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Rossie Velvet Mill Historic District

Colonial Revival architecture in ConnecticutHistoric districts in New London County, ConnecticutHistoric districts on the National Register of Historic Places in ConnecticutNRHP infobox with nocatNational Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut
Stonington, ConnecticutUse mdy dates from August 2023
Frohsinn Hall, 54 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic
Frohsinn Hall, 54 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic

The Rossie Velvet Mill Historic District is located in the village of Mystic in Stonington, Connecticut. Its main focus is the former Rossie Velvet Mill, a large brick industrial facility on the east side of Greenmanville Avenue that is now a research center for the nearby Mystic Seaport Museum. The district extends along Greenmanville Avenue between Pleasant Street in the north and the museum complex in the south. Most of the buildings in the district are residential housing built to house workers at the mill, and were built between about 1850 and 1950. The district includes 51 properties in 120 acres (49 ha). The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 9, 2007.The area that houses the Rossie Velvet Mill was primarily agricultural until the mid 19th Century, with its farmers providing goods to the shipbuilders and other businesses in Mystic. A small textile mill began operation on the bank of the Mystic River in 1850, on what are now the grounds of the museum, precipitating development as a modestly scaled industrial area. In 1897, the Rossie Velvet Mill was established spurred on by two factors: first, a local business development group recruited velvet makers from Germany to the area, repeating a success in Stonington village, and second, the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which encouraged the owners of a velvet mill in Süchteln (northwestern Germany) to relocate to the United States and open a manufacturing facility to avoid the tariff. This business was a major local success, employing 200 workers (including a significant number of experienced German immigrant weavers) at what was the village's largest employer. The Rossie operation failed during the Great Depression, but the plant was soon operating again under different ownership. Finally, the mill permanently closed in 1958.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Rossie Velvet Mill Historic District (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Rossie Velvet Mill Historic District
Church Street,

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N 41.353611111111 ° E -71.962777777778 °
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Church Street 36
06378
United States
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Frohsinn Hall, 54 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic
Frohsinn Hall, 54 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic
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La Amistad
La Amistad

La Amistad (pronounced [la a.misˈtað]; Spanish for Friendship) was a 19th-century two-masted schooner, owned by a Spaniard colonizing Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been captured and sold to European slave traders and illegally transported by a Portuguese ship from West Africa to Cuba in violation of existing European treaties against the Atlantic slave trade. Two Spanish plantation owners, Don José Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes, bought 53 captives, including four children, in Havana, Cuba, and were transporting them on the ship to their plantations near Puerto Príncipe (modern Camagüey, Cuba). The revolt began after the schooner's cook jokingly told the slaves that they were to be "killed, salted, and cooked." Sengbe Pieh, a Mende man, also known as Joseph Cinqué, unshackled himself and the others on the third day and started the revolt. They took control of the ship, killing the captain and the cook. In the melee, three Africans were also killed. Pieh ordered Ruiz and Montes to sail to Africa. Instead, Ruiz and Montes sailed north, up the east coast of the United States, sure that the ship would be intercepted and the Africans returned to Cuba as slaves. A US ship, the revenue cutter Washington, seized Amistad off Montauk Point in Long Island, New York. Pieh and his group escaped the ship but were caught offshore by citizens. They were incarcerated in New Haven, Connecticut, on charges of murder and piracy. The man who captured Pieh and his group claimed them as property. La Amistad was towed to New London, Connecticut, and those remaining on the ship were arrested. None of the 43 survivors on the ship spoke English, so they could not explain what had taken place. Eventually language professor Josiah Gibbs found an interpreter, James Covey, and learned of the abduction. Two lawsuits were filed. The first case was brought by the Washington ship officers over property claims and the second case was the Spanish being charged with enslaving Africans. Spain requested President Martin Van Buren to return the African captives to Cuba under international treaty. Because of issues of ownership and jurisdiction, the case gained international attention. Known as United States v. The Amistad (1841), the case was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Mende, restoring their freedom. It became a symbol in the United States in the movement to abolish slavery.