August 23rd has been chosen to observe The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

This date was chosen to commemorate the beginnings of the uprisings which happened the night of August 22nd-23rd in Santo Domingo which, on proclaiming its independence reverted to its original Amerindian name: Haiti. (now Haiti & the Dominican Republic) and which played a crucial role in slavery’s eventual abolition.
It speaks to humanity as a whole, without distinction of origin or religion, and continues to resonate now with undiminished force.

According to UNESCO, “this International Day is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples, an opportunity for collective consideration of the historic causes, the methods and the consequences of this tragedy, and for an analysis of the interactions to which it has given rise between Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.”

Left top Photograph: Ceasar, A Slave, 1851 Daguerreotype. The New York Historical Society Library

Source: UNESCO