Memorial

Memorial. .

"It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom…yes we can, yes we can." , Barack Obama

, The enclosed space is dedicated to millions of men, women, and children of African descent who lived, worked and died as enslaved people in the United States of America. They should never be forgotten. One of two smokehouse rooms in which three enslaved men slept, Giles, Paris, and Austin, once stood this area. The close proximity to the Liberty Bell Center reminds us that liberty was not originally intended for all., It is difficult to understand how men who spoke so passionately of liberty and freedom were unable to see the contradiction, the injustice, and the immortality of their actions. Enslaved Africans and their descendants endured brutality and mistreatment for over 200 years even as their labor built and enriched the nation. The struggle for freedom and political, social, and economic equality continued even after the legal ending of slavery. The devastating effects of slavery continue to affect race relations to this day. Yet, we must continue to strive for the ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America., The African symbols, words, and quotations on the exterior and interior walls speak to the spirit of hope, the resilience of the human spirit, and the determination of a people to arise out of bondage to freedom.,

"We have sought to bind the chains of slavery on the limbs of the Black man, without thinking that at last we should find the other end of that hateful chain about our own necks" , , Frederick Douglass, The Reasons for Our Troubles, National Hall, Philadelphia, January 14, 1862, "You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought sold, stolen arriving on a nightmare praying for a dream" , , Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of Morning, written /delivered for President Clinton's Inauguration, 1993, "Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance, will destroy the United States" , , W.E.B. Du Bois, "I ask no monument proud and high to arrest the gaze of the passers-by; all that my yearning spirit craves, is bury me not in a land of slaves" , , Frances Ellen Watkin Harper, Bury Me in a Free Land, "A people must have hope" , Nsoroma (N-soar-row-mah), Sankofa (Sang-ko-fah) , "Go back to the past, to build the future", Nkyinkyin (N-chin-chin) , One must change to survive

, Peoples , Akan . Ako . Asua . Bamana . Basaa . Bamun . Bamileke . Bini . Chewa . Chokwe . Edo . Efik . Eket . Ewe . Ewondo . Fang . Ga . Grebo . Gwari . Hausa . Ibo . Ibibio . Ishan . Ijaw . Jola . Kikongo . Kilani . Kimbundu . Kpelle . Kiu . Luba . Mandinka . Marka . Meta . Mende . Mbundu . Ngola . Owimbundu . Peul . Songhai . Tiv . Urhobo . Wolof . Yoruba . Zande, Places , from which Enslaved Africans descended , Mauritania . Senegal . The Gambia . Guinea Bissau . Guinea . Sierra Leone . Mali . Burkina Faso . Liberia . Côte d'Ivoire . Ghana . Togo . Benin . Niger . Nigeria . Cameroon . Congo . Gabon . Angola