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The Story of the 1839 Amistad Rebellion

Presented by Truth Seeker Adwoa

Truth Seeker Adwoa uses riveting details and artifacts to tell the story of diverse, intelligent, and strong people from 19th-century West Africa. Explore the Atlantic Slave Trade from the perspective of a descendant of the victimized. Experience how one of the Supreme Court’s earliest decisions concerning Africans as men instead of commodities came to be.

Imagine how Connecticut could be the last state in the region to outlaw slavery and how all of it's earliest institutions and systems could profit from the Trade. The performance also explores Connecticut’s delayed abolition and the region’s economic ties to the Trade, ending with a Q&A.

Adwoa Bandele-Asante, a New London, CT native, attended local public schools and earned her B.A. from Connecticut College and M.A. from Howard University. She taught high school, founded the Back to Africa Club, and traveled to West Africa. In Washington, DC, she debuted Harriet Tubman: A Woman with a Railroad at Haile Gerima’s Sankofa Books and Videos Café, supported by extensive research on Tubman across Maryland, New York, and the American South.

Her work on the Amistad story grew from her time with Connecticut’s freedom schooner Amistad, including ongoing consultations with Sierra Leone scholars. A committed grassroots organizer, she advocates for healthy learning, eating, and exercise. The performing arts have been a lifelong passion, and she also enjoys teaching tennis and chess and playing electric bass. She has traveled widely and continues sharing her talents throughout the U.S. and abroad. She is currently based in the DC metropolitan area.