(The Sluce): A realistic reminder tied to the Transatlantic Slave Trade will soon be leaving the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
Museum officials say a 33-pound piece of timber from the slave ship São José-Paquete de Africa will be returned to South Africa later this year.
The São José-Paquete de Africa was an 18th-century Portuguese slave ship that sank in 1794 near Cape Town, South Africa while transporting more than 400 enslaved Africans from Mozambique. Historians believe half of them drowned and the rest were enslaved after making it to land.
Because the ship sank close to shore, historians and marine archaeologists were able to locate the wreck centuries later. The discovery is historically significant because it is one of the only confirmed slave shipwrecks where enslaved Africans were still aboard when the ship went down.
The fragile wooden beam has been one of the centerpiece artifacts in the museum’s “Slavery and Freedom” exhibit since the museum opened in 2016.
But the museum says the artifact was always on loan from the Iziko Museums of South Africa, and the ten-year lending agreement is now ending.
Visitors have until March 22nd to see the timber before it is carefully removed and prepared for its journey back to Cape Town.
Historians say the artifact carries deep historical meaning. The São José-Paquete de Africa, a Portuguese slave ship, sank off the coast of South Africa in 1794 while transporting more than 400 enslaved Africans from Mozambique. It is one of the earliest known slave shipwrecks ever discovered with enslaved people still on board.
When the timber leaves the exhibit, the museum plans to replace it with a manifest listing the ship’s human cargo, while other artifacts from the wreck will remain on display for at least two more years.
A specialized crate is now being built to safely transport the delicate wood back to South Africa.