203. Amistad Retold: New Haven and the 1839 Amistad Revolt

The New Haven Museum staff and their community partners have reinterpreted the Amistad story in an exhibition that takes a new angle on the familiar story of the Amistad.

 

The 1839 Amistad Revolt was led by 53 West African captives who were being trafficked from Havana’s slave markets on the schooner La Amistad after being kidnapped from their homeland. For nearly 19 months in New Haven, the Amistad captives worked closely with anti-slavery activists who formed the Amistad Committee and connected with networks of engaged citizens to organize and fundraise for their legal defense.

 

The New Haven Museum exhibition, “Amistad: Retold,” centers the people who led the 1839 revolt and their collective actions to determine their own lives. It also focuses on New Haven as the site of their incarceration and abolitionist organizing. 

 

My guests for this episode are award-winning historian, writer, and filmmaker Dr. Marcus Rediker, Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh, and Joanna Steinberg, the New Haven Museum’s Director of Learning and Engagement. Dr. Rediker will present, “Rethinking the Amistad Story” at the New Haven Museum on Thursday, April 3, 2025 at 6 p.m. This is a rare local opportunity to meet the historian whose work transformed the understanding of the Amistad revolt and was central to the recent re-interpretation of the New Haven Museum exhibit, “Amistad: Retold."

 

Don’t forget to register for Dr. Rediker’s upcoming lecture on April 3^rd at the New Haven Museum-the link with further information is here: https://www.newhavenmuseum.org/50304-2/

 

Be sure to visit Dr. Rediker’s  website at www.marcusrediker.com/ for information on his 2012 book The Amistad Rebellion, An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Rebellion published by Penguin Press.

 

 To watch his award-winning film about visiting Sierra Leonne, Ghosts of Amistad, go to the website www.ghostsofamistad.com

 

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This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at www.highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.

 

Follow host Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at WeHa Sidewalk Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!