Schooner Amistad

Description

A replica of the ship Amistad, which made history as the site of a famous slave revolt in 1839, visited Chestertown from October 30 to November 3, 2008 as part of Sultana Projects’ annual Downrigging Weekend. The two-masted schooner, whose home port is New Haven, Connecticut, is a full-scale recreation of La Amistad, a Spanish cargo vessel that dodged international law to smuggle illegal human cargo. But on the night of July 2, 1839, while off the coast of Cuba, her African captives rose up in revolt. In this interview two captains, the first and the latest, discuss their mission on Amistad and their lives. Washington College’s co-sponsorship of the Amistad visit was made possible by a grant from Board of Visitors and Governors member Peter Van Dyke. The interview was recorded onboard Amistad while docked in Baltimore Harbor by Voices of the Chesapeake Bay project director Michael Buckley two weeks before she arrived in Chestertown. The interviews were edited for broadcast on local radio.