Last week my group and I visited the African Burial Ground. Located in lower Manhattan near the Civic Center, the African Burial Ground is a monument made of stone that was built on top of an actual burial ground for Africans who were brought to New — enslaved or not– in the 16th and 17th centuries. Just hundreds of feet below lies thousands of bones and makeshift caskets, giving the monument and space around it an aura of seriousness, sadness, and respect.
My picture includes one side of the main monument, which was shaped in an awkward, triangular way. I learned that the monument was meant to resemble a capsized ship, similar to the ones that brought chained Africans to the new world. “The ship is upside down,” said a nearby tour guide, “that way, when all the people’s souls rise up they will rise into the ship and sail away together.” It was moving to see how even such little features of the site have monumental meaning.
My picture also includes a poem and a symbol next to it: 
For all those who were lost; For all those that were stolen; For all those who were left behind; For all those who were not forgotten.
The poem clearly captures the essence of the site. It explains the monuments function; to memorialize the countless Africans that died in the New World, even if it can’t commemorate specific people. Africans were mostly slaves, and when they died people tended not to feel as compassionate. Many were “lost” or “forgotten” along the way, or were buried in such a way that archaeologists could not identify the type of person. Enslaved or free, young or old, male or female this site commemorates every suffering soul that was lost during the times of the slave trade. The symbol adjacent to the poem is heart-shaped, and it symbolizes the lesson: “learn from your past, but look to the future.” This is an adage many Africans of that time took to heart. It was a symbol of hope; that things might actually get better for them one day. The burial ground showed dozens of other symbols, but this one was carved into the main monument, as it is the most important and most fitting of them all.
I think that your site really captures the essence of what it means to be in New York. We are constantly surrounded by people with different pasts and backgrounds; we never know what hardships these others have had to go through. However, our city accepts these differences and pushes us towards furthering our acceptance and reminding each other that diversity is a wonderful thing. Through monuments such as the one your group visited, we are reminded that although we cannot change the tragic acts of the past, we can still stand together in solidarity and work towards a future where these terrible things no longer happen.