The day when Dominican Republic and Haiti saw beginning of freedom from Slavery

The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

It is against this background that the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is commemorated on 23 August each year.

Designated by UNESCO, today serves as a remembrance of the transatlantic slave trade.It was intended to engrave the tragedy and horror of the slave trade in the ‘memory of all people’.

The transatlantic slave trade was the transportation of African people by slave traders, usually to the Americas. It began in the 16^th century by the Portuguese, completing their first voyage in 1526 to Brazil. The date of August 23^rd was chosen because during the night of August 22-23, 1791 there was an uprising on Santo Domingo, known as the Haitian Revolution, that helped set in motion events that would be influential in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

This International Day is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples. In accordance with the goals of the intercultural project "The Slave Route", it should offer an opportunity for collective consideration of the historic causes, the methods and the consequences of this tragedy, and for an analysis of the interactions to which it has given rise between Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.

The Director-General of UNESCO invites the Ministers of Culture of all Member States to organize events every year on that date, involving the entire population of their country and in particular young people, educators, artists and intellectuals.

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition was first celebrated in a number of countries, in particular in Haiti (23 August 1998) and Goree in Senegal (23 August 1999). Cultural events and debates too were organized. The year 2001 saw the participation of the Mulhouse Textile Museum in France in the form of a workshop for fabrics called "Indiennes de Traite" (a type of calico) which served as currency for the exchange of slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.