To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Slave Wrecks Project (SWP) is a collaboration between the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Park Service, Diving With a Purpose, Iziko Museums of South Africa, Eduardo Mondlane University, the Society of Black Archaeologists, the University of the Virgin Islands, and other community partners that combines research and underwater and community-focused terrestrial archaeology with public engagement activities. These engagement activities include educational and training programs, museum exhibits, professional internships, and archival research. The SWP fosters public and scholarly understanding of the role of the African slave trade in shaping global history by using maritime and terrestrial archaeology as the vehicle for examining enslavement and its far-reaching global impacts, and the central role that this process played in constituting the modern world. Since 2010, our field efforts have been conducted both along the shores and under the waves in South Africa, Mozambique, Miami, Florida (Biscayne National Park), and St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. This symposium presents the results of SWP efforts to foster this understanding, engage local communities in uncovering and preserving their histories, and train local youth to build capacity in heritage management.

Other Keywords
Historic • Historical Archaeology • Underwater Archaeology • Slavery • Cultural Resources and Heritage Management • Zooarchaeology • African Diaspora • Material Culture and Technology • Cultural Heritage and Preservation • Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: INAA

Geographic Keywords
Republic of Botswana (Country) • Republic of Namibia (Country) • Republic of South Africa (Country) • Republic of Kenya (Country) • United Republic of Tanzania (Country) • Republic of Uganda (Country) • Gabonese Republic (Country) • Republic of the Congo (Country) • Democratic Republic of the Congo (Country) • Africa (Continent)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)

  • Documents (7)
Documents
  • African and Afro-Caribbean Cultural Identity, Vessel Function, and Inter-island Connectedness in Eighteenth- to Nineteenth-Century St. Croix, US Virgin Islands (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Gray. Meredith Hardy.

    This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of the Slave Wrecks Project, excavations at Christiansted National Historic Site on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, have resulted in the collection of thousands of artifacts associated with the Danish West India and Guinea Warehouse Complex. Within this assemblage, hundreds of sherds of Afro-Caribbean...

  • Another Form of Slave Ship: Local Nautical Technologies and Practices in the Persistence of the Senegambian Slave Trade (1818–1888) (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Pape Laity Diop.

    This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite its abolition by France in 1818, the slave trade continued along the coasts of Senegambia until 1888. When, in 1822, France created a special African naval squadron stationed at Gorée Island to patrol the West African coasts, slave traders in the Senegambia responded by developing new strategies to escape...

  • Archaeological Identification, Investigation, and Implications of the Portuguese Slaver São José Paquette de Africa (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jaco Boshoff.

    This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In December 1794 the São José Paquete de Africa foundered near Cape Town, South Africa, while transporting over 500 slaves from Mozambique destined for northeastern Brazil, resulting in the death of over 200 souls. This presentation reviews the process through which independent lines of archaeological and archival...

  • Engaging the Present by Uncovering the Past: Community Archaeology and the Legacy of Enslavement, Resistance, and Emancipation, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Meredith Hardy.

    This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since 2014, the National Park Service, as a partner in the Slave Wrecks Project, has conducted a community archaeology program as part of multiyear effort combining underwater and terrestrial archaeology with public engagement activities. Christiansted National Historic Site, and the Danish West India and Guinea...

  • Mozambican Maritime Landscapes of Slaving and Exchange: New Directions (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ricardo Duarte. Yolanda Duarte. Stephen Lubkemann.

    This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper focuses on ongoing and emergent archaeological investigations that are opening new vistas on Mozambique Island’s global maritime interactions over the last millennium. Providing a brief overview of the program of collaboration between the Slave Wrecks Project and Eduardo Mondlane University that...

  • Toward a Transformative Maritime Archaeology of the Slave Trade: Reflections from the Slave Wrecks Project Research Programs in Mozambique and South Africa (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Lubkemann. Paul Gardullo. Jaco Boshoff. Yolanda Pinto Duarte. David Morgan.

    This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Drawing on work in Mozambique and South Africa undertaken over the last five years this paper examines how the Slave Wrecks Project’s field research program and its stakeholder engagement initiatives have come to inform each other in profoundly transformative ways. Our investigations of specific slaver shipwrecks...

  • The Zooarchaeology of the Christiansted National Historic Site St. Croix, USVI (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicole Cannarozzi.

    This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Christiansted National Historic Site, located in the town of Christiansted on St Croix, US Virgin Islands, was a Danish military compound that served as a major trading hub dealing in the trade of enslaved Africans. As such, the compound was home to both Danish soldiers and the enslaved Africans on whom they...