On February 27, cultural heritage professionals from Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and South Africa will gather in Charleston, South Carolina for a Department of State sponsored workshop on the protection of sites and antiquities associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Organized by the U.S. National Park Service, the workshop will focus on legal, national, community, and other strategies to protect this heritage from damage and loss due to vandalism, theft, and other threats.

The workshop is the first of two organized to support cultural heritage professionals from partner countries in their efforts to apply cultural preservation policies and best practices at slave trade sites, improve protection of sites associated with the slave trade, foster community engagement as a means of site protection, and support terrestrial and submerged resource survey and stewardship. This workshop supports the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024).

A second workshop focusing on historic and archaeological site management will take place in April 2017.

For press inquiries, contact ECA-Press@state.gov, or 202-632-6452.