Secrets of the dead. [Season 17, Episode 3], The woman in the iron coffin

Summary

In 2011, construction workers were shocked to uncover the remains of a woman in an abandoned lot in Queens, New York. So great was her level of preservation, witnesses first assumed they had stumbl...

In 2011, construction workers were shocked to uncover the remains of a woman in an abandoned lot in Queens, New York. So great was her level of preservation, witnesses first assumed they had stumbled upon a recent homicide. Forensic analysis, however, revealed a remarkably different story. Buried in an elaborate and expensive iron coffin, the body belonged to a young African American woman who died in the first half of the 19th century, when the United States was divided on the twin issues of slavery and race before the Civil War. But who was she? Secrets of the Dead: The Woman in the Iron Coffin follows forensic archaeologist Scott Warnasch and a team of historians and scientists as they investigate this woman's story and the time in which she lived, revealing a vivid picture of what life was like for free African American people in the North.

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