BLACK HISTORY AT MARINERS’ MUSEUM AND PARK HIGHLIGHTS SLAVE RESISTANCE

NEWPORT NEWS

An influential underwater archaeologist kicks off Black History Month at The Mariners’ Museum and Park this week when Kamau Sadiki of Diving

With A Purpose appears as the guest speaker in the first Evening Lecture of 2023 on Thursday, February 2 at 7 p.m. Sadiki is a lead instructor and board member of DWP, a non-profit organization whose mission is to document and preserve the stories of Transatlantic Slave Trade ships. Sakiki was among the first to identify and explore the wreck of Clotilda – the last known slave ship to the United States and central to Netflix’s documentary Descendant. On February 2, Sadiki will share stories of ancestral memory, connectivity, resistance, and the resilience of the human spirit through the wrecks of the slave ships, São José Paquete de Africa and Clotilda, of the 18th and 19th centuries.

On Feb. 10 and Feb. 24, the Mariners will present renowned historian, author, and director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center John V. Quarstein. On Friday, Feb. 10, Quarstein will give a Civil War talk about the Creole Rebellion, the most successful slave revolt in U.S. history. The revolt occurred on November 7, 1841, when enslaved persons took over the ship Creole that sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia, en route to New Orleans. Madison Washington led other enslaved people aboard in a successful rebellion. Once they reached Nassau, Bahamas, they were automatically free since Great Britain outlawed slavery in 1834. Despite numerous American diplomatic and court actions, 128 people gained their freedom in the Creole Rebellion.

And unfortunately, Tyre Nichols met a fate that no human should ever meet, For after having been beaten almost unrecognizably, he was left lying in a street, beneath several, policemen ʼ s feet!

His head was swollen,his eyes beaten shut too and his upper body bones broken,so there was then nothing that he could do, as waves of blood ran down from his neck, a hellish beaten that he would never forget!

On Feb. 24, he will give a Hampton Roads History presentation about four freedom fighters from Southampton County, VA. Both lectures are in person and online at noon.

The lectures are free to Mariners’ Museum Members and included in $1 admission. These lectures are also available virtually and are free to watch. Advance registration is required.

For more information, visit MarinersMuseum. org/Events & Exhibits. The Mariners’ Museum and Park is located at 100 Museum Drive, Newport News, VA 23606.