Middle school links about the history of slavery

Amistad and the History of Slavery

"Amistad," the historical movie by Stephen Speilberg, has sparked new interest in the story of the sailing ship Amistad and the slaves who revolted off the coast of Cuba in 1839. Here are several websites that can help students learn more about the Amistad tragedy and about the slave trade and slavery in the United States and the world.

Amistad -- This project of the town of Mystic Seaport, Connecticut is subtitled "Race and the Boundaries of Slavery in Antebellum Maritime America."

Yahoo's Full Coverage of Amistad: Yahoo offers a selection of links related to Amistad. Unfortunately, the excellent "Amistad: The Movie" official site is no longer available on the Web. But many other good links are available.

Abolition-Slavery Resources -- You'll find an easy-to-read-and-use display of slavery links on the homepage of "Needle in a Cyberstack," a reference site for teachers and students.

Anti-Slavery Report -- As the American Anti-Slavery Society documents, slavery still exists in the world. The society says as many as 200 million humans are enslaved, some in much the same way American slaves existed before the Civil War.

Museum of Slavery -- A discussion of slavery with many links, maintained by a history professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Frederick Douglass -- The complete autobiography of the famous runaway slave and anti-slavery adovocate is available on-line. "I was born in Tuckahoe... in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday." Wonderful on-line resource.

The Ship Used in Amistad -- The Nautical Heritage Society, based in Long Beach, California, supplied the 1840s-replica ship used to portray the Amistad. Both Dreamworks and Nautical Heritage Society officials were struck to find that the 145-foot long, 101-foot high, 130-ton "Californian" was not just similar to the original Amistad, it was almost exact duplicate of it.

A Slave Ship Speaks -- This site recounts the history of the slave ship Henrietta Marie, which sank near Key West in 1701 after delivering a consignment of African captives to the island of Jamaica.

The Underground Railroad -- A site maintained by the National Park Service providing information on the secret escape routes of slaves in the southern United States. Lists museums and monuments related to the railroad in various states.

Children's Books with Slavery Themes -- Compiled by the Museum of African Slavery, which advises teachers and parents to review books first.

Teaching Slavery -- Sources identified by the Museum of African Slavery that may be useful to history teachers looking for pedagogical advice.

A Slave Autobiography -- Kidnapped in the interior of what is now southeast Nigeria in about 1756 and sold to Europeans at the coast, Olaudah Equiano was an extraordinary person. By his intelligence and resourcefulness Equiano managed to make enough money to redeem himself from his master within ten years of his enslavement. Read about Equiano and his personal narrative.

Slavery Reparations -- This site documents current attempts to obtain money and apologies for the descendants of slaves and to secure the return of African artifacts.

AMISTAD AHOY!

WHEN STEVEN SPIELBERG WAS LOOKING FOR A SLAVE SHIP,
THE LONG BEACH-BASED NAUTICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY
HAD JUST THE VESSEL

Published: Saturday, December 13, 1997
Long Beach Press Telegram

By John Woolard
Staff writer

Mike Neipris, a marketing man by trade, insists he never really wanted to be part of the movie
business.

So how is it that he wound up working closely with director Steven Spielberg on the set of
Spielberg's new film, ``Amistad''?

Well, for one thing, Neipris had access to something Spielberg needed for the movie about a
slave ship -- a ship.

Neipris is director of marketing and development of the Nautical Heritage Society, a Long
Beach-based nonprofit organization that operates the 1840s-era replica sailing vessel,
Californian.

Neipris read early last year that Spielberg and his company, Dreamworks, were planning to
shoot a movie about the 1839 uprising on the Amistad, in which 53 Africans being held captive
on the slave ship revolted, killed all but two of the Spanish crew, and unsuccessfully tried to sail
back to their West African homeland of Sierra Leone before being captured off the coast of Long
Island and tried for murder.

``When I read that, I called Dreamworks and let them know that we had a ship available that they
might be interested in,'' Neipris says. ``Two weeks later, we were up there talking to them.''

Both Dreamworks and Nautical Heritage Society officials were struck to find that the 145-foot
long, 101-foot high, 130-ton Californian was not just similar to the original Amistad, it was
almost an exact duplicate of it.

``The Californian is about 15 feet longer than the Amistad was, but that's the only difference,''
Neipris says. ``Otherwise, it has the same design the Amistad had. The Dreamworks people
were amazed.''

So a deal was made, and the Californian, painted black and given minor refurbishment to
resemble the Amistad, set out to sea last April for five days of onboard filming some five miles
off the coast of San Pedro.

``It's awe-inspiring to watch (Spielberg) work,'' says Neipris, who -- along with 12 staff
members of the heritage society and several of their friends -- was an extra in the film. ``I was
sitting 2 feet from him and I was thinking, `I'm in a position right now that a lot of people in the
film business would love to be in.' We were making a bit of film history.

``Plus,'' Neipris says, ``the food was good.''

The attention is good, too, Neipris says, not because it's bringing him his personal 15 minutes of
fame, but because it's bringing notice to the Californian and to the heritage society's mission of
educating people about the importance of the sea in their everyday lives.

The Californian is the brainchild of Steve Christman, the founder and president of the Nautical
Heritage Society.

Christman, a retired businessman and sea lover who raised through donations the $1.5 million
needed to build the Californian in 1984, patterned it after the ship C.W. Lawrence that ran
aground in 1850 at San Francisco's Golden Gate and was abandoned.

The Californian, which can travel as fast as 14 knots (about 20 mph) has been designated the
official state ship, Neipris says.

The vessel and its full-time live-aboard crew makes about 300 journeys a year, many of them
three-hour educational voyages for fourth-graders up and down the California coast.

This year, for example, 58 fourth-grade classes from the Long Beach Unified School District
will participate in programs on the 49-passenger ship.

``A lot of these kids have never even seen the ocean,'' Neipris says. ``We want them to know
how the sea affects them. We take the normal curriculum of the classroom -- math, science,
social sciences, history, geography, etc. -- and apply it to being on a ship.''

In addition, there also are open-to-the-public tours out of ports ranging from Chula Vista in the
San Diego area to Bodega Bay in Northern California.

Since its launching in San Diego 13 years ago, the nine-sail Californian has traveled
approximately 300,000 miles. It has made four voyages to Hawaii, two to Canada, and a relief
trip to Mexico to aid victims of the 1985 earthquake.

The ship has tested other films' waters as well. It also was portrayed as a slave ship in the
limited-release film ``Ill Gotten Gains,'' and in a recently shown Discovery Channel
documentary about slave ships.

``The best thing about being in a movie is that it helps call attention to our other programs,
especially the educational ones,'' Neipris says.

For information about the Nautical Heritage Society or the Californian, call (800) 432-2201.

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