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< Return to Events and Press Releases A snapshot of slaverySee From an attic in N.C., a snapshot of slavery by Nicole Norfleet, Philadelphia Inquirer  Courtesy of Keya Morgan, LincolnImages.com This photograph of a boy, John (left), and another youth is believed to date to the early 1860s.These enslaved little boys in North Carolina during the early 1860s don't know about playing ball. They don't know about playing tag. They don't know about teasing little girls. They don't know about doing school work. They don't know about living as an innocent carefree child. But they do know about physical pain in the form of ever-present tortuous whippings and in the form of daily backbreaking labor from "can't see in the morning till can't see at night." They do know about emotional trauma in the form of constant dehumanizing treatment. Look at them. Look at their sad faces. Look at their ragged clothes. Look at their shoeless feet. Look into their eyes — and tell me that slavery wasn't really all that bad. Tell me that President George Washington's enslavement of 14 year old Richmond, 16 year old Paris, and 16 year old Christopher — who were three of the nine persons he enslaved here in Philadelphia at America's first "White House" — wasn't really all that bad. Tell me that it wouldn't matter if these two little boys were your little sons. Tell me that you don't care about them and the millions who were like them. Tell me that you don't care about slavery at America's first "White House." Michael Coard, Esquire |