1st Annual Conference of the Sons and Daughters of the U.S. Middle Passage

The Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP) is holding their first annual conference at the Rider University North Hall, 20823 Lawrenceville, Lawrenceville, New Jersey on May 20, 2017. Information about attending the conference can be obtained from their Facebook Page. My daughter Amy Tanner Thiriot is presenting at the conference. This may be her first conference appearance as a presenter. Membership in the society is encouraged for the following:

Any person is eligible for membership in the National Society of the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP) who is not less than eighteen years of age, and who is directly and lineally descendent from a man or woman who is of African-descent and was forced into slavery in the United States of America, including its colonial days, prior to the end of slavery as marked by the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, effective December 1865.

The mission of the organization is as follows:

Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP) is a lineage society that is a non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to the memory, education, and historic preservation of the artifacts and landmarks of slavery in the United States and its economic, psychological, and cultural impact on today's society. @SDUSMP

Quoting from their Facebook page:

The objectives of the organization are Historical, Educational, Memorial, and Patriotic:
• To promote the connection of descendants of the Forced American Heroes, the American slaves of African descent, to their ancestors through genealogy research;
• To proclaim, through education, the role played by the Africans forcibly brought to United States in creating our great nation, including their patient endurance of the cruelties of American slavery, their extraordinarily strong will and spirit, and their connections to their descendants who have gone on to make our country even greater. We want to especially commemorate the connections to all black American soldiers;
• To educate the nation and world about the contribution of the descendants of enslaved;
• To cherish and to strengthen the family ties among the members of the SDUSMP; and
• To collect and preserve the materials necessary for a complete history of slavery and to protect, preserve, and mark the places of the sacrifice of these men, women, and children, including historically significant sites such as churches, battle sites, gravesites, plantations, and museums.

 The term "middle passage" refers to the sea journey undertaken by slave ships from West Africa to the West Indies.