[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 48 (Thursday, March 25, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  COMMEMORATING THE VISIT TO CUBA OF THE FREEDOM SCHOONER AMISTAD IN 
       RECOGNITION OF U.N. DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR SLAVERY VICTIMS

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                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 25, 2010

  Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, it is with enormous pride that I wish to 
inform my colleagues that the Freedom Schooner Amistad, a national 
human rights icon moored in New Haven, CT, is making history this week. 
As part of the United Nations commemoration of March 25 as the global 
Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Atlantic slave trade, the 
Amistad arrived Monday in Matanzas, Cuba, and today will sail for 
Havana.
  The Amistad entered Cuban waters on March 22, 2010 for a 10-day, two 
city Cuba tour that will culminate its recent Caribbean Heritage 
Voyage. The ship first visited Matanzas, site of a new UNESCO-
affiliated slavery museum. Today, the Amistad will sail into Havana 
Harbor to commemorate the historic ``triangle of trade'' connections 
between America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Tomorrow, the vessel 
will host a three-hour simulcast about the shared slave trade heritage, 
connecting Cuban students to classrooms across the Atlantic Ocean and 
at the U.N. in New York. In addition to public tours of the boat and 
academic panels on its history, the Cuba visits will focus on the 
impact of the slave trade on our transatlantic cultural heritage--
including religious ritual, film, music, dance, poetry and visits to 
former plantations.
  The sale of the Amistad captives in Havana was a small transaction in 
the thriving international slave trade. But the resulting events 
arguably turned the tide against slavery itself--and the historical 
connections across the modern African Diaspora are direct and profound.
  This visit is especially poignant because Amistad's own story began 
in Cuba. The original ship was built in Cuba. In 1839, the Amistad 
sailed from Havana, the center of the illegal slave trade. This will be 
the replica's first visit to Cuba--and it coincides with the tenth 
anniversary of its launch at Mystic Seaport Museum on March 25, 2000.
  The Amistad is a 140-foot replica of the two-masted black schooner 
that was at the center of the 1841 slave rebellion case argued 
successfully by John Quincy Adams, leading to the first U.S. Supreme 
Court case freeing African captives. The replica Amistad has visited 70 
domestic and international ports as a symbol of this human rights 
milestone.
  In 2008, the Amistad undertook a 14,000-mile transatlantic sail to 
Africa. On March 25 of that year, the Amistad was linked via satellite 
directly to the U.N. as the General Assembly voted to commemorate that 
date as the bicentennial of the pioneering British act that first 
outlawed the slave trade. Students from six countries sailed legs of 
the Africa voyage. Soon thereafter, the Amistad was designated as 
floating ambassador for the U.N. Permanent Memorial to Honour the 
Victims of Slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade. The boat's most recent 
port of call was Santo Domingo, for a week of programs for youths from 
the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
  During the two months after the current Caribbean tour, the vessel 
will visit five cities historically linked to the 19th century slave 
trade: Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, Washington, DC and Baltimore. The 
next heritage tour will include visits this summer to Boston, Halifax 
and seven Great Lakes ports, culminating in Chicago. In December, the 
Amistad sails back to Africa, including for celebrations of the 50th 
anniversary of the independence of Senegal. But for now, all eyes are 
on Cuba.

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