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Coog
07-02-2012, 00:14
On July 2, 1839, Sengbe Pieh (later known in the United States as Joseph Cinqué) led 53 fellow Africans (49 adults and 4 children), the captives being transported aboard La Amistad from Havana, in a revolt against their captors. In the main hold below decks, the captives found a rusty file. The captives freed themselves, and they quickly ascended the stairs to deck. Armed with machete-like cane knives, they were successful in gaining control of the ship and demanded to be returned home. The ship's navigator, Don Pedro Montez, deceived them about which direction their course was on and sailed the ship north along the North American coast to the eastern tip of Long Island, New York. The United States Revenue Cutter Washington discovered the schooner and took it and its occupants into custody. They took the Africans to New Haven, Connecticut to be tried in court.

A widely publicized court case ensued in New Haven, Connecticut, about the ship and the legal status of the African captives, which became a cause célèbre among abolitionists in the United States. At the time, the transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas was illegal, so the ship owners fraudulently described the Africans as having been born in Cuba. The court had to decide if the Africans were to be considered salvage and the property of Naval officers who had taken custody of the ship, whether they were the property of the Cuban buyers or of Spain as Queen Isabella II of Spain claimed, or if the circumstances of their capture and transportation meant they were free.

On appeal, United States v. The Amistad case reached the US Supreme Court, which in 1841 ruled in that the Africans had been illegally transported and held as slaves, and ordered them freed. The Amistad survivors returned to Africa in 1842.

csadn
07-02-2012, 14:31
Also, it's Richard Petty's birthday.

This has nothing to do with naval warfare -- I just thought I'd mention it. :)