S.Africa shipwreck a 'milestone' in slave trade study

[WorldNews]

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The discovery of a wrecked slave ship off the South African coast in which more than 200 captives drowned marks a milestone in the study of the slave trade, the Smithsonian Institution said Monday. The wreck of the Sao Jose-Paquete de Africa, a Portuguese vessel that sank off Cape Town on its way to Brazil in 1794, will be the focus of two ceremonies in the city on Tuesday, the US institution said in a news release. "This discovery is significant because there has never been archaeological documentation of a vessel that foundered and was lost while carrying a cargo of enslaved persons," said Lonnie G. Bunch, founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

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