Victor Wang Photo
The Freedom Schooner Amistad docked at Long Wharf.
The Amistad is back home again.
Saturday morning, officials welcomed the ship to the docks of Long Wharf for a three-week stay.
The Amistad, a 125-foot long replica of the renowned slave vessel on which Singhe Pieh led a revolt that made U.S. civil rights history, has been traveling along Connecticut, stopping at New London and Bridgeport, as it prepares to launch for its educational tour for the state’s high school students.
Throughout a welcoming ceremony Saturday, speakers, including Mayor Toni Harp and Governor Dannel P. Malloy, highlighted the importance of the Amistad story and emphasized the New Haven and Connecticut connections to the fight for freedom and liberty.
Harp and Malloy on board the schooner.
“The vessel is a floating symbol of the struggle for peace and justice. This story is of tremendous significance to our history,” former Amistad Committee President Al Marder said. “When I first heard about the project to rebuild the ship, I said, ‘This is a New Haven story.’”
On the original Amistad, Mende captives from Sierra Leone revolted. But after the slaves took over the ship, they were unable to navigate to Africa and ended up in the port of New London Harbor. They were held captive, at times here in New Haven, as advocates brought their case before a series of courts. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled in favor of freeing the Mende captives, invigorating the abolitionist movement. The initial court cases were held in New Haven.
“This 19th century story is a New Haven story. It is a proud part of our foundation,” Harp told the audience. “New Haven is meant to be her homeport.”
After the ceremony, the invited guests made their way down the dock to the flag-raising ceremony of the state and city flags before the schooner was open for public tours.
A replica of the below-deck cabin.
The ship itself, newly renovated, was slightly cramped with around 40 guests on board. They filed in and out of a musky wooden cabin in the lower deck.
The Amistad replica project has not always been smooth sailing. The ship was previously operated by Amistad America, Inc. but the organization faced scrutiny and lost its not-for-profit status in 2013 after failing to file tax returns. Since then, Discovering Amistad, a new not-for-profit educational organization, has been formed at the recommendation of the state and will provide full-year programming for the ship.
The organization aims to utilize the schooner’s symbolic significance to advance a youth and adult education program. The ship will travel along the state’s coastline and stop at cities to work with students and instructors, both on board and in classrooms.
“We want to talk a little about the history of the ship and what it represents,” on-board educator Jason Hine said. “We will take them out sailing to let them imagine what it was like to be on board and perhaps what it would have felt like to be taken involuntarily and to have to fight for your freedom.”
Len Miller, Discovering Amistad board chair, said he hopes the programming will allow students to question the status quo and apply the Amistad story to current events and happenings in their lives.
“You can learn in the classroom, but you get a different experience coming out to the ship and sailing out,” Miller said. “We want kids to question if what is is what has to be.”