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The Atlantic Slave Trade Institute is proud to offer participants a number of We provide the following 3 educational programs: 1) International field based learning experiences primairly during spring break and early summer for high school and college students throughout Africa, primarily exposing students to the Trans Atlantic slave trade by visiting historical landmarks and tracing some of the points that were significant during the slave trade. Students are partenered with African students and enjoy an overnight homestay as well particpate in a student centered conference at a major university in one of the countries visited in Africa. 2) ASTI organizes an annual conference on slavery on the historic Island of Goree. The conference takes place during the month of August and brings together scholars from throughout the diaspora to present academic papers and engage in dialogue about the Atlantic slave trade and its aftermath. 3) ASTI organizes Washington DC based slavery tours for students and adults in Washington, DC. These tours expose participants to some of the historical landmarks that played a role during the period of slavery in out nations capital. | Schedule | Educational Trips | Workshops | Topics |
Schedule: August 8 - August 17, 2009 2nd Annual conference on Slavery: Goree Island, Senegal Please join The Atlantic Slave Trade Institute August 8 - August 17, 2008 The purpose of the Slavery Institute on Goree Island is to increase participant’s awareness of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the United States in an African context. Through field experiences to Juffere, Dakar and Goree Island, lectures, and interactive workshops, the Institute will provide a hands on intellectually challenging opportunity to confront and analyze the forces that contributed to the slave trade and its legacy. Participants will be provided with a historical framework to anchor the discussions and will be encouraged to actively engage in discussions with scholars, fellow participants, and locals to explore some of the root causes of the slave trade and slavery. The mission of the Institute is to stimulate dialogue, foster critical thinking, and increase awareness which might help to lay the foundation for a possible strategy toward race reconciliation in America. This summers Slavery Institute will take place in Senegal, West Africa. Participants will spend approximately 7 days primarily in Dakar and Goree Island, the busiest slave transit points during the infamous Atlantic Slave trade, where some 20 million Africans were shipped to the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries. In addition, Participants will visit the historic village of Juffre in the Gambia, the ancestral home of famed author Alex Haley where his great ancestor kunta kinte was kidnapped and sold into slavery which resulted in the production of the 8 part series Roots. The Slavery conference component of the Institute will take place for 1 full day on Goree Island where participants will attend a structured series of workshops and lectures as well as an educational field excursion throughout Goree Island by several renowned African scholars, story tellers and writers. In addition to the academic component of the Institute, participants will be encouraged to participate in several cultural workshops consisting of Senegalese local cooking, sabar protest dance forms, resistance drumming, and political sand painting by local art activists. The Institute will also encourage participants to attend several pre-departure workshops where there will be several question and answer sessions and participants can receive relevant pre departure information including a recommended reading list.
Educational Trips: Educational Slave Tours of Washington DC: Workshops: Our workshops are designed to be both informative and interactive. The workshops’ sequence is structured to first introduce the subject material and second, to then engage participants by helping to identify their own perceptions and values. Next, we encourage participants to collaboratively create a strategy in which to move forward towards race reconciliation. All workshops at the Atlantic Slave Trade Institute are focused on the idea that learning about history is key to fixing society’s modern-day problems. Therefore, all of ASTI's workshops are designed to engage participants about slavery’s history, facts, repercussions and the problems it has left us even, or perhaps especially, now. ASTI hopes to be a research center as well as a forum to heal and reconcile differences resulting from slavery. The workshops offered here at ASTI are meticulous designed and created for both students and educators, those interested in learning about slavery and those who have studied slavery for years. Our mission is to appeal to a wide audience range, to incorporate our shared experiences, different perspectives, opinions, values and judgments as we seek to understand and ultimately, reconcile our differences, regardless of our backgrounds.  Through such discussion, we hope to open the doors towards greater compassion, encourage different opinions while always emphasizing respect and understanding. Every workshop we design is engaging, with participants highly encouraged to explore their own preconceived values and perspectives. Every workshop has its own reading list to encourage participants to engage in outside research to better express the concepts address in class. Reading lists are distributed prior to the participants’ arrival in Africa to better prepare them for the workshops.Workshops will be facilitated by internationally-known scholars and educators, many of whom currently reside in Africa. The facilitators will seek to provide a dynamic atmosphere, one that encourages conversation, dialogue, trust and friendship. Participants’ time spent with the American Slavery Institute on Gorée Island should be one that helps to articulate, define and ultimately, provide a new paradigm to their understanding of slavery, of both its history and its aftermath. Topics: All workshop topics will seek to define and expand each participant’s individual perspective and outlook as it relates to slavery. Such topics include the following:  Maison des Esclaves The Capture, confinement and administration of the Slave Trade The impact on local communities and the disorientation of the region Slavery in America: a lasting legacy Post-traumatic slavery syndrome Critical self-analysis and the articulation of deep-rooted perceptions and fears Anti-systemic movements and organized efforts to affirm the legitimacy of blackness Progressive politics of race, gender and affirmation Race reconciliation The challenges ahead Strategic alliances and revolutionary living Various films relating to the topics above
As well as the following concepts:
We’re open to customize any workshop or education trip to meet your needs or the needs of your organization. Simply contact ASTI to discuss a customized program for you and your group on Gorée Island or other historic locations throughout Africa. |
These trips are not limited to students only, but rather seek to engage any and everyone interested in learning about and discussing issues of slavery, post-traumatic slavery disorder, race reconciliation, reparations and more. 
Wedged between two breeding states – Maryland and Virginia – Washington DC served as a depot for the wholesale traders who surveyed the inland breeding farms to buy the best of the crop of Black "buck" men and sturdy Black women. From here, manacled Africans were marched by the Capitol, even while the Congress sat in session, to one of the many slave pens that serviced the traders.