effort is for the san carlos to serve as a place that helps put into action the principles and ideals for which it was founded in 1871. and those ideals are human rights and human dignity for the cuban people. >> all weekend, american history tv is featuring key west, florida. the city was first established as a port city in the 1820's. by the 1880's, key west's revenue was greater than that generated by keep west -- by florida pro other ports combined. cities toward staff recently visited many sites showcasing the city's history. learn more on american history tv. mr. malcolm: the really sad part though is a lot of them were really, really sick from being on board these ships.

they were not well taken care of. the slaving crews, it was all about making money and it was not about taking care of people and very sad. 295 people died during their time in key west. they were buried in graves on the south shore of the island. this is the story of three slave ships that were -- wound up in key west in 1860, the very tail end, the dying days of the transatlantic's slave trade. in the late 1700s, a lot of people started questioning seriously be morality of it all in you started seeing the end of the trade itself. first in 1807, england outlaws the trade across the ocean, and

in 1808, the united states did the same. that did not mean the people who were already here could get out of slavery. it only meant it was illegal to bring people across the ocean on ships. a clandestine slave trade started springing up and we started seeing illegal slave ships springing up in a steady stream from africa to the americas, bringing people -- even though it was illegal and they could be caught and charged as criminals -- people did it anyway. in the 19th century, cuba sort of coinciding with the end of the legal transatlantic slave trade, cuba's sugar industry really started to take off.

in the early and mid-1800s, cuba began to become the world's largest producer of sugar. to keep that industry moving forward and successful required a huge amount of slave labor. they predicated the business on slavery. to keep what was really their key to success moving forward required more and more and more captive african people to be brought into cuba. in 1860, the illegal slave trade -- really in 1859 -- was starting to escalate again. what we are seeing at this time is a lot of american slave ships from places like new orleans and new york going to africa,

getting people and then carrying them to cuba to sell them to the sugar industry there. there is a spike in 1859 that really just triggered an outcry and our government decided enough is enough. there are too many americans produce of aiding in this. we wanted to end it for decades. we really want to eradicate this. so, president buchanan ordered a blockade of cuba by the u.s. navy and stationed for united states navy steamers around cuba. two on the south coast, two on the north coast. the purpose was to stop slavers from going to the island. they saw tremendous success. they saw the american slave or

wildfire sailing out of new york. a couple weeks after that, they stopped another slaver. these three ships had roughly 500 people on board, captive african people. the navy crews took control of the slave ships. they towed them here to key west because key west was the nearest port to key above. they told them to key west. they arrived over that three or four-week period. the crews were jailed here in key west. the ships were seized and auctioned as captured prizes. the people then, the african people were housed on the island

until something could be figured out to do with them. they were taken charge off by the u.s. government, and man named fernando remain oh -- ananda marino -- fernando moreno. it was very near our for taylor today. they had a place to sleep, a hospital, a kitchen. we do know a little bit about the people in key west. we know two of the ships, the wildfire and the william, had gone to the congo river and acquired people from that area. we know the bogotá had gone to a port in benin and acquired

people from there. they were all different cultures. some did not speak to each other because they had different languages entirely. we know about their time in key west -- a mother and her daughter arrived hearing key west on the wildfire, the first ship that came here. a week later the william arrived and its people were discharged and brought to the compound, and there are accounts written that this woman as she watched through the fence as the people from the william arrived she started going crazy, screaming with excitement and joy. two of other other family members -- it's not clear if they were her daughters or her nieces -- arrived on the william.

you have this family reunion of people who did not know what happened to each other. they were so thrilled to be together. they never left the compound. they were not allowed to. they are wild africans and they were not quite sure. they were interesting to people visiting key west. they would watch through the fence. they knew they would spend their days drumming. they took their all some things that were provided and use them as drums and they would spend their days drumming and dancing. and so, their time here they took as good care of them as they could. there were three doctors in a nursing staff working 24 hours a

day to help these people. the really sad part is, a lot of them were really, really sick. they were not well taking care of. the slaving crews really -- it was all about making money and it was not about taking care of people. a lot of them were verio and really could not recover from their illnesses and very sadly to 95 people died -- 295 people died during their time here in key west. they were buried in graves on the south shore of the island. we have records of that. there was great debates amongst our government representatives and the president as to what the answer was. some people said, oh, they are here already. but them into slavery. we could use them in some of the plantations here. others said, no, these are free

people. they should be liberated into the united states. the final answer was neither one of those. the final answer was, let's just send them to liberia. liberia has been established in the 1820's by a group called the american colonization society. they had sort of a refuge on the west coast of africa for liberated slaves, friedman, as well as these people captured from slave ships, as they call them, re-captive. when they cross the ocean to go to liberia, even more people died. even though they were meant to be taking care of in this re-crossing of the atlantic they were too sick. the food was not adequate. another couple hundred people died crossing the ocean. by the time they all arrived in

liberia, fewer than half the number that started out reached the crossing. we have had a strong interest in the slave trade. we studied a shipwreck called the henrietta marie for quite a while. that was a flavor that wrecked in 7900. we look at that wrecked and have been able to shed a lot of light. -- we looked at that wrecked. that was a slaver wreck in 1700. gail swanson uncovered information from a map from 1861 key west showing a notation called african cemetery on its and she figured that had to relate to this story, which was already known in key west about

the 1860 events, and so we decided to zero in on where that site might be and looked at it and said, ok, what is the best way to survey that area. we did not want to go in with shovels looking for graves and bones. we started with a ground penetrating radar survey in our area of interest. we brought in eight russia list to help us with that. surveyed our area. we started finding graves exactly where we thought they would be. that was in 2002. a wonderful discovery not only to have this rich presence, but have them here to remind us of these events and it's been

wonderful. the community has been very supportive. there have been memorials built over that site and we have since done other surveys and found even more grapes -- graves in this area, the southern shore of key west. really a tremendous discovery of the site and a reminder not only of the transatlantic slave trade, but the poor people caught up in this whole mess and really died for nothing. >> all weekend long, american history tv is featuring key west, florida. a key west resident from 1948 ernest hemingway used these city as inspiration for most of his works. together with our