The+Amistad+Case


 * [[image:timeline2_rus.svg.png link="@http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/america/unitedstates/1783/slavery/amistad.htm"]]The Amistad Case: Chronology**


 * Background and Documents**

A detailed summary of the events of the Amistad Affair can be found here
 * In 1839, a group of African slaves seized the ship //Amistad// and tried to sail it back to Africa.
 * The ship was boarded by the American navy, the Africans arrested and imprisoned in New Haven, CT.
 * The case eventually went to the Supreme Court where John Quincy Adams argued for the Africans.
 * The court ordered the Africans free to return to their African homeland.


 * The Amistad Case**


 * //[[image:Screen Shot 2017-03-19 at 11.31.41 AM.png link="@https://www.oyez.org/cases/1789-1850/None"]]United States v. Amistad// (1841)**

Here is a clip from the 1997 movie //The Amistad//, where former President John Quincy Adams makes his closing arguments in the Supreme Court.


 * [[image:primary_sources.PNG link="@https://www.masshist.org/objects/cabinet/january2003/january2003.htm"]]Letters to John Quincy Adams from Amistad slaves**



A portrait of Cinque (Sengbe Pieh), the leader of the Mende revolt aboard the //Amistad//.

A list of events relevant to the abolitionist movement from the same era as the Amistad affair can be found here


 * See Standard US 1.31** **for more on the formation of the abolitionist movement**