MEL FISHER MUSEUM DIRECTOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO LECTURE ON AFRICANS IN KEY WEST IN 1860
The Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society’s Community of Scholars Lecture Series will continue on Tuesday, March 1 at 7 p.m. with a lecture by Corey Malcom, director of archaeology at the museum. Corey’s topic will be “The Africans in Key West in 1860.”
In the spring of 1860, the US Navy intercepted three American slave ships bound for Cuba. These vessels, the Wildfire, William and Bogota were seized and taken to Key West, and their human cargoes, numbering over 1400 people, were given refuge at the small island community. For nearly three months the
African refugees waited, and were taken care of until arrangements were completed for their transportation to Liberia.
Eventually, after yet another Atlantic crossing, 878 of these people found themselves on the African continent, but not their homes. Sadly, and in large measure because of diseases contracted on the slave ships, 295 of these people died during their time in Key West. They were buried at what is now Higgs beach. The stories of these people, and the ships they were forced to sail on, are among the best-documented examples of the nature of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in its last days.
Corey Malcom is the Director of Archaeology for the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, and Secretary for the Key West Maritime Historical Society. He has participated in the archaeological surveys and excavations of a number of shipwrecks, including the 1622 galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, and the 1700 slave ship Henrietta Marie. Corey has conducted a considerable amount of historical research into the situation of the Africans and the slave ships of 1860. He was also a member of the team that located a number of graves from the African Cemetery on Higgs beach in 2002.
The lecture, which runs from 7:00-7:45 p.m. at the museum at 200 Greene Street, is free and open to the public. The museum will be open at 6 p.m. for lecture guests to have an opportunity to view current exhibits. A question and answer session follows the lecture. For the full schedule of the 2005 Lecture series, visit the Museum’s website at www.melfisher.org. Dr. Brian Lapointe will speak on natural and artificial reefs at the April 5th lecture.
The Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum is a 501 c (3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to the research, preservation and education of New World History. Founded in 1982, it is the most visited non-profit history museum in the southeastern United States and has been accredited by the American Association of Museums. 2005 marks the twentieth anniversary of the finding of the Main Pile on the Atocha.
