Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi and the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation and Museums will present an exhibit entitled "A Slave Ship Speaks- The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie" at the Nassau County African American Museum located at 110 North Franklin Street in Hempstead. The exhibit will run from October 27, 2002 through January 12, 2003 as part of the County's mission to establish a museum dedicated to the plight, ancestry and endurance of the African spirit. The museum is expected to host six school groups a day over nine weeks as well as being open to the community. A Salve Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie is an exhibition highlighting the slave trade at the end of the 17th century. The Henrietta Marie exhibition has toured throughout the nation since 1995.

Civic leaders from the local community, including Harold Bellinger (the Nassau Community College director of the Office of Affirmative Action and Diversity), Hezekiah Brown (Nassau County Deputy County Executive for General Services and former Town of Hempstead Trustee), and Julius Pearse (President of the African-Atlantic Genealogical Society), have been working for over seven years to obtain permission and funding in order to host the exhibit.

History: In July 1983, while excavating and researching an unidentified vessel on a site subcontracted by the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, divers discovered conclusive evidence of the remains of the only slave ship wrecked in the Western Hemisphere that has ever been identified by name- the Henrietta Marie. Found off the New Ground Reef in the Florida Keys, the Henrietta Marie is considered by experts to be the world's largest collection of tangible objects representing the early period of trade in enslaved African Americans.

In 1993, after ten years of careful excavation and preservation, the Mel Fischer Maritime Heritage Society along with graduate student and project archivist, David Moore, assisted in coordinating the National Association of Black Scuba Divers' memorial ceremony and the installation of a bronze plaque commemorating the Henrietta Marie. That same year, planning began for a traveling exhibition. In 1999, a twenty-city tour commenced which is due to end this year.

This historic exhibit has been made possible at a minimal cost to County taxpayers through private donations.