History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another's pain in the heart our own.

"Its hardness and solidity had been an odd kind of comfort. Do not wish for anything. Be and endure. The Old African had learned that enduring was power too, and just as he had been drawn to the boulder, so the slaves, after a while, were drawn to him."

Julius Lester