African Burial Ground

  The trip to New York was so fascinating and so intriguing. From the museum to the people in the city, I enjoyed it all. The fact that I have never been to New York had a huge affect on my visit. When we arrived in New York I was excited, but I was most captivated by the African Burial Ground. Libations were interesting and the museum walls and facts were great but I was mostly interested in the movie that we viewed. We had a chance to listen to the researchers who started and worked on the project, we got to see how the people of New York reacted to the founding of the site, and we even got a story of what life would have been like for Africans and the burial ceremonies. One of my favorite things in the museum was the barrel that we were allowed to push, that thing was heavy! The fact that our ancestors pushed heavy barrels around all day showed such physical and mental strengthen. Now days I see blacks that don’t even lift a finger at all! The sad part about it is, I’m not sure of blacks are aware of such hard work and labor that their answers went through. But as a student, I believe that it is my responsibility to share with those who are not aware of our ancestral history. Now I bet if they knew that in Manhattan under what is now a museum, laid many of their ancestors, they would work like no other. They would learn to appreciate and honor the prices paid from them.

  After we left from the African Burial Ground, we were allowed to have free time. And although shopping and a little trip to Applebee’s was not very education, I did notice something while walking 125^th of Harlem. I noticed the culture! When we first arrived in Harlem, I compared it to downtown Los Angeles, California, due to the people, stores and shops. But when we got off that bus, there was something different about Harlem than Los Angeles; the people were more intact with the African culture. There were many gift ships on the street where people were selling African artifacts, rarely seen in LA. By the Apollo theatre there was a show where the children performed. The people were live! It seemed to me that Harlem was more united as a black culture than what I was used to in LA and that inspired me and made me fall in love with the city!