Examine the documents included in this activity and write your response in the space provided.
Do you agree with the Circuit Court's decision that the United States had the authority to hear this case?
Justice Story stated in the Supreme Court opinion that "...it was the ultimate right of all human beings in extreme cases to resist oppression and to apply force against ruinous injustice." Do you agree with his assertion in this case?
In February 1839, Portuguese slave hunters abducted a large group of Africans from Sierra Leone and shipped them to Havana, Cuba, a center for the slave trade. This abduction violated all of the treaties then in existence. Two Spanish plantation owners purchased 53 Africans and put them aboard the Cuban schooner
Amistad to ship them to a Caribbean plantation. On July 1, 1839, the Africans seized the ship, killed the captain and the cook, and ordered the plantation owners to sail to Africa.
Instead, they sailed north; and on August 24, 1839, the
Amistad was seized off Long Island, NY, by the U.S. brig
Washington. The schooner, its cargo, and all on board were taken to New London, CT. The plantation owners were freed and the Africans were imprisoned on charges of murder.
The murder charges were dismissed, but the Africans continued to be held in confinement and the case went to trial in the Federal District Court in Connecticut. The plantation owners, government of Spain, and captain of the
Washington each
claimed rights to the Africans or compensation.
President Van Buren was in favor of extraditing the Africans to Cuba. However, abolitionists in the North opposed extradition and raised money to defend the Africans. Had it not been for the actions of abolitionists in the United States, the issues related to the
Amistad might have ended quietly in an admiralty court. But they used the
Amistad incident as a way to expose the evils of slavery and generate significant opposition to the practice. They hired attorneys to
represent the Africans.
The court ruled that the case fell within Federal jurisdiction and that the claims to the Africans as property were not legitimate because they were illegally held as slaves. The U.S. District Attorney filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.
In the trial before the Supreme Court, the Africans were represented by former President John Quincy Adams. Preparing for his appearance before the Court, Adams
requested papers from the lower courts one month before the proceedings opened. For 8 ½ hours, the 73-year-old Adams passionately and eloquently defended the Africans' right to freedom on both legal and moral grounds, referring to treaties prohibiting the slave trade and to the Declaration of Independence. He defended the right of the accused to fight to regain their freedom.
The Supreme Court
decided in favor of the Africans, stating that they were free individuals. Kidnapped and transported illegally, they had never been slaves. Senior Justice Joseph Story wrote and read the decision: "...it was the ultimate right of all human beings in extreme cases to resist oppression, and to apply force against ruinous injustice." The opinion asserted the Africans' right to resist "unlawful" slavery.
The Court ordered the immediate release of the
Amistad Africans. Thirty five of the survivors were returned to their homeland (the others died at sea or in prison while awaiting trial).
This primary source comes from the Records of the Supreme Court of the United States.
National Archives Identifier:
301672Full Citation: Opinion of the Supreme Court in United States v. the Amistad; 3/9/1841; United States, Appellants, v. The Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad, her tackle, apparel and furniture, together with her cargo, and the Africans mentioned and described in the several libels and claims, Appellees; Appellate Jurisdiction Case Files, 1792 - 2014; Records of the Supreme Court of the United States, ; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/amistad-opinion, November 3, 2024]