A pauper cemetery means that for some reason, someone could not afford a paid-for burial. The HCPCP is a pauper cemetery and that is their main form of inequality. Pauper cemeteries have negative stereotypes about who was buried there and why. Since the word pauper means poor person, people assume those of low stature and criminals have been buried here. People believe those who have no family were also buried there. However, many people forgot that it existed, the gravesites went uncared for as weeds started to grow over it, the cemetery was adjacent to another cemetery. One that was cared for and you could tell where the pauper cemetery started and where the other private cemetery ended. It went from being cared for to a cemetery that was left in shambles more. Most of the graves were in poor condition a few didn’t have headstones.
We were not given any information as to how the individuals ended up in the cemetery. But from working in the pauper cemetery I can say that the individuals in the cemetery were well cared for, some had offerings on or by their headstones. Some of the headstones were cared for. There were even a few veterans buried in the pauper cemetery. Some of the people buried might have had family and was very cared for, but their family could not afford a private cemetery. It is also believed that more of the Hispanic culture was buried there than was buried in the private cemetery. Even though the Hispanic culture is more prominent.
Reference:
Mullins, Paul R. (2007) Politics, Inequality, and Engaged Archaeology: Community Archaeology Along the Color Line. In Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement, edited by Barbara J. Little and Paul A. Shackel, pp. 89-108. Alta Mira Press, Lanham, MA.
