International Slavery Remembrance Day

This year the International slavery remembrance day is coinciding with total solar ecilpse in USA.

On August 22 night/23, 1791, the Haitian war of independence began in flames under the leadership of a religious leader named Boukman.

 Over one hundred thousand slaves rose up against the vastly outnumbered and infinitely hated French.

 Unlike the French Revolution and the American Revolution, the Haitian revolution was entirely driven by the passions of men and women who had been enslaved most if not all of their lives.

 They didn't simply desire liberty, they wanted vengeance. Over the next three weeks, the Haitian slaves burned every plantation throughout the fertile regions of Haiti and executed all Frenchmen they could find. 

The French fled to the seacoast towns and pleaded with France to help them out while the island burned (Source: The Haitian Revolution Added by: Rob Brent).

This date, 23nd August, is today the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. 

UNESCO and member countries organize, on this date every year, cultural events involving young people, educators, artists and Intellectuals to create awareness.

The first commemorations took place in several countries, particularly on 23 August 1998 in Haiti and 23 August 1999 in Gorée, Senegal. Cultural events and debates on the slave trade were also organized.

 In 2001, the Textile Museum of Mulhouse (France) associated itself with the commemoration and organized a workshop presenting fabrics called “Trafficking Indian” used as currency for the purchase of slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (The Sentinel).

Read more on Haitian Revolution (here).