Amistad Rebellion was a revolt in 1839 by enslaved Black Africans against Spaniards who had bought them. The rebellion took place on a ship called La Amistad. Joseph Cinque, a member of the Mende people of what is now Sierra Leone, led the uprising. The enslaved people were later tried in courts in the United States for their rebellion and were found not guilty. This legal decision was a landmark because Black people had few rights at the time.
The enslaved people who became the Amistad rebels were captured in western Africa. Early in 1839, Spanish slave traders brought them to Cuba illegally on a Portuguese ship. In Havana, two Spaniards, Pedro Montes and Jose Ruiz, bought Cinque and 52 other captives from the traders. Montes and Ruiz intended to resell the 53 captives in the Cuban town of Puerto Principe (now Camaguey). They set sail in the Caribbean Sea on the schooner La Amistad. They hired a ship captain and two crewmen. The captain brought a cook and a cabin boy with him.
The enslaved people were chained to a wall below the deck of the ship. One night, Cinque saw an opportunity to escape. He used a nail to break his wrist chains and iron collar. He helped other captives get free and they, in turn, helped others. The captives attacked the crew and took control of the ship. They killed the captain and his cook. The two crewmen jumped ship and escaped. Montes, Ruiz, and the cabin boy were captured. Two enslaved people died during the rebellion.
The rebels did not know how to sail the ship. Cinque ordered Montes and Ruiz to sail it to Africa. During the day, the Spaniards sailed slowly eastward, the direction of Africa. At night, they secretly changed to a northwest course and moved rapidly. The ship ended up at Long Island, New York. Eight more rebels had died by then.
When La Amistad reached New York, Montes and Ruiz reported the killings. The rebels were arrested and transported to Connecticut, where they were put on trial.
United States district and circuit courts ruled that the rebels had been free people who were illegally enslaved and thus were justified in rebelling. The case finally went to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1841. John Quincy Adams, who had been president of the United States from 1825 to 1829, defended the rebels in the Supreme Court. He based his defense on the right of every person to be free. The court ruled in favor of the rebels. Cinque and most of the other remaining Amistad rebels returned to Africa in January 1842.
See also Cinque, Joseph.
