Enslaved Graveyard Rubber Tree
The graveyard at the Rubber Tree in Warwick is next to the Post Office and directly across from St. Mary's 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 they built Anglican Churches in every parish. During that time, free blacks and Enslaved people were not allowed to go to 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 people died, they were not allowed to be buried at the Church. The Free Blacks realized they needed 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.
Susette Harriet Lloyd in the early 1830’s, wrote, “The Negroes have, at their own expense, laid out a very good burying ground, as they are not permitted to be interred in the churchyard belonging to the whites. It lies in a cedar grove planted with rows of trees and has some neat tombstones.” Both free persons and slaves were buried here.”
As late as the 1950s, children going to and from Sunday School at the nearby Lough Memorial Hall often saw bones, and even skulls, protruding from the graves after rain and had gruesome stories of seeing coffins floating up out of the swampy area. At an unknown time, the church arranged that the remains should be exhumed and placed in a common grave in the main graveyard near the church. It is also believed that some families arranged at their own expense for the remains of their ancestors to be moved to the main graveyard.
The area gradually became overgrown and was used as a dumping ground until in the 1960s, it was deemed necessary to improve the junction of Middle Road and Khyber Pass, and some of the land was needed for this purpose. The church was not able to provide deeds so a special Act of the House of Assembly was passed in 1969 enabling just under half an acre to be sold to the Bermuda Government for road improvements and maintenance of the area. At that time, there was a commitment to erect a ‘tablet’ commemorating the graveyard and those buried there. Either then or later, there were many complaints that the area was being improperly used.
The new Post Office on an adjoining piece of land was opened in mid 1981, but the commitment to erect a tablet commemorating those buried in the old graveyard had still not been honoured. In December of that year, Senator Charles Bean requested that a proper monument, similar to the Jervis Bay Memorial on Albouy’s Point, rather than just a tablet, should be erected, and the Board of Public Works agreed to this. It has not been possible to establish an exact date for when this actually happened. However, collegiate memory in the parish is strong that the area was a graveyard for slaves and other black people and should be treated with respect.
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, where for 300 years people have been buried.
The site is included on the African Diaspora Heritage Trail, officially designated UNESCO Slave Route Project.