Newly-Recovered Ship Contains Rare Remnants of Slave Trade
Newly-Recovered Ship Contains Rare Remnants of Slave Trade
By Lisa Vives
NEW YORK, Jun 2 2015 (IPS) - A Portuguese slave ship that left Mozambique in 1794 bound for Brazil had hardly rounded the treacherous Cape of Good Hope when it broke apart violently on two reefs only 100 yards from shore.
The Portuguese captain, crew and half of the enslaved Africans survived. An estimated 212 Africans did not and perished at sea.
The ship lay undisturbed in its watery grave until a chance discovery by divers searching the wreck who found iron ballasts – evidence that slaves had been the cargo on the boat.
This week, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture, along with the Iziko Museums of South Africa, the Slave Wrecks Project, and other partners, will announce in Cape Town that the remnants of the São José have been found, right where the ship went down, in full view of Lion’s Head Mountain.
It is the first time, researchers involved in the project say, that the wreckage of a slaving ship that went down with slaves aboard has been recovered.
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The Portuguese slave ship bound for Brazil from Africa wrecked on reefs only 100 yards from shore, after rounding the Cape of Good Hope off the Atlantic coast of South Africa.
Good that the Smithsonian's Museum of African- American History and Culture will open next year finally.
The 18th century slave ship 'Zong' massacre/wreck in the Caribbean led to the court decision in 1787 that aided the movement to end the slave trade in the British Empire in 1808. Slavery in the Empire was not abolished until 1830.
