not less educated but their knowledge, wisdom and abilities was not 
valued


Angela

On 14 Jun 2009, at 16:30, arthur torrington wrote:

>
>  FYI
>  ------
>
>  
> A Maafa Ship: A proposal To recover Sunken pieces of African American 
> History
>
> From the rise and fall of the Roman and Greek Empires to the European 
> "Discovery" of the Americas, the story remains the same; for thousands 
> of years man's greed for gold and power has come with a relentless 
> price. The fuel supply of the past was human labor instead of oil. The 
> rich man pillaged in lands faraway, stealing and twisting the lives of 
> the poor and less educated, spilling their blood to build their 
> palaces and facilitate their lifestyles.
>
> The price in this case, has been a holocaust of epic proportions. It 
> is the West African Slave trade also known as Maafa.
>
> Historically speaking, the construction of great cities, palaces, 
> churches and civilization s meant progress. Railroads, schools, 
> agriculture were all necessary to further the growth of the new world. 
> But for some, progress came with shackles and chains. Ripped away from 
> their families and homeland to work as slaves for the white man; their 
> tragic truths left out of history books and museums; the secrets to 
> these unspeakable times buried with the slave ships that sunk while 
> transporting them . Slave Ships are also know as "slavers." It was 
> slave labor that built early America, yet little evidence of their 
> slave transport from West Africa to the United States has been found 
> leaving a huge gap in African American History … CURRENT OPPORTUNITY – 
> MAAFA -A SUNKEN SLAVE SHIP FOUND OFF THE WEST COAST OF FLORIDA AN 
> AFRICAN AMERICAN TREASURE; priceless keys to the past…
>
> A cast iron cannon sits 65 ft below the surface There is currently 
> rich historical evidence pointing to the discovery of a sunken slave 
> ship circa 1820-1840. The ship is approximately 22 miles off the coast 
> of Sarasota, Florida, just outside the legal jurisdiction of the 
> state. The vessel is most likely a British or American "Slaver" that 
> sunk in a hurricane and sits in approximately 65-80 feet of water.
>
> The reason we define this vessel as a slave ship is based on the cargo 
> of ivory tusk obviously coming from Africa. Photographs reveal 
> numerous tusks, cannons and artifacts.
>
> Although the ship may not be carrying the loot normally required to 
> warrant a search, the ship carries missing historical pieces of the 
> African American Holocaust Experience; priceless keys to the past…
>
> A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRADE
>
> African and African-American scholars call the slave trade the " 
> Maafa." "Maafa means "holocaust" or "great disaster" in Swahili. The 
> slaves were one element of a three-part economic cycle—the Triangular 
> Trade and its Middle Passage—which ultimately involved four 
> continents, four centuries and millions of people.
>
> Triangular trade is a historical term indicating trade between three 
> ports or regions. The trade evolved where a region had an export 
> commodity that was=2 0not required in the region from which its major 
> imports came. Triangular trade thus provided a mechanism for 
> rectifying trade imbalances.
>
> The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the Transatlantic slave trade, 
> was the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the "New 
> World" that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from 
> the 16th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were shipped from 
> West Africa and Central Africa and taken to the New World. European 
> slave traders, captured slaves through raids and kidnapping, but most 
> were obtained through coastal trading with elite Africans and Arabs. 
> Most contemporary historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12 million 
> Africans arrived in the New World, although the number of people taken 
> from their homestead is considerably higher.
>
> The most famous triangular trade in human history was the 18th century 
> =0 A trade between West Africa, the West Indies, and Europe 
> (alternatively: West Africa, the West Indies, and northern colonies in 
> British North America). Of these, the sea lane west from Africa was 
> the notorious Middle Passage; its cargo, abducted or recently 
> purchased African slaves.
>
> AMERICAN, BRITISH OR PIRATE?
>
> This allows us to assume that the ship sailed from West Africa with a 
> cargo of slaves and African Ivory for trade purposes. Whether the ship 
> originated in the United States bringing sugar, tobacco and cotton to 
> Europe or whether it originated in Europe bringing textiles, rum and 
> manufactured goods to Africa is still yet unknown.
>
> England outlawed slavery in 1808 but until the "MaafaD bell is found 
> and the ship and it's remains are brought up, no one knows for sure 
> where the ship originated.
>
> Despite the fact that somewhere between 9-12 million slaves were 
> transported by ship across the seas, the evidence and history thus far 
> lies solely with reconstruction of the Henrietta Marie.
>
> A SLAVE SHIP RECOVERED – 1972
>
> The Henrietta Marie is believed to be the world's largest source of 
> tangible objects from the early years of the slave trade. In 1699, the 
> Henrietta Marie sailed from London to New Calabar, West Africa, with a 
> cargo of pewter, beads, and other English goods, which were to be 
> exchanged for ivory and enslaved Africans. The next stop was Jamaica, 
> where the captain sold the cargo of Africans to plantation owners. On 
> the journey home, a storm sank the ship in the Straits of Florida in 
> July 1700, not to be discovered until 1972 by American diver, Melvin 
> A. Fisher. and later excavated.
>
> The significance of the Henrietta Marie increased after its initial 
> excavation in 1983. Among the artifacts uncovered were over 80 sets of 
> shackles, two cast-iron cannon, Venetian glass trade beads, and the 
> largest collection of English-made pewter-ware from the reign of 
> William III (Britain, 1689-
> 1702) ever found in one place. Also discovered werevstock iron trade 
> bars, ivory=2 0"elephant's teeth," basins, spoons, bottles, and the 
> ship's bell inscribed Henrietta Marie.
>
> An equally if not more valuable "treasure" is less tangible: the 
> wealth of information researchers have been able to uncover about the 
> complex maritime slave trade and the roots of racial inequality that 
> still exist today.
>
> PROPOSAL
>
> Artifacts from any aspect of the maritime slave trade are extremely 
> rare. The discovery team believes that the objects found at the site 
> of the Henrietta Marie may be similar to what lies beneath the ocean 
> with the unnamed vessel currently entitled,
>
> The Maafa. As such, any items recovered will prove to be a "gold mine" 
> of information about a pivotal period in African, European and 
> American History. We feel that this historical find would be of 
> significant importance to document the horrific reality of the African 
> American slave trade.
>
> THE ACTION PLAN PHASE 1 - DISCOVERY
>
> 2-3 months Pre-production
>
> Preliminary exploration and research for eventual recovery and 
> preservation of the Maafa Project
>
> Assessment of the wreck site
>
> Research
>
> Archeological assessment
>
> Mapping
>
> Historical film documentation wi ll be ongoing
>
> PHASE 2 - RECOVERY
>
> 3-6 months
>
> Full excavation of the Maafa dive site To include archeologists, 
> historians, and expert dive technicians Documentation & categorization 
> of artifacts
>
> Full film crew shooting to capture the recovery of history
>
> Bring home the missing pieces of history & return it to it's rightful 
> owners.
>
> PHASE 3
> - PUBLIC DISPLAY & REPARATIONS
>
> The recovery of The Maafa is much more than a treasure hunt, 0A it is 
> the recovery of lost history.
>
> It would be our intention to create a team of experts from the 
> Smithsonian, the entertainment world and various universities to build 
> a case against the slave trade exposing to the world the horrific 
> truth that went on for centuries. We would hope a fund could be 
> created from the sale of the possible gold, antiquities and riches 
> found on board this vessel to be catalogued and documented in order to 
> justify the first African American Repatriation Fund in recognition to 
> the horrors and reality of the slave trade.
>
> COST
>
> CONCLUSION
>
> The discovery of these artifacts hopefully will give a glimpse into 
> the daily l ives of the Africans on board the ship as they made the 
> journey to the New World as slaves; the seamen who manned the ship and 
> managed its human cargo; and the traders who ran their notorious 
> enterprise and integrated it into the economies of their countries.
>
> It is our hope that the recovery of the shipwreck site off the coast 
> of Florida provides more pieces to the puzzle of African American 
> History and allows the revenue of The Maafa to be repatriated to it's 
> rightful owners…
>
> For more information contact: Carl Fismer [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------
> s. e. anderson is author of "The Black Holocaust for Beginners"
> Social Activism is not a hobby: it's a Lifestyle lasting a Lifetime
> http://www.blackeducator.org
> http://blackeducator.blogspot.com
> ---------------------------------------
>
>
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