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Into the Depths

Episode 1: Trusting

Into the Depths

National Geographic

Science, History

4.6803 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts upends her life—including leaving her job—to join a group of Black scuba divers searching for the wrecks of ships that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas. The journey will require an uncomfortable reckoning with the traumatic history of the slave trade. Then she learns about legendary diver Doc Jones and the underwater memorial he placed at the wreck site of the British ship Henrietta Marie in honor of the 274 Africans who had been trafficked to the West Indies from its cargo hold. As fellow National Geographic Explorer and poet Alyea Pierce gives the captive Africans a voice and speaks their names, Tara realizes there is far more to this history than pain and trauma alone. Want more? Check out our Into the Depths hub to learn more about Tara’s journey following Black scuba divers, find previous Nat Geo coverage on the search for slave shipwrecks, and get a sneak peek at the March cover. And download a toolkit for hosting an Into the Depths listening party to spark conversation and journey deeper into the material.   Also explore: Find out more information about Diving With a Purpose and its work training adults and youth in maritime archaeology and ocean conservation. Dive into the records of the more than 36,000 voyages made during the transatlantic slave trade, including time lines, maps, and 3-D reconstructions of slave ships. Students can learn more about the Henrietta Marie in journalist Michael H. Cottman’s book Shackles From the Deep. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

It was three years ago when my life changed.

0:08.0

Let me explain.

0:10.0

It happened at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C.

0:16.0

The Black Sonian.

0:18.0

It had recently opened.

0:20.0

Lonnie Bunch III was the founding director. I had recently opened. Lonnie Bunch the third was the founding director.

0:23.6

I believe history matters. I believe history is an amazing tool to help you not just look back,

0:30.4

but to live your life, to understand what is shaped who you are at this very moment.

0:36.7

The thing is, I find looking at the past is hard,

0:40.3

and I know I'm not alone.

0:42.3

A lot of the last 400 years is just not a comfortable place

0:46.3

for us black people to revisit.

0:48.3

So many of our stories focus on slavery and its aftermath,

0:53.3

on our pain and suffering. And I'm not going to

0:57.7

lie. The slavery exhibit on the lower level of the museum was tough. But when I got to the second

1:04.5

floor, I stopped in my tracks. Framed on the wall was a photo of scuba divers. They were mostly black women on a

1:15.6

boat in wetsuits hugging an older black guy. They were laughing, all different ages. They reminded me

1:24.6

of superheroes. The group was called Diving with a Purpose,

1:29.8

black divers searching for the shipwrecks

1:32.6

that it carried captured Africans across the Atlantic Ocean.

1:38.4

I wasn't sure what it was.

1:40.4

It was encrusted.

...

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