23 August: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition
The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition was on 23 August 2016 observed across the world.
The aim of the day is to pay tribute to the people who, on 22 to 23 August 1791, revolted against the system of slavery and started the Haitian Revolution. Men and women, torn from Africa and sold into slavery, revolted against the slave system to obtain freedom and independence for Haiti, which was gained in 1804. This uprising was a turning point in human history.
The Revolution initiated a process of change regarding slavery throughout the Americas.
Background
The night of 22 to 23 August 1791 in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
The UNESCO Executive Board adopted Resolution 29 C/40 to observe the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition every year on 23 August. The day was first celebrated in a number of countries, in particular in Haiti (23 August 1998) and Goree in Senegal (23 August 1999).
The year 2001 saw the participation of the Mulhouse Textile Museum in France in the form of a workshop for fabrics called Indiennes de Traite which served as currency for the exchange of slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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