Cinque, Joseph 337Once they had gained control of the ship, Cinque
thought that they could return to Africa, so he had Montez
pilot the schooner and head in an easterly direction. Th at
was a mistake. Montez tricked the embattled slave by steer-
ing east during the day and west during the night. Th e boat
zigzagged up and down the North American coast for 63
days, and eventually, the U.S. vessel Washington, under the
leadership of Lieutenant Gedney, captured the ship off of
Long Island’s Montauk Point. At the time of capture, Cinque
was onshore foraging with others. With Cinque identifi ed
as the ship’s leader by Ruiz and Montes, sailors from the
Washington took Cinque aboard their vessel, where the
leader tried to further incite the Africans he led but to no
avail. Instead, Cinque’s new captors escorted them to New
Haven, Connecticut, where they endured charges of piracy
and murder. An international case on slavery and its im-
plications emerged. Spanish offi cials insisted that the muti-
neers return to Cuba, and Ruiz and Montes tried to reclaim
possession of the slaves. A sympathetic President Martin
van Buren argued that the men should face the law and
be tried for murder. Lewis Tappan and James Pennington
represented the captives and prepared their landmark case.
Together Tappan and Pennington argued that although
slavery was legal in Cuba, importation of slaves from Africa
was not. Th e judge listened intently to the statements and
concurred with the legal team that the Africans underwent
kidnapping and therefore were within their legal rights to
escape from captivity. Th is decision fell on deaf ears. Th e
U.S. government appealed the decision, forcing the case to
appear before the Supreme Court.
For the appeals trial, former president John Quincy
Adams, who was sympathetic to the slaves’ plight, volun-
teered his services. At age 73, Adams rendered an impas-
sioned eight-hour speech that ultimately won the mutineers
their freedom. In his defense, Adams charged the federal gov-
ernment with obstruction of justice and wrongful interfer-
ence. Adams also allowed Cinque to testify. In his testimony,
Cinque explained how he was captured and that he had not
engaged in the selling of humans prior to his unceremoni-
ous departure from his homeland. Other slaves also took the
stand and corroborated Cinque’s story. Adams litigated the
case fl awlessly. Finally, on March 9, 1841, the courts ruled in
favor of the abolitionists and liberated the Africans.
Th e trial emerged important for a number of reasons,
not the least of which was that it involved three countries:
the United States, Cuba, and Spain. Th ese countries adheredcountry nestled between Liberia and Guinea and anchored
by the Atlantic Ocean. Groomed to assume his father’s
position, Cinque met an unpredictable fate. Th e man, de-
scribed as having a powerfully built 5'8" frame, with a head
measuring 22⅜ inches and a benevolent temperament, was
stolen into captivity aft er he engaged in a 10-day march
to the coast in his mid-twenties. He left behind a wife and
three children. A rival group of Africans known as the Ley
wanted a delinquent account absolved and decided to take
Cinque as their payment. Th e Ley sold Cinque to a Spanish
slave trader named Pedro Blanco, who resold the captive to
another buyer, who manned the slave ship Te c o r a. With the
cargo onboard, and the ship tightly packed with slaves em-
barking from Lomboko Island at the mouth of the Gallinas
River, the Te c o r a weathered the seas to reach Havana, Cuba,
where Cinque was held before being sold to Pedro Ruiz,
who captained a ship called the Amistad, with 49 other men
and 4 children. Along with the captured, there was a cap-
tain, two Spanish crewmen, two slave owners named Mon-
tes and Ruiz, a Creole slave, and a mulatto slave who served
as the cook.
With its full complement, the Amistad set sail on
June 27, 1839, and embarked on its two- to three-day jour-
ney. Events failed to go as planned. Weather-related condi-
tions disrupted the ship’s progress and therefore forced the
captain to issue an unsuccessful rationing policy on the ship’s
third day at sea. Abuse also ran rampant. Crewmen began
fl ogging slaves for requesting additional food and even told
them that they faced extinction by cannibalism. Believing
that they would be eaten, the self-proclaimed leader Cinque
resolved to assume control of the ship, should the opportu-
nity present itself. It did. On June 30, 1839, three days aft er
the ship set sail, Cinque, who acted as interpreter and who
was rumored to have infl icted lashes on his compatriots,
consulted with several comrades before inciting the slaves
to revolt. As the story goes, Cinque found a loose nail on
deck while he ate. He took that nail and carefully ensconced
it. He then used the nail to unlock the shackles that bound
him and others below deck. Once freed from their irons,
these Africans armed themselves with the sugarcane knives
found in crates in the cargo area. Casualties included the
captain Ramon Ferrer and a cook. Both victims slept on the
deck, but the captain woke long enough to fi ght his assail-
ants before ultimately succumbing to Cinque’s brutal force.
Others, such as the slave owners, faced imprisonment. Th e
two Spaniards fl ed.