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2002
January 15,
2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum has been awarded
two grants from the Florida Department of State totaling
$94,769 as part of its museum grants-in-aid program.
The Museum has been awarded $61,082 for general
operating support and $33,687 for development of a new
exhibit highlighting slave ships that came to Key West
in 1860.
These ships, among the last in the era of slave
trading in our country, were intercepted on their way to
Cuba and an estimated 1,400 slaves were freed on our
shores. The exhibit examines Key West in the 1860s and
its response to the 1,400 African slaves released here,
the role of the U.S. Navy in ending the slave trade, the
Liberian origins of the slaves aboard those ships, as
well as Cuba’s role in the slave trade.
Part of the funding will be used for an
archaeological survey to locate the cemetery at Higgs
Beach where 295 of the 1,400 who did not survive the
trip were buried.
Dr. Madeleine Burnside, executive director at Mel
Fisher, noted that the operational support funding
“will allow us to keep everything going behind the
scenes.”
“The slave ship exhibit is so important to the
history of Key West,” she said. “The state support for development of this exhibit will
allow us to probe this both fascinating and disturbing
chapter of our country’s history,” she said.
The Museum welcomes the donation of any objects
that local citizens may have
from the 1860 Key West era.
Anyone wishing to verify the authenticity or
donate such objects may contact Director of Archaeology
Corey Malcolm at 294-2633, extension 22. |
