Southern Georgia cemetery finds hundreds of unmarked graves

MOULTRIE, Ga. – Employees doing maintenance work in woods near their cemetery have found hundreds of unmarked graves in southern Georgia.

WALB-TV reported Tuesday that workers for Saint James Pallbearer Cemetery in Moultrie recently found the graves as they were working in woods near the cemetery.

Property manager John Strong says as crews cut trees and started digging up stumps, they found the unmarked graves. Strong said he could find no documents that there had ever been a cemetery in those woods.

Strong says his research shows the graves hold the remains of African-American slaves dating to the 1800s.

He said he and others in the area are trying to honour those who had been forgotten. Crosses donated by a local church are being placed at each grave.

___

Information from: WALB-TV, http://www.walb.com/