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Middletown students to spend week studying Middle Passage, Amistad revolt as ship docks at Harbor Park
The Middletown Press | October 3, 2022

By Cassandra Day

MIDDLETOWN — It was a “life-changing experience” for Middletown Public Schools Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Jada Waters when she took a field trip to the home port of the schooner Amistad in New Haven while a high-schooler in 2001.

Ahead of her class visit, Waters, who wanted to learn as much as she could about the Discovering Amistad vessel, checked out the 1987 book, “Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt,” the basis for the 1997 Academy Award-winning film, “Amistad,” directed by Steven Spielberg.  She immediately checked out the book from the Russell Library.

Waters was interviewed by the New York Times as a teen about her time aboard the vessel, a 128-foot replica of what La Amistad would have looked like on the outside in 1839. “When the opportunity came, I knew how influential it was for me to be a student on the ship. It was the first book I read in one day because I was super excited about it,” she explained. “Just being on the ship, I wanted to learn more about what the real experience was. “It was very meaningful for me,” Waters added. Now, Waters is overseeing a week of experiential learning aboard the Amistad for 410 Beman Middle School seventh-graders and Middletown High School tenth-graders.

The Amistad arrived at Harbor Park Friday. That evening, seven students joined city officials, community stakeholders and Discovering Amistad crew members for dinner at Sicily Middletown. This is the first time the Board of Education and city have collaborated on such a project, Waters said. The sight of the 78-foot ship, with colorful flags along the mast, waving in the wind on the Connecticut River’s choppy waters, drew onlookers to the boardwalk Monday to catch a glimpse of the schooner that will be docked there until Oct. 12.

The vessel serves as a floating exhibit and classroom, where students have the opportunity for hands-on learning rather than, for instance, reading a textbook, watching a film or hearing a lecture.  “It is really important for students to be on the ship,” Waters said. “They’ll get a better understanding of what our ancestors experienced," including how many people were on the boat in cramped conditions. As a student, she had a multitude of questions, and knows youth may as well. “I really want them to share that experience,” she said.  

Seventy-five students will board the ship Tuesday for a one-hour tour. During the remainder of the week, Beman students will do the same, she said. They will learn about the effects of slavery and racism on today’s society, and discuss the connection with the Amistad and how it relates to racism today, Waters said. The seventh-graders will be recording their thoughts on the visit in a journal and will have a chance to offer recommendations on the program, which will be used to determine whether the tour should be part of future curricula, Water said. It will give children a sense of agency in their studies, she added. “I want people to have an understanding of what our community and kids want. Too often, adults make decisions for kids without including them or having a seat at the table.”

The first lesson students learned last week involved the enslavement of the Mendes tribe from Sierra Leone. Lessons included trials at the Old State House in Hartford and U.S. Supreme Court, where enslaved people were ordered to be freed and returned home, Waters added. Educational tours will also be held Saturday, when the city hosts an Amistad Journey to Freedom community day celebration at the park from noon to 6 p.m. It will be held rain or shine. The program is “The Middle Passage and the Amistad Uprising: Stories of Yesterday & Today.” The afternoon will include African drumming and dancing; words from the original people of the Middletown area, the Wangunks; a Middletown Middle Passage ceremony; food vendors, crafts sale, dockside education and traditional art demonstrations.

Performances will include The Lost Tribe playing Afro-funk fusion led by multi-percussionist Jocelyn Pleasant; Tammy Denease’s one-woman stage play of the story of one of the children on the Amistad; and Wesleyan University assistant professor of dance Iddrisu Saaka will give a multi-arts presentation incorporating drumming, dancing and storytelling. In connection with the visit, The Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main St., will be showing the "Amistad" movie, which will be introduced by Charles A. Weisenberger, Mellon postdoctoral fellow in public history at Wesleyan. He specializes in African-American history, slavery and abolition in the early United States.

Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the film, which is two-and-a-half hours long, will start at 6:30. The event is free.

To sign up for a free tour of the Amistad ship Saturday, go to bit.ly/3CsXXxP.

Cassandra Day, Reporter

Source: https://www.middletownpress.com/news/article/Middletown-students-study-Middle-Passage-Amistad-17483285.php