In 1839 there was 53 African slaves on board a ship called the Amistad.
The Africans was abducted from West Africa and sold to the Spanish slavers .
which is in violation of international law. .
In 1840 the Mendians' trial began in the District Court in Hartford, .
Connecticut. Tappan helped suppress the illegal slave trade which uncovered .
evidence to support the Mendians' story. The documents establishing them as .
ladinos were forged. The judge, persuaded by this evidence, concluded that .
even under Spanish law, the Mendians were free men, and ordered President .
Van Buren to have them transported back to Africa. Van Buren ordered the .
government's lawyers to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
Attorney Roger Sherman Baldwin and President John Quincy Adams, took .
the case to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld the .
previous Circuit Court's opinion stating the Africans were free men and .
women, illegally taken from Africa, were never citizens of Spain and were not .
guilty of murder for the deaths of the crewmen during the Amistad takeover. .
By the time the Amistad Case came to an end there was resentful feelings .
between the anti-slavery North and the slave-holding South that lead as us to .
the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1860. Even though the Supreme .
Court's decision in the Amistad Case was not an attack on slavery, it brought .
together the abolitionists and prevented their movement from breaking up. .
Furthermore, the missionary work that began with the freedom of the Amistad .
Africans led to the foundation of the American Missionary Association in .
1846, which was the largest abolitionist society in the United States before .
the outbreak of the Civil War. .
This incident had a extensive impact on both sides, influencing the course .
of American history and the development of Afro-American culture. They .
finally received their freedom in 1841, after two years' imprisonment in the .
