LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION memorializing Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to
proclaim March 25, 2016, as Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery
and the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the State of New York

WHEREAS, The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration
in history, and undeniably one of the most inhumane; the extensive
exodus of Africans spread to many areas of the world over a 400-year
period and was unprecedented in the annals of recorded human history;
and
WHEREAS, As a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade, the
greatest movement of Africans was to the Americas, with 96 percent of
the captives from the African coasts arriving on cramped slave ships at
ports in South America and the Caribbean Islands; and
WHEREAS, From 1501 to 1830, four Africans crossed the Atlantic for
every one European, making the demographics of the Americas in that era
more of an extension of the African diaspora than a European one; the
legacy of this migration is still evident today, with large populations
of people of African descent living throughout the Americas; and
WHEREAS, For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and chil-
dren were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, one of
the darkest chapters in human history; and
WHEREAS, Slaves resisted in a variety of ways but the two most common
types were refusal to eat and suicide; and
WHEREAS, Over the centuries, some African peoples, such as the Kru,
came to be understood as holding substandard value as slaves, because
they developed a reputation for being too proud for slavery, and for
attempting suicide immediately upon losing their freedom; and
WHEREAS, The Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham
Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declared that: all persons held as slaves
within any States, or designated part of the State, the people whereof
shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thence
forward, and forever free; and
WHEREAS, Every year on March 25th, the International Day of Remem-
brance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
offers the opportunity to honor and remember those who suffered and died
at the hands of the brutal slavery system; the International Day also
aims at raising awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice
today; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
memorialize Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim March 25, 2016, as Day
of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave
Trade in the State of New York; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of the State of New
York.