Whereas this resolution may be cited as the Original Slavery Remembrance Day Memorialization Resolution ; Whereas the institution of slavery was a crime against humanity; Whereas the institution of slavery, which was intrinsically inhumane and abhorrent, imposed countless years of suffering on millions of innocent individuals, forever marking our Nation’s past; Whereas any attempt to minimize or rationalize the severity of slavery must be steadfastly rejected; Whereas the abhorrent notion slavery may have been more beneficial than detrimental to those enslaved at any point in time is utterly false and harmful; Whereas the enslaved people, regardless of their age, sex, or status, were subjected to a spectrum of brutalities and inhumanities, from relentless physical and psychological abuse to systemic dehumanization; Whereas the forced labor endured by the enslaved was not only physically strenuous but often involved dangerous tasks, leaving the enslaved vulnerable to accidents, disease, and in many cases, resulting in premature death; Whereas physical punishment, often extreme, was a daily reality for the enslaved, aimed not only at ensuring their submission but also at instilling fear and eroding their self-worth; Whereas the enslaved in the United States lived under constant threat of sexual exploitation, a tool wielded to exert control and further degrade them; Whereas one of the most heart-wrenching aspects of slavery was the forced separation of families; Whereas the system of slavery sinisterly disregarded familial bonds between spouses, siblings, parents and their children by selling them to different enslavers; Whereas the enslaved were stripped of their dignity, identities, cultures, and languages, by enslavers to erase their humanity; Whereas many enslaved individuals died unnamed, unacknowledged, and unappreciated, their lives and contributions lost in the shameful shadows of the institution that dehumanized them