This year you can expect to see the Freedom Schooner Amistad, Connecticut’s flagship, tied up on the Western Waterfront Pier at the Oyster Festival on Oct. 18 and 19. The ship is a Baltimore Clipper that is 129 feet in length and weighs 96 tons. Its home port is New Haven, Conn.
The tall ship visits ports worldwide, as an ambassador for friendship. It serves as a floating classroom, icon and monument to many souls that were broken or lost as the result of the transatlantic slave trade.
The original Amistad, which means friendship in Spanish, was made famous in 1839 when 53 African captives (men, women and children) transported from Havana revolted against their captors. The captives gained control of the ship under the leadership of Sengbe Pieh, later known as Joseph Cinque, who commanded the ship’s navigator to return them to Sierra Leone. Instead, the ship headed north, landing in Long Island, and was taken into custody by the United States Navy.
The University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law website relates what newspapers of the day said of the event giving an image of the crimes against humanity. The New London Gazette of Aug. 26, 1839 revealed that there were children among the captives…”three little girls, from eight to thirteen years of age.” In fact, a description of conditions on the slave ship reported in the New York Journal of Commerce was related by Gilabaru and translated by James Covey to reporters stated:
“On board the vessel there was a large number of men, but the women and children were by far the most numerous. They were fastened together by couples by the wrists and legs and kept in that situation day and night… They suffered terribly… Many of the men, women and children died on the passage.”
Unjustly transported to Connecticut to be sold as slaves, the captives endured a widely publicized, two-year court case and ultimately won their freedom. They were returned home in 1841 by abolitionists. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg created his film Amistad to tell the story of the case.
There had been an attempt to re-create the Amistad to tell its story to future generations. On March 8, 1998, Amistad America, Inc., and Mystic Seaport Museum laid the keel of the new Amistad. Sierra Leone, donated the deck planks, made from the iroko trees from that country, honoring where the original captives aboard the Amistad were taken from.
It took two years to build the boat, and it was launched with 10,000 people watching. The ship, which is 10 feet longer than the original, to accommodate the engine, was designed to conform with current Coast Guard standards. It set off on its first sail on June 13, 2000 under the banner of the Freedom Schooner Amistad.
Since her launch, Amistad’s crew has worked with international agencies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, and West Africa in the recognition and commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in the former British Empire (1807) and the United States (1808).
Amistad has been visited by thousands of school children and has conducted numerous public ceremonies and sailing events that have raised the awareness of the history of Atlantic Slave Trade and the stories of resistance waged by black and white abolitionists.
In summer of 2013 the Freedom Schooner Amistad joined the fight against modern day human trafficking in partnership with LOVE146. Visitors who come aboard continue to learn the incredible story of the Amistad Incident of 1839 and now also become aware of how slavery still exists today.
