Rethinking the Amistad Story

Internationally renowned historian, writer, filmmaker, playwright, and activist Dr. Marcus Rediker will present, “Rethinking the Amistad Story” at the New Haven Museum (NHM), on Thursday, April 3, 2025. Reception at 5:30 pm., program at 6 p.m. Registration is required for the free program and available here. The program will stream live on Facebook and later be shared on the NHM YouTube channel.

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This is a rare local opportunity to meet the historian whose work transformed the understanding of the Amistad revolt and was central to the recent re-interpretation of the permanent New Haven Museum exhibit, “Amistad: Retold,” which opened in 2024. Rediker will discuss who the African rebels were, how they waged the uprising, and what the ordeal meant to them. He will explore the legacies of the Amistad Revolt as a powerful example of resistance to oppression that was, as he says, a “deeply human affair about real people, under real circumstances, making life-and-death decisions in real time.” 

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The local history of Amistad will also be discussed: what happened in the interactions between the Amistad Africans and the mostly white abolitionists in the New Haven jail; how the two groups together built a local and diverse social movement to support the legal battle; and how groups like the Amistad Committee subsequently kept the history of the event alive in popular memory. 

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