This photograph of two slave children and an accompanying document were purchased at a garage sale in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This photograph is rare because so many photos of slaves showed them in submissive positions, illustrating the brutality of their condition, and some even showing the scars on their backs from whippings.

One thing is for sure about this photograph. It does not show a hint of happiness anywhere in the eyes or faces of these two children.

The accompanying document mentions that John is for sale for $1,150 in 1854.

"I buy stuff all the time, but this shocked me," Keya Morgan, who bought the photo, told The Associated Press. Morgan, a New York art collector, said he paid $30,000 for the album containing the photograph and another $20,000 for the document.

The African Burial Ground National Monument’s new Visitor Center opened to the public Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010 in New York City.

The memorial honors the memories of the estimated thousands of enslaved Africans who were interred in the burial ground during the 17th and 18th centuries.

It has been built with 6,700 square-feet of space and has four exhibit areas, a theater and a gift shop.

The street-level center offers interactive exhibits showing that the African labor force was crucial to the prosperity of Dutch-colonized New Amsterdam in the 1600s, and later New York, governed by the English until the American Revolution.

Historians say one of the world's most recognizable financial institutions actually had its origins in forced labor. Enslaved Africans built a barrier across Manhattan, a wall that would later be known as Wall Street.

About 15,000 African slaves and their descendants were once unceremoniously buried under what is today Manhattan — and forgotten.

The forgotten burial place was rediscovered in 1991, when construction began on the foundation of a federal office building. The remains of about 400 men, women and children were found 20 feet underground.

Finally, the 400 or so slaves found have finally received a proper burial.

The government building was redesigned to accommodate the memorial, and in 1993 the Burial Ground became a National Historic Landmark.

The African Burial Ground National Monument is part of the National Park Service, and there's no entrance fee. Go to their website for directions.

The photograph above is actually a photograph of artwork created by Frank Bender. He is a world renowned sculptor, known for his work on forensic facial identifications, fugitive age progressions and fine art.

The memorial opens daily at 9 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. However, during the winter, the memorial closes at 4 p.m.

Eighty-eight years after the biggest ship disaster in history, and three years after release of the Titanic movie, the story of the only Black man to perish in the 1912 disaster is being revealed, thanks to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, host to the largest Titanic exhibit ever, and the Titanic Historical Society.

Laroche, who was born in Cap Haiten, Haiti, on May 26, 1889, came from a powerful family--Laroche's uncle, Dessalines M. Cincinnatus Leconte, was president of Haiti. The Laroches had been prosperous since the 17th century when a French captain named Laroche (in Haiti on military duty) married a young Haitian girl.

At the age of 15, Laroche left Haiti to study engineering in Beauvais, France. Several years later, while visiting nearby Villejuif, he met Juliette Lafargue, the 22-year-old daughter of a local wine seller. Although impressed by the handsome young Laroche, Lafargue's father, a widower, did not allow Laroche to marry his daughter until 1908, after he received his engineering degree.

A long way from his privileged lifestyle of Haiti, Laroche found France to be bleak and oppressive. Although Laroche was a cultured gentleman who spoke English and French fluently, and had an engineering degree, he couldn't find a job because of his color. "It was a great disappointment to him that having earned his engineering degree in France he could not find employment there," Geller says. "No matter how qualified he was, the blackness of his skin kept him from securing a position that paid his worth."

Laroche's family was growing and there were no opportunities for him to support them. The couple's first daughter, Simonne, was born a year into the marriage, and their second daughter, Louise, was prematurely the following year and was sickly. They were living in Lafargue's home, and the mounting medical bills for baby Louise were draining the wine seller's profits.

Laroche, a proud and hardworking man, grew tired of having to rely on his father-in-law's generosity and decided to return to Haiti, where he would be guaranteed work in engineering. Juliette Laroche was initially skeptical about abandoning her elderly father, but soon decided the move would be best for the family, especially for their ailing daughter. The family's plan to travel to Haiti was hastened, however, by the news that Juliette Laroche was pregnant once again.

According to historian Geller, Laroche's mother was so overwhelmed that her son was coming home with his new family that she purchased tickets on the French liner La France as a homecoming gift. When the couple realized that their children would not be permitted to dine with them on the liner, they exchanged their La France tickets for second-class reservations on the Titanic, which was the largest and most lavish ship built prior to that date. The style of the decor on the vessel ranged from Italian Renaissance to Georgian, and the cost of a first-class parlor suite was $4,350, equivalent to $50,000 today.

The Laroche family boarded the "palace of the sea" on Wednesday, April 10, 1912, at Cherbourg, France, for the scheduled five-day crossing to New York.

Never before had the richest people in the world flaunted their wealth so prominently. The first-class passengers constituted the creme de la creme of Anglo-American society. Collectively they were worth over $500 million, with the richest man on board, John Jacob Astor, having a net worth of $30 million alone. The second-class passengers were the middle-class business leaders and managers of the community; and third-class passengers (or steerage as they were called) were primarily English, Irish and Middle Eastern immigrants in search of a better life in America.

Many of you who live or grew up in Black communities in the United States have probably heard of "Watch Night Services," the gathering of the faithful in church on New Year's Eve.

The service usually begins anywhere from 7 p.m. To 10 p.m. And ends at midnight with the entrance of the New Year. Some folks come to church first, before going out to celebrate. For others, church is the only New Year's Eve event. Like many others, I always assumed that Watch Night was a fairly standard Christian religious service -- made a bit more Afro centric because that's what happens when elements of Christianity become linked with the Black Church. Still, it seemed that predominately White Christian churches did not include Watch Night services on their calendars, but focused instead on Christmas Eve programs.
In fact, there were instances where clergy in mainline denominations wondered aloud about the propriety of linking religious services with a secular holiday like New Year's Eve.

However, there is a reason for the importance of New Year's Eve services in African American congregations.
The Watch Night Services in Black communities that we celebrate today can be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1862, also known as "Freedom's Eve." On that night, Blacks came together in churches and private homes all across the nation, anxiously awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law. Then, at the stroke of midnight, it was January 1, 1863, and all slaves in the Confederate States were declared legally free .

When the news was received, there were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as people fell to their knees and thanked God. Black folks have gathered in churches annually on New Year's Eve ever since, praising God for bringing us safely through another year.

It's been more than 100 years since that first Freedom's Eve and many of us were never taught the African American history of Watch Night, but tradition still brings many of us together at this time every year.