Let freedom ring

By Katie Young, Freeman staff 09/25/2006

KINGSTON - A replica of the Amistad, a 19th century Spanish cargo ship that docked in Connecticut with African slaves and initiated a major legal debate, will make port in Kingston next month.

The Freedom Schooner Amistad will be docked in front at the Hudson River Maritime Museum in the Rondout area in Kingston Oct. 14-19, and will be making stops at Poughkeepsie and Haverstraw as part of its area tour.

"We are looking at this as a community event," said Ulster County Human Relations Director Arlene Reynolds. "It's a tourism attraction too, but we wanted to embrace it as a community event, because the whole Amistad incident had to do with races coming together."

The Amistad's history has become a symbol of the fight for freedom. Although not intended as a slave ship, the 129-foot schooner was transporting about 53 African slaves near Cuba when the captives rebelled and took control of the ship. The vessel first washed ashore on Long Island in 1839 and made its way to Connecticut, where it docked, launching a federal trial that found the trip across the Atlantic to be illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the decision in United States vs. The Amistad in 1841, and the 35 surviving slaves returned home with their freedom.

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said Rick Remsnyder, acting director of the Ulster County Department of Tourism. "This is great for kids - a free history lesson right on the Hudson."

-Jim