The bones of a slave known as Mr Fortune will be laid to rest today 215 years after his death.

Steven R. Mullins, one of the organizers, said: ‘It’s a long overdue honor. We’re not just remembering one man. His body is representing all of the slaves that came over here and worked in this country.’

Fortune was owned by Dr Preserved Porter on a farm in Waterbury, Connecticut, and died of a suspected broken neck in 1798.

After his death Dr Porter, a bone specialist, had his skeleton boiled in order to preserve and study it.

The remains were donated to a Waterbury museum in 1933 by a descendent of Dr Porter who referred to the skeleton as ‘Larry’.

Since then the bones have been studied by scientists keen to learn more about Fortune and his life.

So far scientists have established that Fortune was 5ft 5in tall and died aged roughly 55.

Though the results have ruled out hanging as a cause of death, nobody knows exactly how Fortune broke his neck.

He was never buried in case technology allowed more information to be extracted from his remians in the future, but now a CT scan of the bones has been taken meaning they can be studied without the need to keep them.