Amistad ship to dock in Hartford for month of community learning events
Hartford Courant | August 18, 2021

By Susan Dunne

HARTFORD — Students from Hartford and nearby towns will learn about the Amistad’s place in Connecticut history starting Sept. 9, when the reproduction of the legendary tall ship will dock on the Connecticut riverfront for a month and educators will visit schools to teach about the famous 1839 emancipation trial.

The monthlong “Amistad Journey to Freedom” program will be held at middle and high schools in Hartford, Farmington, Windsor, Bloomfield and East Hartford. Student educators from Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic will assist educators from New Haven-based Discovering Amistad with the lessons. At the conclusion of the program, students from the five districts will gather for a symposium to discuss what they learned and to learn from each other.

According to discoveringamistad.org, “lessons begin with the 1839 Amistad Uprising and the subsequent landmark Supreme Court decision and move through the arc of more than 175 years of history.”

A community welcome event will take place Sept. 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza in Hartford. The ship will docked be there until Oct. 1.

Other community events will be held throughout the ship’s stay, including “A Walk to Freedom” on Sept. 17, the anniversary of the trial, from Connecticut’s Old State House in Hartford, where the initial Amistad trial was held, to the riverfront. The public is invited to participate.

The Amistad Journey to Freedom program is funded by NBC/Telemundo CT.

The Amistad uprising of 1839 happened when 53 kidnap victims from Sierra Leone took control of the Portuguese ship where they were being held by enslavers who had ignored European laws prohibiting the slave trade. The ship was captured and towed to New London. In 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the enslaved people, who returned to Africa.

“The Amistad is a powerful reminder of the darkest aspects of our history, as well as a memorial to the enormous courage of those who fought against oppression and injustice, and a symbol of our nation’s capacity to make progress,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said.

The replica was launched in 2000 and was named the flagship of Connecticut discoveringamistad.org.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.

Source: https://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-news-hartford-amistad-ship-20210818-q3reqglu6jhrnlapxgafhq36da-story.html