Old Warwick Graveyard -- Warwick Parish BM
N 32° 16.007 W 064° 48.309
20S E 329977 N 3571437
A small concrete memorial and a cryptic sign preserves the location of the Old Warwick Cemetery, now paved over for use as a parking lot
Waymark Code: WMNFFW
Location: Bermuda
Date Posted: 03/05/2015
Views: 2
Bermuda has a complicated and raw racial history, which is still played out in covert and overt ways today.
In the 1960-70ss, a graveyard for both free and enslaved Black Bermudians stood at this site, until it was bulldozed and paved over for a parking lot.
Some number of years later, a simple concrete memorial was erected in the middle of the parking lot next to a Red Weeping Callistemon tree (a subtle but meaningful clue to the damage that desecration did to the affected community members). The small memorial plaque reads:
"OLD WARWICK GRAVEYARD
Sacred to the memory of our brothers and sisters in Christ who were laid to rest in this hallowed spot."
Eventually times changed. This disgraceful treatment of the black Bermudian graveyard and the real history of this place could be recognized without any euphemism or pretense.
A new sign was erected near the old, subtle memorial, but this sign said it plainly whose graves had been paved over:
"THE AFRICAN DIASPORA HERITAGE TRAIL BERMUDA
“THE RUBBER TREE”
A Historical Burial Site
In this sacred and hallowed spot, at one time lay the bodies of free and enslaved Bermudians. This monument has been erected in their memory. May they rest in peace."
From the UNESCO African Diaspora Heritage Trail brochure, on page 15: (
visit link)
"OLD WARWICK GRAVEYARD AND MEMORIAL
This graveyard for slaves and others located to on the eastern side of the Warwick Post Office and shaded by the immense rubber tree was paved over several years ago and the monument remains."