The “Slave Wrecks Project”

In 1794, the slave ship São José Paquete de Africa ran against the rocks off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa and sank, resulting in the drowning deaths of more than 200 of the ship’s human cargo. In 2010, marine archaeologists began investigating the shipwreck and in 2014 several of the iron ballast blocks were recovered. Those items will be featured in the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture, scheduled to open September 2016 on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

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Haunting relics from a slave ship headed for African American museum

By Michael E. Ruane

The Washington Post

July 13, 2016