Viewing a photographed enslaved ancestor can transmit felt trauma to the descendant

Evidence

I had to put the book down. It was too much. This passage was opposite the image of Delia, who was naked from the waist up, looking not at but through the camera. Her pain and humiliation were palpable in her face. She looked so incredibly sad to me. A transferal of Delia’s victimization rippled through me—I experienced her trauma in a visceral way. To reenact this private, intimate moment felt abusive. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 272