Freedom Schooner Amistad in Camden

Freedom Schooner Amistad is in port at the Wiggins Park Marina in Camden for a ten-day celebration April 11-20, 2002. The 129-foot vessel is docked at Wiggins Park Marina on the Camden Waterfront, located between the Battleship New Jersey and New Jersey State Aquarium.

The visit to the Greater Philadelphia Area is sponsored by the Delaware River Port Authority, Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Camden Waterfront Marketing Bureau.

Events throughout the festival (April 11-21) include a Gospel Fest and Interfaith Prayer Service, a marketplace featuring African American vendors, goods, crafts and interactive activities, dance groups, African cultural performers, drummers, and strolling entertainers.

Visitors will spend approximately one hour visiting the ship and related exhibits. An orientation pavilion will provide seating for viewing of a 14-minute film on The Amistad Incident and the construction of Freedom Schooner Amistad. Visitors will experience moving tales of the original cargo ship, its passengers and the history of the recreated ship, which sails under the command of Captain William “Bill” Pinkney, Master of Amistad. Distinguished in both maritime lore and history, Captain Pinkney is the first and only African American and one of only five Americans in history to have successfully solo circumnavigated the globe around Cape Horn under sail—an adventure he launched from Wiggins Park Marina. A highlight of the ten-day celebration is a series of evening discussions/panels on race relations and on a variety of subjects related to the Amistad Incident on April 15-19. For more information please call (856) 757-9400 or visit www.camdenwaterfront.com.

Amistad, launched on March 25, 2000, is a reproduction of the Spanish coastal cargo schooner La Amistad used in 1839 to ship 53 kidnapped West Africans destined for slavery from Havana, Cuba, to Puerto Principe, 26 mile northeast of Havana. This plan was thwarted when two days into the journey, a 25-year-old Mende rice farmer named Sengbe Pieh, led his people in a rebellion against their captors and eventually took command of the vessel. After 63 days, La Amistad and her African "cargo" were seized as salvage by the United States Naval Revenue Cutter USS Washington near Long Island, New York, and towed to Connecticut's New London harbor. Transported to and held in a New Haven jail, the Africans were charged with murder and piracy. This 1839 "incident" took on historic proportions when former President John Quincy Adams argued on behalf of the La Amistad captives and won the case in the defense of the Africans in 1841. The Amistad Incident of 1839, while it did not set legal precedence, is considered to be the first human rights case in United States History argued successfully in favor of Africans before the United States Supreme Court.

The visit to the Greater Philadelphia Area and related activities are organized and managed under the direction of the Amistad Host Committee. Members of the Host Committee include representatives of Philadelphia’s tourism industry, professors of African-American studies from local universities, area business leaders and representatives of churches throughout the region. A division of the Cooper’s Ferry Development Association, Camden Waterfront Marketing Bureau is committed to promoting the exciting attractions along the Camden Waterfront and the two-sided Delaware River Waterfront, including the Battleship New Jersey, New Jersey State Aquarium, Tweeter Center, Camden Riversharks and Campbell’s Field, Wiggins Park Marina, Camden Children’s Garden, South Jersey Performing Arts Center, Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center and the historic Walt Whitman House.

AMISTAD America, Inc. is a national, non-profit educational organization. Its mission is to promote reconciliation and harmony among races through ownership and operation of Freedom Schooner Amistad. Amistad visits ports nationally and internationally as an ambassador for friendship and goodwill. It serves as an icon and catalyst for teaching the historic lessons of perseverance, cooperation, leadership and justice inherent in the Amistad Incident of 1839 and it is a floating classroom and monument to the millions of souls that were broken or lost as a result of the insidious Transatlantic Slave Trade. The home port for Freedom Schooner Amistad is New Haven, Connecticut. Amistad is available for tours and public and private sails.

Public Visitation Hours:

Monday through Friday 2pm to 5pm

Weekends 9am to Noon & 1pm to 5pm

Fee for ship tour: $5 - adults; $3 - children 16 and under; all other activities are free. Tickets, in the form of stickers, will be sold from the Wiggins Park Marina office adjacent to the dock.

For the most up-to-date information on the schedule for Freedom Schooner Amistad and the Amistad Freedom Awards, please visit their website at www.amistadamerica.org or call (203) 498-9000.

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Author: Press Release