The Amistad Revolt

Anyone who has seen the Hollywood film Amistad and not be deeply affected is indeed highly apathetic. While the Hollywood version of the real life story may be somewhat simplified in some respects, it does justice to the real drama that unfolded more than a century ago simply because the movie itself does not depart from the essentially subjective human experience of its protagonists.

The real life protagonist Sengbe Pieh, or more popularly known in the movie and at that time as Joseph Cinque was an African Mende and a farmer who was captured by slave traders in January 1839 while on his way to the fields. Cinque, uncertain of what was going on, joined a group of other captive Africans and were sold to Spaniards Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montez.

Fifty-three Africans were forced to board the Spanish vessel La Amistad. Aware that they were breaking the Anglo-Spanish Treaty of 1820 which prohibited the sale and transport of new slaves, Ruiz and Montez took the risk and procured supposed special permits to transport their human cargo.

En route to the port of Puerto Principe, Cuba, Cinque and his fellow Africans took arms and gained control of the Amistad, intending to sail back to Africa. Without any prior knowledge about sailing however, Montez was able to divert their path, hoping to remain in Cuban waters. Despite his intentions however, the Amistad eventually drifted into American waters.

On the 26^th of August, the Americans took hold of the vessel, along with the Africans and the remaining Spaniards. What ensued was a complicated and protracted legal case, with the Spaniards attempting to mask their illegal trade by professing that Cinque and the others were not new slaves but old slaves in transit and are therefore legal properties of Spain.

Abolitionists Joshua Leavitt, Simeon Jocelyn and Lewis Tappan and later former U.S. President John Quincy Adams came to the rescue of the beleaguered Africans. In a little over two years, two trials were conducted with the second trial elevated to the United States Supreme Court. Although the verbal arguments were given by the abolitionist defenders, the Africans themselves did not fail to elicit sympathy as Cinque took the witness stand on the second trial. With intense feeling, Cinque gave a shout that was to symbolically resonate for years: "Give us free! Give us free!"

With all evidences in place, the Supreme Court decided on March 1941 that the Africans were indeed not old slaves but were illegally abducted from Africa. Near the end of 1941, despite some opposition from high quarters, the Africans, with the aid of the abolitionists were returned to their African homeland.

Although some may disagree, what has come to be known as the Amistad Revolt may have become an important factor in the eventual onset of the American Civil War. If events similar to that which preceded the Amistad Revolt happened in the modern times, it would have largely been regarded as cause for customary legal proceedings. The period in which the events transpired however, was far from calm and normal. In many ways, the Amistad Revolt, fueled the growing rift between those who were against and those who were for slavery.