La Amistad
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 |
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
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. The
Two lawsuits were filed. The first case was brought by the Washington ship officers over salvage property claims, and the second case charged the Spanish with enslaving Africans. Spain requested President Martin Van Buren to return the African captives to Cuba under international treaty.
Because of issues of ownership and jurisdiction, the case gained international attention as United States v. The Amistad (1841). The case was finally decided by the Supreme 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 to abolish slavery.
Description
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 typical slave ship, as it was not designed like others to traffic massive numbers of enslaved Africans, nor did it engage in the Middle 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 by La 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]
History
1839 slave revolt
Captained by Ferrer, La Amistad left Havana on June 28, 1839, for the small port of Guanaja, near
On about July 1, once free, the men below quickly went up on deck. Armed with machete-like cane knives, they attacked the crew, successfully gaining control of the ship, under the leadership of Sengbe Pieh (later known in the United States as Joseph Cinqué). They killed the captain Ferrer as well as the ship's cook Celestino;[8] two slaves also died, 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 owners of the slaves, 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 of Long Island, New York.
Several New York pilot boats came across La Amistad as on 21 August 1839, when she was discovered thirty miles southeast of
Discovered by the naval brig USS Washington while on surveying duties, La Amistad was taken into United States custody.[3][12][page needed]By the time of their trial there were only 44 of the Amistad captives still alive because six had died.[8]
Court case
The Washington 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.
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 among
Judges ruled in favor of the Africans in the district and circuit courts, and the
Later years
La Amistad had been moored at the wharf behind the
Hawford sold Ion in Guadeloupe in 1844.[citation needed] There is no record of what became of it under the new French owners in the Caribbean.
Legacy
Freedom Schooner Amistad at Mystic 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 | Topsail schooner |
The Amistad Memorial stands in front of New Haven City Hall and County Courthouse in New Haven, Connecticut, where many of the events occurred related to the affair in the United States.
The
Replica
Between 1998 and 2000, artisans at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut built a replica of La Amistad using traditional tools and construction techniques common to wooden schooners built in the 19th century, but using modern materials and engines, officially named Amistad. It was promoted as "Freedom Schooner Amistad".[17][18] The modern-day ship is not an exact replica of La Amistad, as it is slightly longer and has higher freeboard. There were no old blueprints of the original.
The new schooner was built using a general knowledge of the Baltimore 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 Schooner Amistad", used modern computer technology to develop plans for the vessel. Bronze bolts are used as fastenings throughout the ship. Freedom Schooner Amistad has an external ballast keel made of lead and two Caterpillar diesel engines. None of this technology was available to 19th-century builders.
"Freedom Schooner Amistad" 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 the Amistad 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 the Atlantic 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 from 2010 and was subsequently mainly used for sea training in Maine and for film work.[22]
In 2013, Amistad America lost its non-profit organization status after failing to file tax returns for three years and amid concern of the 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 in New Haven, Connecticut.[27]
In popular culture
- On 2 September 1839, a play entitled The Long, Low Black Schooner, based on the revolt, opened in New York City and played to full houses. (La Amistad was painted black at the time of the revolt.)
- The slave revolt aboard La Amistad, the background of the slave trade, and its subsequent trial are retold in a poem by Robert Hayden entitled "Middle Passage", first published in 1962.[28]
- In Robert Skimin's novel Gray Victory (1988), depicting an alternate history in which the South won the American Civil War, a group of abolitionist conspirators infiltrating Richmond, Virginia calls itself "Amistad".
- The film Amistad (1997), directed by Steven Spielberg, dramatized the historical incidents. Major actors were Morgan Freeman, as a freed slave-turned-abolitionist in New Haven; Anthony Hopkins, as John Quincy Adams; Matthew McConaughey, as Roger Sherman Baldwin, an unorthodox, but influential lawyer; and Djimon Hounsou, as Cinque (Sengbe Peah).
- The opera Amistad (1997), composed by Anthony Davis with libretto by Thulani Davis, was commissioned and premiered by Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997.[29] The opera underwent a major revision and was then presented at the Spoleto Festival USA in 2008.
- The 1999 hit single "My Love Is Your Love", performed by Whitney Houston, references the "chains of Amistad".
- In January 2011, Random House published Ardency, a collection of poems written over 20 years by American poet Kevin Young which "gathers here a chorus of voices that tells the story of the Africans who mutinied on board the slave ship Amistad".
See also
- African Slave Trade Patrol
- Bibliography of early American naval history
- Blockade of Africa
- Creole case
- John Quincy Adams and abolitionism
- List of historical schooners
- List of ships captured in the 19th century
- Sarah Margru Kinson
References
- ^ "Teaching With Documents:The Amistad Case". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
- ^ Purdy, Elizabeth. Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass. Oxford African American Studies Center. pp. Amistad.
- ^ ISBN 9781429710794. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ History of the Amistad Captives, page 9 ff
- ISBN 9780300198454. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Unidentified Young Man". World Digital Library. 1839–1840. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
- ^ a b
Finkenbine, Roy E. (2001). "13 The Symbolism of Slave Mutiny: Black Abolitionist Responses to the Amistad and Creole Incidents". In Hathaway, Jane (ed.). Rebellion, Repression, Reinvention: Mutiny in Comparative Perspective. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-275-97010-9. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
- ^ a b c John Barber "A History of the AMistead Captives
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- ISBN 9780841520356. Retrieved 25 Oct 2021.)
{{cite book}}
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ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISBN 0-517-00487-9
- ^ Rodriguez, Junius, ed. (2007). Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 9–11.
- ^
"22 Statutes at Large". A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875. Library of Congress. p. 426. American Memory. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ISBN 1605981753, pp. 162–169.
- ^ "Amistad: How it Began (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
- ^ "Amistad". Coast Guard Vessel Documentation. Silver Spring, MD: NOAA Fisheries. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^ Marder, Alfred L. "About the Freedom Schooner Amistad". New Haven, CT: Amistad Committee, Inc. Archived from the original on August 11, 2021. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^ "The New Topsail Schooner Amistad". Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
- ^ "State of Connecticut Sites, Seals, & Symbols". Connecticut State Register & Manual. Archived from the original on September 26, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
- ^ "Amistad Sails Into Bristol for Slave Trade Commemorations". Culture24. August 30, 2007. Retrieved December 7, 2009.
- ^ Lender, Jon (August 3, 2013). "Troubles Aboard the Amistad". Hartford Courant. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
- ^ "State Missed Signs As Tall Ship Amistad Foundered". The Hartford Courant. September 3, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
- ^ Lender, Jon (September 4, 2013). "Malloy Wants 'Action Plan' For Troubled Amistad". Hartford Courant. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
- ^ Collins, David (May 10, 2013). "Amistad still sails some troubled waters". The Day. New London, CT. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
- ^ "Discovering Amistad". Discovering Amistad.
- ^ Wojtas, Joe (December 31, 2015). "Discovering Amistad charts new course for schooner". The Day. New London, CT. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ISBN 0-7910-8225-3.
All this is merely preamble to a rather rapid survey of a few of Hayden's superb sequences, of which Middle Passage is the most famous.
- ^ Salazar, David (July 22, 2020). "Opera Profile: Anthony Davis' 'Amistad'". OperaWire.
Further reading
- Owens, William A. (1997). Black Mutiny: The Revolt on the Schooner Amistad. Black Classic Press. ISBN 9781574780048.
- Pesci, David (1997). Amistad. Da Capo Press.
- Rediker, Marcus (2012). The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom. New York: Viking. ISBN 9780670025046.
- Zeuske, Michael (2014). "Rethinking the Case of the Schooner Amistad: Contraband and Complicity after 1808/1820". Slavery & Abolition. 35 (1): 156–164. S2CID 143870695.
External links
- Amistad: Seeking Freedom in Connecticut, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
- Sarah Margru Kinson, the Two Worlds of an Amistad Captive
- Freedom Schooner Amistad sailing, YouTube video
- The Amistad Affair
- The current owners of the replica Amistad
- "Amistad Connecticut: A Legacy Reborn," 1998-02-27, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting