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The Conversation USA

Cicely was young, Black and enslaved – her death during an epidemic in 1714 has lessons that resonate in today's pandemic

  • Written by Nicole S Maskiell, Assistant Professor of History Peter and Bonnie McCausland Fellow of History, University of South Carolina
imageOver 1.4 million people have died from COVID-19 so far this year. How history memorializes them will reflect those we most value.Author provided, CC BY-ND

What I believe to be the oldest surviving gravestone for a Black person in the Americas memorializes an enslaved teenager named Cicely.

Cicely’s body is interred across from Harvard’s...

Read more: Cicely was young, Black and enslaved – her death during an epidemic in 1714 has lessons that...

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