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Historical Questions
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Written by AAI Staff
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Sunday, 27 May 2007 |
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 Compare Amistad a typical slave ship Brookes engaged in Atlantic slave trade, like Tecora - the slave ship that brought 53 original La Amistad captives from Africa to Cuba.
La Amistad was a small coastal trader doing the same work that tractor-trailers do for us today. Generally, she carried sugar-industry products from Guanaja, her home port in Cuba, to Havana, making a round trip about every two months. She often carried people: Spaniards and sometimes she carried people bound for lives as slaves on sugar-cane plantations.
La Amistad was neither constructed nor equipped as a slave ship. She also had a small crew insufficient to control large number of people. La Amistad was never engaged in Transatlantic slave trade being to small to make such voyages profitable for slave traders. One can argue that if she was a slave ship the revolt could not have happened at all.
It is also important to note that the Amistad revolt happened 31 years after passing An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade of 1807 in UK (known also as Wilberforce Act) The British campaign against the slave trade by other nations was an unprecedented foreign policy effort. The United States acted to abolish its African slave trade the same year, although, like Britain, it did not abolish slavery at that time. Both the British and American laws were enacted in March 1807, the British law coming into force on May 1, 1807 and the American on January 1, 1808
At the same time that La Amistad sailed, there were still many active slave ships, like Tecora, that were engaged in trafficking illegally captured African people from Africa to the Americas. La Amistad was not such a vessel.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 18 July 2009 )
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Questions about Freedom Schooner Amistad,
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Written by AAI Staff
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Wednesday, 30 May 2007 |
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The impetus for building Amistad came from Warren Q. Marr II, former editor of the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine. Marr’s inspiration for the replica emerged during
New York's Operation Sail 1976, a spectacular parade of the world’s tall ships. Participating in that event was a representation of the historic 19th century schooner, La Amistad. It was actually the schooner
Western Union with its name temporarily hidden under signs proclaiming her Amistad. Marr wanted the story of the African captives’ fight for freedom on the seas, in a
New Haven court, and in a landmark United States Supreme Court case to be told. Marr’s goal was to design the re-created vessel as a floating exhibit, assemble a crew, and sail her from port to port teaching the history of the Amistad Incident of 1839. Marr believed the Amistad story could foster unity among people of diverse backgrounds and help improve race relations. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 14 January 2008 )
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Questions about Freedom Schooner Amistad,
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Written by AAI Staff
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Wednesday, 30 May 2007 |
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In filming his interpretation of the Amistad Incident of 1839, Steven Spielberg used two ships to stand in for long-shots of La Amistad. These include Pride of Baltimore II (when filming on the East Coast) and Californian (when filming on the West Coast). Spielberg also used the "blubber room" of the Mystic Seaport whale ship, Charles W. Morgan, to portray the hold of Amistad. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 14 January 2008 )
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Questions about Freedom Schooner Amistad,
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Written by AAI Staff
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Wednesday, 30 May 2007 |
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Amistad is ten feet longer than the original La Amistad of 1839. The extra length was built into the ship to accommodate an engine room. The keel is made of a tropical hardwood known as Purpleheart. The wood was harvested using sustainable forestry management practices in
Guyana,
South America. It is extremely dense, hard, and rot-resistant. Amistad’s two masts are carved from Douglas Firs donated by the the Department of Natural Resources,
Washington
state. The frame is made of live oak salvaged in
South Carolina from the devastation caused by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and from highway projects on Hilton Head,
South Carolina. Iroko was donated by the
Republic of
Sierra Leone, the birthplace of the Amistad captives. Learn more by reading about the woods used in construction.
Dimensions
Total length from bowsprit to stern: 129’
Weight: 136 tons
Rig: Topsail Schooner
Length over the rail: 85’
Length on deck: 81’
Maximum beam (width): 23’
Length at waterline: 78’
Design draft (depth): 10’
Sail area: 5,200 square feet
Topmast: 91’ |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 14 January 2008 )
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