Michael Blakey

Blakey obtained his B.A. in Anthropology from Howard University in 1978, and an M.A. (1980) and a Ph.D. (1985) from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He served as president of the Association of Black Anthropologists from 1987 to 1989.

Michael Blakey (born February 23, 1953) is an American anthropologist who specializes in physical anthropology and its connection to the history of African Americans. Since 2001, he has been a National Endowment for the Humanities professor at the College of William & Mary, where he directs the Institute for Historical Biology. Previously, he was a professor at Howard University and the curator of Howard University's Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory.

Of the 400 sets of remains uncovered, Blakey's research team examined 27 skeletons that had filed or "culturally modified" teeth, which was considered a strong indication of African birth. Previously, only nine such skeletons had been discovered in the Americas. It is likely that these individuals had come to New York previous to 1808, when the importation of slaves from Africa was banned. Blakey's team examined more than 1.5 million artifacts discovered at the site, which included everything "from pottery and glassware to tools and children's toys". His research determined that approximately half of the African people buried at the site were children. After his research was completed, the skeletal remains were reinterred at the site "in 400 hand-carved mahogany coffins" in a 2003 ceremony described as "joyous and bitter all at once".