By Katherine Lutge, Staff Writer

The Discovering Amistad’s 129-foot Amistad Schooner docked in Norwalk harbor. The ship is a reconstruction of the historical La Amistad ship and will be in Norwalk until the Sept. 14. Discovering Amistad is a nonprofit organization that serves as a floating classroom to educate the public about the history of slavery, discrimination and the Amistad Uprising, which took place in 1839. Wednesday, September 6, 2023, Norwalk, Conn. H John Voorhees III/Hearst Connecticut Media

NORWALK — Norwalk community leaders welcomed the Discovery Amistad’s replica ahead of the 45th annual Oyster Festival.

The 129-foot Amistad Schooner, a replica of the historic boat, is used as a 'floating classroom' and will be docked in the Norwalk Harbor until Sept. 14.

“The Amistad is like a floating classroom; it teaches people about history,” said Mayor Harry Rilling. “And it has quite a storied history, and it is going to be teaching a lot of our young students here in Norwalk.”

This week, Norwalkers, students and Oyster festival attendees will have the opportunity to explore the ship and learn about the 53 Mende people held captive on the ship whose fight for freedom helped fuel the abolitionist movement in the United States.

“I am so excited that our eighth graders will step aboard this ship over the next week so they can actually see and sense what those 53 Mende natives must have felt in that real-life experience through this Amistad replica and what they experienced almost 180 years ago,” said Norwalk’s Superintendent Alexandra Estrella. “Hands-on experiences like this are embedded in our scholars' learning experiences throughout everything they do.”

Starting Thursday, 800 Norwalk eighth graders will visit the Amistad to tour the ship and learn about the history of the 53 Mende natives and the U.S. Supreme Court case that granted their freedom.

“There are so many lessons that we get from the 53 Mende: there are lessons about resilience, lessons about our history as it relates to groups being trafficked, human trafficking, lessons about victory, and lessons about how people work together,” said Paula Mann Agnew, executive director of Discovering Amistad.

Attendees of the Oyster Festival this weekend will also have the opportunity to tour the Amistad.

“This is the perfect classroom for all these people who come see it because now this is part of the Oyster Fest,” said President of the Norwalk Seaport Association Mike Reilly. “This is an attraction where it’s open to everybody that buys a ticket at the Oyster Festival.”

Tours will also be available to the public throughout the week.

The Amistad visited Norwalk in 2017; however,  it was docked off Sheffield Island.

Norwalk faced challenges bringing the Amistad into Norwalk Harbor this September because of the shallow water at low tide and expensive harbor fees. The Harbor Management Commission, Seaport Association, and local partners worked together to bring the Amistad back to Norwalk.

G&C Marine Services donated a barge to extend off the dock at the Norwalk Boat Ramp, providing deep enough water for the Amistad.

In 1839, 49 kidnapped men and four boys from Sierra Leone were sold to two slave traders, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes. Since the men were illegally captured and forced into slavery, Ruiz and Montes made a deal with the captain of a merchant cargo boat, the Amistad, to smuggle the enslaved people to a plantation. 

“The captain and the two slave traders made a deal with each other, and the two slave traders asked him can we could smuggle 53 Africans below because, at this point, the slave trade was illegal,” said Reeshemah Norfleet, project manager for Discovery Amistad. “It was illegal to go and kidnap somebody and make them your slave.” 

Chained below deck, one man, Sengbe Pieh, was able to pull a nail free and picked the lock on his chains. 

“He realized he couldn’t fight this battle by himself, so he went in there and unlocked all the other Africans' chains,” Norfleet explained. 

Using sugar cane knives, the Africans led a revolt on the ship and captured Ruiz and Montes to demand they sail them back to Sierra Leone. 

“All they could remember is that when they were leaving their country and they were down below in that dark place, all they could see was that they were sailing away from the sun,” Norfleet said. “So they told Jose and Pedro (Ruiz and Montes) to take us back to the rising sun.” 

Ruiz and Montes agreed but did not set the ship’s course for Sierra Leone. Instead, they sailed the ship in different directions for two months until being spotted by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Long Island. 

Naval officers apprehended the ship, and Ruiz and Montes told the officers that the men were legally their slaves. The 53 Mende people were put in the New Haven Jail and charged with murder and mutiny. Once a translator was acquired, the truth came out. 

The matter of the 53 Mendes' freedom went to the Connecticut Court, with Ruiz and Montes arguing that the men were their slaves and the 53 Mende arguing, with help from abolitionists, that they were free men because they were illegally captured. The case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices affirmed that the Mendes were free men who were illegally captured. 

This court case helped fuel the abolitionist movement ahead of the Civil War. 

Eventually, 35 of the men were able to return home to Sierra Leone. 

By Katherine Lutge

Katherine Lutge is a reporter with The Norwalk Hour. She started working with Hearst Connecticut Media Group since April of 2023. Katherine attended Virginia Tech and graduated in December of 2022 with a degree in multimedia journalism and political science. She previously reported on the metro team for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Source: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/amistad-ship-norwalk-harbor-oyster-festival-18348862.php