The Slave Wrecks Project
The Slave Wrecks Project (SWP) is a network of institutions and individuals dedicated to protecting, studying, and interpreting shipwreck sites.[1] It does this to promote public education, conservation, and community engagement. SWP seeks to connect local, national, and international collaborators as a path to share knowledge and histories. SWP is co-coordinated by The George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
History
In 2008, the project was created and named "African Slave Wrecks and Diaspora Heritage Routes Project," a collaboration between The George Washington University (GWU), the United States National Park Service Submerged Resources Center,[2] and IZIKO Museums of South Africa.[3] The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and Diving With a Purpose joined SWP in 2011. In 2015, the organization changed its name to Slave Wrecks Project, and NMAAHC and GWU became co-coordinators.[4]
The investigation of the São José Paquete d'África was the first major project undertaken by the network. The São José was a Portuguese vessel that sank in 1794 off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, while traveling between Mozambique and Brazil.[5] SWP announced its discovery and formally identified the São José in 2015, resulting in significant international press coverage.[6] The collaboration between SWP's team of archaeologists, historians, conservators, divers, and descendants brought the story of this vessel—and the 512 captive Mozambicans who were aboard when it sank— into global memory.
The search for and recovery of the São José provided an opportunity for international discussions about the legacy of the African slave trade. For communities in Mozambique, South Africa, and Brazil, this announcement was a moment of healing. Artifacts recovered from the São José Paquete d'África are now on display at NMAAHC in Washington, D.C., USA, and Iziko Museums of South Africa in Cape Town.[7]
Since 2015, SWP has continued to expand its global work, engaging in projects centered on the histories of global slavery and its living legacies, with a focus on maritime environments. The intentional emphasis on collaborations that cross disciplinary and geographic boundaries places SWP in an ideal location to coordinate projects to uncover more submerged pasts.
Programs
The Slave Wrecks Project Academy: The Slave Wrecks Project Academy was launched in 2022 and saw its first cohort's meeting in Senegal. The academy aims to offer opportunities for advanced study in maritime archaeology related to the slave trade, enabling students from across the African diaspora to participate in fieldwork and classroom training led by SWP's staff.[8]
Community Stewards of Heritage Program: In 2018, SWP launched the Community Stewards program in Mozambique. Designed to empower local communities to protect their own heritage, this program trains community members to scuba dive and conduct site documentation. Non-divers learn about and participate in terrestrial archaeology, conservation work, and oral history research to become stewards.
Early Career Internships: SWP co-hosts interns in Biscayne National Park, targeting graduate students with an interest in Afro-descended histories and archaeology.
Youth Engagement: SWP collaborates with various youth programs to promote early engagement in underwater archaeology. This includes the Youth Diving With a Purpose program, Swim to Scuba, and work with Junior Scientists in the Sea.
Teacher Education: Since 2024, the Slave Wrecks Project has run the Difficult Legacies, Difficult Histories Program in Lisbon, Portugal, in partnership with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. This workshop focuses on equipping teachers to have conversations with students about the transatlantic slave trade, racial slavery, and racism in an informed way, aiming to foster a deeper understanding of these complex histories and their contemporary implications.
Areas of Work
Africatown, USA
The Slave Wrecks Project collaborates with partners in Africatown, Alabama, conducting terrestrial archaeological work, providing swimming and scuba diving training to local youth groups,[4] and engaging in other forms of public interpretation and outreach.[9] In 2018, SWP joined the effort to locate the Clotilda. This last known American-owned slave ship brought captive Africans from Benin to Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA, in 1862. [10]
Biscayne National Park, USA
Since 2012, the Slave Wrecks Project has been conducting underwater archaeological work in Biscayne National Park in Florida. SWP's work with its partners provides opportunities for underwater archaeology training. In 2018, the National Park Service - Submerged Resource Center began leading SWP's efforts to document shipwrecks in collaboration with the National Park Service - Southeast Archeological Center, Diving With a Purpose, and the Society of Black Archaeologists.
Brazil
In 2023, the Slave Wrecks Project first visited Brazil to assist in the recovery of the Camargo. The Camargo is a wrecked slave ship off the coast of Brazil. The AfrOrigens Institute leads its investigation.[4] AfrOrigens and the SWP are collaborating to document the wreck, alongside Quilombo Santa Rita do Bracuí, a descendant community, to explore the legacies of this critical history.[11]
Mozambique
Since 2013, the Slave Wrecks Project has collaborated with the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane and Centro de Arqueologia Investigação e Recursos da Ilha de Moçambique (CAIRIM). They primarily focus on the Mozambique Island region.[12]
In 2023, a SWP team began documenting the site of L'Aurore. The L'Aurore was a vessel carrying over 600 enslaved Africans when it sank in a storm in 1790. At the time, it was within sight of Mozambique Island. Days before the wreck, those held captive on the L'Aurore attempted a mutiny and had been repressed. During the storm, the crew refused to open the hatches, fearing another rebellion. This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of captive Africans trapped below deck as the ship sank.[4]
Portugal
Beginning in 2013, members of the Slave Wrecks Project team began collaborating with Portuguese colleagues to conduct research in Portuguese archives, focusing on the story of the slave ship São José Paquete d’África.
In 2020, SWP began to pursue new angles and sources through a new collaboration with CHAPAS. Subsequently, SWP has worked closely with a growing coalition of Portuguese institutions, including the Museum of Lisbon[13] and the National Museum of Natural History and Science, to support their efforts to challenge and change these public and scholarly narratives surrounding the slave trade.
Senegal
SWP has supported a network of researchers based at the Laboratoire d'Archéologie, Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN), at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop since 2014. Through nearly a decade of dive training and skill-building, SWP is helping its national partners establish West Africa's first maritime archaeological team, composed of and led by archaeologists from Africa.[14]
The SWP's global training has allowed Senegalese partners to participate in fieldwork, conservation, and workshops in St. Croix, U.S.V.I., Mozambique, and South Africa.
South Africa
In 2008, the organization that became SWP focused primarily on several sites in southern Africa. One of which would be identified as the São José Paquete D’África. The SWP and others continue to identify, explore, and report on other ships in South Africa that bring the stories of the enslaved into memory.[15]
St. Croix, USA
Since 2015, the Slave Wrecks Project has developed a network of collaborators devoted to exploring the history of slavery and its legacies on St Croix. SWPs in St. Croix include exhibits, terrestrial archaeology, and training for collaborators and students.[16]
Structure
The Slave Wrecks Project collaborates with many international partners to achieve its mission. The SWP network spans a growing list of national, regional, and at-large partnerships with institutions, researchers, and community groups in South Africa, Mozambique, Senegal, Brazil, Portugal, St. Croix, U.S.V.I., Florida, U.S.A., and Alabama, USA.[1]
The SWP is led by an International Leadership Team (ILT) composed of representatives from the following partners:
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- The George Washingtohttps://www.gwu.edu/ University
- Instituto ArOrigens
- Diving With a Purpose
- NPS Submerged Resources Center
- Cultural Engineering and Anthropology Research Unit (URICA)
- Centro de Arqueologia Investigação e Recursos Ilha de Moçambique at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Further reading
- Lucas, Julian. "Dredging Up the Ghostly Secrets of Slave Ships," The New Yorker, Feb 24, 2025
- Mureithi, Carlos. "' People did not go quietly': divers explore wreck of 18th-century slave ship where mutiny took place," The Guardian, Oct 16, 2024.
- Chanson, Rachel. "African scuba divers rewrite a 'settlers' narrative of the slave trade," The Washington Post, Nov 17, 2022.
External Link
This article "The Slave Wrecks Project" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:The Slave Wrecks Project. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Slave Wrecks Project". National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "Partnerships - Submerged Resources Center (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "Slave Wrecks Project | Department of Anthropology | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences | The George Washington University". Department of Anthropology | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lucas, Julian (2025-02-24). "Dredging Up the Ghostly Secrets of Slave Ships". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ Rhodan, Maya. "African American History Museum to Host Artifacts from Wrecked Slave Ship". TIME. Archived from the original on 2024-09-16. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "The Slave Ship - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2015-11-01. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "Reclaiming History and Repairing Injustice". www.searchablemuseum.com. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "African scuba divers rewrite a 'settlers' narrative' of the slave trade". The Washington Post. 2022-11-17. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "Africatown Alabama, U.S.A." National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "The Clotilda Has Been Found". National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ McCoy, Terrence (03/31/2024). "The underwater hunt for the lost ship of an American slave trafficker". The Washington Post. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ Mureithi, Carlos (2024-10-16). "'People did not go quietly': divers explore wreck of 18th-century slave ship where mutiny took place". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "Museu de Lisboa". museudelisboa.pt (in português). Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "A Smithsonian Museum Sharpens Focus on the History of Slavery (Published 2022)". 2022-10-14. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "Slave Wrecks Project". global.si.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ "The Slave Wrecks Project at Christensted and Buck Island (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
