for the International Route between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.3 He experienced a lot during his medical career in Haiti, living through mass casualty events. He received the Knight of the National Order of Honor and Merit, awarded to those of distinguished excellence. He wrote four books around this time, about rural medicine.3
After becoming frustrated with the politics and what he called “deplorable conditions”, Monestime quietly left Haiti for Quebec. He was part of the first small group of Haitian professionals to come to Quebec in the 1940s. Unfortunately, this meant starting over as he had to train and intern for several years to get his full Canadian medical accreditation.3
Monestime found his way to Mattawa almost by chance. He and another colleague were traveling through Mattawa on their way to Timmins to see about setting up a medical practice. They stopped in for lunch at Chez Francois in Mattawa, and it just so happened that the restaurant owner recognized Dr. Monestime, as he had been operated on by the Doctor in Ottawa. The timing was right. The long-standing doctor in Mattawa had recently passed away and the town needed a new doctor. The restaurant also had a vacant room to rent and office space. Monestime agreed to stay, temporarily, but ended up staying indefinitely.3
Monestime found the community to be very welcoming and their generosity encouraged him to stay. His medical practice was booming with a busy office as well as on-call work with the hospital. That’s not to say that he didn’t experience racism in his time there.3 In 1972, he was asked by a reporter if race ever came into play, Monestime replied:
“My practice was booming in no time and from then until now I’ve had no serious problems. You might find a very few—and not the most intelligent—who may say they won’t come to see me because of my race. But very few.”3
Three months after Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, Dr. St. F. Monestime also made history by being elected the first Black mayor in Canada. An active political figure in good standing within the community, regarded for his sense of justice and equality, he was elected mayor nine times.3 Today, the legacy of Dr. Monestime continues and is still felt vibrantly within the community as his family continues to do good works. The most notable of these works is the Algonquin Nursing Home, a project championed by Monestime in his last years.
On October 27, 1977, Dr. Monestime passed away at the age of 67, most likely from pancreatic cancer, which he battled multiple times throughout his life. His Russian Orthodox funeral service took place at St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church in Mattawa.3 He is buried in the Petschersky Monestime family plot at Pine Hill Union cemetery.
He is laid to rest beside his son Fedeor, who sadly was accidentally shot and killed a year earlier on February 29, during an altercation outside of Chez Francois.3Monestimes’ wife, Zena, and her mother are also laid to rest in the family plot, which features a large Eastern Cross. The Eastern Cross or Orthodox Cross has a tilted bar at the base of the cross; a tilted footrest. This is meant to illustrate that the thief crucified on the left side of Christ, thought to be the wise thief, went up to heaven, while the thief crucified on the right side was thought to be unrepentant, and went down to hell.4
My visit to Mattawa was an eye-opening trip. After exploring the exhibit at the museum, we stopped at the gift shop and spoke with the museum curator after buying a few things. We had a great conversation about the museum contents and how sometimes history is hidden in plain sight.
If you’re interested in learning more about Dr. Monestime, I highly recommend a visit to the Mattawa Museum and also picking up a copy of Where Rivers Meet by Doug Mackey. It’s a well-researched look at the life of Dr. Monestime and also explores life in Haiti as well as Black history in Canada.
This past month, my book club announced the reading list for this year. Being proactive, I ordered almost everything on the list and have been enjoying the excitement each time a package arrives. When I received Forgotten Bones in the mail a week ago, I knew I wanted to read it right away. So for this month’s cemetery book review, I wanted to share my thoughts on Forgotten Bones: Uncovering a Slave Cemetery by Lois Miner Huey.
February is Black History Month, so I thought this is the perfect time to read this and share it with others who might be interested in learning more as well.
Forgotten Bones is written by Lois Miner Huey, an archaeologist for the state of New York.1 Published in 2016 by Millbrook Press, this book looks at the excavation and research that went into uncovering a lost slave cemetery that was accidentally discovered near Albany, New York in June of 2005.
“Imagine you’re watching a backhoe dig up the ground for a construction project when a round object rolls down a pile of dirt and stops at your feet. You pick it up, brush off some dirt, and realize you’re holding a skull! This is exactly what happened in Albany, New York, in 2005. Workers were putting in new sewer line when a backhoe driver dug up a skull. After police declared the skull wasn’t connected to any recent crimes, a team of archaeologists took a closer look. They determined the skull was from an African American who had died more than one hundred years earlier.”
Forgotten Bones: Uncovering a Slave Cemetery by Lois Miner Huey
The copy of Forgotten Bones I was able to find is a slim hardcover that once belonged to the Denver Public Library, but it looks like this book is also available in softcover. It’s a short read, packing a lot of information into 50 pages. I wasn’t aware when I ordered this book, that it is intended for children. It’s a Junior Library Guild Selection and is written at a grade four reading level.2
That being said, it is a pretty interesting read that breaks down the discovery, excavation process, and research that went into learning more about the lost cemetery. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up. That didn’t happen, but I still find archaeology to be incredibly interesting, and that probably plays into my love of cemeteries. I found the section on the excavation particularly interesting and enjoyed looking at the photos and sketches from the dig.
There is also a section on facial reconstruction, how it’s done, and the results of the construction based on some of the skulls that were discovered during the dig. There are also two chapters on research, comparing this newly found cemetery to previously discovered slave cemeteries, as well as briefly touching on slave life and what close inspection of the remains concluded.
Because of the age level this book is intended for, it uses simple language. Regardless, Forgotten Bones does a good job of objectively looking at the history discovered during the excavation of the cemetery. Because it’s intended for a young audience, I think the book does gloss over the implications of what the discovery of a lost slave cemetery means.
I think this book could be a good starting point for those interested in talking to their children about what slavery is, and what discoveries like this mean. It could also be a good starting point for those interested in other slave cemeteries and the work that goes into excavating, documenting, and preserving them.
After reading this book, I have been inspired to look to see if there are more lost cemeteries like this one, that have been discovered since this book’s writing. I want to see where they are located and hope to one day visit them to pay my respects and learn more about their history.
Have your read Forgotten Bones? I would love to read your thoughts in the comments.
Thanks for reading!
I am always on the hunt for cemetery-related book recommendations. Please feel free to share yours in the comments. If you are an author and have a cemetery-related book you would like me to review, please reach out at hello@chantallarochelle.ca. I would love to hear from you.
References:
Forgotten Bones: Uncovering a Slave Cemetery by Lois Miner Huey | Book
Cemetery Photography by Chantal Larochelle 