Godet African Burial Ground

It seems that the enslaved people were allowed to bury their dead at the least profitable ground or waste land of the plantations.

The transshipment of captured Africans to the British, French, and Spanish islands of the eastern Caribbean was significant enough that colonists constructed a building inside the Waterfort.

[3] Outcome of this archaeological research was that the burial ground was most likely associated with the Godet Plantation or the slave depot within the Waterfort.

Students at the local Gwendoline van Putten secondary school often perform a play, poems or songs commemorating the suffering and strength of their ancestors.

[6] UNESCO Netherlands Committee applied for the label “Routes of Enslaved Peoples” for the Godet site as well as the Golden Rock African Burial Ground in November 2022.

Ruins of the Water Fort St. Eustatius with in the background the Godet burial ground
Gezicht op de westkust van Sint Eustatius - N. Matraini del. ; J. Ottaviani, 1777. Library of Congress
The Unesco Godet Rock plaque for the African 18th century burial ground of the Godet Plantation as part of the Routes of Enslaved Peoples Programme under which the burial ground was recognized as a Place of history and memory linked to enslavement and the slave trade