Schooner Amistad Sailing on the Tagus River - this is the most "postcard moment" one can get in Lisbon - the view is an equivalent of looking down the Hudson River, seeing the Statue of Liberty and the Verazzano bridge in New York City. Ponte 25 de Abril -  the suspension bridge spanning the coasts is also reminding most of us about the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - learn more about it.

Over the course of this week the student and professional crew of the Freedom Schooner Amistad have been hard at work hosting a wide-range of school groups here in Lisbon.   On Monday, we hosted 35 school students from the Escola Secundaria Foneca Benevides. Two days later on Wednesday the ship had a full day when over 150 students came aboard, including a lively group of elementary school students ages 6-10 from the Escola Raiz who took  their visit as a great adventure.  Over the course of the last two days we have seen our school visits reach an apex as 250 high school and college students came aboard the vessels.  All of the school groups have been quick to share their enthusiasm about the Amistad story.  With the help of Portuguese language translators from the Centro de Historia Alem-Mar (CHAM), the teachers and students have been able to learn more about the mission of the Atlantic Freedom Tour.  So far school has been in session on the Amistad and  thanks to the captain and crew no one is complaining that history class is boring.

Yesterday in Lisbon the entire crew of Freedom Schooner Amistad headed to the Auditorium of the Luso-American Foundation to participate in a day-long symposium examining slavery in Portugal.  The day-long event “From Slavery to Interculturality” organized in conjunction with the Fundacao Luso-Americana and the Centro de Historia de Alem-Mar (CHAM) offered Sankofa College Program participants and Amistad America staff a unique opportunity to hear Portuguese scholars discuss the transatlantic slave trade.

Punctually at 11 am on a warm, sunny Lisbon Saturday morning a swing bridge over the entrance to the Doca de Alcântara opened allowing the Amistad under command of Captain Bill Pinkney to sail in. The Freedom Schooner docking maneuvers were conducted into the rhythm of an African drummers band present on the deck. Mooring was fast and elegant presenting good seamanship of the crew,  proving that Captain Steven Olson who just recently passed the command of the ship to Captain Pinkney trained them well. 

Soon after mooring of the ship an official welcome ceremony was conducted on the pier.  Sponsors and friends of Amistad arranged an African drummers and dancers band that delivered an enthusiastic performance. (even some of the Amistad crew members were "forced" to dance as well!) 

Captain Bill Pinkney on the command post working with his crew during docking in Lisbon.

To see more pictures follow the Read More link 

Download and Print:

"Amistad in Lisbon" Brochure - PDF file in English (274KB)

"Amistad em Lisboa" Folheto - PDF no Português (293 KB)

Text 

AMISTAD America is proud to partner with the New University of Lisbon as the Freedom Schooner arrives in Portugal as part of the Atlantic Freedom Tour. AAI will work closely with the University's Centro de História de Além-Mar (CHAM) - the Center for Overseas History, to document the port visit and share resources concerning Portugal's involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade. CHAM is a research unit of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences and renders support to Masters and Doctorate degrees in the area of the History of the Discoveries and the Portuguese Expansion. 

Freedom Schooner is also receiving an invaluable support from other institutions and organizations while in Lisbon.

THANK YOU!

September 29 – October 29, 2007

It was the Portuguese who first took Africans as slaves to Europe  during the 1440's. In 1452 the church declared it the “right of all Christians to own slaves.” In 1455 Pope Nicholas V issued the Papal Bull entitled "Romanus Pontifex" vindicating what started in the 1440's and allowing Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator to "invade, search out, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever..." This decree encouraged and facilitated the slave trade as it gave Prince Henry the right to reduce those that had been conquered "to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate himself (Henry) as the kingdom's successor." Pope Nicholas gave Prince Henry the right to explore any territory, declare the inhabitants 'enemies of christ' and enslave the population to be used for Portuguese trading. With the church's approval traders had 'god's blessing' to traffic in human cargo.  

Another Papal Bull was issued in 1493 which authorized the opening of the slave market in Lisbon. In 1501 the first shipment of African slaves bound for America departed Lisbon. Portugeuse traders supplied many Spanish colonies with slave labor. A trading fort was established in West Africa in what is present day Ghana. The small fort at Elmina provided slave labor for operations in Madeira and Sao Tome.

It is estimated that during the trade Lisbon launched enough ships to carry nearly four million slaves to the Americas.