Forgotten Souls of the Dawn Settlement: A Multicomponent Geophysical Survey of Unmarked Graves at the British American Institute Cemetery

Abstract

The Dawn Settlement near Dresden in southwestern Ontario was a mid-19th-century community of escaped slaves, or “freedom seekers,” from the United States. In this study, a multicomponent geophysical survey (ground-penetrating radar, magnetic gradiometry, and electrical resistivity) was conducted on the British American Institute Cemetery, one of the two cemeteries directly associated with the settlement, to document the location of freedom-seeker graves whose markers had been damaged, knocked over, or removed during the 1960s due to the neglect and forgotten history of these burials. All the techniques provided useful information contributing to site interpretations, although GPR was found to be the most useful in identifying possible graves. We discuss the significance of incorporating archaeogeophysics techniques into heritage-management strategies and our responsibility to protect historical black cemeteries. Our survey also represents one of the first cemetery investigations related to the Underground Railroad in Canada.