African American Burial Ground

Let me begin by saying I love my Howard University. If I had not chosen to attend such an institution in which tradition and history were the focus of the core curriculum, I would have never gotten the opportunity to visit such a historical landmark. When I was initially informed that all of the fresman seminar classes would be visiting the African American burial grounds in New York City, I was overcome with joy. I'm not going to lie, I was mainly looking forward to the free trip to New York. Being from the south, the opportunity to travel to New York does not come up very often so when I heard about the opportunity I was ecstatic. On the way to New York, I had a lot of time to contemplate on the experience I was about to encounter. When I think about slavery, I envision whips, chains, shackles, and large, dry plantations with hundreds of colored people working their lives away. Yes I know it is a terrible vision BUT travelling to the African American Burial Grounds enstilled a sense of pride in my past that I hadn't acknowledged before. The African American Burial Grounds became a national historical landmark because of the important impacts slavery made on our country. Had my ancestors not gone through the hardships they encountered during slavery, African Americans may not be where there are today. The imprisonment of slavery led to resistance and from this resistance came progress. I appreciate the hardships my ancestors had to endure in order to create a brighter future for people like myself.