History of the Amistad Sailing Ship
The Amistad Incident, which took place between 1839 and 1841, was an historic event in which a group of Africans secured their freedom twice. Once through violent struggle and once through the U.S. Courts , this is the first human rights case to be argued in the American soil on behalf of Africans. It took place in Connecticut and reflects the early struggles for freedom and equality for the new formed nation.
In 1839, 53 Africans were kidnapped from West Africa and sold into the transatlantic slave trade. Shackled aboard the Portuguese slave vessel, Tecora, 49 men and four children were brought to Havana, Cuba, where they were fraudulently classified as native, Cuban-born slaves.
Purchased illegally by Spanish planters, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montez, The men were transferred to the schooner La Amistad for transport to another part of the island. Three days into the journey, led by a 25-year-old rice farmer named Sengbe Pieh, or “cinque” to his Spanish captors, the Africans seized the ship, killed the captain and the cook, and ordered the planters to sail to Africa.
After 63 days, La Amistad and her cargo were seized as salvage by the USS Washington near Montauk Point, Long Island, NY and towed to New London harbor in Connecticut. The Africans were imprisoned in a New Haven jail charged with murder. The case took on historic proportions when former President John Quincy Adams successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the captives.
It was two years latter, in 1841, that the 35 surviving Africans were returned to Africa.
The schooner is a copy of the original 19th century Amistad