_restored.jpg) La Amistad off Culloden Point, Long Island, New York on August 26, 1839 (contemporary painting, artist unknown) | |
 Spain | |
|---|---|
| Name | La Amistad |
| Owner | Ramón Ferrer |
| Acquired | Pre-June 1839 |
 United States | |
| Name | Ion |
| Namesake | Ion (mythology) |
| Owner | Captain George Hawford,Newport, Rhode Island |
| Acquired | October 1840 |
 France | |
| Acquired | 1844 |
| General characteristics | |
| Length | 120 ft (37 m) |
| Sail plan | Schooner |
La Amistad (pronounced[laa.misˈtað];Spanish forThe Friendship) was a 19th-century two-mastedschooner owned by a Spaniard living inCuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for aslave revolt byMende captives who had been captured and sold to European slave traders and illegally transported by a Portuguese ship from West Africa to Cuba, in violation of European treaties against theAtlantic slave trade. Spanish plantation owners Don José Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes bought 53 captives inHavana, Cuba, including four children, and were transporting them on the ship to their plantations near Puerto Príncipe (modernCamagüey, Cuba).[1] The revolt began after Sengbe Pieh (also known asJoseph Cinqué) unshackled himself and the others on the third day.[2] They took control of the ship, killing the captain and the cook. Two Africans were also killed in the melee.
Pieh ordered Ruiz and Montes to sail to Africa. Instead, they sailed north up the east coast of the United States, sure that the ship would be intercepted and the Africans returned to Cuba as slaves. Therevenue cutterWashington seizedLa Amistad offMontauk Point on Long Island, New York. Pieh and his group escaped the ship but were caught offshore by citizens. They were incarcerated inNew Haven, Connecticut on charges of murder and piracy. The man who captured Pieh and his group claimed them as property.La Amistad was towed to New London, Connecticut, and those remaining onboard were arrested. None of the 43 survivors on the ship spoke English, so they could not explain what had taken place. Eventually, language professorJosiah Gibbs foundJames Covey to act as interpreter, and they learned of the abduction.
Two lawsuits were filed. The first case was brought by theWashington ship officers over salvage property claims, and the second case charged the Spanish with enslaving Africans. Spain requested PresidentMartin Van Buren to return the African captives to Cuba under international treaty.
Because of issues of ownership and jurisdiction, the case gained international attention asUnited States v. The Amistad (1841). The case was finally decided by theSupreme Court of the United States in favor of the Mende people, restoring their freedom. It became a symbol in the United States in the movement toabolish slavery.
La Amistad was a 19th-century two-masted schooner of about 120 feet (37 m). In 1839 it was owned by Ramón Ferrer, a Spanish national.[3] Strictly speaking,La Amistad was not a typicalslave ship, as it was not designed like others to traffic massive numbers of enslaved Africans, nor did it engage in theMiddle Passage of Africans to the Americas. The ship engaged in the shorter, domestic coastwise trade around Cuba and islands and coastal nations in the Caribbean. The primary cargo carried byLa Amistad was sugar-industry products. It carried a limited number of passengers and enslaved Africans being trafficked for delivery or sale around the island.[citation needed]
Captained by Ferrer,La Amistad left Havana on June 28, 1839, for the small port of Guanaja, nearPuerto Príncipe, Cuba, with some general cargo and 53 African captives bound for the sugar plantation where they were to be delivered.[3] These 53Mende captives (49 adults and four children) had been captured by African slave catchers or otherwise enslaved inMendiland[4] (in modern-daySierra Leone), sold to European slave traders and illegally transported from Africa to Havana, mostly aboard the Portuguese slave shipTeçora, to be sold in Cuba. Although the United States and Britain had banned the Atlantic slave trade, Spain had not abolished the trade in its colonies.[5][6] The crew ofLa Amistad, lacking purpose-built slave quarters, placed half the captives in the main hold and the other half on deck. The captives were relatively free to move about, which aided their revolt and commandeering of the vessel. In the main hold below decks, the captives found a rusty file and sawed through their manacles.[7]
On about July 1, once free, the men below quickly went up on deck. Armed with machete-likecane knives, they attacked the crew, successfully gaining control of the ship, under the leadership ofSengbe Pieh (later known in the United States asJoseph Cinqué). They killed the captain Ferrer as well as the ship's cook Celestino;[8] two captives also died, and two sailors Manuel Pagilla and Jacinto escaped in a small boat. Ferrer's slave/mulatto cabin boy Antonio[8] was spared, as were José Ruiz and Pedro Montes, the two alleged owners of the captives, so that they could guide the ship back to Africa.[3][6][7] While the Mende demanded to be returned home, the navigator Montes deceived them about the course, maneuvering the ship north along the North American coast until they reached the eastern tip ofLong Island, New York.
Several New York pilot boats came acrossLa Amistad as on August 21, 1839, when she was discovered thirty miles southeast ofSandy Hook by the pilot-boatBlossom who supplied the men with water and bread. When they attempted to board the pilot-boat to escape, the pilot-boat cut the rope that was attached toLa Amistad. The pilots then communicated what they felt was aslave ship to theCollector of the Port of New York.[9][10] Two days later, theGratitude pilot boat came acrossLa Amistad when she was twenty-five miles east ofFire Island. When Captain Seaman of theGratitude wanted to put a pilot aboard, one of the ringleaders ofLa Amistad ordered the men to fire on theGratitude. Gun shots hit the pilot boat but she was able to escape.[11]
Discovered by the navalbrigUSS Washington while on surveying duties,La Amistad was taken into United States custody.[3][12][page needed] By the time of their trial, six of the captives had died.[8]
TheWashington officers brought the first case to federal district court over salvage claims, while the second case began in a Connecticut court after the state arrested the Spanish traders on charges of enslaving free Africans.[6] The Spanish foreign minister, however, demanded thatLa Amistad and its cargo be released from custody and the Mende captives sent to Cuba for punishment by Spanish authorities. TheVan Buren administration accepted the Spanish crown's argument, but Secretary of StateJohn Forsyth explained that the President could not order the release ofLa Amistad and its cargo because the executive could not interfere with the judiciary under American law. He also could not release the Spanish traders from imprisonment in Connecticut because that would constitute federal intervention in a matter of state jurisdiction.[citation needed] AbolitionistsJoshua Leavitt,Lewis Tappan, andSimeon Jocelyn formed the Amistad Committee to raise funds for the defense ofLa Amistad's captives. Roger Sherman Baldwin, grandson ofRoger Sherman and a prominent abolitionist, represented the captives in the New Haven court to decide the fate of the Mende people. Baldwin and former PresidentJohn Quincy Adams[13] argued the case before the Supreme Court which ruled in favor of the Africans.
A widely publicized court case ensued in New Haven to settle legal issues about the ship and the status of the Mende captives. They were at risk of execution if convicted of mutiny, and they became a popular cause amongabolitionists in the United States. Since 1808, the United States and Britain had prohibited the international slave trade.[14] In order to avoid the international prohibition on the African slave trade, the ship's owners fraudulently described the Mende as having been born in Cuba and said that they were being sold in the Spanish domestic slave trade. The court had to determine if the Mende were to be considered salvage and thus the property of naval officers who had taken custody of the ship (as was legal in such cases), the property of the Cuban buyers, or the property of Spain, as QueenIsabella II claimed.[citation needed] A question was whether the circumstances of the capture and transport of the Mende meant that they were legally free and had acted as free men rather than slaves.[6]
Judges ruled in favor of the Africans in the district and circuit courts, and the caseUnited States v. The Amistad reached the US Supreme Court on appeal. In 1841, it ruled that the Mende people had been illegally transported and held as slaves, and they had rebelled in self-defense.[citation needed] It ordered them freed.[6] The US government did not provide any aid, but 35 survivors returned to Africa in 1842,[6] aided by funds raised by theUnited Missionary Society, a black group founded byJames W. C. Pennington. He was a Congregational minister and fugitive slave inBrooklyn, New York, who was active in the abolitionist movement.[15] The Spanish government claimed that the Mende people were Spanish citizens not of African origin. This created tension among the U.S. government, the Spanish crown, and the British government, which had outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire with theSlave Trade Act 1807 and had recently abolished slavery in the British Empire with theSlavery Abolition Act 1833.[16]
La Amistad had been moored at the wharf behind theUS Custom House inNew London, Connecticut for a year and a half, and it was auctioned off by theU.S. Marshal in October 1840. Captain George Hawford ofNewport, Rhode Island purchased the vessel and then needed an act of Congress passed to register it.[citation needed] He renamed itIon. In late 1841, he sailedIon toBermuda andSaint Thomas with a typicalNew England cargo of onions, apples, live poultry, and cheese.
Hawford soldIon inGuadeloupe in 1844.[citation needed] There is no record of what became of it under the new French owners in the Caribbean.
TheAmistad Memorial stands in front ofNew Haven City Hall and County Courthouse in New Haven, Connecticut, where many of the events occurred related to the affair in the United States.
TheAmistad Research Center atTulane University,New Orleans, Louisiana is devoted to research about slavery, abolition, civil rights, and African Americans; it commemorates the revolt of Mende people on the ship by the same name.[citation needed] A collection of portraits ofLa Amistad survivors is held in the collection ofYale University, drawn by William H. Townsend during the survivors' trial.[6]
 Freedom Schooner Amistad atMystic Seaport in 2010 | |
 United States | |
|---|---|
| Owner |
|
| Builder | Mystic Seaport |
| Laid down | 1998 |
| Launched | March 25, 2000 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 136 L. tons |
| Length | 80.7 ft (24.6 m) |
| Beam | 22.9 ft (7.0 m) |
| Draft | 10.1 ft (3.1 m) |
| Propulsion | Sail, 2 Caterpillar diesel engines |
| Sail plan | Topsailschooner |
Between 1998 and 2000, artisans atMystic Seaport inMystic, Connecticut built a replica ofLa Amistad using traditional tools and construction techniques common to wooden schooners built in the 19th century, but using modern materials and engines, officially namedAmistad. It was promoted as "Freedom SchoonerAmistad".[17][18] The modern-day ship is not an exact replica ofLa Amistad, as it is slightly longer and has higherfreeboard. There were no old blueprints of the original.
The new schooner was built using a general knowledge of theBaltimore Clippers and art drawings from the era. Some of the tools used in the project were the same as those that might have been used by a 19th-century shipwright, while others were powered. Tri-Coastal Marine,[19] designers of "Freedom SchoonerAmistad", used modern computer technology to develop plans for the vessel. Bronze bolts are used as fastenings throughout the ship.Freedom Schooner Amistad has twoCaterpillar diesel engines and an external ballast keel made of lead. This technology was unavailable to 19th-century builders.
"Freedom SchoonerAmistad" was operated by Amistad America, Inc. based in New Haven, Connecticut. The ship's mission was to educate the public on the history of slavery, abolition, discrimination, and civil rights. The homeport is New Haven, where theAmistad trial took place. It has also traveled to port cities for educational opportunities. It was also the State Flagship and Tall ship Ambassador of Connecticut.[20] The ship made several commemorative voyages: one in 2007 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of theAtlantic slave trade in Britain (1807) and the United States (1808),[21] and one in 2010 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its 2000 launching at Mystic Seaport. It undertook a two-year refit at Mystic Seaport starting in 2010 and was subsequently mainly used for sea training inMaine and for film work.[22]
In 2013, Amistad America lost its non-profit organization status after failing to file tax returns for three years amid concern for accountability for public funding from the state of Connecticut.[23][24][25] The company was later put into liquidation, and the non-profit Discovering Amistad Inc.[26] purchased the ship from the receiver in November 2015.Amistad then returned to educational and promotional activity inNew Haven, Connecticut.[27]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)All this is merely preamble to a rather rapid survey of a few of Hayden's superb sequences, of whichMiddle Passage is the most famous.
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41°21′40″N71°57′58″W / 41.361°N 71.966°W /41.361; -71.966
