Burial 11

Although we will likely never be able to make one to one links between those buried at the St. Peter site and the names we find in Colonial records, we might think about stories like that of Free Man of Color Francois Tiocon.  Tiocon had made agreement with the directors of Charity Hospital to work without remuneration for the hospital for 7 years provided that at the expiration of that term, his enslaved wife Marie Haran would be given her freedom.  His 1744 petition for her freedom was granted.  Someone like Tiocon used his cultural literacy to negotiate Colonial society to free his family.  Funeral registers also give hints at possible identifications for this man. For instance, in August of 1775 a man named “Francisco Congo”, described as a 40 year old slave of the Capuchin Fathers (“esclavo de los Padres Capuchinos curas de cita”) was buried, after having received the Sacraments and Extreme Unction.  Congo fits with many of the proposed characteristics here: a name potentially marking Central African birth, a role with a relationship to the Capuchins and thus to the hospital, and an age fitting in the range given for Burial #11.