Slave Wrecks Project works with partners in Africatown, Alabama, conducting terrestrial archaeological work, swimming and scuba dive training with local youth groups, and other forms of public interpretation and engagement.
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Slave Wrecks Project has been engaged in underwater archaeological work inside Biscayne National Park in Florida, U.S.A., since 2012. Our work with our partners provides opportunities for underwater archaeology training for new generations of divers, archaeologists, and environmentalists.
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In 2023, the Slave Wrecks Project visited Brazil to assist the recovery of brig Camargo. The Camargo is the first archeological investigation of a shipwrecked slave ship in Brazil by the AfrOrigens Insitute. We are working with our partners in Brazil to identify and recover the wreck, and work with the descendant community at the Quilombo Santa Rita do Bracuí to understand the living legacies of this important history.
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Beginning in 2013, the Slave Wrecks Project collaboration in Mozambique has developed and expanded through ongoing research, training, and public outreach initiatives, with a primary focus on the Mozambique Island region. Many of the programs and initiatives that define SWP’s signature approach worldwide emerged from this long-standing and robust collaboration in Mozambique. This includes innovations in community engagement, heritage protection, public education, professional training, and transformative museum work.
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Since 2014, the Slave Wrecks Project has fostered a network of researchers based in the Laboratoire d’Archéologie Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop. Our ongoing work in Senegal includes our groundbreaking international and interdisciplinary training project, Slave Wrecks Project Academy.
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Launched in 2008, what became the Slave Wrecks Project was initially focused on several sites in southern Africa. One of these sites resulted in the identification and excavation of the São José Paquete D'Africa, one of the first known ships that foundered with enslaved Africans on board to be identified, archaeologically documented, excavated, and conserved. The SWP and its collaborators continue to identify, explore, and document other ships in South Africa that bring the stories of the enslaved back into memory.
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Since 2015, the Slave Wrecks Project has developed a network of collaborators in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, devoted to exploring the history and legacies of slavery and freedom there. Our ongoing work in St. Croix includes physical and digital exhibitions, terrestrial archaeology, and ongoing training for our global collaborators and students.
Read MoreThe Slave Wrecks Project is one of the things I’m most proud of…. [SWP] is more than a research endeavor; it’s more than a museum exhibition. It’s really about recognizing that the slave trade is not about yesterday. It’s as much about today and tomorrow…
Lonnie G. Bunch III
Founding Director of the NMAAHC and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
In collaboration with several Portuguese institutions, the Slave Wrecks Project has sought to research a more complete history of the slave trade and its multiple dimensions in the formation of the Portuguese colonial empire, which can catalyze important but difficult conversations about slavery's legacies. Challenging deep-rooted public narratives about Portugal's past, the partnerships forged by the SWP continue to promote initiatives that engage the public in critical discussions about national identity, cultural heritage, diversity and inclusion, and racism.
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SWP Academy will develop an international network of archaeologists engaged in maritime archaeology of the slave trade, who engage deeply with decolonized practices and paradigms while simultaneously generating cross-cultural and interdisciplinary learning across Africa and the African diaspora.
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