314 Political Activity and Resistance to Oppression: From the American Revolution to the Civil War
Th ompson, member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Holabird
argued for the prisoners to be turned over to President Van
Buren as a matter of foreign diplomacy. Baldwin argued
that because the slave trade had been illegal since 1808, the
Africans could not be considered the legal property of any-
one. Judge Th ompson concluded that because the alleged
crimes had occurred in international waters and did not
involve U.S. citizens, the circuit court had no jurisdiction.
Th ompson ruled that although the Africans could no lon-
ger be considered prisoners, they should be detained until
the district court determined whether they were property
and, if so, of whom.
In the months leading up to the district court trial,
the defense prepared its case based on the testimony of the
Africans. Yale philologist Josiah Gibbs determined that the
Africans were Mende-speakers from a region of southern
Sierra Leone. In an eff ort to locate a fl uent translator, Gibbs
walked New York and New Haven waterfronts count-
ing aloud in Mende. Gibbs’s recitations ultimately caught
the ear of a 22-year-old Afro-British naval seaman named
James Covey. Covey had been kidnapped from Sierra Leone
as a child and intercepted by the British en route to Cuba.
Aft er returning to Sierra Leone, Covey joined the British
navy and served on the warship Buzzard. Charles Pratt, also
a Mende-speaker from a region south of Sierra Leone and
a cook on the Buzzard, accompanied Covey to speak with
the detainees.
As translator, James Covey revealed the experiences of
the Mende captives. In January 1839, they had been kid-
napped in Sierra Leone by African slavers and taken to a
slave factory on the coast. Th ey had made the two-month
Atlantic crossing on the Portuguese ship Te c o r a , which
carried approximately 500 West African captives to Cuba.
Many died on the crossing, and those who survived were
marched through the Cuban jungle to slave warehouses.
Ten days later, they were taken to the Misericordia slave
barracks in Havana, where Ruiz and Montes, sugar planta-
tion owners, purchased 49 adult men, 1 boy, and 3 girls. Th e
captives were taken aboard an American-built vessel bear-
ing the Spanish word for “friendship,” La Amistad.
Because an 1817 treaty between England and Spain
prohibited the transport of slaves from Africa to Spanish
dominions, including Cuba, the captives on the Amistad
were accompanied by false documents. Th e forged pa-
pers claimed that the Africans had been born into slavery
in Spanish territory before the treaty took eff ect in 1820.States had no jurisdiction over Spanish subjects and de-
manded that the Amistad, its cargo, and its passengers be
returned to Havana for trial.
U.S. president Martin Van Buren was anxious to com-
ply with Spain’s demands. Both foreign and domestic issues
were at stake. Th e administration wished to appease the
Spanish crown as well as avoid the possibility of exposing
illegal slave trading in Cuba, thus inviting English interven-
tion in a region of great interest to the United States. With
the 1840 presidential election on the horizon, Van Buren
was especially eager to maintain support from proslavery
Southern democrats and protect his tenuous North–South
alliance by avoiding a public controversy over slavery. Con-
necticut’s U.S. district attorney, William Holabird, ordered
a judicial hearing to determine whether the U.S. had juris-
diction over the Cuban ship and, if so, whether any crimes
had been committed. Aft er hearing the testimony of Mon-
tes, Ruiz, and the Washington’s fi rst mate, district judge
Andrew Judson referred the case for trial and ordered the
Africans into the custody of the New Haven county jail.
Th e presence of the 43 Africans who had survived
the ordeal of the Amistad garnered the attention of New
Englanders and other Americans. Th ousands of visitors
fl ocked to the county jail. Newspapers throughout the na-
tion paid great attention to the case. Th eaters in the North-
east staged plays about the Amistad uprising, and museums
displayed wax fi gures depicting the West Africans. Aft er the
Amistad trials concluded, the Africans themselves gave pre-
sentations attracting American audiences. During and aft er
their detainment, the Mende received religious instruction
in English. Many learned to communicate in English, and
Sengbe in particular became a renowned fi gure of public
fascination and admiration.
Among those drawn to the Amistad case, abolitionist
Lewis Tappan saw it as an opportunity to strengthen the
region’s fl edgling antislavery movement. Tappan organized
the Amistad Committee to raise funds for the detained
Africans and enlisted the attorney Roger Baldwin on their
behalf. Th e Amistad Committee gathered Puritan aboli-
tionists such as Joshua Leavitt and Simeon Jocelyn who saw
the arrival of the Amistad as a divine occurrence and an
occasion to raise public awareness of antislavery as a moral
issue. Ultimately, their organization would pioneer mis-
sionary abolitionism.
In September 1839, the Africans were transferred
to Hartford for a circuit court trial under Judge Smith