skip to page content - In 1839, the Spanish slave ship Amistad
set sail from Havana to Puerto Principe, Cuba. The ship was
carrying 53 Africans who, a few months earlier, had been
abducted from their homeland in present-day Sierra Leone to be
sold in Cuba. The captives revolted against the ship’s crew,
killing the captain and others, but sparing the life of the
ship’s navigator so that he could set them on a course back to
Africa. Instead, the navigator directed the ship north and west.
After several weeks, a U.S. Navy vessel seized the Amistad off
the coast of Long Island. The Africans were transported to New
Haven, Connecticut, to be tried for mutiny, murder, and piracy.
These charges later were dismissed, but the Africans were kept
in prison as the case turned to salvage claims and property
rights. In a trial in Federal District Court, a group of Cuban
planters, the government of Spain, and the captain of the
Amistad all claimed ownership of the Africans. After two years
of legal battles, the case went bef