The Free Ground is a section of the North Burial Ground isolated from most of the cemetery where small headstones, bearing only a number, are scattered in rows. These people can only be known through the thin records of their names and burial date to this corresponding number.
Free grounds, also called potter’s fields, often inter people who might not have had close enough family to organize a more elaborate burial or were simply too poor to afford an individualized gravestone. The origin of potter’s field is biblical, referring to a ground where clay was dug for pottery, and then bought by high priests of Jerusalem for the burial of strangers, criminals and the poor.
To find out more about some of those interred in the Free Grounds, click one of the buttons below!
Free grounds, also called potter’s fields, often inter people who might not have had close enough family to organize a more elaborate burial or were simply too poor to afford an individualized gravestone. The origin of potter’s field is biblical, referring to a ground where clay was dug for pottery, and then bought by high priests of Jerusalem for the burial of strangers, criminals and the poor.
To find out more about some of those interred in the Free Grounds, click one of the buttons below!
Research conducted on a large random sample of the individuals interred in the Free Ground yielded data showing that 20% of the people buried there were immigrants. When children of immigrants were included, this number rose to 32%. Another random data collection yielded a similar result: 22% were immigrants. The data is limited and preliminary, but the results are already quite interesting. Many of the immigrants have been from Canada, Armenia, Greece, England and Portugal. With the currently available data, 35% of the immigrants came from Canada, 18% from Armenia, 18% from England, and 12% from Greece. We know that some of the buried emigrated from other places – a few from China, for example – but mostly our anecdotal evidence supports the overall picture generated from the random sample.
While looking specifically at some of the Armenian immigrants it is important to note that many of them fled to America during the Armenian Genocide (1915-1917). The Armenian population fills a large portion of the North Burial Ground, beginning only about 100 yards away from the Free Ground, and there is a Martyrs monument at the cemetery’s front entrance commemorating those who were lost. Many of the Armenians buried in the North Burial Ground have extremely elaborate stones yet those in the Free Ground received nothing but a number. The contrast is stark with the Armenian American graves, but the story is the same for all of those interred in the Free Ground. It is unfortunate that persons of such rich history have become forgotten in this often-disregarded area of the North Burial Ground. The goal of this tour is to learn about these people and their place in our shared history.
-Sarah French, Undergraduate Student, Rhode Island College