“The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories.”
Clint Smith
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was the largest long distance forced movement of people in human history. From the late 1500s to mid 1800s, enslavers forced Africans from their home countries to the Americas to work in forced labor camps under unthinkably harsh conditions. The lives, identities, families, traditions, and more were stolen from enslaved people. The devastation of chattel slavery has persisted across centuries and its legacy is alive and well in our society.
On this day, we take the time to remember, mourn, and heal from the trauma caused by the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the United States and around the world. We recognize its impacts on our shared history, this country, and countless generations of Black people and Black families. As we move forward together, Sankofa Impact carries this history in our work towards a future of collective liberation.
