Sandy Ground Historical Society preserves the history of Sandy Ground, a Staten Island community founded by free Black oystermen and their families beginning in 1828, considered the oldest continuously inhabited free Black settlement in the United States. Early residents brought oyster-harvesting expertise from Maryland, and the settlement served as a stop on the Underground Railroad before pollution ended local oyster farming around 1916. The society operates a museum and library in Staten Island's Rossville section holding the largest documentary collection of Staten Island's African American history, including art, quilts, letters, photographs, film, and rare books, and the site may contain the only intact eighteenth-century African cemetery in America. The museum offers guided tours, exhibits, and an annual festival celebrating Black history and community.