While combing today the web for "Amistadiana" I have noticed that online edition of British Times magazine reminded their readers that on August 26th "In 1839 the US Navy seized the Cuban schooner Amistad off Long Island, New York, which led to a legal ruling upholding the right of illegally enslaved Africans to mutiny on board a slave ship. "  It seems that the Amistad's visits in Liverpool, Bristol and London left some traces...

Captain Bill Pinkney, master emeritus of the Freedom Schooner Amistad, talks about the historical significance of Barack Obama and the upcoming Democratic Convention during an interview.

Bill Pinkney is master emeritus of the Amistad.  But that's just one of many identities he's lived in his 72 years. Chicagoan-turned-Nutmegger. Navy man. Around-the-world sailor. And a black American who's seen much of the racial struggles of his country...

Read the original article published by Hartford Courant on Aug. 24th, 2008 and listen to the full interview.

The schooner Amistad docked at Central Wharf in Salem,  MA on Thursday planning a short, unofficial visit there until Saturday.  The stay prolonged till Sunday as an outboard motor for the ship's dinghy still was not repaired.  Amistad will have to leave Salem later on Sunday as the fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard out of New York City arrives in port with an official visit and there is not enough docking space for both ships.

There is an interesting historical connection between Salem and the Amistad - the famous 1841 Amistad case before the U.S. Supreme Court, where the captives won their freedom.  That Court included Salem's most famous jurist, Joseph Story.

Captain John Beebe-Center plans to proceed to the next port in Official Amistad Schedule - Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard  where the schooner is expected to dock on August 27th. Sailing there will include anchoring off Provincetown on Monday and Tuesday and passing through the Cape Cod canal at the favorable tide on Tuesday.

The Amistad pulled up to the Maine State Pier on Thursday afternoon, ready to begin its stint as a floating classroom in Portland for the next week.

The visit is part of an 18-month journey commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trades in the United Kingdom and the United States. The United Kingdom outlawed the trade in 1807 and the United States followed the next year, although slavery was still practiced.

Amistad's 14,000-mile voyage retraced the routes of the slave trade. The ship set sail last year in Connecticut, traveled to England and Portugal, and then to Sierra Leone, where captives of the original La Amistad eventually returned. The ship visited other spots in Africa before sailing across the Atlantic to Barbados and U.S. ports.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives was poised Tuesday to pass a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and the era of Jim Crow.

The House is poised to pass a resolution that would apologize for slavery and Jim Crow.

The nonbinding resolution, which is expected to pass, was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, a white lawmaker who represents a majority black district in Memphis, Tennessee.

While many states have apologized for slavery, it will be first time a branch of the federal government will apologize for slavery if the resolution passes, an aide to Cohen said.

By passing the resolution, the House would also acknowledge the "injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow."

"Jim Crow," or Jim Crow laws, were state and local laws enacted mostly in the Southern and border states of the United States between the 1870s and 1965, when African-Americans were denied the right to vote and other civil liberties and were legally segregated from whites.