Launched in 1994, the UNESCO Slave Route Project addresses the history of the slave trade and slavery through intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace and reconciliation, seeking to improve understanding of this human tragedy by making better known its causes, its consequences for societies today, and the cultural interactions born of this history. Its five fields of activity are scientific research, development of educational materials, preservation of written archives and oral traditions, promotion of living cultures and contributions by the African diaspora, and preservation of sites of memory. In this context, Amelia Island, Florida, is associated with the history of the slave trade and slavery. After the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 ended British colonization and returned control of Florida to Spain, large numbers of captives were imported from Africa by traders and forced to work on rice and indigo plantations, becoming the predominant workforce in East Florida during the late 1700s. In the early 19th century, after the 1808 United States Constitutional ban on the importation of Africans, Florida became an important trade and smuggling region on the St. Johns and St. Marys Rivers along the border between the United States and Spanish Florida. As a free port, Fernandina, now called Old Town, was the place where traders registered, had inspected, unloaded, and sold their enslaved imports, and enslaved people were easily smuggled across the river into Georgia and South Carolina. Misery Point north of Old Town was the quarantine location where ill and dying survivors were left if they were determined unmarketable. In 1817, the slave ships NS Monserrat and Jesus Nazareno disembarked 351 slaves at the harbor located on this site. According to research cited from Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the number of African captives who died during the Middle Passage crossing from Africa is estimated at 1.8 million.