In , Mende captives from Sierra Leone took control of the ship transporting them to slavery, the Amistad. Unable to navigate back to Africa, the ship was captured and towed into the port of New London in Connecticut. The Mende were faced with slavery or execution, and their cause was taken up by many residents throughout Connecticut.
Circuit and District courts ruled in favor of the Mende. In , the U. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Mende, whose heroic resistance aboard La Amistad represents one of the great, successful revolts in the history of the international slave trade. The uprising was a popular rebellion led by Africans in opposition to slavery; by people taken in chains from their home country, held in squalid conditions below deck with the promise of great further hardship ahead; and who seized their freedom, first through physical rebellion, and then through the courts.
The Freedom Schooner Amistad, a foot Baltimore Clipper first launched in , is run by Discovering Amistad , an educational nonprofit founded in November with the goal of teaching about the Amistad revolt through classroom presentations and rides aboard the ship. The ship will be open for tours and ticketed rides from Long Wharf through July 8.
Click here for a full schedule of ticketed events. As Marder pushed the importance of all New Haveners knowing the story of the Amistad captives and their revolt, Harp dove into the history and fought for the memorial, which was dedicated in Those allies believed in recognizing human beings as human beings, and not as cargo, she said. They overcame superficial differences and recognized a common humanity. Douglass, who grew up in the old Elm Haven projects in Dixwell, said he first learned the story of the Amistad rebellion while a middle school student at the old Winchester School back in the s.
He remembered being taught the Amistad story by black teachers, and feeling pride that here, in his very city, a group of black men fought and won their freedom in the midst of such a horrific history of slavery. Yet since slavery itself remained legal in most of those places, unlawful activities abounded.
Along the coast of present-day Sierra Leone, for example, Spanish slave trader Pedro Blanco—said to live partly like a European aristocrat and partly like an African king—continued doing brisk business with the help of a powerful local leader who rounded up his human cargo.
Most of them had essentially been kidnapped, whereas others had been captured in warfare, taken as debt repayment or punished for such crimes as adultery. Kept in barracks, they were stripped naked and thoroughly inspected from head to toe.
Disease, famine and beatings were purportedly commonplace. Then, after several weeks, they and or so other captives were loaded onto the Tecora, a Brazilian or Portuguese slave ship. According to testimony that the Amistad captives gave later, they were shackled around the ankles, wrists and neck and forced to sleep tightly together in contorted positions, with not enough headroom to even stand up straight. Whippings were handed out for even minor offenses, like not finishing breakfast, and each morning dead bodies were brought up from the lower deck and tossed into the ocean.
Following two months at sea, the Tecora landed in Havana, Cuba, then a Spanish colony, where potential buyers once again poked and prodded the surviving captives like livestock. On June 28, the Amistad left Havana under the cover of nightfall so as to best avoid British antislavery patrols. Onboard, the captives continued suffering severe mistreatment, including the pouring of salt, rum and gunpowder into freshly inflicted wounds.
They developed a particular dislike for the cook, who delighted in insinuating that they would all be killed, chopped up and eaten. Despite being from at least nine different ethnic groups, the Africans agreed one night to band together in revolt.
Before dawn on July 2, they either broke or picked the locks on their chains. Grabbing a dagger and a club, the captain managed to kill one African and mortally wound another. Materials created by the National Archives and Records Administration are in the public domain. Top Skip to main content. The schooner, its cargo, and all on board were taken to New London, CT. The plantation owners were freed and the Africans were imprisoned on charges of murder. Although the murder charges were dismissed, the Africans continued to be held in confinement and the case went to trial in the Federal District Court in Connecticut.
The plantation owners, government of Spain, and captain of the Washington each claimed rights to the Africans or compensation. 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. Had it not been for the actions of abolitionists in the United States, the issues related to the Amistad might have ended quietly in an admiralty court.
But they used the incident as a way to expose the evils of slavery and generate significant opposition to the practice.
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