Door of No Return: Yellen visits onetime slave-trading post - The Associated Press - en Español

GOREE ISLAND, Senegal (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen paid a solemn sojourn Saturday to the salmon-colored location connected an land disconnected Senegal that is 1 of the astir recognized symbols of the horrors of the Atlantic enslaved commercialized that trapped tens of millions of Africans successful bondage for generations.

Yellen, successful Senegal arsenic portion of a 10-day trip aimed astatine rebuilding economical relationships betwixt the U.S. and Africa, stood successful the Gorée Island gathering known arsenic the House of Slaves and peered retired of the “Door of No Return,” from which enslaved radical were shipped crossed the Atlantic.

“Gorée and the trans-Atlantic enslaved commercialized are not conscionable a portion of African history. They are a portion of American past arsenic well,” Yellen said successful little remarks during her visit.

“We cognize that the calamity did not halt with the procreation of humans taken from here. Even aft slavery was abolished, Black Americans — galore of whom tin hint their descendance done ports similar this crossed Africa — were denied the rights and freedoms promised to them nether our Constitution.”

The economical benefits that large slave-trading nations, including the United States, reaped for hundreds of years connected the backs of unpaid labour could magnitude to tens of trillions of dollars, according to research connected the commerce.

And successful the U.S., African slaves and their children contributed to the gathering of the nation’s astir storied institutions, including the White House and Capitol, according to the White House Historical Association.

Yellen acknowledged the ongoing ramifications of that brutal past.

“In some Africa and the United States, adjacent arsenic we person made tremendous strides, we are inactive surviving with the brutal consequences of the trans-Atlantic enslaved trade,” she said.

“What I instrumentality from this spot is the value of redoubling our committedness to combat for our shared values and principles wherever they are threatened — successful the United States, successful Africa, and astir the world,” she said. ”We person much enactment to do.”

Yellen’s travel to the land is 1 that galore dignitaries person made, including erstwhile Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. Today, Gorée Island is designated arsenic a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Yellen’s halt determination during a travel meant to revitalize U.S.-African economical relations is 1 that evoked the monolithic costs of the enslaved trade. There has been a resurgence successful involvement successful determining the existent outgo of slavery connected the generations impacted.

The House Financial Services Committee successful caller years has studied however U.S. banks and security companies profited from the signifier of slavery earlier it was outlawed successful 1865. There person besides been hearings connected the study and development of reparations proposals successful the United States.