with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"; and
WHEREAS, During the existence of the trans-Atlantic slave
trade, millions of Africans were forcibly abducted and enslaved
in the New World and millions more died during passage; and
WHEREAS, To prime Africans for slavery, the fundamental
values of the Africans were shattered; and
WHEREAS, Slaves were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and
subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and
heritage, women and girls were raped and families were
disassembled as husbands and wives, mothers and daughters and
fathers and sons were sold into slavery apart from one another;
and
WHEREAS, A series of complex colonial laws were enacted to
relegate the status of Africans and their descendants to
slavery, in spite of their loyalty, dedication and service to
the country, including heroic and distinguished service in the
Revolutionary War, the Civil War and all other conflicts and
military actions involving the United States military; and
WHEREAS, Colonial Pennsylvania was a slave-owning society
with an estimated population of 11,000 slaves in 1754 and the
lives of free blacks in the colony were controlled by law; and
WHEREAS, While the United States outlawed the trans-Atlantic
slave trade in 1808, the domestic slave trade in the colonies
and illegal importation continued for several decades; and
WHEREAS, The system of slavery had become entrenched in
American history and the social fabric and the issue of enslaved
Africans had to be addressed as a national issue, contributing
to the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 and the passage of the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which
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