PRESS RELEASE
Public Information Office
160 Duke of Gloucester Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact: Mitchelle Stephenson, 410-972-7724 or mwstephenson@annapolis.gov
UNESCO International ‘Day of Remembrance’ Ceremonies at Annapolis City Dock
Annapolis, MD (August 23, 2022) - On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, the City of Annapolis, with local clergy commemorated the UNESCO International Day of Remembrance with ceremonies at Annapolis City Dock. The events are a remembrance of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and human trafficking.
Three events are planned at: sunrise, noon and 6 p.m. At each event, a local clergy gives a prayer and traditional libation offering while participants join in to sprinkle rose petals into the water from the docks at Susan Campbell Park (end of Dock Street).
City Dock at the Annapolis harbor is a UNESCO-designated Middle Passages Site of Memory. Annapolis is one of five ports of entry in Maryland, where enslaved Africans first arrived in the Americas. The UNESCO designation defines sites of memory as locations linked to global memorial heritage. In November, the City will unveil the Port Marker at City Dock. For more information, visit the City’s press release announcing the designation from September 2019.
More than 12.5 million men, women and children were transported from Africa to the Americas between 1500 and 1866. Of those, nearly 2 million perished on the journey (by disease, torture, and suicide). High-volume ports in the Caribbean and South Carolina handled most of the human cargo, but an estimated 140,000 captives disembarked in the Chesapeake region.
The final remembrance event for today’s “Day of Remembrance” will occur at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, August 23. The public is invited to attend.
Visit the UNESCO page for more information on Day of Remembrance.
Historian Janice Hayes Williams handed out rose petals.
At the noon event on Tuesday, Janice Hayes Williams talked about the history of the Middle Passages journey. Bishop Charles Carroll (at right) offered a prayer and William Rowel (left) offered greetings on behalf of Mayor Gavin Buckley.
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