Amistad: Issues in Constructing Slavery

As depicted in the movie, in February of 1839, Portuguese slave hunters abducted a large group of Africans from Sierra Leone and shipped them to Havana, Cuba. This abduction violated all of the treaties then in existence. Fifty-three Africans were purchased by two Spanish planters and put aboard the Cuban schooner Amistad for shipment to a Caribbean plantation. On July 1, 1839, the Africans seized the ship, killed the captain and the cook, and ordered the planters to sail to Africa. On August 24, 1839, the Amistad was seized off Long Island, NY, by the U.S. brig Washington. The planters were freed and the Africans were imprisoned in New Haven, CT, on charges of murder. Although the murder charges were dismissed,

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4 illegally, and had never been slaves. With that said, the Court ordered the immediate release of the Amistad Africans.

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With that having been said, it is now easy to see how the trials of Amistad were strongly influenced by the legality of slavery at the time and cultural

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