Voice across the centuries –– a slave ship speaks
BY LINDA EVANSEditor, RichmondNow
Shackles from among the largest collection found in one place were among the wreckage of the Henrietta Marie. The Henrietta Marie was loaded with ivory, sugar, cotton, coffee and other African and Caribbean goods when it went down. But more historically significant, it contained tangible objects from the early years of the slave trade.
Discovered by divers in 1972 and excavated in 1983, the Henrietta Marie is thought to be the world’s largest source of early slave-trade objects.
Artifacts of the Henrietta Marie will be on display at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art Feb. 3–May 18 in conjunction with the University’s commemoration of Jamestown 2007, the 400th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. “A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie” is made possible by University trustee Guy A. Ross, R’73, and the John D. Evans Foundation. A national tour is sponsored by the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and General Motors.
Among the artifacts uncovered during the initial excavation in 1983 was the largest collection of slave shackles and English-made pewter-ware from the reign of William III found in one place. The exhibit will include some of those items, along with Venetian glass trade beads, stock iron trade bars, ivory tusks, basins, spoons, bottles and the ship’s bell, inscribed “Henrietta Marie 1699.”
“To know the artifacts from the Middle Passage have survived is to assume a grave responsibility,” said Madeleine Burnside, executive director of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, speaking of the second “leg” of a journey that took such ships first to West Africa, then to the Caribbean and, finally, back to England. “Brutal, acutely depressing, completely fascinating—this is a tale of terrible times and humans living at the edge of life.”
Oswald Sykes, a founding member of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers and a liaison with the national exhibit, said it is a moving experience to stand near the artifacts. “Somehow, in the presence of these artifacts, looking at the shackles, especially the ones that were probably used for children, you come face-to-face with yourself in a way that no book or television program would allow.
Ship’s bell from the Henrietta Marie, 1699.
“If African Americans have survived the centuries since slavery began, it is in large measure due to the courage, strength, thoughtfulness and will to survive exhibited by our ancestors. All this in spite of being forced to travel the sea routes of death and suffering in vessels like the Henrietta Marie. They were determined to go on living.”
Programming connected with the exhibit includes a lecture, “Can the Object Speak?” by Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., associate professor of music, University of Pennsylvania, Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Camp Concert Hall. The University’s Ngoma African Dance Ensemble will give an opening performance, accompanied by drummers. From 8:30–9:30 p.m., there will be a reception and preview of the exhibit in the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art.
K–12 teachers are invited to explore possibilities for multidisciplinary learning and teaching at a teacher workshop Feb. 3 from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Call 287-6324 for registration information.