How much do you know about the Amistad Case? Have you heard of it before today?

Apparently it is not heard of much, but it was supposed to be one of the many events that brought about the civil war in America. A lot of the abolitionists wanted to see the slaves freed, whilst a lot of people wanted the slaves to be hung for murder, or extradited to Cuba .

It all started when a group of Africans were kidnapped from their home in Sierra Leone and shipped to Havana, Cuba to a slave trading center. . Fifty-three of the Africans were purchased by two Spanish planters and they were put on the Cuban schooner Amistad to be taken to a Caribbean plantation. Whilst on the way there, the africans revolted, killed the Captain and the cook and demanded that they be taken back to Africa. However, the Amistad was seized just off Long Island by a US brig, the crew were released, and the Africans were imprisoned in New Haven on charges of murder. A lot of people laid claim to them - the Queen of Spain, the planters and the Captain of the Brig that had seized the Amistad. In the end murder charges had to be dropped, because it was proved that the Africans were in fact kidnapped, a fact that had been hidden due to it violating treaties then in existence. President Van Buren wanted to extradite the Africans to Cuba - a lot of his advisers were worried about civil war and they wanted to appease people by not releasing the 'slaves'; but abolitionists in the North did not want to see the Africans extradited, and they raised money to defend them. In the end President John Quincy Adams defended the Africans in the Supreme Court, and the African's were freed and 35 of them returned to their homeland. The others had died at sea, or in prison whilst awaiting trial.

I first heard of the case when we watched the film Amistad, which is based on these events. It made me want to look more into it, as I had never heard of it before.

How much do you know about the case, and how significant do you think it was in relation to the civil war?

Wow, this is very intriguing! I have never heard of it, and I haven't seen the film yet, but I am now interested in knowing more!

This happened around the 1840s, right? I did some research to read up more on it and found that slavery was illegal in the United States, but not in Spain, and at that time, Cuba was a Spanish territory. That's why one of the most contested legal questions was whether the Africans were Spanish citizens (meaning that they could be under the "slave" status) or African or something else, and not slaves under U.S. or Spanish law.

Yes, it did happen around then; the case started in the late 1830s, and carried on over into the early 1840s.

I know, it's a very interesting topic, that is so little heard of. That is what I found so intriguing about it.

I'm not sure I've heard of this before.

Now you were the one person I imagined would have heard of it, Airi. Is it something that would interest you to look more into it?

Yes! I'm going to have to do some research and look this up.

The History Blog made a recent post about some Amistad letters. Check it out here: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/25747. It's quite interesting and shows an excerpt of a letter written by Charlotte Cowles whose father was one of the abolitionists during that time.

Maybe someone would like to write a novel from her perspective?

Ooh interesting! Thank you for the link, Idril.