Hartford, CT – May 30, 2008 – Four of Amistad's Sierra Leonean crew members, who recently sailed the Freedom Schooner across the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa, were welcomed  to Connecticut by Congressman John B. Larson (D-CT) at his office in Hartford, Connecticut. 

Sierra Leonean crew members joined the vessel in January 2008, after it visited Freetown, Sierra Leone, that nation's capital, as part of Amistad's 2007-2008 Atlantic Freedom Tour. 

Sierra Leone is the home of the original La Amistad captives, who were taken from Africa to Cuba aboard the slave ship, Tecora, sold and put aboard La Amistad. The captives' homeland is the area of the present-day Sierra Leone. The leader of the historic revolt aboard that vessel, Sengbe Pieh, is revered there as a national hero. Connecticut's official flagship and tall ship ambassador – Amistad – while in Freetown was called "Sengbe's boat" by thousands of local visitors.

Pictured left to right: 

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