“We want people to be aware of the slave ships that came to the county and the region, and discuss its legacy,” commented Janis Hagey, organizer of the upcoming full day conference and community discussion, “Uncharted Waters: Dimensions of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade & Prince George's County, MD.”

Hagey’s  Nottingham Middle Passage Remembrance Project in Prince George’s County, Maryland is working with the national Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project to learn more about, remember, and to place markers on the sites where captured Africans landed in Nottingham, Selby's Landing, and Digges' Landing in southern Prince George's County.

Since announcing the national project in Port of Harlem magazine in 2008, Ann Chinn of the national organization says they have placed markers at 52 sites in the United States.

The conference and community discussion on Saturday,August 23 will present an array of presen from Dr. Sheila Walker, Cultural Anthropologist and Documentary Filmmaker, to Maya Davis, Riversdale House Museum. Port of Harlem publisher Wayne Young will present, “Trans-Atlantic Human Trading and The Gambia’s Overflowing Significance,” a prelude to the upcoming exhibit of the same name at the Juffureh Slavery Museum in The Gambia. Historian, lecturer, and author CR Gibbs is the featured speaker. 

The $60 cost for the event includes continental breakfast, platted lunch, and reception hors d'oeuvres. Hagey says at the end of the day, “I want people to be more aware of the lost history of Prince George’s County and its lasting legacy to our lives today.