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Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: The Amistad
Case
". . . each of them are natives of
Africa and were born free, and ever since have been and still of right are and
ought to be free and not slaves . . ."
S. Staples, R. Baldwin, and T. Sedgewick, Proctors for the Amistad
Africans, January 7, 1840 |
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Background
In February of 1839, Portuguese slave hunters abducted a large group of Africans
from Sierra Leone and shipped them to Havana, Cuba, a center for the slave trade.
This abduction violated all of the treaties then in existence. Fifty-three Africans
were purchased by two Spanish planters and put aboard the Cuban schooner Amistad
for shipment to a Caribbean plantation. On July 1, 1839, the Africans seized
the ship, killed the captain and the cook, and ordered the planters to sail to
Africa. On August 24, 1839, the Amistad was seized off Long Island, NY,
by the U.S. brig Washington. The planters were freed and the Africans
were imprisoned in New Haven, CT, on charges of murder. Although the murder charges
were dismissed, the Africans continued to be held in confinement as the focus
of the case turned to salvage claims and property rights. President Van Buren
was in favor of extraditing the Africans to Cuba. However, abolitionists in the
North opposed extradition and raised money to defend the Africans. Claims to
the Africans by the planters, the government of Spain, and the captain of the
brig led the case to trial in the Federal District Court in Connecticut. The
court ruled that the case fell within Federal jurisdiction and that the claims
to the Africans as property were not legitimate because they were illegally held
as slaves. The case went to the Supreme Court in January 1841, and former President
John Quincy Adams argued the defendants' case. Adams defended the right of the
accused to fight to regain their freedom. The Supreme Court decided in favor
of the Africans, and 35 of them were returned to their homeland. The others died
at sea or in prison while awaiting trial. |
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