A revolt aboard a ship transporting slaves from one part of
Cuba to another in 1839 led to a celebrated case before the US Supreme Court
that some have seen as a precursor to the US Civil War.
La Amistad was a two-masted schooner in private ownership
that was used to transport goods along the coast of Spanish-owned Cuba and to
other parts of the Caribbean. On 28th June 1839 La Amistad set sail
from Havana bound for a small port in eastern Cuba. The ship’s crew was captained
by the owner, Don Ramon Ferrer.
On this occasion the ‘cargo’ included 53 slaves who had been
sold in Havana and were being taken to the sugar plantation where they would be
put to work and probably spend the rest of their lives. Also on board were the
slaves’ new owners. The slaves were members of the Mende tribe from Sierra
Leone who had been shipped across the Atlantic not long before. By this time
the Atlantic slave trade had been declared illegal, although the institution of
slavery had not.
The slaves were not conveyed in La Amistad in the conditions
that they would probably have experienced during their previous voyage. Some of
them were kept in the ship’s hold and others on deck.
After a few days at sea the slaves in the hold were able to
free themselves and get hold of knives that were used for cutting cane. They
overpowered the crew, some of whom were killed, including the captain. They
demanded that the navigator set a new course, namely for Africa. However, he
was able to trick the slaves and sailed north instead of east. The ship was
eventually intercepted by an American naval ship, USS Washington, and escorted
to New York.
The United States was now in possession of a Spanish ship
together with its cargo of slaves, and it was the status of that cargo that was
to occupy the best legal minds of the country over the next two years or so.
The Spanish demanded the immediate return of La Amistad and
the slaves, and President Martin Van Buren was at first minded to agree with
the request. However, it was pointed out to him that the transport of slaves in
ships had been outlawed by both the United Kingdom and the United States, so
under American law the slaves were the victims of a crime, not the perpetrators
of one.
When the case came before the Supreme Court it was stated
that the slaves had been ‘unlawfully kidnapped and forcibly and wrongfully
carried on board’. This view was supported by Justice Joseph Story and the
slaves therefore won their case, the verdict being delivered on 9th March 1841.
There was already a strong abolitionist movement, especially
in the northern United States, and funds were raised to accommodate the freed
slaves and give them lessons in English, as well as Bible classes. Further
funds were raised to pay for their repatriation to Sierra Leone, which happened
the following year.
One of the former slaves later returned to the United States
to study at college, after which she became a Christian missionary back in
Sierra Leone.
The Amistad case exposed the deep divide in American society
between those who supported the institution of slavery and those who did not.
Many southerners took the line that the slaves were non-persons who were the
property of their owners and should therefore be returned to them, as would any
other stolen and subsequently recovered goods. The abolitionists (led by former
President John Quincy Adams) argued that persons who had been illegally
transported to Cuba, and were therefore free, were entitled to the protection
of the American legal system.
The Supreme Court verdict undermined the racist assumptions
of the southerners and gave the abolitionists a significant moral victory.
Tensions between north and south were heightened, and the case therefore
constituted a step on the path that would eventually lead to civil war.
The case was remembered in 1997 when Steven Spielberg
directed the film ‘Amistad’ that brought the case before a modern audience.
Criticisms have been levelled at the film for its historical inaccuracies, and
for portraying the case as a vital turning point in the story of the ending of
slavery in the United States. It has to be remembered that the former slaves of
the Amistad had returned home nearly 20 years before the first shot was fired
in the war that finally settled the matter.
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