UNESCO Educational Resource materials developed for the Transatlantic Slave Trade Project

Slave Voyages

The Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans

Educational resource for teachers

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UNESCO, 103 pages

 

Teaching About the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Ideas and Proposals to enhance In-service and Pre-service Teacher Education programmes from a Multidisciplinary Perspective

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UNESCO, 15 pages

The Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project: An Evaluation

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UNESCO and Norwegian Agency for development Co-operation (Norad), 48 pages

 

Slave Voices: The Sounds of Freedom

Rejecting Slavery, Pursuing Freedom: The Slaves Write Back

 Report about texts produced by enslaved African peoples

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UNESCO and Norad, 60 pages

 

Struggles against slavery

Descriptive Programme to Commemorate the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition Year 2004

UNESCO, 105 pages

February 6, 2008

Dear Samuel S. S. Sesay and students of Government Model Senior Secondary School,

We are writing to you from our eighth grade classroom at Worthington Hooker School in New Haven, Connecticut.  We have been studying the Amistad Revolt.  We also read the Samuel S. S. Sesay’s winning essay!  Here is what some of the students had to say about the importance of this historical incident, their lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and some questions they have for you:

          “As an African American the opportunity to learn about the hardships of slavery is something I take full advantage of.  The Amistad men, women and children seem to symbolize the strength and pride our race has.  For a group of black people to gain their freedom in a court of law back then was unheard of.  Actually blacks still get the worse treatment in the judicial system.  Their case was the stepping stone to other lawsuits for freedom such as the case of Dred Scott.  Some abolitionists began to open schools for free Africans.  The Amistad case helped many slaves in the long run by convincing them to fight for freedom.”  - Michael J.

          “When the Africans revolted on the Amistad, they kept Montez and Ruiz alive to navigate the ship back to Africa.  However, at night the sailors would steer the ship back towards Cuba, all the while moving northward.  This is how they ended up in New Haven, Connecticut, my home town.  They were locked up in a county jail in New Haven, where they awaited trial, since they’d been accused of murder and piracy.   This historic moment in time is so intriguing to me because it took place in the very city I live in today.  Sengbe Pieh, a great leader and courageous man, walked on the same ground as I do. 

          There is an Amistad Memorial at the New Haven Green, and every time I look at it I remember my personal connection with this major breakthrough of abolishing slavery in America.  I am very proud to be a civilian in a city where Sengbe and the other Africans were set free.

In my own personal life, I spend a lot of time playing soccer, or football, as you probably know it.  I am very fortunate to have nice fields to play on and a team to play with.  Do you play soccer/football?  When I am not playing soccer I enjoy reading and playing ping-pong which is also called table tennis.  Do you know of ping-pong?  I have a ping-pong table in my basement where I play daily with my sister.  I also own a dog, whom I walk every day after school.  Do you have any pets or animals you take care of?  I would one day like to visit Africa, maybe even Sierra Leone.  From the slide show and words of Ms. Perry, it seems that life where you live is very different from mine in New Haven.  However, the Amistad revolt connects us very strongly.”  - Charlotte B.

          “The Amistad incident is important for various reasons.  The rebellious actions of the people were admirable and inspiring.  Risking your life to stand up for what you believe in requires strong leadership skills, and bravery.  To me the Amistad incident was important because it has taught me to stand up for what I believe is right.  I know my situations aren’t comparable to those of the Amistad but I can still be a leader, just like in the Amistad incident.”  - Tiffany G.

          “I feel like the Amistad incident is really important to history and should be taught in school just as much as the stories of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  To hear of African slaves revolting and trying to gain back control of their lives is empowering.  It is a story that evokes perseverance and passion.  This is also a story that proves the heart and intelligence of Africans everywhere.

          Life here is rather different from yours from what I have been told.  We do not have to pay for school and have organized classrooms.  It was quite upsetting to hear that you have to pay for an education.  It is differences like these that make me sad.  Here clean water, a place to stay, and food are pretty much guaranteed and there I learned that for some people it is hard to have one meal a day for a family.  Although I am blessed with necessities, I admire your people for going on and fighting every day.”   - Brianna B.

    “I’m privileged to be able to live in such a fair and modern country as the United States.  Despite our good fortune, many people just take it for granted.  There are some differences between schools here and in Sierra Leone, I’ve realized.  The classrooms are composed of at most twenty children in our school.  Each classroom is also decorated and adorned with student work, maps, posters, and such.  The most shocking difference for me is that most students here dread going to school and find it a waste of their time, while in Sierra Leone it is considered a privilege to be a student.”   -Xuan D.

    “I saw pictures of your school in a slide show.  It was much different from the schools in America.  I wondered if you learned less because of the lack of school materials.  We were also shown a picture of your family aboard the Amistad.  You have a very big family.  Do you like having a big family or not?  I have many siblings and there are good and bad things about it.  – Isha N.

    “Is it hard learning in Africa?  What is the learning environment like?  How long is your school day?  What do you usually do after school?  What kind of food do you eat?  Is it the same thing every day?  How big is your house?  Do you walk or drive to school?  Do you like it where you live?”   -Lana B.

 Samuel and students of Government Model Secondary School, we really hope that you can understand our words and write back to us.  We look forward to hearing from you and learning more about your life.

Yours Truly,

Grade 8 Students

Worthington Hooker Middle School

804 State Street

New Haven, CT 06511

This is a test

Comment from webmaster:  I am publishing this to prove that whatever you will submit will get  posted - we may have some delays in the process as I am physicaly in Sierra Leone now and have a limited internet acess- Keep posting please - next time for REAL!

Ashia Gibbs, catching up on her Amistad history, was preparing to send her pen pal a letter in Sierra Leone. But, she learned, computers aren’t widely available there. And snail mail? Spotty.

Gibbs is a student in Eden Stein’s 8th grade social studies class at the Worthington Hooker Middle School (in its temporary quarters on State Street). Her pen pal is 8th grader Samuel S.S. Sesay, a student in the Government Model Senior Secondary School in Freetown, Sierra Leone, New Haven’s sister city.

Sesay had won Freetown’s essay contest on the significance of the Amistad slave revolt, one of the many events, from Halifax to London to Freetown, occasioned by the ongoing tour of the Amistad schooner. The schooner — commemorating New Haven’s role in the Amistad saga — left New Haven on June 21. It is now on the midway point of its voyage in Sierra Leone to mark the anniversary of the end of the transatlantic slave trade. Students at eight city schools are participating in pen-pal exchanges like Gibbs’ and Sesay’s with students in Freetown.
 
Despite the technical hurdles, they need not worry about their messages arriving, Kai Perry of the AMISTAD America Foundation told Hooker students during a visit Friday. Perry should know. In addition to being the communications director for the foundation, which organized the voyage of the replica of the iconic schooner, Perry was both a swimmer and a sailor in high school and college.

“That was pretty unusual,” she told a rapt group of Stein’s students (including Chavone Hampton, the front row left). “And I had friends really make fun of me, because, you know, there’s a stereotype that African-Americans don’t do those sports. Well, let me tell you, in Sierra Leone, those people know more about boats, swimming, and the sea than the people in Mystic [where the replica of the Amistad was built]. I’d like to have those friends see us now.”

Howdy Bowdy

Kerry got students like Michael Jefferson (pictured with his teacher Eden Stein) interested in some phrases she had learned in Krio, the pidgin English that is the lingua franca, especially among the unschooled, in Sierra Leone–where there is no education, by the way, except if you can afford to buy it.

“‘Howdy Bowdy,’” she explained, “means literally, ‘How is your body?’ and is generally the greeting for ‘How are you?’”

Jefferson answered Perry’s question about why Lisbon had been a port of call (after London) on the Amistad’s voyage. “The Portuguese,” he said, “were very involved in the slave trade.” “That’s right,” Perry answered. She reminded the kids that La Amistad was the name of the Cuban cargo ship the captives took over. The Tecora, the huge slave vessel, specifically built with horrendous racks for carrying hundreds of slaves on what came to be known as the Middle Passage across the Atlantic, was the Portuguese-built slave vessel, from which Singbe Pieh and the others escaped.

And so the lesson went. The kids wanted to know what Perry’s most moving moments were. In addition to being a hand on the Amistad in Sierra Leone (there’s a female captain as well as an old-guy Captain Emeritus, Bill Pinckney, who was the first black man to sail solo across the Atlantic), she said, from her heart that she had longed to go to Sierra Leone to touch base with her African ancestors. She spoke of the dire poverty of the country after its recent civil war, of the way the locals put her on a pedestal and called her wealthy just because she was an American. That was distressing, she said.

“Still,’ she said, “it was a dream come true.”

One of the kids wanted to know the cause of the recent civil war. Stein said they’d study that before they composed their letters to Samuel Sesay.

Getting the Mail Through to Sierra Leone

Oh, and how will the letters be exchanged? Perry explained that, to overcome the vagaries of the postal and computer systems, or non-systems, teachers in Sesay’s and other participating schools will gather the letters and bring them to the American embassy in Freetown. There the letters will be emailed and posted on the Amistad web site. The letter replies from kids at Worthington Hooker, Cross, Ross Woodward, Truman, Cross, MicroSociety Magnet, and Hillhouse will be posted there in return.

After more blessings, libations, and festivities in Freetown, which is New Haven’s sister city in Africa, the Amistad sets sail next week for Senegal and a visit to Goray Island’s infamous slave fortress. Then, by way of Cape Verde, she tries to make Charleston in May, and then triumphantly home to New Haven on June 21.

To check out the (soon to be written) letters from Ashia, Michael, Chavone, and all the latest on Amistad as she sails on her freedom tour, click here.

A complete lesson plan with set of Teacher's resources is available after registration

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