Event
Commemoration of First African Arrival in North America
Fee:
Free.Dates & Times
Date:
Time:
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Description
The story of African Americans in North America spans four centuries. Biscayne National Park has witnessed several chapters of that story, and joins national parks across the country on Sunday, August 25, 2019 in commemorating that history. At 3:00 pm on that date, park staff invites visitors to the park to join in 4-minutes of bell ringing – one minute for each century since the first Africans arrived in slavery on August 25, 1619.
The bell that will be used during the nationwide commemoration is a replica of a 150-pound bronze bell that warned mariners off the reefs in Biscayne National Park for some 30 years. The bell was part of “Biscayne Bay Sea Bell Buoy Number 1,” deployed around 1902 by the US Lighthouse Board north of the Fowey Rocks Lighthouse. The buoy sunk in the early 1930s, and remained there until the bell was exposed in 2015, either as the result of a natural movement of the buoy’s wreckage or of a looting attempt. The bell was recovered and conserved by park archaeologists, and had a replica cast to help share another facet of the park’s extensive maritime history. This event marks its first public ringing in 90 years.