The recreated Amistad, the cargo schooner on which 53 captive Africans headed for a life of slavery rebelled, gets its first taste of the wind on Long Island Sound. The ship was built at Mystic Seaport and serves as a floating classroom teaching lessons about civil rights around the world.

Mystic Seaport Shipyard Foreman Dean Seder unloads live oak trunks, the first of more than 20 hard-to-find woods needed to build a recreation of the cargo schooner Amistad. Woods of the size and quality needed to build the ship are rare in the modern, deforested world.

An actor portraying one of the hostage Africans who rebelled aboard the Amistad in 1838 walks with other actors during the filming of the Steven Spielberg film about the incident.

Carver Gary Anderson chisels away at the eagle that will be the figurehead on the Amistad, the reproduction of the historic cargo ship on which 53 hostage Africans mutinied which is being built at Mystic Seaport.

Naives of Sierra Leone, the African nation where the Amistad hostages were captured, lay their hands on the purpleheart keel at the shipyard at Mystic Seaport, where the keel was laid in preparation for the construction of the Freedom Schooner Amistad.

Children visting the Freedom Schooner Amistad on a sail in the Atlantic off of Martha's Vineyard listen to the story of the Amistad captives, their mutiny against the sailors who were illegally taking them to lives of slavery, and the trial in the United States Supreme Court that ultimately led to their freedom.

Steven Spielberg sizes up Mystic Seaport, where the Freedom Schooner Amistad was being reconstructed, during the filming of the film Amistad.

At dawn a student from Trinity College in Hartford, CT gets to man the wheel of the Amistad as it sails to Martha's Vineyard, MA, in its first trip on the open ocean.

Captain Bill Pinkney wheres a traditional West African robe while steering the Amistad on its maiden voyage in the tall ships parade of Opsail 2000 in New York City.

Captain Bill Pinkney wheres a traditional West African robe while steering the Amistad on its maiden voyage in the tall ships parade of Opsail 2000 in New York City.

Crewmembers of the Freedom Schooner Amistad respond to the cheers from other tall ships as it passes them on the Hudson River during the Opsail 2000's Parade of Sail on Independance Day in New York City.

Actors Mathew McConaughey, center, and Morgan Freeman, walk through Mystic Seaport during the filming of Amistad, the film directed by Steven Spielberg.

Another tall ship comes to visit as the Amistad goes through its first sea trial on Long Island Sound.

Some of the more than 100 carpenters that built the freedom schooner Amistad celebrate with a bottle of rum as the ship first touches the water.

Captain William Pinkney, the first skipper of the Freedom Schooner Amistad, took the helm after being the first African American to sail solo around the world.

Wayne Bartow, one of the only black shipwrights in America, and Dan Bregman, carpenters turned crew on the Freedom Schooner Amistad, pull to raise the sails during the ship's sea trial.

A visiting sailor looks over the construction of the Amistad.

During the Amistad's first sailing, Captain William Pinkney, left, gets guidance on what course to sail out of Mystic Harbor from Quenton Snedicker, the designer of the vessel and the leader of the shipwrights who built the recreation of the ship.

Tim Reilly climbs 60 feet above the deck of the Amistad to tie on the rigging that will hold the vessels sails.

Drummers from throughout Africa and the United States join in celebration at the launch of the Freedom Schooner Amistad.

Another tall ship comes to visit as the Amistad goes through its first sea trial on Long Island Sound.