Amistad

     The Amistad is a Spanish ship that held 53 African captives from Sierra Leone, and was tasked with transporting them to Cuba on a Caribbean plantation as slaves in 1839. This violated multiple treaties on the slave trade so of course what they were doing was illegal and would send shockwaves through the United States. But three days into the trip a 25 year old captive named Sangbe Pieh also known as Joseph Cinuqe broke free, and then freed the rest of the captives. Together they took over the ship after killing the captain. There were two men Pedro Montez and Jose Ruiz who were the plantation owners who purchased the 53 slaves and got them aboard the ship. The slaves held them and forced them to take them back home to Sierra Leone. The captives though had no clue that at night they were being steered North and eventually after 63 days of the back and forth, the ship ended up in Long Island New York. There it was discovered by Thomas Gedney, who was the captain of navy the ship Washington. The ship was seized and all its cargo and everyone on it were taken to the Connecticut court. 

    The two plantation owners were freed while the slaves were held in captivity for piracy, and murder. Although eventually the charges against the captives would be dropped they were still held in captivity. They were being treated harshly and some of them died, by the end of the trial only 35 of them  survived. The case then went to the Federal District Court of Connecticut, and the plantation owners, the government of Spain, and the Captain who found them were each asking for rights to the slaves, or compensation. The president Martin Van Buren was in favor of sending the captives to become slaves in Cuba but abolitionists in the North raised money to defend them and their freedom. The abolitionists used the money to hire lawyer Roger S Baldwin, and two attorneys Seth Stables and Theodore Sedgewick. Without the abolitionists raising awareness then this case would have ended quietly with the captives becoming slaves. The attorney's revealed to the court that they were free Africans from outside the Spanish slave trade who were kidnapped from Africa. 

    The district court ruled the slaves free and for them to be sent back to Africa, but the U.S District Attorney filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. He demanded that they be returned to Spain to be incorporated into the slave trade as per the treaty. In the supreme Court trial, the Africans were represented by the revered John Quincy Adams who was the first president to not own slaves. He spent 8 1/2 hours defending the Africans and their rights before the Supreme Court, and ultimately won their freedom. In a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court decided that it was their ultimate right to be free since they were illegally kidnapped, and taken from their rightful home.