When the family home of Abraham Lincoln's assassin was put up for auction in 1999, preservationists and prospective buyers found that the Gothic home had an appearance to match its ill-fated past: The porch was falling apart. The paint was peeling from the cracking walls. The property was in disarray.

The fate of the home, many feared, was also in danger. Historians, actors and local officials teamed up to make a play for Tudor Hall, an 8-acre property between Bel Air and Churchville, only to be trumped by a young couple who saw it as their dream house.

After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations, Robert and Beth Baker quietly put the childhood home of John Wilkes Booth and his acting kin on the market last week for $925,000. Six years later, still beaten down from their losing battle and hopelessly out-priced, preservationists said the revamped home continues to hold historic value and hope it can be reopened to the public.

The cost of last year's switch to San Jose was steep for the Organization of American Historians--steeper than officials originally anticipated.

The OAH ended the fiscal year of 2005 nearly half a million dollars in the red. At the OAH Business Meeting last April officials said they expected to be down just $100,000 or so.

Most of the loss was due to the decision to move the annual meeting from San Francisco to San Jose so members wouldn't have to cross a picket line. The Hilton and the Doubletree in San Francisco demanded to be paid for the rooms that had been booked by the OAH. The hotels and the OAH settled in November. The terms of the deal are secret. But it is evident from the red ink in the treasurer's report that the OAH paid dearly for its decision to respect the hotel workers' picket line.

The OAH took in $2,818,037 in fiscal year 2005. It paid out $3,289,888. Revenue for the organization remained nearly about the same for the past two years, a chart shows. But the endowment for the organization was down nearly $260,000. The OAH last year switched its investments to Indiana University Foundation"where we anticipate a better rate of return in the future," the report states.

Abraham Lincoln signed it. A lot of scholars say he didn’t write it. Now, newly discovered evidence helps solve an enduring mystery.

In a records box in a back office in a house in the hills of Vermont, six letters about Abraham Lincoln’s famous “letter to the Widow Bixby” lay unknown and undisturbed. For how long is uncertain, although this author’s fingerprints made last March were the only ones visible in the thick chalky dust of years. The letters, received and written by Robert Todd Lincoln within a span of eight weeks in late 1925, point to a son’s knowledge—and a friend’s knowledge—about who really wrote the Bixby letter.

Considering that this is one of the most enduring and indefatigable mysteries in all Lincoln lore, how is this new discovery possible? The answer lies in the simple truth that scholars have long overlooked Robert Todd Lincoln, believing him a minor character in the Lincoln legend. He is perceived as cold and aloof, a Todd more than a Lincoln, and a son dissociated from his famous father. Many think that the naturally reticent Robert said little of consequence about his father and that everything of value he owned concerning him was given to the Library of Congress in 1919 or resides in Springfield, Illinois, at the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. None of this is true.

The Bixby letter is famous for its perfect use of the English language. Along with the Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural, it is one of Lincoln’s most revered literary legacies. The letter was published in the Boston Transcript on November 25, 1864, the same day Mrs. Bixby received it:

“Dear Madam,—I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

“I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

“Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

“A. Lincoln”

Controversy has raged for 80 years about whether the President actually wrote these words.

The letters quoted [in the article] prove not only that Robert Lincoln believed his father had written the Bixby letter but also that John Hay himself told Robert he’d had nothing to do with it.

So we come to a satisfying conclusion: America’s greatest President wrote America’s greatest letter.

Since the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been killed, arbitrarily imprisoned, or forced to flee their country. But when the victims of what some call genocide finally get their day in court, it probably won't be in China. Instead, Spain - which is conducting a judicial investigation on the issue - is likely to hold the first trial.

Although Spain had no citizens affected by the suspected crimes, its National Court decided in January to investigate whether China did indeed commit genocide. The decision raises questions about whether Spain's policy of universal jurisdiction is enforceable, as well how it will impact trade.

Ever since National Court judge Baltasar Garzón ordered the arrest in 1998 of former Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet for crimes against humanity, Spain has taken the lead among individual countries prosecuting human rights violations that occurred outside their own borders.

At first, the court confined itself to cases like General Pinochet's, in which Spaniards were among the victims.

But last year, the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled that the National Court could investigate charges brought by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Túm for killings, torture, and disappearances that occurred during Guatemala's civil war.

With that decision, Spain became one of the few countries to exercise the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which gives countries the right to try individuals of any nationality for crimes committed outside that country's border.

One of the most notable examples of this in recent history is a Belgian jury's conviction of four Rwandans on genocide claims. Belgium has since restricted the scope of its universal jurisdiction law.

"Most countries base their legal system on the principle of territorial jurisdiction," explains Ruben Carnerero, professor of international law at Madrid's Complutense University. "But there is growing support for the idea that in some cases of extreme human rights violations, this principle has exceptions."

The Madrid-based Committee to Support Tibet (CAT), which brought the Tibet genocide suit against former Chinese
President Jiang Zemin and six other former leaders, sees Tibet as one of those exceptions. In its 80-page complaint, it charged the Chinese with the murder or displacement of 1 million Tibetans since China's 1950 invasion of the autonomous province.

The National Court agreed with CAT, saying the allegations "show signs of crimes of genocide which ought to be investigated."

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the decision "ridiculous." A spokesman at the Chinese embassy in Madrid, speaking anonymously according to embassy policy, says, "It's absurd to expect that China is going to respond to the demands of another country." Referring to the case of a Spanish cameraman killed by US fire in
Iraq, he adds, "No one expects
George Bush to stand trial for José Couso's death."

Although the case could incriminate former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, few here believe that the investigation will threaten China's status as Spain's most-desired trade partner, a relationship that has flourished in the last year. Not only did the two countries' prime ministers exchange visits in 2005, Spanish companies invested a total of 60 million euros in China that year, up from 46 million euros the year before. And in 2006, Spanish investment in China is expected to double.

For supporters of the decision, the investigation diverges from Europe's usual willingness to gloss over China's human rights record in favor of promoting better trade relations. "We're used to letting them get away with everything on the basis of our belief that they'll buy more or sell cheaper," says CAT's coordinator Alan Cantos.

But others are skeptical about the decision's effect on trade relations. Alfredo Pastor, a professor of economics and China expert at the University of Navarra's International Graduate School of Management says, "Countries always underestimate the reaction that this kind of thing will provoke," but adds that he doesn't expect the case will have an impact. And the spokesman at the Chinese embassy firmly denies any effect on trade adds, "No one is taking this seriously."

The court has the power to call the Chinese to testify, but cannot force them to comply. Professor Carnerero admits, "It's unthinkable that Spanish justice will have the Chinese before it in court."

For Thubten Wangchen, that likelihood doesn't matter. "Just the fact that the National Court has agreed to take the case is a great success," he says. "Spain may not have sufficient power to force China to justice, but at least the Spanish people will know what Tibetans are suffering."

An amateur cryptologist's internet project is using idling computers to help crack three Nazi codes that eluded the Enigma codebreakers of the Second World War.

Launched in January, the project has already broken one of the three messages, from a U-Boat commander forced to dive during an attack on November 25, 1942. The computers of 2,500 strangers are now whirring away, trying to decode the remaining two. You can volunteer your computer here.

Stefan Krah, a German-born cryptologist from Utrecht, in the Netherlands, started the network in January after writing a programme that combined the brute force of connected computers with a mathematical formula based on previous codebreaking work.

He offered the software to readers of two online bulletin boards with the words: "Clearly the project is from the 'Because we can' department. Is it realistic to hope that anywhere between 10-100 people would take part?"

Today Mr Krah said was amazed by "the exponential growth of participants".

"I was the only participant when it all started on January 9. About five people joined and participated regularly after I announced it on the lfs-chat mailing list," he wrote in an e-mail.

Together the computers are now marching through the 150 million million million permutations of each letter that made the Engima, which was used to direct devastating U-Boat attacks against Allied shipping in the Atlantic, the most feared encoding machine of the war.

So confident were Nazi commanders in the Engima that even when its messages were clearly being decoded by mathematicians at Bletchley Park, Britain's secret codebreaking base in Buckinghamshire, they refused to believe that the machine itself had been compromised, instead thinking spies were tipping off the Allies about the location of U-Boats in the Atlantic.

The first success of Mr Krah's "M4" project, named in honour of the final, upgraded Enigma that managed to perplex Alan Turing, the brilliant British logician credited with the breaking of the code, came on February 20.

From the scramble of 196 letters, passed 63 years ago through the Enigma's four decoding rotors, came the message:

"Forced to submerge during attack, depth charges. Last enemy location 08:30h, Marqu AJ 9863, 220 degrees, 8 nautical miles, (I am) following (the enemy). (Barometer) falls (by) 14 Millibar, NNO 4, visibility 10."

The location of the sender and a check of existing records showed that the message was sent by Kapitänleutnant Hartwig Looks of U264, a German submarine that was eventually sunk in the North Atlantic in February 1944 by depth charges from the British sloops HMS Woodpecker and HMS Starling.

Mr Krah said today that the first message was deciphered by just 45 machines. The failure, so far, of the combined power of thousands of hardrives has raised the question of whether the last two will ever be cracked.

"Of course there is no guarantee that another break will occur at all, there is simply a fair chance," he said.

The two messages facing Mr Krah and his allies were first published in Cryptologia, an academic journal, in 1995 by Ralph Erskine, a naval historian from Belfast. The codes were among the thousands that sat, unbreakable, for ten months during 1942 as the Allies struggled to catch up with the M4 upgrade of the Enigma.

Cuban academics hoping to attend a gathering of Latin America experts in Puerto Rico were denied visas by the American government, marking the latest in the current U.S. administration's trend of shutting out Cubans. Some 55 philosophers, economists, and historians were told last week they'd be unable to travel to this month's Latin American Studies Association congress in San Juan.

Visa requests for four academics were still pending, said Sheryl Lutjens, an American political science professor at Northern Arizona University.

"These people represent strong scholars who think critically and who are often experts in their area where there are no others," said Lutjens, who co-chairs the association's Cuba section and is currently visiting the country. "This is alarming."

Academic exchange between Cuba and the United States has diminished over the last two years since the administration of President Bush started tightening long-standing trade and travel regulations against the island's communist government.

The "Cubans not welcome" message has reached new and broader extremes in recent months. The U.S. government provoked outrage after denying Cuba participation in this month's World Baseball Classic _ a decision that was later reversed. U.S. officials also pressured a major U.S.-owned hotel in Mexico City to kick out 16 Cuban officials attending a meeting with U.S. oil executives in February.

Fewer American scholars are traveling to Cuba, too, wary of complicated U.S. rules that can lead to hefty fines and punishment if broken.

"They have been dissuaded by the new regulations," Lutjens said of other professors and researchers. "People are, I think, confused and perhaps even frightened by the thought that they might be doing something that's not permitted."

Milagros Martinez, a Cuban political scientist at the University of Havana, said about 30 American scholars used to be conducting research in Cuba each month, but now it's down to about two per month.

The Latin American Studies Association, known as LASA, is the largest professional grouping bringing together people and institutions to study the region. Its international congress, held every 18 months, is the world's leading forum for academic discussion on Latin America and the Caribbean. The association has more than 5,000 members.

Nearly 100 Cubans attended the LASA congress in Miami in 2000; more than 80 attended in 2001 in Washington and 67 attended in 2003 in Dallas. None attended the October 2004 congress in Las Vegas, where U.S. visas were denied for more than 60 scholars.

Lutjens said that in its rejection of the latest Cuban requests, the United States cited Section 212f of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Law, which states that the American president can prohibit entry to foreigners when their visits are deemed "detrimental to the interests of the United States."

U.S. officials in Havana have not made any statements about the latest denials, and generally cite a policy prohibiting comment on individual visa cases.

Archaeologists have found a shipwreck from the late 1300s buried in the mud of a canal in central Stockholm, officials said today.

They are now awaiting permission to excavate the wreckage - one of the oldest ever found in the Swedish capital - hoping it will shed light on shipbuilding techniques and trade in the 14th century.

Experts say they might be able to bring the ship up on land, as was done with the 17th century warship Vasa, which is now housed in a museum that is one of Stockholm's main tourist attractions.

Parts of the wreckage are protruding from the sediment at a depth of about 30 feet in the Riddarfjarden canal leading into the heart of Stockholm, National Maritime Museum officials said.

Archaeologists found it last autumn when examining the planned site for a new train tunnel. They have now dated the ship to between 1350 and 1370, and believe it sank sometime in the 1390s.

"This is really exciting," said Marcus Hjulhammar, project leader for the museum.

"What is so special is that it is under water, here in Stockholm," he said. "That makes it much more likely that it is well-preserved than if it had been on land."

Shipwrecks have a decent chance of being well-preserved in the low-salt waters of the Stockholm archipelago because of the lack of wood-eating shipworms.

If the entire ship - the size and type of which are unclear - is still intact, its cargo could give historians a better idea of trading that took place in the area at the time.

There is a large crack in the hull, which had been covered by a piece of leather that had been nailed to the boards, Hjulhammar said.

Leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981, an Italian parliamentary investigative commission said in a report.

A final draft of the report, which is due to be presented to parliament later this month, was made available today by the commission president, Senator Paolo Guzzanti.

"This commission believes, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope John Paul," the report said.

"They relayed this decision to the military secret services for them to take on all necessary operations to commit a crime of unique gravity, without parallel in modern times," it said.

The report also said "some elements" of the Bulgarian secret services were involved but that this was an attempt to divert attention away from the Soviet Union's alleged key role.

A 36-page chapter on the assassination attempt was included in a wider report by parliament's Mitrokhin Commission, which probed the revelations of Vasili Mitrokhin, a senior Soviet archivist during the Cold War who defected to Britain in 1992.

The Pope was shot in St Peter's Square on May 13, 1981 by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who was arrested minutes later and convicted of attempted murder.

At the time of the shooting, events in the Pope's Polish homeland were starting a domino effect which was eventually to lead to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989.

The Pope was a staunch supporter of Poland's Solidarity union and most historians agree he played a vital role in events that led to the formation of the East Bloc's first freely elected government and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

At a trial in 1986, Italian prosecutors failed to prove charges that Bulgarian secret services had hired Agca to kill the Pope on behalf of the Soviet Union.

The report said "Bulgarian authorities at the time lied as did the witnesses they sent" and that "responsibility of some elements" of Bulgarian secret services "certainly exists".

In Sofia, the government rejected the report's assertions.

"For Bulgaria, this case closed with the court decision in Rome in March 1986," Foreign Ministry spokesman Dimitar Tsanchev said.

He also referred to comments made by the late Pope who said during a visit to Bulgaria in May 2002 that he never believed in the Bulgarian connection.

South Korea's foreign minister called on Thursday for Japanese leaders to reflect on the troubled history between the two Asian nations, a day after Seoul and Tokyo exchanged barbs over the issue.

Japan ruled Korea as a colony from 1910-1945 and despite generally improved ties, a simmering feud persists over what Seoul sees as Tokyo's lack of proper contrition for its wartime aggression.

"The leaders of Japan should seriously take to their hearts the view of our people (and president) on Japan's history issue," Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urged Japan on Wednesday to stop all actions that diluted its apology for its colonial rule.

"Japan has already apologised," Roh said in a speech marking a 1919 uprising in Korea against Japanese colonial rule. "We are objecting to actions that negate that apology," he said.

Tokyo responded by saying Japan has worked for peace and international stability since it was defeated in 1945.

"I want him (Roh) to closely look at the course Japan has taken in the 60 years since the end of the war," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters on Wednesday.

Seoul has said actions such as Koizumi's visits to a Tokyo war shrine, which critics say glorifies Japan's past militarism, have undermined apologies Japan's leaders have made about its colonial rule.

South Korea has also protested against Tokyo's approval of history textbooks that Seoul and Beijing say whitewash atrocities committed in Korea, China and other parts of Asia.

The remains of buildings found in excellent condition at Argilos, an important commercial town, on the estuary of the Strymonas River.

The excavation of ancient Argilos, an important commercial center in the Archaic and Classical periods, reveals a little-known side of colonization by people from Andros in the northern Aegean.

The remains of buildings in the ancient city may not be as striking as other finds from Macedonia, but they are a part of a larger complex of great significance illuminated by recent excavation.

Hundreds of artifacts, including large ones such as island-style houses and a two-story mansion on the acropolis, are included in the site of the Andros colony that flourished 2,650 years ago at the mouth of the Strymonas River.

Archeologists say they have found the remains of a "unique" ancient Phoenician temple in Sicily. "You have to go all the way to Amrit in Syria to find a similar one," Lorenzo Nigro of the Rome University archeology team told the Italian news agency ANSA.

The temple was discovered last year when part of a lagoon near the Phoenician city of Motya -- now called Mozia -- was drained.

The "monumental" temple was found on the westernmost tip of Sicily near Marsala. Archeologists say they've also found columns of a type used by the Phoenicians on Cyprus, as well as fragments of an obelisk.

Motya, which means "wool-spinning center," was founded in the 8th century B.C., about a century after the founding of the most famous Phoenician colony in the ancient world, Carthage, in Tunisia, ANSA reported.

Lost to history until an archivist at the Texas General Land Office found it two years ago in the agency's collections, an eight-page document that is believed to be the first draft of the Republic of Texas Constitution is about to return temporarily to its birthplace 100 miles east of Austin on the bank of the Brazos River, where in March 1836, 59 delegates from Texas gathered to pledge independence from Mexico.

These and other documents will be on public display together for the first time at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site. The exhibit opens Thursday, Texas Independence Day, and runs through March 16 at the historic site's Star of the Republic Museum.

"This document was touched by patriots," Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said of the draft constitution. "These guys heard the hoofbeats over their shoulders as they drafted this."

The constitution, the declaration and other documents were all penned within a few weeks in March 1836, a time of great uncertainty about the Texas revolution's prospects for success. No one signed the draft, but there is no doubt that it was written by Herbert Kimble, secretary of the 1836 convention, said Jerry Drake, director of archives and records for the land office.

It's unclear how the draft, complete with strike-throughs and inserts, came to the land office. Another mystery: No final draft of the constitution is known to exist. One theory is that the final version was lost after it was published in newspapers.

The delegates who assembled in a primitive frame building along the Brazos included such icons as Sam Houston, leader of the revolution's military forces who would become the first president of the fledgling republic.

The delegates knew they could be signing their own death warrants.

The Declaration of Independence, which sought to sever Texas from Mexico, was adopted on March 2, 1836. The first draft of the constitution, setting forth the outlines of a new government, is thought to have been written March 7. The Alamo fell on March 6.

The delegates learned of the Alamo's fate on March 15 and brazenly adopted the constitution the next day. Independence wasn't secured until the Texians, as they called themselves, overcame Santa Anna and his forces at San Jacinto on April 21.

Washington state legislators have moved to make amends 122 years after a mob of American vigilantes crossed into Canada and lynched a native teenager, in an incident that nearly started a cross-border race war.

Members of the state's House of Representatives approved a Senate resolution on Wednesday that expressed "deepest sympathy" for the descendents of Louie Sam.

Sam, who belonged to the Sto:lo First Nation whose homelands lie in the Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver, was falsely accused in the 1884 murder of a shopkeeper near Sumas, Wash.

A mob rode across the border, snatched Sam from Canadian police custody and hung him from a tree.

Canadian investigators later determined that he never committed the crime and was framed by two white Americans who stirred up the mob.

"Through this resolution, the Senate joins its peers in the government of British Columbia, acknowledging the unfortunate historical injustice to Louie Sam and the proud Sto:lo people," Washington Lt.-Gov. Brad Owen said at the capitol building in Olympia.

"It is meant to further ensure that such a tragedy will never be forgotten, nor repeated."

Owen then handed the resolution to Sto:lo Grand Chief Clarence Pennier, who said members of the tribe had never forgotten the injustice of Sam's death.

He thanked the legislators for righting the historic wrong by acknowledging it.

The passing of the resolution was followed by a traditional native healing circle. The sounds of beating drums and chanting echoed through the capitol building as state officials, a B.C. cabinet minister and Sto:lo Nation elders joined in.

Owen's staff had hired two historians to help prepare the legislative resolution.

One of them, Keith Thor Carlson from the University of Saskatchewan, has long studied the case and is writing a book about it.

He has said Sto:lo leaders turned Sam over to the Canadian police after he was accused, believing he would be safe in custody.

They were outraged when the mob of up to 120 vigilantes abducted and killed the teen.

Carlson said some members of the tribe argued after his death that they should cross the border and randomly kill 120 Americans – the number believed to have been in the lynch mob.

The historian said many believed the incident nearly started a race war.

The B.C. government tried to keep the peace by sending two undercover officers south of the border, who returned with statements incriminating two Washington men in the slaying.

Neither men was ever prosecuted.

The legislators fell short of issuing a full apology, because of legal reasons and in part because Washington did not become a state until a few years after the lynching.

The statue crowning the U.S. Capitol is called "Freedom." Yet it was a black slave who figured out how to coax apart the 19½-foot, 15,000-pound plaster statue so it could be cast in bronze and rejoined atop the dome.

Slaves, in fact, helped build much of the building and grounds of Congress, their owners earning $5 per month for their work. Ed Hotaling, a retired TV reporter in Washington, was among the first to widely publicize this in a report in 2000.


Following Hotaling's lead, a task force is planning a permanent memorial to the hundreds of slaves who helped build the Capitol from the late 1700s until the mid-1800s. The group will make recommendations to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Sen. Ted Stevens (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska, president pro tempore of the Senate.


During February, Black History Month, task force members have been particularly focused on their role and have shared ideas by telephone as they prepare to meet.


The final cost and form of the memorial is still undetermined. It could be a site on the Capitol grounds or a living memorial such as an annual traditional African ceremony to honor the slaves.

In a contest between Americans’ knowledge of “The Simpsons” and what they know about the First Amendment — Bart and Homer win hands down.

About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the fictional cartoon family, according to a survey.

The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

Joe Madeira, director of exhibitions at the museum, said he was surprised by the results.

“Part of the survey really shows there are misconceptions, and part of our mission is to clear up these misconceptions,” said Madeira, whose museum will be dedicated to helping visitors understand the First Amendment when it opens in April. “It means we have our job cut out for us.”

The survey found that while 69 percent of people could name freedom of speech as a First Amendment right, just under one out of four people could name freedom of religion. Only 11 percent knew freedom of the press, one in ten could name freedom of assembly and 1 percent named freedom to petition for redress of grievances, the survey found.

SOME 20,000 AFRICANS buried in a long-hidden 18th century cemetery in lower Manhattan were given one of America's highest honors yesterday, as the White House designated the sprawling grave site a national monument.

The burial ground, a 5-acre area near City Hall, was uncovered more than 14 years ago when construction workers broke ground to build a new federal office tower at Duane and Elk Sts.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) said President Bush's signing of the presidential proclamation bestowing the rare honor is a painful milestone.

"I accept this with the same type of pain that a family of a murder victim would feel when the killer points out where he buried the bodies," Rangel said.

The burial ground contains the remains of free and enslaved Africans who worked as carpenters, barrel makers and dockworkers in the formative years of New York City, said historians.

The African Burial Ground, which lies roughly 20 feet below the surface, joins an elite roster of national monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore, which have been awarded the rare presidential designation. The site has already been designated a national landmark.

The special recognition as a national monument means that the burial ground will preserve this chapter of history for all time, said officials.

Construction is scheduled to begin this year on a granite monument, designed by architect Rodney Leon, that will memorialize the dead.