ower Manhattan's African Burial Ground —"the oldest and largest known excavated burial ground in North America for both free and enslaved Africans" — became the last resting place for thousands of African New Yorkers who were not allowed burial anywhere else from the mid-late 17th through the end of the 18th century. Africans of diverse backgrounds were part of the fabric of New Amsterdam (and later New York) from the earliest stages. Many would have been multilingual and maintained some use of their native languages even in the city, though little about this is known in any detail. In the Dutch period, many enslaved Africans brought to New York were Kikongo speakers from the Kingdom of Kongo or Kimbundu-speaking Ndongo. Later came a small population of Malagasy speakers, reflecting a trading relationship between the city and Madagascar in the late 17th century, and a larger community of Akan speakers (often called Coromantees) from what is today Ghana. There were likely native speakers of many other African languages among those interred at the African Burial Ground, whose stories remain to be told.