Enslaved Graveyard Rubber Tree
The graveyard at the Rubbertree in Warwick, is next to the Post Office and directly across from St.Marys Anglican Church.
Who's buried there? We have to go all the way back to the establishment of Bermuda to get a thorough understanding of this story! In the 1600's Bermuda was settled by the British and built Anglican Churches in every parish. During that time Free blacks and Enslaved people were not allowed to go church. In order to do so, the Enslaved needed their Enslavers Permission and they would have to stay outside to listen in. When Free Blacks and Enslaved died they were not allowed to be buried at the Church. The Free Blacks realized they needed a land to bury their own and purchased land across the street at the Rubber Tree. Free Blacks and the Enslaved have been buried there from the 1600's to the early 1900's.
The land has always been swampy and gruesome stories have been told of people going to church during that time and up until the 1950's of seeing coffins floating up on very rainy days.
In the 1980's the Government put the Post Office there.
There's a monument there that was put by the Anglican Church in honor of those that have been buried there but there's much disappointment with how that was handled along with discontent.
In the 2000's another sign was put up by the African Diaspora Heritage trail.
Even though this should be viewed as a sacred burial ground unfortunately most people don't know this story and we still engage in commerce and drive on the area of the gravesite in which for 300 years people have been buried.