A Heritage Trail

African Diaspora Heritage Trail -- Bermuda's African Diaspora Heritage Trail commemorates the role African slaves played in the formation of Bermuda. Free booklets, available from tourist offices, direct you along this self-guided tour of both tangible and intangible sites that highlight peak points in the cultural history of the island. A plaque marks each site.

Thirteen sites have been identified, including the site of the slave ship Enterprise incident, which, like the better-known Amistad affair, involved the rescue of slaves seeking refuge and freedom, and the historic Slave Graveyard at St. Peter's Church (ca. 1612), both located in St. George; the Crow Lane site of the execution by burning of Sally Bassett, slave revolt leader; and sites associated with Mary Prince, the Bermudian slave who wrote the first account of slavery actually authored by a slave. Published in London in 1831, it played a key role in the struggle to abolish slavery. Another important site is Cobb's Hill Wesleyan Methodist Church, built by slaves by moonlight. The 13 sites highlighted in the brochure can be collectively visited through a combination of bus and fast ferry routes, and as such, require a full day to physically visit. Their densest concentration is in St. George's, where five of the sites lie within easy walking distance of one another. Others of the sites are part of major attractions (for example, the Commissioner's House at the Royal Dockyard) which you might have otherwise visited independently. Even if you opt not to visit every single site (one, for example, commemorates a gibbet positioned long ago on offshore rocks which are visible only from the shoreline of "mainland" Bermuda), you'll learn a lot about the sociology of Bermuda during its sometimes tormented formative years.