Gravestones in Colonial New England Cemeteries
Attitudes About Death Disclosed on Carvings in Early Burial Grounds
The obituaries in any contemporary newspaper will display a selection of the euphemisms with which many people today surround the subject of death. Although some decedents have simply “died,” many others have “passed away,” “passed on,” “left us,” “gone to their rest,” “joined their loved ones who have gone before,” and so on. This reluctance to directly confront the finality of death is quite understandable; it is also quite recent, historically speaking. The tombstones erected in New England graveyards in the 17th and 18th centuries reveal a very different attitude.
What the Images Show About Death
Colonial tombstones in New England (and throughout the northeastern United States) were typically made of slate, which is easy to carve and quite durable. Though the effects of weather and air pollution are increasingly visible, many early stones are still quite legible. The most common image carved on stones from the 17th to about the mid-18th century would be familiar to anyone who has ever seen a pirate movie: a skull and crossbones. It is hard to imagine a more concrete symbol of death – which is why, presumably, the image was used on pirate flags and is still used today on containers for poison. Sometimes the skull (or “death’s head”) on tombstones is shown with wings attached, symbolizing the flight of the soul from the body at the moment of death.
What the Inscriptions Say About Death
Most inscriptions from this period begin with some variation of the phrase, “Here lies the body of ...” or even, “Here lie the remains of….” There is no room for doubt that the physical person is right here beneath this stone. After the person’s name, and date of death, and (usually) age, there is typically a line or two of text – sometimes a quotation from the Bible, sometimes something original, but almost always about death. These texts are seldom what we would consider comforting; for example:
- “He bore a lingering sickness with patience / And met the King of terrors with a smile.”
- “Thus may my mould’ring members teach / What now your senses learn, / For dust and ashes loudest preach / Man’s infinite concern.”
What the Tombstones Teach About Death
Death, often unexpected and in childhood, was a constant companion to colonial Americans. Accidents, war, and especially disease, were facts of everyday life. It is not uncommon to see, in an old family graveyard, the tombstones of one or both parents and several children of various ages who all died within days of one another – a sure sign of a plague of some sort. In such circumstances, colonial Americans did not euphemize death but named it and accepted its finality – and taught their offspring to do the same. The gravestone inscriptions said it, and for those who could not read the images showed it: life is unpredictable at best; live it well, and when the time comes, meet the “King of terrors” with a smile.
As the years went by, life grew at least a bit more comfortable and a bit less uncertain. Death was always there, of course, but there was a slowly increasing likelihood that one would live to see old age. And so the messages on the tombstones slowly changed to reflect this new reality. The earlier emphasis on human mortality shifted to an emphasis on human immortality. The skulls gave way to angels’ heads and stylized urns and willows; and “Here lies the body of ...” was replaced by “Sacred to the memory of....” Death was seen less as a constant part of life and more as something to be avoided and ignored as long as possible. And yet the old stones still have something for us to ponder. As one inscription from 1769 puts it: “Our Life contains a thousand springs, / And dies if one be gone: / Strange that a harp of thousand strings / Should keep in tune so long.”
Source:
Gillon, Edmund Vincent, Jr. Early New England Gravestone Rubbings. New York: Dover Publications, 1966.
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