Freedom Schooner Amistad is back at her berth at Long Wharf on New Haven's waterfront. She moored there on June 2nd and is expected to stay until Saturday.

It is a first stay following her long winter absence that the ship spent in Mystic Seport getting shipshape for a new season. She has undergone a serious maintenance including hauling out (watch video) and afterward passed a rigorous US Coast Guard inspection.

The Freedom Schooner Amistad and her crew under command of Captain John Beebe-Center is ready to get her anywhere carrying the legacy (watch video) of the Amistad.

Check the 2009 season Amistad calendar to learn more about her voyages.

Come visit Amistad at Mystic Seaport on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of Memorial Day weekend! Open 9-5pm. 

Freedom Schooner Amistad was built at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport and launched in 2000. 

Recently she was hauled out there after two years long  2007-2008 Atlantic Freedom Tour commemorating 200th Anniversary of Abolition of Slave Trade.  Amistad reconnected to the roots of original Amistad story of 1839 by visiting Sierra Leone in West Africa - the homeland of Sengbe Pieh and the La Amistad captives.

Click on events to see details

Special opportunity to tour the Amistad for free today!

On Thursday, May 21, the Freedom Schooner Amistad will be in New London, CT and open for tours from 1 to 5 pm at Waterfront Park's Amistad Pier. FREE

Custom House Maritime Museum in New London hosts a permanent exhibition "Amistad Journey to Freedom" and is one of Amistad's partners. New London's Custom House is historically connected to the Amistad Case of 1839. 

Check the Museum's program for the extended Memorial Day weekend

GOOD NEWS!  Schooner Amistad is back in the water, several coats of antifouling bottom paint, some seems reaculked and she is ready to sail again. She was launched in Mystic Seaport and soon will be sailing again.

Photo by Kaari Sullivan.

Captain Bill Pinkney , Master Emeritus of the Freedom Schooner Amistad presents the Amistad's Legacy - Confronting the Past; Transforming the Future.  Our new video "Connected" is intended to be a trailer for a longer documentary film utilizing many hours of footage that we captured in HD Video during the visit of the Amistad in Freetown in Sierra Leone. 

Watch in HQ (High Quality) on Schooner Amistad's YouTube Channel

After more than 16,000 nautical miles and two transatlantic crossings, the Freedom Schooner Amistad was hauled from the water at Mystic Seaport Museum on Thursday April 30th at 12:30 for critically needed repairs and a periodical, obligatory US Coast Guard inspection. The haul out was imperative to permanently repair a serious leak that first appeared while the schooner was visiting West Africa last year. Everybody was surprised how good Amistad's bottom looks after 25 month in the water including long period in tropics and winter in frozen Mystic River.

We invite you to come to Mystic Seaport within next two weeks - Take the advantage of unique opportunity of seeing two very different traditional wooden vessels on the dry - Schooner Amistad and Charles W. Morgan are hauled out right now.

International Student Videoconference

International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

WEDNESDAY, 25 March 2009

9:30 AM to 1:00 PM (Eastern Time)

Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium

United Nations Headquarters

Live Webcast by UN Television & UN Web Services

 

International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

 

Student Videoconference at UN
25 March 2009

United Nations Headquarters
New York City

The transatlantic slave trade is a major element of global history.  The forced movement of West African people across the Atlantic resulted in unprecedented forms of cruelty and subjugation, racism, inequality, shifts in cultural identity, a marked decline in the West African population and significant economic and agricultural developments in the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas.

Little is known about the 400-year long transatlantic slave trade and its lasting consequences felt throughout the world, or of the contribution of slaves to the building of the societies that enslaved them.  This lack of knowledge of history has had multiple negative effects. Most importantly, it has served to marginalize people of African descent across Europe and North and South America, as well as to normalize notions of superiority among some populations.

Amistad America partners for the second consecutive year with UN for activities in remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. A year ago the Freedom Schooner Amistad's crew joined the videoconference from the Atlantic Ocean while retracing the infamous Middle Passage on her way from Africa to America.

The Freedom Schooner Amistad is an icon that represents the ideals behind the UN remembrance program. It serves as a vehicle for involving young people throughout the world with the issues of slavery, racism, and the universal quest for freedom and justice.

On 25 March 2009, high school students assembled at UNHQ will have the opportunity to interact with peers around the world who have been studying the Transatlantic Slave Trade.  Students from the following regions will be participating in the 25 March videoconference:

• North America

• Africa

• Europe

• Caribbean

The entire videoconference event will be webcast and students around the world will be able to participate 'live' by sending comments and questions to United Nations Headquarters in New York during the videoconference.

After the event students in New York will be able to visit an exhibit in the public Lobby of the United Nations where they will be able to view drums from Cameroon and other parts of Africa and learn about the socio-cultural impact of drums throughout the Slave Trade.

Check The Activities Program and Learn More