When Betty, an African American woman is first seen she seems frozen. Frozen in time but also encapsulated in a painting. One of the most difficult concepts in history is the idea that the people who get their pictures done are always the people in power. But behind every person of power are the people that they have used in order to get where they are. In the case of American history many of our forefathers owned slaves. this particular story takes place in an art gallery where pictures from many many generations ago are on display. But a painter decided that instead of looking at the white man who ran this country we are going to look at the Black slaves that built it. Betty will come forward, step out of the painting and have a conversation where she tells us about what life was like before she was captured and brought to a country that was not her own, separated from her family, and enslaved.

Betty sees this moment in her life as a celebration, because she recognizes by being apart of this portrait she is forever memorialized and remembered. This emotional feeling is more than she ever thought that she would get from being a slave. This story is a beautiful example of the importance of art and also recognizing that behind every portrait where there is a house there is someone that built it, where there is a man there is a partner standing behind them that helped to support them, and where there is a dive into American history there are slaves who have been forgotten, unappreciated for the forced labor that built this country.