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Slavery Remembrance Day
Maia Taub
I learned about Slavery Remembrance Day from Texas Representative Al Green.
Slavery Remembrance Day, August 23, 1791 is not covered in most high school curricula. Similarly, few of us were taught about the Haitian Revolution, when enslaved Africans in Haiti rose up against French colonizers. Yet the day had consequences: Haiti became the first Black republic and the first nation to abolish slavery completely.
I now know that August 23 is a day to honor the memory of the millions of African people who were enslaved and so became a part of the transatlantic slave trade, a brutal and dehumanizing system. Every day leading up to August 23, Representative Green posts a new fact about Slavery Remembrance Day.
Here are a few facts from the past month:
- "In July 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution granted citizenship and equal rights to formerly enslaved Black Americans. Yet today, targeted racial gerrymandering and illegal voter suppression threaten those rights."
- "In 1924, the Temporary Slavery Commission appointed by the League of Nations called for an end to chattel slavery and the slave trade. This led to the 1926 Slavery Convention, a treaty to advance the suppression of slavery."
- "In July 1863, Camp William Penn opened in Cheltenham Township, PA, as the first & largest federal training camp for Black soldiers in the Civil War. Over 11,000 formerly enslaved and free Black men trained to fight for freedom."
This—is our real history, this is what is not being taught. So it is up to us to educate ourselves, if we see something we don't know anything about.
For example, I looked it up, I taught myself, and now I am teaching you. I hope that you too will take the initiative to research topics and information you're unfamiliar with to better understand history.
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