national geographic is here as well as allison reeves and the members of my staff, chris moore and jackie dowdel and row berta yancy worked most diligently in helping us get this material together. we want to thank them as well. [ applause ] my personal interest in this subject dates back three decades. i was a graduate student at the university of california berkeley back in the late '60s and early 1970s. i had been very reluctant up to that point in time to frankly read anything about slavery. because i, like most people who grew up with me and with my generation from the time we were in grade school spent considerable amount of time avoiding that subject of slavery. indeed, every time it came up for that period in our history and social studies courses, we would either put a handle on the table or want to go under the table and hope that that part of the lesson get over quick. because the basic feeling that was communicated to us in the ways in which slavery and the slave trade were interpreted during that period of time was that this was something that we should be ashamed of. that people of