Amistad Week Matters

Every summer on the South Fork is busy, simply loaded with benefits, parties, concerts, get-togethers with family and friends, and the ever-beckoning ocean beaches. But some events are a little more special than others.

Residents and visitors of all ages should take note of Amistad Week in Montauk, which will be held for seven days starting Thursday, August 22. The Montauk Historical Society, Southampton African American Museum and Eastville Community Historical Society have teamed up with Discovering Amistad, a Connecticut-based nonprofit that hosts educational programming hoping to “connect people of all ages with the Amistad story, motivating them to act and work to change systems that perpetuate racism, to ensure human rights for all,” according to its website.

The story of the Amistad was aided immensely by the Oscar-nominated 1997 movie by East Hampton’s legendary director Steven Spielberg, which detailed the revolt by enslaved West Africans aboard the schooner as it sailed from Cuba to a plantation in the Caribbean. But even those who have seen the film might not be aware of just how tightly the story is tied to this area.

The Amistad landed at Culloden Point in Montauk in August 1839. It was carrying men and women who were members of the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone, who were to be enslaved in America. But the captives took control of the ship — they tried to turn back to Africa but wound up landing in Montauk, where the ship was recaptured by American authorities and towed to New London Harbor in Connecticut.

Facing enslavement or execution, the Sierra Leone contingent, with the help of anti-slavery activists in Connecticut, took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1841, the court backed lower-court rulings and the Mende men and women were ordered freed — an early victory in a national battle over the scourge of slavery.

Nearly 200 years later, a replica ship will visit Culloden Point. It’s an opportunity to experience an eerie moment of history coming alive, being able to see not just a movie recreation but an actual sailing ship sliding into dock. For a moment, despite the centuries, witnesses can feel like they are part of history, that they’re seeing a moment of immense importance, as well as deep sorrow, buoyed by the knowledge that the landing in Montauk was truly the start of an inspirational tale, not the end of a tragic one, as it might have been.

Whether you are a “local,” whose roots go back generations, or are a new but engaged part-time or year-round resident — or even a casual visitor — knowing the history of a place is a worthwhile pursuit. That’s particularly true when it relates bigger themes in American history, and more so when it involves stories that deserve more attention. There is so much rich Black history in the area, related to the Great Migration, and the legacy of slavery in the North.

But the hard work of organizations like the Southampton African American Museum, Eastville Community Historical Society and Discovering Amistad (and others, like the Plain Sight Project) are only half the equation. They need people to be interested in hearing these stories, which matter so much, and to take the opportunities to delve into them when they present themselves. History matters only when people are truly willing to engage with it.