Amistad:

The Federal Courts and 

the Challenge to Slavery

by

Bruce A. Ragsdale

Director, Federal Judicial History Offi ce,

Federal Judicial Center

Prepared for inclusion in the project

Federal Trials and Great Debates in United States History

Federal Judicial Center

Federal Judicial History Offi ce

2002

This Federal Judicial Center publication was undertaken in furtherance of the Center’s 

statutory mission to “conduct, coordinate, and encourage programs relating to the history 

of the judicial branch of the United States government.” The views expressed are those of 

the author and not necessarily those of the Federal Judicial Center. 
Blank pages inserted to preserve pagination when printing double-sided copies.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

iii

Contents

The Amistad Case: A Brief Narrative 1

Enslavement 1

Revolt on the Amistad 1

A court of inquiry 2

The U.S. circuit court: criminal charges and writs of habeas corpus 2

Admiralty proceedings in the U.S. district court 3

The district court trial 4

Appeal to the U.S. circuit court 4

Appeal to the Supreme Court 5

Arguments in the Supreme Court 5

Freedom for the Africans 6

Return to West Africa 6

The Federal Courts and their Jurisdiction 7

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut 7

U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut 7

Supreme Court of the United States 8

The Judicial Process: A Chronology 9

Legal Questions Before the Federal Courts 13

Did the federal courts have jurisdiction to try the Mende on criminal charges? 13

Did the federal courts have authority to hold the Mende in custody? 13

Which district court had jurisdiction over the salvage and property claims? 14

Was the Navy crew entitled to a salvage award for rescuing the Amistad? 14

Did the treaty between Spain and the United States require the return of all Spanish 

property? 15

Were the Mende on the Amistad slaves? 15

If the Mende from the Amistad were not slaves, what authority could the federal courts exercise 

over them? 16

Could the federal courts protect slave property? 16

What had the federal courts decided in earlier cases involving the foreign slave trade? 17

Arguments in Court 19

Lawyers’ arguments and strategies—the abolitionists 19

Lawyers’ arguments and strategies—the U.S. government 20

Biographies 23

Judges and court offi cers 23

Andrew Judson 23

Smith Thompson 24 

Joseph Story 25

Norris Willcox 27

Parties in the case 28

The Mende people aboard the Amistad 28
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

iv

Cinque 29

Thomas Gedney 30

José Ruiz and Pedro Montes 31

Lewis Tappan 32 

A witness 33

Antonio 33

Lawyers 34

John Quincy Adams 34 

Roger Sherman Baldwin 36 

Henry Gilpin 37

William S. Holabird 38

Other government offi cials 40

John Forsyth 40

Media Coverage and Public Debates 41

Prints and images 42 

Newspaper articles 45

Historical Documents 51

The libel of Lieutenant Thomas R. Gedney 51

The U.S. attorney’s advice on criminal prosecution 53

The libel of José Ruiz 55

The libel of William S. Holabird, U.S. Attorney 57

Justice Smith Thompson’s remarks in the U.S. Circuit Court 59

The several plea of Cinque and the other Mende captives 60

Judge Andrew Judson’s decision (excerpts) 63

The U.S. attorney responds to the district court decision (two letters). January – 

February 1840 68

Supreme Court arguments of John Quincy Adams (excerpts) 70

Supreme Court opinion (excerpts) 73

The treaty between Spain and the United States, 1795 (excerpts) 78

Anti-Slave Trade Act of 1819 79

“Appeal to the Friends of Liberty” 83

Select Bibliography 85

Links Related to the Amistad Case 87
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

1

The Amistad Case: A Brief Narrative

The Amistad case was one of the most famous federal cases of the nineteenth century and attracted great public attention at each stage of its movement through the 

nation’s judiciary. The dramatic story of the enslaved Africans who freed themselves 

from their captors and then sought recognition of their freedom in the federal courts 

helps to explain the role of the judiciary in the fi rst half of the nineteenth century. 

The case also transformed the courts into the forum for a national debate on the 

legal foundations of slavery.

 The Africans from the Amistad testifi ed in court and were represented by prominent lawyers, including former President John Quincy Adams. The role of the Africans 

as parties in the case drew attention to the personal tragedies of slavery and attracted 

new support for the growing anti-slavery movement in the United States. 

Enslavement

The Amistad case had its origins in West Africa, far from the jurisdiction of the federal courts. In the spring of 1839, slave traders in the West African port of Lomboko 

transported more than 500 enslaved Africans to Spanish-ruled Cuba. Many of the 

captives on the slave ship were from the Mende region of West Africa, an area later 

incorporated in Sierra Leone. Spanish law, enacted in response to pressure from Great 

Britain, prohibited the transportation of African slaves to Cuba. Spanish offi cials in 

Cuba largely ignored that law, however, and a thriving slave market provided labor 

for sugar planters.

 At a slave sale in Havana, Jose Ruiz purchased 49 of the Mende men, and Pedro 

Montes purchased three girls and a boy, also from the Mende country. These planters 

chartered space on the schooner Amistad to carry the enslaved Africans to plantations 

along the coast of Cuba. The planters carried passes signed by a Spanish offi cial, attesting to the fact that the Mende were long-time inhabitants of Spanish territory and 

legally held as slaves. The passes even provided the Africans with Spanish names.

Revolt on the Amistad

Late one night at sea, a group of the Mende broke out of their irons and armed 

themselves with sugar cane knives. Led by Sengbe Pieh (known to the Spanish and 

Americans as Cinque), the Mende killed the captain and the ship’s cook and took 

command of the Amistad. They then coerced Ruiz and Montes to sail the ship in the 

direction of the rising sun and West Africa. At night the planters turned to the north 

and west, hoping to cross paths with another ship. After two months, the Amistad

reached Long Island Sound, desperately short of provisions. Cinque led a party onto 

the New York shore to gather supplies for their voyage back to Africa. While Cinque 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

2

and others were ashore, the crew of the Navy brig Washington spotted the badly damaged Amistad. When the naval offi cers boarded the Amistad, the Spanish planters told 

of the revolt and pleaded for their safety. The commanding offi cer of the Washington, 

Lieutenant Thomas Gedney, ordered his crew to take custody of the Amistad and the 

42 surviving Mende, including those who had gone ashore. The Navy ship escorted 

the Amistad to New London, Connecticut, and Gedney contacted the U.S. marshal 

to request a court hearing.

A court of inquiry

The U.S. District Court for Connecticut, with Judge Andrew Judson presiding, convened a special session on August 29, 1839, on board the Washington in New London 

harbor. Gedney and his crew intended to submit a libel, or claim, for a salvage award 

following their recovery of the Amistad and the cargo on board. They asserted that 

the Mende were slaves worth an estimated $25,000 and included the Africans in their 

list of recovered cargo. Judson set a date at which the district court would consider 

the claim for salvage and any related property claims. The marshal then issued a 

process of monition, by which the court advertised the subject of Gedney’s claim 

and informed other interested parties of the date by which they needed to submit 

all claims related to the Amistad.

 Judson also heard testimony from the Spanish planters, who offered their version 

of the slave sale in Havana and the revolt on the schooner. The court moved to the 

Amistad, where Antonio, a slave owned by the slain captain of the schooner, testifi ed 

about the revolt. The U.S. attorney submitted an information and complaint, a legal 

form that described the criminal charges that would be brought against Cinque and 

the leaders of the revolt. Judson referred consideration of the criminal questions to 

the U.S. Circuit Court for Connecticut. The judge then ordered the marshal to take 

custody of the ship, its cargo, and the Mende on the Amistad.

 The federal courts took custody of the Mende under the authority of two separate 

warrants. A warrant of seizure, typical of admiralty proceedings concerning a libel 

for salvage, authorized holding the Mende, the ship, and its cargo as property that 

was the subject of claims before the court. A warrant of arrest held all of the adult 

Mende who were the subject of an indictment for murder and piracy. The three young 

Mende girls and Antonio were also held as witnesses for the criminal case.

The U.S. circuit court: criminal charges and writs of 

habeas corpus

The U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut convened on September 17, 

1839, and impaneled a grand jury to consider the U.S. attorney’s indictment of the 

Mende on charges of piracy and murder. After the jury returned with a fi nding of 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

3

facts, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Smith Thompson, who served as the presiding 

judge in the circuit court, declared that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over 

an alleged crime that took place at sea on a foreign-owned vessel. The circuit court 

dismissed all criminal charges against the Mende.

 During the same session, the circuit court considered two writs of habeas corpus 

calling for the release of the Mende in federal custody. These writs were brought by 

the abolitionist lawyers who had formed a committee to represent the Mende in the 

federal courts. The initial writ referred only to the three girls held as property and 

as witnesses, but not included in the criminal indictment. After the court dismissed 

the criminal charges, another writ of habeas corpus brought the adult Mende before 

the court with a similar request for their release. Justice Thompson declared that he 

could not order their release since they were all the subject of property claims pending 

before the U.S. district court. Thompson reminded the abolitionists that the Constitution and the laws of the nation protected the right to hold slave property. The 

district court’s responsibility was to determine the legitimacy of the several property 

claims that alleged the Mende were slaves. The circuit court would have jurisdiction 

only if one of the parties appealed the decision of the district court.

Admiralty proceedings in the U.S. district court

The U.S. district courts had jurisdiction over cases in admiralty—that branch of 

law concerning maritime commerce and the nation’s trade laws. At the September 

1839 session of the district court in Connecticut, various parties submitted claims 

for property on the Amistad. The planters, Ruiz and Montes, asked the district court 

to return the Mende as their rightful property. The U.S. attorney, William Holabird, 

asked the court to consider Spain’s request for the return of all property on the Amistad, with no deduction in its value for the salvage award claimed by Gedney and his 

crew. The Spanish ambassador insisted that the 1795 treaty between the two countries 

required the return on these terms. Several claims asserted that all of the Mende on 

the Amistad were slave property, thus forcing the court to determine whether or not 

these individuals were legally slaves or free. The court’s decision rested solely with 

Judge Andrew Judson, since juries were not used in federal admiralty cases during 

the fi rst half of the nineteenth century.

 At the November session of the district court, the Mende formally entered the 

case as respondents to the several claims alleging that they were slaves. The plea 

submitted by their lawyers, Roger Sherman Baldwin and Seth Staples, requested the 

immediate release of the Mende in custody. The federal courts, they claimed, had no 

jurisdiction over these free persons who had taken control of the Amistad in an effort to return to their families. Based on interviews with Cinque and others, the plea 

explained that all of the Mende had been born free persons in Africa and had been 

kidnapped, illegally transported to Cuba, and enslaved for life. Staples and Baldwin 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

4

also claimed that it had been illegal for Lieutenant Gedney to seize the Africans in 

New York, a free state. 

 At the same session, the Spanish consul from Boston asked the court to order the 

return of Antonio to the heirs of the Amistad’s captain.

The district court trial

Judge Judson opened the trial in the Amistad case on January 7, 1840. One of the largest crowds ever gathered for a federal trial appeared in the New Haven, Connecticut, 

courtroom. Roger Sherman Baldwin argued that the Mende captives could not be 

returned as property because under Spanish law, any Africans introduced into Spanish 

territory after 1820 were free within that territory. The abolitionists’ committee had 

found a native of the Mende region to serve as a translator, thus allowing Cinque and 

two other captives to testify that they had been recently transported to Cuba from 

Africa. Cinque’s description of his enslavement and the horrors of the voyage across 

the Atlantic provided the dramatic high point of the fi ve-day trial. Other witnesses 

testifi ed that Spanish offi cials in Havana frequently falsifi ed documents in order to 

admit enslaved Africans into Cuba. 

 Before the trial opened, President Van Buren was so confi dent that Judson would 

agree to the Spanish claims that he ordered a Navy ship to New Haven in preparation for a quick delivery of the Mende to Spanish offi cials in Cuba. Judson, however, 

surprised almost everyone when he announced that the Mende were not slaves 

under Spanish law and that he could not order their return to Cuba. Instead, the 

judge granted a motion fi led by the U.S. attorney that the Mende be delivered to the 

President for return to their homes under the provisions of a federal law prohibiting the African slave trade in the United States. Judson acknowledged that the terms 

of the act did not apply precisely to the Amistad because no one had transported 

the Mende to the United States as slaves, but he said his decree was within the spirit 

of an act intended to facilitate the return of enslaved Africans to freedom in their 

homeland.

 Judson also ordered that Gedney and his crew receive one-third of the value of 

the Amistad and its cargo as a salvage award. Judson’s decision provided that the remaining property, including the slave Antonio, be returned to the several owners in 

Cuba. The Mende’s return home and the delivery of the property were delayed when 

the Van Buren administration ordered the U.S. attorney to appeal Judson’s decision 

to the U.S. Circuit Court.

Appeal to the U.S. circuit court

On April 29, 1840, the U.S. Circuit Court convened in Hartford to hear appeals of 

the district court decision. The U.S. attorney, representing the claims of the Span-
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

5

ish government, appealed that portion of the decision that declared the Africans on 

board were not slaves and the order to grant a salvage award to Lieutenant Gedney 

and his crew. The Spanish owners of the cargo on board the Amistad also appealed 

the salvage award. The lawyers for the Mende from the Amistad asked the court to 

dismiss the appeal on the grounds that the United States government had no right 

to represent the claims of a foreign nation. Justice Thompson denied the motion for 

dismissal and issued a pro forma decree upholding the district court decision. The 

use of the pro forma decree allowed Thompson to avoid a lengthy discussion of the 

merits of the case and helped to speed the appeal to the Supreme Court.

Appeal to the Supreme Court

The U.S. attorney responded to Thompson’s decree with the expected appeal to the 

Supreme Court. The government’s lawyer asked the Supreme Court to order the 

delivery to Spanish offi cials of all property claimed by Spanish owners. U.S. Attorney William Holabird repeated the arguments that the treaty between Spain and the 

United States required the return of all property, including the alleged slaves, with 

no deduction for a salvage award.

 In the months leading up to the opening of the Supreme Court term in January 

1841, former President John Quincy Adams agreed to join the lawyers representing 

the Mende. Adams was then serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, where 

he led an effort forcing the Van Buren administration to give Congress copies of 

Amistad-related correspondence with the Spanish government. Adams traveled to 

Connecticut to meet with the Mende, who remained in federal custody in a village 

outside of New Haven. In the weeks before the Supreme Court session, two of the 

Mende wrote Adams letters encouraging him in his efforts to secure their freedom.

Arguments in the Supreme Court

Attorney General Henry Gilpin presented the opening arguments in the Amistad case 

before the Supreme Court. He maintained that treaty obligations required the United 

States to return the Mende, as slave property, to the Spanish planters from Cuba. If 

the federal courts refused to accept documentation provided by another government, 

all foreign commerce would be threatened. Roger Sherman Baldwin argued in favor 

of upholding the earlier court decision that the Mende were not slaves. He asserted 

that the United States government could not represent the claims of a foreign government, and he repeated his arguments that under the laws of Spain, the Mende 

were free. John Quincy Adams then presented his dramatic condemnation of the Van 

Buren administration and its efforts to return the Mende to Cuba. Adams, with an 

appeal to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, called on the Court to 

recognize the natural rights of the captive Africans.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

6

 Chief Justice Roger Taney and the eight other justices were present at the opening 

arguments of the Amistad case on February 22, 1841. Several days later, Justice Philip 

Pendleton Barbour died. After a recess, the Court resumed hearing arguments in the 

case and on March 9, 1841, issued its decision. Justice Joseph Story was joined in his 

opinion by six justices, including Smith Thompson. One justice, Henry Baldwin, 

dissented without comment.

Freedom for the Africans

The Supreme Court upheld the circuit court’s affi rmation of Judson’s decision that the 

Mende on the Amistad clearly were not slaves under Spanish law and that the federal 

courts could not order their delivery to Spanish offi cials. Story overturned the earlier 

decision to deliver the Mende to the President for transport to Africa. The Amistad

had arrived in the United States in the possession of the Mende, not slave traders, 

and they could not be considered as slaves illegally imported into the United States. 

Cinque and the other surviving Mende were free persons, and the federal courts had 

no further authority over them. The Supreme Court issued a decree ordering the 

circuit court to free the Mende from federal custody.

Return to West Africa

The Supreme Court opinion granted unconditional freedom to the Mende, but, unlike 

Judson’s decision in the district court, it left them with no provision for a return to 

their homes. In order to raise money for transportation, the abolitionists’ committee 

organized a series of public appearances at which people paid admission to hear the 

Mende sing, recite from the Bible, and describe their stories of enslavement and the 

struggle for freedom. In November 1841, in the company of a group of American 

missionaries, the 35 surviving Mende left New York for the coast of Sierra Leone. Most 

returned to live with their families, while a few remained with a mission established 

by the American clergy.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

7

The Federal Courts and Their Jurisdiction 

in the Amistad Case

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

The Amistad case entered the federal judiciary through the district court of Connecticut, and it was the court’s judge, Andrew Judson, who ruled that the Africans held 

in custody were not slaves under Spanish law and therefore could not be returned 

to the planters in Cuba.

 The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the federal district courts as trial courts 

with jurisdiction over maritime commerce and the nation’s trade laws—that branch 

of law known as admiralty. The district courts also exercised jurisdiction over minor 

criminal cases and small suits involving the government, although in the fi rst half 

of the nineteenth century, most of the district court cases, particularly in a coastal 

state like Connecticut, concerned admiralty. The Amistad case was introduced into 

the federal courts as an admiralty matter.

U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut

The U.S. Circuit Court in Connecticut exercised jurisdiction over three separate 

components of the judicial proceedings related to the Amistad. It considered the 

indictment of the Mende on charges of piracy and murder, it ruled on the writs 

of habeas corpus requesting the release of the Mende from federal custody, and it 

heard the U.S. attorney’s appeal of the district court’s decision that the Mende were 

not slave property under the laws of Spain. After the circuit court issued a decree 

upholding the district court decision, the U.S. attorney appealed that decree to the 

Supreme Court. The circuit court also was responsible for issuing the decree that 

freed the Mende following the Supreme Court decision.

 The U.S. circuit courts were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 to serve as 

the most important trial courts in the federal judiciary. These courts, which operated 

until 1911, had jurisdiction over most federal crimes, over suits between citizens from 

different states (known as diversity jurisdiction), and over most cases in which the 

federal government was a party. The circuit courts also heard some appeals from the 

district courts, including appeals related to admiralty disputes concerning amounts 

greater than $300. Prior to 1869, the circuit courts had no judges of their own. Each 

justice of the Supreme Court was assigned to a regional circuit and, along with the 

local district judge, presided over the circuit court that met in each district within 

the circuit.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

8

Supreme Court of the United States

In the fi nal stage of the Amistad case, the Supreme Court of the United States declared 

the Mende to be free and ordered their immediate release from federal custody. The 

Amistad case went before the Supreme Court on appeal from the circuit court’s decree. 

The U.S. attorney in Connecticut challenged that decree, which upheld the district 

court decision that the Mende on the Amistad were not slaves under Spanish law. 

Justice Joseph Story’s opinion for the Supreme Court agreed with the earlier courts’ 

decisions that the Mende were not slaves and could not be returned to Cuba. The 

Court overturned that portion of the earlier decision that ordered the transfer of the 

Mende to the President for return to their homes in West Africa.

The Supreme Court was established by Article III of the Constitution, which 

granted the Court limited jurisdiction. The Constitution also authorized Congress 

to grant the Supreme Court jurisdiction over appeals, and Congress provided for 

various types of appeals from state and federal courts. According to the Judiciary Act 

of 1789, any U.S. circuit court decree in a civil case concerning a matter worth more 

than $2,000 could be appealed to the Supreme Court.

From an initial authorization of six justices on the Supreme Court, Congress by 

1837 had expanded the number of seats on the Court to nine.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

9

The Judicial Process: A Chronology

August 29, 1839

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut 

Judge Andrew Judson convened a special session of the U.S. District Court. The 

court allowed Lieutenant Gedney to submit his libel for a salvage award and heard 

testimony about the revolt on the Amistad.

Judson ordered the marshal to take the Africans on board the Amistad into custody. A warrant of arrest authorized holding the male Mende in custody on charges 

of murder and piracy, while the warrant of seizure authorized holding all of the 

Mende, pending determination of the salvage claim.

September 17, 1839

U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut

The circuit court impaneled a grand jury to consider the U.S. attorney’s indictment 

of the Mende on charges of piracy and murder. Justice Smith Thompson later ruled 

that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over an alleged crime on a foreign vessel 

at sea and dismissed all criminal charges against the Mende.

Attorneys for the Mende asked the court to release their clients from federal 

custody. Thompson refused to release the Mende as long as the district court was 

considering property claims that alleged they were slaves. The circuit court adjourned 

on September 23.

September 18, 1839

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

José Ruiz and Pedro Montes submitted libels requesting the district court to order the 

return of their property on the Amistad, including the Mende, whom these planters 

claimed as slaves.

September 19, 1839

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

Judge Judson opened the district court session to consider the various libels fi led in 

response to Gedney’s libel for salvage. William Holabird, the U.S. attorney, asked the 

court to consider the Spanish ambassador’s request for the return of all property on 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

10

the Amistad, with no deduction for salvage. Holabird alternatively requested that 

the court order the return of the Mende to Africa if it determined that they were not 

slave property. A group of men who gave provisions to the Mende on the New York 

shore submitted their own libel for a salvage award.

Judson ordered a panel of attorneys in the case to determine the precise location 

where the Navy crew seized the Amistad, so that he could establish which district 

court had jurisdiction. The district court adjourned on September 23.

November 19, 1839

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

The Mende formally entered the district court proceedings as respondents to the 

several libels asserting that they were slaves. A lawyer for the Mende asked the court 

to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction, on the grounds that the Mende had arrived 

as free persons in the district of New York. The U.S. attorney presented the court with 

the claim that the Spanish ambassador had sent to the Secretary of State, asking for 

the return of all Spanish property on the Amistad. The Spanish consul from Boston 

asked the court to order the return of the slave Antonio to the heirs of Ramon Ferrer, 

the slain captain of the Amistad. 

At this session of the district court, Judge Judson heard the fi rst trial testimony. 

Judson postponed further testimony because of the illness of the translator for the 

Mende. The district court adjourned on November 21. 

January 7, 1840

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

Judson opened the Amistad trial and heard testimony for fi ve days. Witnesses included 

three of the Mende: Cinque, Grabeau, and Fuliwa. At the opening of this session, 

the owners of a portion of the cargo on the Amistad submitted their request for the 

return of their goods.

On January 13, Judson delivered his decision that the Mende were not slaves 

under Spanish law and that he could not order their return to Cuba.

January 23, 1840

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

Judson issued the decree ordering the delivery of the Mende to the President for 

return to Africa and granting an award of salvage in the ship and its cargo for Gedney and his crew. Judson also ordered that Antonio be delivered to the heirs of the 

captain of the Amistad.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

11

The U.S. attorney, citing the Spanish ambassador’s demand for the return of all 

property, immediately appealed every part of the decree except that relating to the 

slave Antonio. The owners of the goods on the Amistad appealed that portion of the 

decree ordering payment of a salvage award.

April 29, 1840

U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut

Justice Smith Thompson presided over the two appeals of the district court decree. 

He also considered a motion from the Mende’s lawyers to dismiss the appeal of the 

U.S. attorney. Thompson denied the motion for dismissal and affi rmed the district 

court’s decree. Immediately following Thompson’s decree, the U.S. attorney fi led an 

appeal to the Supreme Court. Thompson granted that appeal to the next term of the 

Supreme Court, which would begin in January 1841.

September 17, 1840

U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut 

The court ordered that the schooner Amistad and the goods on board be sold at 

public auction. The proceeds were delivered to the court pending fi nal disposition 

of the case.

February 22, 1841

Supreme Court of the United States

Oral arguments in the Amistad case began. The Court suspended arguments after 

Justice Barbour died on February 25. Arguments in the case resumed on March 1, 

and closing arguments were heard on March 2.

March 9, 1841

Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Joseph Story delivered his opinion for the Supreme Court. The Court ordered 

the U.S. Circuit Court in Connecticut to free the Mende held in custody. Justice 

Thompson, as circuit justice for the district of Connecticut, subsequently ordered 

the release of the Mende.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

12

April 28, 1841

U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut

The circuit court distributed the proceeds from the sale of the Amistad and its cargo. 

It awarded one-third of the value to Gedney and the others who submitted the libel 

for salvage.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

13

Legal Questions Before the Federal Courts

Did the federal courts have jurisdiction to try the Mende 

on criminal charges?

No, said Justice Smith Thompson in the U.S. Circuit Court. 

 Following the Spanish planters’ testimony about the revolt on the Amistad, the U.S. 

attorney for Connecticut prepared an indictment of the adult Mende on charges of 

murder and piracy. In the U.S. Circuit Court for Connecticut, a grand jury returned 

a fi nding of facts regarding the revolt on the schooner, the killing of the captain and 

cook, and the theft of goods on board. Justice Thompson denied that the federal 

courts had any jurisdiction over the alleged crimes. The crimes allegedly committed 

on a Spanish vessel sailing under a Spanish commander could only be tried in the 

courts of that nation. The federal courts did have jurisdiction over violations of the 

law of nations, including piracy, but earlier court decisions had established that the 

slave trade was not a violation of the customs and practices that made up the law of 

nations.

 Even before the circuit court convened, the U.S. attorney privately admitted that 

the courts did not have criminal jurisdiction over the Mende, and few observers 

expected a criminal trial. The Mende never again faced any criminal charges in the 

United States.

Did the federal courts have authority to hold the Mende in 

custody?

Yes, said Justice Smith Thompson, as long as they were the object of property claims 

pending before the courts.

 The lawyers representing the Mende used a writ of habeas corpus to seek the 

release of the three young girls detained as both witnesses and as objects of several 

property claims. Once the circuit court dismissed the criminal charges against the 

adult Mende, another lawyer used a separate writ of habeas corpus to seek the release 

of those men as well. The Africans’ lawyers argued that their clients had been found in 

a state of freedom and that the district court’s order to imprison them had the effect 

of reducing them to slavery. One of the lawyers, Roger Sherman Baldwin, insisted 

that the federal courts could not take custody of the Mende unless they determined 

that these individuals were the lawful property of the Spanish planters. At the same 

time, the lawyers presented their fi rst evidence that the captives from the Amistad

had been illegally enslaved in Cuba and could not be claimed as property.

 Justice Thompson denied the motion for release of the Mende. He prefaced his 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

14

ruling with a statement of his own disapproval of slavery, but nevertheless determined 

that the district court had jurisdiction over the Mende just as it had jurisdiction over 

the schooner and its cargo. The Constitution recognized the right to hold slaves, and 

the Supreme Court had said that the federal courts had the power to decide the right 

to slave property.

Which district court had jurisdiction over the salvage and 

property claims?

The U.S. District Court of Connecticut, not that of the Southern District of New 

York, had jurisdiction over the admiralty case and its several property claims.

 When a ship was rescued on the high seas, the rescuers could fi le a salvage claim 

in any judicial district to which they carried the disabled vessel. If the ship were taken 

within the boundaries of a judicial district, only the district court for that district 

could accept jurisdiction over a claim. Lieutenant Gedney and his crew carried the 

Amistad to New London, Connecticut, and fi led their libel in the U.S. district court 

in that state. The lawyers for the Africans argued that the ship was taken not on the 

high seas, but within the state of New York, where the Mende shore party had landed 

to collect supplies. The lawyers expected that the district judge of the Southern District of New York would be more sympathetic to the Africans than would be Judge 

Judson of the district court in Connecticut.

 Judson dispatched the U.S. attorney and lawyers for the Mende to investigate the 

location where the Amistad was taken into custody off Montauk Point, Long Island. 

The location, though close to the New York shore, met the criteria of being in the 

open ocean, “where the dominion of the winds and the waves prevail.” Some of the 

Mende were on the New York shore when the Navy crew took them into custody, 

but according to guidelines provided by an earlier case, these Mende were still attached under a legal defi nition to the ship at sea. Judson thus determined that the 

U.S. District Court for Connecticut had jurisdiction in the case. 

Was the Navy crew entitled to a salvage award for rescuing 

the Amistad?

Yes, said each of the courts that heard the case.

 Lieutenant Gedney and the crew of the brig Washington submitted a libel, or 

claim, asking the district court to grant them a salvage award for rescuing the Amistad. The Spanish owners of the schooner and its cargo challenged Gedney’s claim on 

the grounds that the treaty between the United States and Spain required each nation to return the property of the other, with no deduction for salvage. Judson ruled 

that the actions of the Washington crew qualifi ed as meritorious service, a standard 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

15

qualifi cation for salvage. Since the Amistad would otherwise have been lost at sea, 

Judson said, the salvage award was within the defi nition of “reasonable rates” that the 

treaty allowed for restoring the other nation’s property. The Supreme Court agreed 

that the salvage award was consistent with the general principles of maritime law. 

 A salvage award required the sale of the ship and goods so that a portion of the 

value could be paid to recipients of the award. Judson had no authority to order the 

sale of Mende, even if they were legally slaves; he therefore denied Gedney’s claim for 

a salvage award in the rescue of the alleged slaves. Judson also dismissed as without 

merit a salvage claim submitted by two men who sold the Mende supplies on the 

Long Island shore.

Did the treaty between Spain and the United States 

require the return of all Spanish property?

Yes, if the claimants had proper proof of ownership.

 Judge Andrew Judson agreed that the treaty of 1795 obligated the United States to 

return lawfully held Spanish property, but he asserted the right of the federal courts 

to investigate the validity of any property claims. Judson’s review of the testimony and 

evidence in the district court trial established that the Spanish planters had produced 

no title to the enslaved Mende, only passes for their transportation. Those passes 

incorrectly stated that the Mende were long-time inhabitants of Spanish territory. In 

fact, they were recent arrivals in Cuba and under Spanish law were free, not slaves. 

When a claim to slave property was legitimately documented, as in the case of the 

captain’s slave, Antonio, Judson agreed that the courts must order the slaves’ return 

to the owners in Cuba.

 Justice Story’s opinion for the Supreme Court also stated that if the Mende were 

legally the slaves of the Spanish planters, the Court would order their return just as 

they would for merchandise belonging to the planters. The Spanish-American treaty, 

however, called for “due and suffi cient proof” of ownership, and Story insisted that 

the courts had an obligation to determine if the foreign government’s documents 

had been subject to fraud. In the case of the Amistad, the fraudulent origin of the 

passes for the Mende captives invalidated the planters’ claims of slave property.

Were the Mende on the Amistad slaves?

No, said each federal court that decided this question that lay at the center of the 

Amistad case.

 The Spanish planters, José Ruiz and Pedro Montes, claimed the Mende on the 

Amistad as their slaves, legally purchased and owned in Cuba. They asked the U.S. 

district court to order the return of the alleged slaves, along with the planters’ other 

property on the Amistad. 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

16

 Judge Andrew Judson decided that these Africans were not slaves under Spanish 

law, and could not be returned to the planters, who held no valid proof of ownership. 

Testimony in the district court trial proved that the Mende on the Amistad arrived 

in Cuba in June 1839, and under Spanish law, no Africans transported to Spanish 

territory after 1820 could be enslaved. The circuit court affi rmed this decision. The 

Supreme Court agreed that it was clear “beyond controversy” that the Mende were 

never the lawful property of Ruiz or Montes or any other Spanish subjects. By the 

laws of Spain, the Mende were declared to be free.

If the Mende from the Amistad were not slaves, what 

authority could the federal courts exercise over them? 

Judge Judson’s decision that the Mende were not slaves under Spanish law did not 

provide for the Africans’ release from federal custody. Judson ordered that custody of 

the Mende be transferred from the federal courts to the President. Under the provisions of an 1819 act, any enslaved Africans transported into the United States were 

to be delivered to the President for return to Africa at government expense. Judson 

acknowledged that the Mende arrived in command of the Amistad rather than as 

enslaved persons, but he thought the humanitarian objectives of the act called for a 

broad interpretation of its provisions. The circuit court decree upheld this part of 

Judson’s decision.

 The Supreme Court disagreed, and decided that the federal courts had no authority to detain the Mende once they determined that the Africans were not slaves 

and that they had entered the United States as free individuals. The Supreme Court 

issued a decree ordering the U.S. Circuit Court in Connecticut to free the Mende.

Could the federal courts protect slave property?

Yes. Until the Civil War, the federal courts recognized and protected slave property 

when it was held in accordance with a nation’s laws.

 If the properly enacted laws of a nation (so-called “positive law”) permitted 

slavery, the federal courts recognized the right to hold slave property. In the circuit 

court session of September 1839, Justice Smith Thompson reminded the abolitionist lawyers that the Constitution provided for the return of fugitive slaves within the 

United States and prohibited states from making any laws that would hinder the 

recovery of slave property. Thompson also emphasized that the Supreme Court had 

decided that foreign slave owners could recover slave property in federal custody if 

they could prove ownership under the laws of their own country. The federal courts 

had a responsibility to consider claims for slave property, regardless of state laws or 

the personal beliefs of an individual judge.

 In the district court, Judge Andrew Judson determined that under Spanish law, 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

17

Antonio, the cabin boy from the Amistad, had been the slave property of the ship’s 

captain. Judson ordered that Antonio be delivered to the captain’s heirs. The African-born captives from the Amistad were not slave property under Spanish law, and 

Judson refused to order their return to the planters who had purchased them. Story, 

in his Supreme Court opinion, agreed that if any individuals were lawfully held as 

slaves under Spanish law, the Court would order their return to anyone who could 

prove title of ownership.

What had the federal courts decided in earlier cases 

involving the foreign slave trade?

Before Amistad, the federal courts had decided only a limited number of cases involving slavery or the slave trade. Two cases, the Antelope and La Jeune Eugenie were 

the subject of much speculation about how the courts might deal with the questions 

raised by the Amistad case. The oral arguments presented in each court included 

frequent references to these cases, and Judson relied in part on these cases to explain 

his decision in the district court trial. 

The Antelope

In the Antelope case of 1825, the Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief 

Justice John Marshall, held that the federal courts must recognize a nation’s right to 

engage in the slave trade if the laws of that nation did not prohibit the trade.

The Antelope case involved an American ship commander who raided Spanish, 

Portuguese, and American-owned ships along the West African coast and took possession of the slaves on board of each. Eventually he transferred nearly 300 slaves to the

Antelope and headed for the Florida coast. A U.S. revenue cutter seized the Antelope

and delivered all on board to Savannah. In the U.S. District Court for Georgia, the 

U.S. attorney sought an order that would have required the return to Africa of all the 

enslaved persons on board, under the provisions of the same the act of 1819 cited by 

Judson in the Amistad decision. The Spanish and Portuguese owners of the seized 

slaves fi led claims for the recovery of their property. The slave trade was legal under 

Spanish and Portuguese law at the time these slaves were transported from Africa. 

 The U.S. attorney appealed the district and circuit court decisions to grant all 

foreign claims that could be documented. Marshall’s opinion stated his personal 

belief that slavery violated natural law, but many nations had approved of the trade 

and therefore the Court could not rule that is was a violation of international law. 

The Court must recognize that citizens of nations that had not prohibited the slave 

trade had a right to engage in that trade. The Supreme Court ordered that the valid 

foreign claims be paid. 

 By the time the case was heard by the Supreme Court, many of the enslaved Af-
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

18

ricans from the Antelope had died, and no one had a record of which survivors originated on the different ships. A randomly selected group of the Africans, in numbers 

proportionate to the legitimate foreign claims, was sold by the federal government 

and the proceeds delivered to the foreign slave owners. The Court ordered that the 

remaining survivors, including all from the American-owned slave ship, be returned 

to Africa at the expense of the United States government.

 Marshall’s opinion in the Antelope made it diffi cult for the abolitionist lawyers to 

argue for the Mende’s freedom on the basis of natural law, but it provided support 

for their claim that the Mende could not be delivered to Spanish offi cials because the 

Spanish planters did not hold valid proof of ownership. 

United States v. La Jeune Eugenie

Justice Joseph Story ruled in a circuit court case of 1822 that the African slave trade 

violated natural law and international law, and that the federal courts had the authority to confi scate ships employed in that trade.

 Story’s decision came in a case before the U.S. Circuit Court for Massachusetts, 

where he presided as the circuit justice. The crew of a U.S. revenue cutter captured 

the ship La Jeune Eugenie off the coast of West Africa and transported it to Boston on 

the suspicion that it was an American ship engaged in the slave trade. The revenue 

cutter’s crew claimed an award available under the law prohibiting the slave trade 

with Africa. The French consul in Boston and the French owners of the ship submitted claims for the return of the vessel. 

 Story determined that La Jeune Eugenie was French-owned, but he refused to 

return the ship to those owners because they clearly had been involved in the slave 

trade. Story declared that the African slave trade violated natural law, international 

law, and the enacted laws of almost every nation in Europe as well as those of the 

United States. Unless the African slave trade was specifi cally protected by a nation’s 

laws, the federal courts had the authority to hear cases involving foreign citizens 

who participated in the trade and to order the confi scation of property used in the 

trade. Story agreed to President Monroe’s request for delivery of La Jeune Eugenie to 

the French government so that the courts of that nation could examine the owners’ 

involvement in the slave trade. 

 Judson’s decision in the Amistad trial referred to La Jeune Eugenie in regard to 

requirements for proof of ownership, but he made no mention of Story’s decision 

regarding natural and international law. Marshall’s decision in the Antelope case of 

1825 had restricted the ability of any federal judge to invoke principles of natural 

law in determining a case about the slave trade. 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

19

Arguments in Court

Lawyers’ arguments and strategies—the abolitionists

The lawyers representing the Mende relied on these arguments to prevent the return 

of the captives to Spanish territory and to win their release from federal custody.

1. The Mende captives were not slaves under Spanish law and thus were 

not subject to property claims submitted under the provisions of the 

treaty between the United States and Spain.

Anyone transported to Spanish territories as a slave after 1820 was declared free in 

that territory, according to Spanish law. In the district court, the abolitionist lawyers submitted evidence and called witnesses to establish that the Mende from the 

Amistad had recently arrived in Cuba from Africa and thus were not legally slaves. 

Judge Judson in the district court and Justice Story in the Supreme Court agreed with 

this argument and decided that the federal courts could not order the return of the 

individuals claimed by the planters and the Spanish government.

2. The enslaved Africans on the Amistad held a natural right to resist 

their kidnappers and to reclaim their liberty. 

The abolitionist lawyers repeatedly attempted to establish a legal recognition of the 

natural rights of the captives. In September 1839, while a grand jury in the U.S. Circuit 

Court considered an indictment for murder and piracy, the abolitionists publicly defended the revolt on the Amistad in terms of the natural rights of all humans to resist 

anyone who deprived them of their freedom. During the district court proceedings 

related to the several claims alleging the Mende were slave property, lawyers Roger 

Sherman Baldwin and Seth Staples submitted a response that asserted the Mende 

had a right to take control of the Amistad and seek their homeland or a free country. 

John Quincy Adams based much of his argument before the Supreme Court on the 

natural rights of all humans to personal liberty. The natural rights argument had great 

popular appeal among the anti-slavery community, but no federal court affi rmed a 

natural right to resist enslavement.

3. The federal courts had no authority to detain the captives when no 

criminal charges were brought against them. 

The lawyers for the Mende argued that holding the Africans in custody on the basis 

of property claims was the equivalent of enslaving individuals who had arrived in 

the United States as free persons. Justice Thompson ruled in the circuit court that 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

20

the federal courts had a responsibility to consider legitimate claims to slave property 

and thus had authority to detain the Mende. 

Lawyers’ arguments and strategies—the U.S. government

U.S. attorney William Holabird presented the government’s case in the U.S. district 

and circuit courts, and Attorney General Henry Gilpin represented the government 

before the Supreme Court. They offered arguments in support of the Spanish demand 

for the return of all property, including the alleged slaves, from the Amistad. Holabird 

offered an alternative motion in case the court rejected the Spanish demand.

1. Spanish authorities submitted adequate proof of ownership of slave 

property, and therefore the United States had a treaty obligation to return the captives and all other Spanish property rescued from “pirates or 

robbers on the high seas.”

Holabird in the district court trial argued that the documents presented by Spanish 

offi cials proved that the Amistad captives were slaves under Spanish law and therefore 

must be returned along with other legally held property, according to the treaty of 

1795. In arguments before the Supreme Court, Attorney General Henry Gilpin repeated this argument and asserted that the federal courts did not have the authority 

to challenge the validity of the passes signed by the governor-general of Cuba. (The 

passes indicated that the captives were legally held slaves and longtime residents of 

the island.)

2. The federal courts possessed the authority to protect slave property.

Holabird argued in the district court that unless the laws of a nation prohibited 

slavery, the federal courts must assume that slavery is permitted and thus protected 

under that nation’s laws. In the Supreme Court, Gilpin argued that federal law made 

no distinction between demands for slave property and demands for other types of 

property, and he cited several federal cases in which the courts ordered the delivery 

of slave property.

3. The Amistad captives, if not legally held as slaves in Cuba, could be returned to Africa by the President under the authority of an act of 1819.

Holabird, who privately doubted that the captives were legally slaves, offered this 

suggestion in the libel he submitted to the district court in September 1839. The 

1819 act was intended to give the President more effective authority to enforce the 

prohibition on slave importations into the United States. Holabird later dropped 

the suggestion and admitted that he had offered it only as an additional justifi cation 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

21

for keeping the Mende in federal custody if the courts rejected the Spanish claim 

to slave property. Judge Judson, however, accepted the suggestion and ordered the 

delivery of the Mende to the President for return to their homeland. The Supreme 

Court overturned this part of Judson’s decision.
Blank pages inserted to preserve pagination when printing double-sided copies.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

23

Biographies

Judges and court offi cers

Andrew Judson (1784–1853)

Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, also served as a judge of 

the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut

Judge Andrew Thompson Judson presided 

over the initial federal case related to the 

schooner Amistad and declared that the 

captives from West Africa had been illegally 

enslaved and should be returned to their 

homeland.

 As a young man, Judson “read law,” 

which was the familiar practice by which an 

aspiring lawyer studied with an established 

attorney and prepared for admission to the 

bar. After briefl y practicing law in Vermont, 

Judson settled in Canterbury, Connecticut, where he established a successful legal 

practice and entered politics. He served in 

the Connecticut legislature, was appointed 

state attorney and local justice of the peace, 

and won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1835. He was defeated as a 

candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1836, and 

shortly thereafter President Andrew Jackson 

appointed him to be judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. 

Judson was also involved in the temperance movement and was a member of the 

American Colonization Society, a group dedicated to the gradual emancipation of 

slaves and the transportation of free blacks from the United States to settlements in 

West Africa.

 Before the Amistad case, Judson was best known for his role in the trial of Prudence Crandall, who in 1833 announced the opening of a school for African American 

girls in Judson’s hometown of Canterbury, Connecticut. In town meetings, Judson 

spoke against the school and declared that blacks in the United States should either 

be sent to Africa “or kept as they are.” He then urged the state legislature to pass an 

act prohibiting schools for African Americans who were not residents of the state. 

Andrew Judson

Image courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

24

During Crandall’s trial for violation of the subsequent law, Judson, as state attorney 

for the county, argued that blacks, even if legally free, were not citizens under the 

Constitution and were not entitled to the rights of white citizens. Judson’s role in 

the Crandall affair was publicly criticized by some of the same abolitionists who 

later organized the committee to represent the legal interests of the Mende from the 

Amistad.

 The judge’s decision in the trial portion of the Amistad case surprised many 

people, especially the abolitionists, but his ruling was in many ways consistent with 

his earlier views and with the ideas shared by many members of the American Colonization Society. The decision read before the courtroom acknowledged the right of 

the Mende to challenge the claims against them and expressed sympathy for their 

prolonged suffering, but it also avoided any statement implying that they were free 

in the United States. According to Judson’s order, the Mende were to remain in the 

custody of the federal government until the President provided for their transportation to West Africa. 

 Judson continued to serve as a federal judge until his death on March 17, 1853. 

The remainder of his career was devoted largely to the more routine admiralty cases 

that were the primary business of a federal district court in a coastal state.

Smith Thompson (1768–1843)

Associate justice of the Supreme Court and 

circuit justice on the U.S. Circuit Court for 

the District of Connecticut

Justice Smith Thompson participated in 

three separate stages of the Amistad case’s 

passage through the federal court system. As the justice assigned to the circuit 

courts for the Second Circuit, Thompson 

presided over the brief hearing of criminal charges directed against the Amistad

captives in September 1839, and he ruled 

that the Mende could not be prosecuted 

in the courts of the United States for alleged acts that occurred on a foreign vessel at sea. During this same session of the 

circuit court, Thompson presided over 

the abolitionists’ appeal for release of the 

Mende under a writ of habeas corpus. 

He expressed his personal abhorrence 

of slavery, but reminded the lawyers that 

Smith Thompson

Portrait by Asher B. Durand, courtesy of the 

Collection of the Supreme Court of the United 

States.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

25

the Constitution and laws of the United States recognized the right of one person 

to control the labor of another. His duty, as he announced it to the court, was not 

to rule on the abstract right of slavery but on the proper jurisdiction of the district 

court. The justice denied the release of the Mende as long as they were the object of 

property claims pending before the district court. 

 Thompson again presided over the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut in April 1840 when that court heard the U.S. attorney’s appeal of the district 

court decision ordering that the Mende should be returned to Africa. Thompson 

affi rmed the district court decision without comment, on the assumption that it 

would in any case be appealed to the Supreme Court. He also rejected the plea from 

the Mende’s lawyers that the case be dismissed on the grounds that the United States 

had no interest in the Spanish property claims on which it based the appeal. 

 Justice Thompson then heard the arguments presented before the Supreme Court 

and joined the opinion written by his colleague Justice Story. In all of these proceedings, Thompson had little opportunity to comment on the merits of the various 

claims alleging that the captives from the Amistad were lawfully held property of the 

Spanish planters.

 Smith Thompson was born in New York and attended the College of New Jersey 

(now Princeton University). He read law with James Kent, one of the most infl uential 

jurists and legal writers in the early republic. After a brief term in the state legislature, 

Thompson was appointed to the New York Supreme Court in 1802 and became chief 

justice of that court in 1814. He left the New York court in 1818 to accept President 

James Monroe’s nomination to serve as secretary of the navy. During his tenure as 

a cabinet secretary, the navy was responsible for enforcing the prohibition on the 

international slave trade, and Thompson was directly involved in the cases of two 

slave ships, the Antelope and La Jeune Eugenie, both of which became the subjects of 

federal court cases that served as precedents for the Amistad case.

 In 1823 Monroe appointed Thompson to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Thompson was assigned circuit duties in the Second Circuit, which consisted of New 

York, Connecticut, and Vermont. On the Court, Thompson supported a state rights 

position that was often in opposition to the nationalist ideas of Chief Justice John 

Marshall. He served on the Supreme Court until his death on December 18, 1843.

Joseph Story (1779–1845)

Associate justice of the Supreme Court and author of the opinion in the Amistad case

In the latter years of his career on the Supreme Court, Justice Joseph Story was 

the author of two of the Court’s most important decisions related to slavery. Both 

Amistad and Prigg v. Pennsylvania upheld the nationalists’ consensus that the international slave trade should be strictly forbidden but that the Constitution protected 

domestic slavery and the private property rights of slaveholders. As one of the Court’s 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

26

non-slaveholders and the leading authority on 

international law, Story was the likely choice to 

write the Amistad opinion. He upheld that portion of the circuit court decree that had affi rmed 

that the Mende from the Amistad had been sold 

illegally into slavery in Cuba and could not be 

returned to the Spaniards who claimed them as 

property. Story, however, reversed the decision 

to return the Mende to Africa under the custody 

of the President of the United States. Since the 

Mende had arrived in the United States as free 

persons in possession of the ship, he maintained, 

they could not be considered illegally imported 

slaves and could not be returned to Africa under 

the terms of an act intended to prohibit the slave 

trade. Instead, Story declared that the Mende 

held in federal custody were free and should 

immediately be released from the custody of 

the court. 

 Story was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard College 

before reading law with Samuel Sewall. At the same time that he pursued a legal 

career, Story became involved in Republican politics. He served several terms in the 

Massachusetts legislature and a brief term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He 

also argued before the Supreme Court on the winning side in the famous case, Fletcher 

v. Peck, involving the Yazoo land claims. 

 The youngest person ever to serve on the Supreme Court, Joseph Story was 

nominated by James Madison in 1811. His appointment to the Court came after 

three other nominees, including John Quincy Adams, had either declined the offer 

or failed to win Senate confi rmation. Despite his political ties to the Republicans, 

Story quickly became a judicial ally and close personal friend of Chief Justice John 

Marshall. Like Marshall, Story was deeply committed to a strong national union. By 

the time of the Amistad case, Story also was well known as one of the most important 

legal teachers and scholars in the country. While sitting as a justice of the Supreme 

Court, he began teaching at Harvard Law School in 1829 and in 1833 published his 

Commentaries on the Constitution, which became an essential guide for American 

lawyers. 

 In 1842, the year following the Amistad decision, Story’s opinion in Prigg v. 

Pennsylvania declared that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was constitutional and that 

individual states could not prevent the recapture of runaway slaves from other parts 

of the United States. Story served on the Supreme Court until his death on September 

10, 1845.

Joseph Story

Portrait by George P.A. Healy, courtesy 

of the Collection of the Supreme Court 

of the United States.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

27

Norris Willcox

U.S. marshal for the District of Connecticut

As federal marshal for the District of Connecticut, Norris Willcox was responsible 

for carrying out many of the courts’ orders related to the captives on the Amistad. 

Willcox was fi rst appointed to the offi ce of marshal by President Andrew Jackson 

in 1831 and began his duties in 1832. The marshals of the early nineteenth century 

played an important role in the administration of the federal courts, and in this capacity Willcox was the court offi cial who most frequently interacted with the Mende 

held in federal custody.

 Willcox was the fi rst to receive Lieutenant Gedney’s request to fi le a libel for 

salvage in the district court, and it was the marshal who contacted Judge Judson and 

accompanied him to the court of inquiry that convened on shipboard in New London 

harbor. After Judson accepted Gedney’s libel and heard the testimony of the Spanish 

planters, Willcox carried out the court’s order to take custody of the Africans under 

authority of two separate warrants. Under a warrant of seizure, a typical action in 

an admiralty case, Willcox took custody of the Amistad, its cargo, and the Africans, 

pending the district court’s decision about the property and salvage claims. Willcox 

also executed a warrant for arrest of the Africans in response to the criminal complaint submitted by the Spanish planters. In both warrants, Willcox reported that 

he read out the Spanish names listed on the court’s order but heard no response, “it 

being the names given them at Havanna for the purpose of shipment.” Willcox then 

recorded the West African names to which the captives did respond. 

 Willcox conveyed the Africans from the Amistad to a jail in New Haven, and 

he escorted them to and from Hartford for the court sessions there. As the offi cer 

responsible for maintaining the captives in custody, Willcox was frequently present 

when visitors interviewed the Mende. At the district court trial in January 1840, 

Willcox was called to testify in regard to several of the interviews he witnessed. 

 In March 1841, as soon as Willcox received a newspaper report of the Supreme 

Court’s decision, he hurried to meet the Mende where they were living in Westville, 

Connecticut. Once Cinque gathered the group together, Willcox announced that the 

Court had declared they were all free individuals. Willcox’s fi nal responsibility with 

the Mende was to carry out the circuit justice’s order for their release from custody. 

He also attempted to regain custody of the slave Antonio so that he might be delivered 

to Spanish authorities, but the abolitionists thwarted Willcox’s efforts and assisted 

Antonio in his successful passage to Canada. The Whig President John Tyler removed 

Willcox as marshal of the district in June 1841. Four years later, President James K. 

Polk appointed Willcox as collector of customs for the district of New Haven.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

28

Parties in the case

The Mende people aboard the Amistad

At the center of the federal court proceedings related to the Amistad were the West 

Africans who had been enslaved and sold to planters in Havana. These individuals 

from the Mende region fi rst encountered the offi cials of the federal judiciary in August 

1839, when Judge Judson moved the court of inquiry to the Amistad to hear testimony 

and to survey the scene of the revolt. On the orders of Judson, the U.S. marshal took 

the Mende into custody and conveyed them to a jail in New Haven. Three weeks later, 

the marshal transported them to Hartford for the sessions of the circuit and district 

courts. Justice Smith Thompson soon dismissed the indictment of the Mende for 

murder, but he also denied their release on a writ of habeas corpus.

 The Mende remained in federal custody while the district court considered the 

several claims that alleged the captives were the legal property of the Spanish planters. 

The Mende, however, were not only the object of property claims. They also entered 

the case as respondents challenging the allegations that they were slave property. At 

the November session of the district court, the abolitionist lawyers submitted the 

special plea of Cinque and the others, asserting that the Mende had been carried 

into Cuba in violation of a Spanish treaty forbidding the slave trade from Africa 

after 1817. At the district court trial in January 1840, the testimony of three of the 

Mende—Cinque, Grabeau, and Fuliwa—helped to establish that all of the captives 

were recent arrivals in Cuba and thus could not be considered slave property under 

Spanish law.

 After Judson declared that the Mende captives were not legally slaves and should 

be returned to Africa, they remained in federal custody pending the U.S. government’s 

appeal of the district court decision. The Mende moved to Westville, Connecticut, 

where they lived under a more relaxed confi nement than in the New Haven jail. At 

the April circuit court hearing of the government’s appeal, the Mende were represented as appellees who asked for the dismissal of the appeal on the grounds that the 

government had no interest in the case. After Justice Thompson allowed the appeal 

to proceed to the Supreme Court, the Mende remained in Westville and there, in 

March 1841, learned of the Court’s decision to free them. The Mende lived outside 

of Farmington, Connecticut, until they found the means to return to West Africa. 

Many of them participated in fundraising events at which they demonstrated their 

English language skills, read from the Bible, and sang songs. In November 1841, the 35 

surviving Mende departed for West Africa in the company of American missionaries. 

Some maintained contact with the mission established in Sierra Leone, and Margru, 

one of the young girls, returned to the United States to attend Oberlin College.

 The 42 Mende whom the navy crew took into custody off Long Island were the 

survivors of a larger group of 53 individuals sold as slaves in Havana and shipped 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

29

on the Amistad. The 49 adult men purchased by José Ruiz had arrived in Havana on 

the slave ship Teçora, which had embarked from the slave trading port of Lomboko 

in June 1839. The three young girls and one boy purchased by Pedro Montes also 

were from the Mende region of West Africa but arrived in Havana separately. Several 

of the men died during the revolt and on the subsequent voyage along the Atlantic 

coast. Seven more died in Connecticut. 

 The widely published stories of the Mende’s enslavement and struggles to return 

home demonstrated the personal tragedies of the slave trade and attracted unprecedented public attention to the federal court case. Their appearance in court and 

representation by prominent lawyers also distinguished the Amistad case from earlier 

federal cases involving violations of the prohibitions on the African slave trade.

Cinque

Leader of the Mende revolt on the Amistad

The man who became known in the 

United States as Cinque was present 

in August 1839 at the fi rst federal 

court session related to the Amistad. 

In person as well as in reputation, 

he became a dominant figure in 

all of the related court proceedings 

that followed over the next eighteen 

months. He called himself Sengbe 

Pieh and was from the Mende region 

of West Africa. As soon as the navy 

crew took custody of the schooner 

Amistad, they recognized him as 

the leader of the Africans on board. 

Cinque, though he understood 

neither English nor Spanish, was 

brought in manacles to the court of 

inquiry conducted by Judge Andrew 

Judson on board a ship in New London harbor. There he stood alone 

while the Spanish planters, José Ruiz 

and Pedro Montes, presented their 

accounts of the revolt on the Amistad and fi led a complaint against the Mende. The 

resulting indictment drafted by the U.S. attorney recorded the case as United States 

v. Cinque, et al.

 Although the criminal charges were soon dropped, the case title signifi ed the 

Cinque

Image courtesy of the Collections of the Library of 

Congress.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

30

importance that court offi cials and the American public assigned to Cinque. Newspapers throughout the country described the young man who led the revolt on the 

Amistad and printed whatever scarce evidence they could fi nd about his life in Africa. 

A host of printed images and portraits, many based on nothing but conjecture, further 

defi ned the public’s image of a natural and charismatic leader. Some praised him as 

a classical hero and others described a violent savage, but all seemed to agree on the 

strength of his presence.

 Cinque and most of the other Mende men were present in Hartford when the 

circuit court convened and a grand jury considered the criminal indictment. He also 

appeared before the court when the judges heard the abolitionist lawyers’ appeal for 

release of all the captives on a writ of habeas corpus. When the court denied their 

release, Cinque and the others returned to the jail in New Haven. Translators soon 

enabled the abolitionists to learn more accurate details about the travail of these 

Mende, especially Cinque, who, in a deposition for a related state court proceeding, 

made his fi rst formal testimony about his life among the Mende of West Africa and 

his enslavement by traders from a neighboring region.

 At the district court trial in January 1840, Cinque galvanized the large audience 

with his testimony about enslavement in Africa, the voyage to Cuba, and his sale to the 

Spanish planters. Cinque spoke through the translator, James Covey, but his gestures 

and his reenactment of conditions on the slave ship as well as the brutal treatment 

at the hands of the slave sellers in Havana provided the assembled crowd with vivid 

images of himself and the ordeal of the slave trade. His description of the time spent 

at sea and in Havana helped to establish the fact that the Mende had recently arrived 

in Cuba and thus were not legally held as slaves there.

 Cinque made no further court appearance, but he continued to represent the 

Amistad captives in the minds of most Americans. In the numerous public appearances of the freed Mende, Cinque’s speeches, even though in the Mende language, 

proved to be the dramatic climax.

 Cinque sailed for Sierra Leone with the other surviving Mende from the Amistad

in November 1841. The missionaries who accompanied them reported that Cinque 

soon learned that his family had disappeared in the aftermath of local wars. He then 

set off to sell goods as a trader, and although Cinque was the subject of many rumors, 

no reliable evidence documents his life after returning to West Africa.

Thomas Gedney

U.S. Navy lieutenant and commanding offi cer of the brig Washington

Thomas Gedney’s decision to fi le a libel for salvage in the schooner Amistad brought 

the case to the federal courts and set in motion the proceedings that eventually led 

to the Supreme Court’s decision freeing the captive Africans. Without that libel, 

the court never would have ordered the arrest of the Mende on board, the Spanish 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

31

owners would have had no reason to fi le their own property claims, and the Spanish 

government’s demand for the ship and its passengers might have been met by the 

Secretary of State without any participation of the federal courts. The admiralty claim 

of Gedney and his crew had the unintended effect of offering the abolitionists an 

opportunity to challenge the claims for slave property and forcing the federal courts 

to rule on a defi nition of legal slave property.

 Gedney was the commanding offi cer of the Washington, a U.S. Navy brig that was 

conducting a coastal survey in Long Island Sound when the crew encountered the 

Amistad. The crew took custody of the ship and passengers and carried the Amistad

to New London, Connecticut. Gedney immediately contacted Norris Willcox, the 

U.S. marshal in New Haven, and requested a court hearing so that he could submit 

a libel, or claim, for a salvage award. Gedney’s libel provided a detailed description 

of the cargo, which along with the ship he estimated at a value of $40,000. The libel 

also included a request for a salvage award based on the recovery of the enslaved 

Africans, whom he valued at $25,000.

 Early in the district court proceedings, Judge Andrew Judson declared that he 

would not approve a salvage award for the enslaved Africans, since the court could 

not order their sale and had no means to determine their value. In his decision of 

January 1840, Judson awarded Gedney and his crew salvage for one third of the 

value of the ship and its cargo of goods. The district court also ordered the sale of 

the Amistad and the goods on board so that the money could be divided between 

the owners and the navy crew commanded by Gedney. The U.S. attorney appealed 

the decision granting salvage, but the Supreme Court upheld the award. 

 Thomas Gedney was a resident of New York City and had served in the U.S. Navy 

since 1815. In 1841 he was promoted to commander, and he continued to serve until 

1855. He died in November 1857.

José Ruiz and Pedro Montes

Spanish planters from Cuba who purchased enslaved Africans in Havana and 

transported them on the Amistad

At the court of inquiry in August 1839, José Ruiz and Pedro Montes provided court 

offi cers and reporters with the fi rst eyewitness accounts of the Amistad revolt. The 

planters’ testimony and their formal complaint set in motion the short-lived criminal 

proceedings against the Amistad captives. The Spanish planters, with their demand 

for the return of what they insisted was slave property, remained at the center of the 

admiralty case even after they left Connecticut in the fall of 1839.

 Ruiz and Montes fi rst told a Spanish-speaking offi cer on the U.S. brig Washington of the revolt of the enslaved Africans and their subsequent navigation along the 

Atlantic coast of the United States. At a slave market in Havana, Ruiz had purchased 

49 enslaved African men; Montes purchased three girls and a boy at the same market. 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

32

The two planters chartered space on the Amistad to carry the enslaved Africans to 

Puerto Principe along the Cuban coast. During the voyage, a group of the enslaved 

men escaped their chains, took command of the ship, and then forced Ruiz and 

Montes to sail toward West Africa. Montes, an experienced sailor, set the eastward 

course during the day and then sailed northward or westward at night in hopes of 

fi nding a friendly vessel. This testimony convinced the U.S. attorney to draft an 

indictment of the adult Africans for piracy and murder, although the circuit justice 

dismissed these charges as being outside the jurisdiction of the federal courts. At the 

session of the district court that convened on September 19, 1839, Ruiz and Montes 

submitted separate libels, or claims, asking the court to return to them all the cargo 

and slaves they had shipped on the Amistad. The planters also asked the court not 

to award Lieutenant Gedney any portion of the value of the cargo as an award for 

rescuing the Amistad. Although Ruiz and Montes soon left Connecticut, the Spanish 

ministers continued to represent their claims and appealed Judge Judson’s decision 

to grant salvage to Gedney.

 When Ruiz and Montes traveled to New York City in October 1839, they became 

ensnared in Lewis Tappan’s scheme to hold them responsible for illegally enslaving 

the Mende from the Amistad. Abolitionist attorneys representing the Mende secured 

from two New York courts warrants for arrest on charges of false imprisonment and 

assault and battery. Montes soon won release for lack of evidence, but Ruiz remained 

in jail until February 1840. Both planters returned to Cuba before the case went to 

the Supreme Court.

Lewis Tappan (1788–1873)

Abolitionist leader and founder of the 

Amistad committee

Although he was not an offi cial party to any 

action in federal court, Lewis Tappan was 

more responsible than anyone for securing 

legal representation of the Africans from 

the Amistad and for drawing the nation’s 

attention to the plight of the captives. Tappan was a member of a prominent family 

of New York merchants and in 1833 had 

been one of the founders of the American 

Anti-Slavery Society. As a member of the 

leading association of abolitionists, Tappan 

organized the petition campaign that sent 

Congress thousands of appeals for an end to 

slavery. This skilled publicist with extensive 

Lewis Tappan

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs 

Division [LC-USZ62-47919].
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

33

fi nancial resources also earned the hatred of many pro-slavery Americans, and in 

1834 mobs vandalized Tappan’s house in New York City. 

 Within days of the Amistad Africans being taken into federal custody, Tappan, 

along with Joshua Leavitt and Simeon Jocelyn, formed the committee to secure the 

legal protection of the Africans. Tappan’s commentaries and personal trial accounts, 

published in his family-owned newspapers, won popular support for the Mende captives. Throughout the proceedings in the federal courts, Tappan helped to devise the 

abolitionists’ legal strategy and secure witnesses who could establish that the Mende 

had been illegally imported and enslaved in Cuba. When the case was appealed to 

the Supreme Court, he persuaded John Quincy Adams to join the legal team. 

 In the midst of hiring lawyers and funding their appeals, Tappan was equally 

concerned with what he perceived as the Mende’s spiritual welfare and education. 

He met the Mende men during their fi rst week in the New Haven jail and offered 

them a religious sermon, as well as a sample of ice. Even before he located translators who could communicate with the Africans, Tappan hired divinity students to 

deliver religious teachings in English. He contacted the famous educator of the deaf, 

Thomas Gallaudet, in an effort to devise some form of communication with the 

Africans, and he recruited linguistics professor Josiah Gibbs to locate a translator of 

West African languages. Tappan continued to supervise the Mende’s education in 

English and Christianity throughout their time in Connecticut.

 Following the Supreme Court decision freeing the Mende, Tappan led the effort 

to provide for transportation back to West Africa. Tappan and an African-American 

preacher, J.W.C. Pennington, organized a committee to raise money through a series 

of tours during which the Mende demonstrated their profi ciency in English and sang 

hymns. In November 1841, Tappan accompanied the Mende to their ship in New York 

harbor and bid farewell as they left for West Africa and the freedom he had done so 

much to secure for them.

A witness

Antonio

Enslaved cabin boy of the Amistad captain

At the court of inquiry in August 1839, Antonio, the young slave of the slain Captain Ferrer, led district court Judge Andrew Judson and other court offi cers into the 

hold of the Amistad to identify the men who had led the revolt along with Cinque. 

Throughout the proceedings in the district and circuit courts, Antonio’s testimony 

was crucial in establishing the judges’ understanding of what happened the night of 

the revolt and in determining the status of the Mende. As the object of one of the 

property claims submitted in district court, Antonio and his legal fate also help to 

explain the courts’ understanding of the law of slavery.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

34

 In September of 1839, Antonio told visiting abolitionists that he had been born 

in Havana more than fourteen years before and had served on his master’s ship, the 

Amistad, for the past three years. At the November session of the district court, the 

Spanish consul from Boston submitted a claim for the return of Antonio as the legal 

property of Captain Ferrer’s heirs. The acknowledgement of his birth in Spanish territory, where slavery was still legal, meant that Antonio’s status was not affected by the 

laws prohibiting the slave trade in Cuba. None of the abolitionists’ court arguments 

suggested Antonio was free, and in his district court decision, Judge Judson ordered 

that Antonio be restored to his Spanish owners. Judson pointed to his decision to 

return Antonio as evidence that he was eager to abide by the United States’ treaty 

with Spain as long as any claimed property was legally held by the Spaniards making 

the claim. On a broader level, the decision regarding Antonio and the references to 

him in subsequent court actions indicated that the judges of the federal courts supported the right to hold slaves in bondage wherever laws supported that species of 

property.

 Within a few days of Judson’s decision, Secretary of State John Forsyth instructed 

the U.S. attorney in Connecticut to appeal the decision regarding the Mende, but 

added “that part which concerns the slave Antonio is not to be disturbed.” The 

secretary of state expected soon to send instructions for the delivery of Antonio to 

Spanish offi cials. U.S. Attorney Holabird recommended that Antonio remain in the 

country until the April session of the circuit court heard the appeal of the district 

court decree. “His testimony in person would be much better than his deposition,” 

according to Holabird, “he is rather an intelligent boy.” Antonio continued to live 

with the Mende in Westville, Connecticut, where they remained in federal custody. 

Once the Supreme Court declared the Mende free and made no further mention of 

the decision regarding Antonio, the U.S. marshal in Connecticut attempted to take 

custody of Antonio for transfer to Spanish offi cials. Antonio, with the assistance of 

Lewis Tappan, boarded a steamboat for New York City and within a month was in 

Canada. President John Tyler assured the Spanish ambassador that he would attempt 

to fi nd Antonio, but the young man was free from the reach of federal offi cials and 

Spanish claims.

Lawyers

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)

Member of the House of Representatives and former President, representing the 

Amistad Mende before the Supreme Court

When the 73-year-old former President of the United States appeared before the 

Supreme Court to advocate the freedom of the Amistad captives, large crowds fi lled 

the chamber on the ground fl oor of the U.S. Capitol. Adams, who declined appoint-
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

35

ment as a justice in 1811, had argued 

many cases before the Court when he 

served in the Senate. He had not appeared as an advocate before the Court, 

however, since 1809. In the intervening 

years he served in various posts as an 

ambassador, as secretary of state from 

1817 to 1825, as President from 1825 to 

1829, and since 1831 as a member of the 

House of Representatives.

 The prominence of Adams and 

his well-known opposition to slavery 

convinced the abolitionist committee 

to invite him to serve as an attorney for 

the Mende during the district court proceedings. Although Adams declined at 

that time, he acceded to Lewis Tappan’s 

request to assist in representing the 

Mende before the Supreme Court. In 

the 1830s Adams had emerged as one 

of the strongest congressional opponents of slavery and led the fi ght against 

the so-called “Gag Rule” by which the 

House of Representatives disregarded 

thousands of anti-slavery petitions. In earlier stages of his career, Adams had exhibited 

little concern with the slave trade. As secretary of state, he had urged the return of 

slaves claimed by Spanish traders and challenged British attempts to search American 

vessels suspected of carrying slaves in international waters. Now, as “old-man eloquent,” he was one of the most prominent American anti-slavery leaders, although 

his views were more moderate than those of the abolitionists. 

 When he joined the group of lawyers representing the Amistad captives, Adams 

already had taken a leading role in forcing the Van Buren administration to submit to 

Congress correspondence relating to the Amistad affair. His preparation focused on 

an examination of the role of the administration, especially the activities of Secretary 

of State John Forsyth. Adams also visited the Mende men whose fate depended on 

the Supreme Court decision. Just a few weeks before the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case, two of the Mende captives, Kale and Kinna, wrote Adams letters 

asking for his assistance in securing their freedom.

 Adams’ arguments before the Supreme Court lasted for more than seven hours 

over a period of two days. He devoted much of his time to what he saw as the administration’s attempts to circumvent the judiciary and return the Mende captives to 

John Quincy Adams

Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of 

Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number LC-DIG-cwpbh-02619].
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

36

Spanish authorities. Adams also appealed to natural rights, most dramatically when 

he called attention to copies of the Declaration of Independence hanging in the Court 

room. “The moment you come to the Declaration of Independence, that every man 

has a right to life and liberty, an inalienable right,” he said, “this case is decided. I ask 

nothing more in behalf of these unfortunate men, than this Declaration.”

 Justice Joseph Story suggested that Adams’ arguments were largely unrelated 

to the legal questions before the Court, but Adams may have been more concerned 

with an audience well beyond the justices. He failed to offer a copy of his remarks for 

inclusion in the Supreme Court report and soon published a copy that he distributed 

to a large audience, including every member of Congress and every American in the 

diplomatic service. Adams’ censure of the Van Buren administration may have had 

no impact on the justices’ decision, but well into the following century it continued 

to frame most historical accounts of the Amistad case.

Roger Sherman Baldwin (1793–1863)

Principal lawyer representing the Mende of the Amistad in all federal court 

proceedings

The chief legal advocate for the Mende was the son of a prominent political family 

in Connecticut. Baldwin’s father, Simeon, served 

as the fi rst clerk of the state’s federal courts, as 

a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and as a judge on Connecticut’s highest 

court. Baldwin’s namesake and grandfather was 

Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of 

Independence and framer of the Constitution. 

After attending college at Yale, Baldwin studied 

law at the prestigious Litchfi eld Law School and 

then practiced law in New Haven. At the same 

time, Baldwin embarked on a political career 

that in the years following the Amistad case 

would lead to service as Connecticut governor 

and U.S. senator. He also became involved in 

the anti-slavery movement, and in one of his 

early cases defended a runaway slave owned by 

Henry Clay. 

 The abolitionist committee approached 

Baldwin to represent the African captives held 

in the New Haven jail, and in early September 

Baldwin was among the fi rst group to interview 

Cinque through an African translator. The legal 

Roger Sherman Baldwin

Engraving by A.H. Ritchie after daguerreotype by Brady, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division 

[reproduction number LC-USZ62-

90730].
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

37

team included Seth Staples and Theodore Sedgwick, but Baldwin was the lead attorney for the Mende at each stage of the proceedings in the federal courts. Baldwin 

pursued a dual strategy that emphasized natural rights while at the same time arguing 

that under the laws governing slavery in Spanish territories and the United States, 

the Mende could not be considered slaves.

 As soon as the court dropped all criminal charges against the Amistad captives in 

September 1839, Baldwin sought under a writ of habeas corpus to have the Mende 

released from federal custody. The abolitionist lawyers insisted that no federal court 

had authority to confi ne individuals based on a claim that they were slaves. Unless 

and until the courts decided otherwise, they should treat all humans, regardless of 

race, as free individuals. But Justice Smith Thompson in the circuit court reminded 

Baldwin of what he already knew: that the Constitution implicitly protected slavery, 

and there were many precedents for detaining individuals claimed as slaves.

 In the admiralty proceedings in the district court and during the subsequent appeals, Baldwin continued to claim that the Mende were entitled by natural rights to 

protect their freedom and return to their homes, but he also was careful to respond 

to the precedents that said the federal courts must respect slave property in those 

jurisdictions where it was protected by law. Baldwin repeatedly argued that the Mende 

had been carried into Cuba in violation of the Spanish treaty prohibiting the African slave trade after 1817. Since the captives were considered free rather than slaves 

under Spanish law, the United States was not obligated to return them to Cuba as 

property.

 In the Supreme Court, Baldwin urged the dismissal of the government’s appeal 

of the district court’s decision. He asserted that the executive branch of the U.S. 

government had no authority to represent the claims of a foreign government in an 

admiralty proceeding nor to return to slavery persons who arrived in the country as 

free individuals. Baldwin also repeated his arguments that there was no positive law of 

Spain by which these African natives could be deemed to be slaves. These arguments 

of Baldwin, rather than the more emotional appeals of Adams, largely supported the 

Supreme Court’s decision to declare the Mende to be free.

Henry Gilpin (1801–1860)

United States attorney general who presented the government’s case before the 

Supreme Court

Henry Gilpin was born in England and as a young boy immigrated to the United States 

with his parents. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and then read law. While 

practicing law in Philadelphia, Gilpin became involved in Democratic party politics 

and received a series of presidential appointments. Andrew Jackson nominated him 

as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1831 and to the board of 

the Bank of the United States in 1833. Gilpin served as the district’s U.S. attorney until 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

38

1837 when Martin Van Buren appointed 

him as solicitor of the Treasury Department. He joined Van Buren’s cabinet as 

attorney general in 1840.

 Appearing before the Supreme Court 

to defend the administration’s appeal of 

the Amistad decision in the district and 

circuit courts, Gilpin urged the Court to 

order the return of the Amistad and all its 

cargo, including the enslaved Africans, to 

the Spanish government. Gilpin followed 

many of the arguments fi rst set out in September 1839 by his predecessor as attorney 

general, Felix Grundy. The obligation of 

the United States was to observe the 1795 

treaty with Spain and return all property 

that had been rescued from robbers. The 

treaty was intended to apply to slave property, which continued to be protected by 

the laws of the United States as well as those of Spain and its territories.

 Gilpin asserted that under the terms of the treaty between Spain and the United 

States, no one was entitled to salvage rights, and thus the full value of the ship and 

its cargo should be returned to their Spanish owners. In response to Roger Sherman 

Baldwin’s claim that the Mende had been enslaved illegally and should be considered 

free in Spanish territory, Gilpin argued that the owners of the slaves had presented 

documentation signed by the governor general of Cuba. Any errors in that documentation should be judged by Spanish authorities, not offi cers of the United States 

government. “If we were to refuse to give faith to the documents of public offi cers,” 

Gilpin insisted, “All national intercourse, all commerce, would end.”

 Gilpin closed his arguments one day before the Van Buren administration and his 

term as attorney general came to an end. He held no further public offi ce and retired 

to Philadelphia to pursue his long-standing interest in literature and the arts.

William S. Holabird (1794–1855)

U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, who represented the government’s case in 

the district and circuit court

In 1834, President Andrew Jackson appointed William Holabird to serve as the attorney for the United States government in the District of Connecticut. The offi ce of 

U.S. attorney, usually referred to as the “District Attorney” in the nineteenth century, 

was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 to represent the government in business 

Henry Gilpin

Engraved by R.W. Dodson from a painting 

by H. Inman, Library of Congress, Prints and 

Photographs Division [reproduction number 

LC-USZ62-120317].
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

39

before the federal courts. Holabird was unable to attend the special session of the 

district court that convened in New London, but he was represented by the clerk of 

court, Charles Ingersoll, and Holabird subsequently drafted an indictment of Cinque 

and the other Mende men on the basis of testimony at the court of inquiry. Holabird 

also wrote to Secretary of State John Forsyth for advice in responding to the Spanish 

planters’ demand for the return of property, including the alleged slaves. The attorney 

informed Forsyth that when the circuit court met later in September, “I suppose it will 

be my duty to bring them to trial, unless they are in some other way disposed of.” A 

few days later he concluded that the Mende could not be indicted in a federal court, 

and inquired of Forsyth if the Africans could be delivered to Spanish authorities before 

the courts met. When the circuit court opened, Holabird nevertheless presented the 

indictment, which was referred to a grand jury. Justice Smith Thompson soon ruled 

that the Mende could not be prosecuted in a federal court for murder or piracy on 

a foreign vessel in international waters.

 Following Forsyth’s instructions to ensure that the Mende not be released from 

the control of the federal executive, Holabird fi led in the district court a libel with 

two separate requests. If the court determined that the Mende were legally held in 

slavery, Holabird asked that the court order their delivery to Spanish authorities. If 

the court held that the Mende had been enslaved in violation of Spanish law, Holabird 

requested that the court deliver the Africans to the President for return to Africa under 

the terms of a law enforcing the prohibition on the importation of slaves into the 

United States. In a separate proceeding related to a writ of habeas corpus, Holabird 

acknowledged that he believed the Mende had been illegally enslaved and would be 

returned to West Africa.

 Holabird continued to represent the government and to defend the Spanish 

property claims throughout the proceedings in the district court. On the eve of the 

January trial, the secretary of state instructed Holabird to deliver the Mende captives 

to a navy vessel waiting off New Haven as soon as the judge made the expected ruling 

that the Africans must be returned to Cuba. When Judge Judson surprised nearly 

everyone and ruled that the Mende were not slaves and should be returned to their 

homes in West Africa, Holabird followed Forsyth’s instructions to appeal the decision 

to the U.S. circuit court. In April 1840 he appeared before that court to defend the 

government’s interest in demanding the return of Spanish property.

 Holabird, who lost his offi ce in 1841 after the Whig party gained the presidency, 

served as lieutenant governor of Connecticut in 1842 and 1844. He returned to the 

practice of law until his death in 1855.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

40

Other government offi cials

John Forsyth (1780–1841)

Secretary of state in the Van Buren administration

John Forsyth had served as secretary of state under two Presidents and as the nation’s 

minister to Spain by the time that he took the lead in coordinating the Van Buren 

administration’s response to the Amistad case. Born in Virginia, Forsyth grew up in 

Georgia and returned to that state to study law after graduating from the College of 

New Jersey (now Princeton University). He soon embarked on a political career that 

included service as attorney general and governor of Georgia and several terms in the 

U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Forsyth was a strong supporter 

of Andrew Jackson, particularly during the Nullifi cation crisis, and Jackson named 

him secretary of state in 1834. He continued in that offi ce until the end of the Van 

Buren administration in 1841.

 In Van Buren’s absence, Forsyth led the fi rst cabinet deliberations on the Amistad

affair, and he subsequently directed both the diplomatic and legal strategy of the administration. The secretary of state was most concerned with avoiding a diplomatic 

crisis with Spain, and he quickly decided that the United States was obliged by the 

treaty of 1795 to return Spanish property. Forsyth was in regular communication 

with the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, William S. Holabird, and instructed him to 

fi le the claim for the return of the ship, its cargo, and the enslaved Africans to Spanish authorities, with no deductions for salvage awards. Even before Van Buren made 

any decision on the Spanish request, Forsyth ordered Holabird to “take care that no 

proceeding of your circuit court, or of any other judicial tribunal, places the vessel, 

cargo, or slaves beyond the control of the Federal Executive.” In anticipation of a 

court order to return the Mende to Spanish authorities in Cuba, Forsyth informed 

Holabird that the President had authorized sending a naval ship to New Haven in 

order to carry the captives away as long as no one appealed the decision, and he 

requested that Holabird prepare copies of the court proceedings so that they could 

be sent to the courts in Cuba. When Judge Andrew Judson ruled against the Spanish 

claim, Forsyth conveyed Van Buren’s request that Holabird appeal the decision, both 

as it related to the return of the Mende to Africa and the grant of salvage to the Navy 

crew.

 Forsyth’s communications with the U.S. attorney refl ected not only the diplomatic 

implications of the Amistad affair but also the broader duties of early secretaries of 

state, who served as a kind of home secretary as well as the principal offi cer for foreign 

affairs. The secretary of state played an important role in screening judicial nominees, 

and judges and offi cials in the federal courts often contacted the State Department 

with requests for copies of the United States statutes or special expenditures. For example, Holabird turned to the secretary of state in November 1839 when he wanted 

to draw funds from the marshal’s account in order to hire an assistant counsel.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

41

Media Coverage and Public Debates 

The Amistad court proceedings aroused greater public interest than any previous 

federal trial. Newspapers and popular entertainments responded to the demand 

for information about the Mende and their fate in the courts. Just a few days after 

the district judge held the court of inquiry, New York’s Bowery Theater advertised 

performances of “The Black Schooner,” a “nautical melodrama” that at least in the 

names of the cast refl ected knowledge of the court proceedings. In the following 

months, a New Haven artist created life-size wax models of twenty-nine of the Mende, 

placed them on a reconstructed deck of the Amistad, and exhibited the display in 

major cities of the northeastern United States. Another exhibit toured New England 

with a 135-foot mural depicting the revolt. Popular, inexpensive prints offered the 

public images of the Mende. William H. Townsend, a Connecticut artist, drew pencil 

sketches of twenty-two of the Mende, and newspapers carried silhouette portraits of 

the captives. The greatest public interest always focused on Cinque, and the earliest 

prints recognized him as the leader of the Mende from the Amistad. By the time of 

the district court trial in January 1840, the public had a strong visual image of the 

Mende and the revolt on the Amistad.

 At the same time that hundreds of visitors were paying to view the Mende held 

in the New Haven jail, publishers were providing a broader audience with biographical sketches of the West African captives, including details about their families and 

their abduction in Africa. Many of these accounts were compiled in collaboration 

with the abolitionist committee defending the Mende, and the intended effect was to 

humanize the people held in custody and to personalize the stories of enslavement.

 Abolitionists were skilled publicists, and none more so than Lewis Tappan, who 

provided fi rsthand accounts of the court proceedings and interviews with the Mende 

for the newspaper that his family owned. New York’s African American newspaper 

sent a reporter to cover proceedings in Connecticut and Washington. Not all of the 

press coverage was positive. Certain newspapers published ceaseless attacks on the 

abolitionists and the Mende themselves, claiming that the captives were being coddled 

in jail. 

 The Amistad case took place at a time of a new willingness in the North to 

discuss publicly the institution of slavery. In the 1830s, the abolitionists’ massive 

petition campaign, which inundated the Congress with appeals to abolish slavery 

in the District of Columbia, had involved large groups of citizens in debates on the 

federal government’s support of slavery. At the same time, many white southerners 

responded to the abolitionists and events such as the slave revolt of Nat Turner with 

a more assertive defense of slavery. It was in the context of these new debates over 

slavery that the public, both North and South, turned its attention to the Amistad

case.

 The media coverage and public familiarity with the case created an unusual 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

42

background for judicial proceedings at a time when the business of the federal courts 

normally received little attention. In each of the courts that heard a part of the proceedings, the judges took the unusual step of acknowledging the need to explain their 

decisions to an interested public.

Prints and images

First images of Cinque and the 

Mende 

A New York newspaper commissioned a 

print of Cinque in late August and advertised 

the sale of copies. On August 31, just fi ve days 

after the Navy took the Mende into custody, 

this print was submitted for a copyright at 

the clerk’s offi ce of the U.S. District Court for 

the Southern District of New York. Whether 

it was as “the brave Congolese chief who 

prefers death to slavery,” or as the inspiring 

orator reassuring his compatriots on the 

deck of the recently seized Amistad, Cinque 

repeatedly was portrayed as a natural and 

charismatic leader.

 “Joseph Cinquez, the brave 

Congolese Chief” 

[Isaac?] Sheffi eld. New York: Moses Y. Beach, 

1839. Prints and Photograph Division of the 

Library of Congress.

“Joseph Cinquez Addressing His Compatriots on Board the Spanish Schooner, 

Amistad, 26th August 1839”

John Childs. 1839. Lithograph. In the Charles F. Gunther Collection, Chicago Historical Society.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

43

Portrait of Cinque

The presentation of a noble Cinque 

culminated in the romanticized 

portrait commissioned by a wealthy 

African American abolitionist from 

Philadelphia. This most famous image of Cinque was also copied into a 

print format for sale. An important 

audience for these images was the 

free black community in New York 

City, where most of the images were 

printed. In the midst of the oral arguments before the Supreme Court, an 

African American newspaper in New 

York City advertised copies of this 

portrait, which were available for the 

price of $1. The publishers announced 

“We shall be proud to have our apartments graced with the portrait of the 

noble Cinque, and shall regard it as a 

favor to our descendants, to transmit 

to them his likeness.” For at least some 

African Americans, Cinque already 

had become an inspiring legend.

Anti-slavery images

Since the beginnings of 

the abolitionist movement 

in the late 1820s, these 

anti-slavery activists had 

worked to mobilize public 

opinion in opposition to 

slavery. They often relied 

on new technology that 

made possible the printing 

of inexpensive broadsides 

and images that could be 

distributed in large quantities to urban audiences. 

The crude but powerful 

Portrait of Cinque

Nathaniel Jocelyn. New Haven Colony Historical Society.

United States Slave Trade, 1830

Philadelphia (?), 1830. Prints and Photograph Division of the Library of Congress.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

44

print of the “United States Slave Trade,” carried on in the shadow of the Capitol 

building, was typical of these efforts. So was the “American Anti-Slavery Almanac,” 

published at the same time as the Amistad proceedings, and presenting a series of 

violent images of slavery in the United States. These widely disseminated prints 

often relied on appeals to a sense of family and the dignity of free labor, and helped 

to cultivate anti-slavery support among people who did not necessarily share the 

abolitionists’ vision of an immediate end to slavery or of an integrated society.

Illustrations of the American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 

1840 (selections)

New York, 1840. Printed Ephemera Collection, Library of 

Congress.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

45

Newspaper articles

Lewis Tappan “To the Committee on behalf of the African Prisoners.” 

New York Journal of Commerce, September 10, 1839

Tappan’s communications from Connecticut always emphasized the condition of the 

Mende captives, whose fate depended on the outcome of the proceedings in the federal courts. In a typical report fi led after his fi rst visit to the jail in the company of a 

translator, Tappan emphasized the potential for educating the Mende and converting 

them to Christianity. He also wanted to cultivate popular sympathy for individuals 

whom he portrayed as sharing the basic family affections and sentiments of Protestant culture in the United States. His assurances that the Mende were “peaceable,” 

“docile,” and “intelligent” stood in sharp contrast to the racist attacks published in 

the Morning Herald and other penny press newspapers in New York City. Tappan’s 

descriptions of the Mende demonstrate the degree to which the abolitionists’ legal 

defense of the captives arose from a call to Christian charity and evangelism as well 

as from an attachment to natural rights. 

 

... Th e African prisoners are orderly and peaceable among themselves. Some of them 

sing well, and appear to be in good spirits and grateful for the kindness shewn them. 

Col. Stanton Pendleton, at whose house I stop, is the jailer, and is kind and attentive 

to the prisoners. He provides them wholesome food in suffi cient quantities, and gives 

every reasonable indulgence to the numerous visitors, from the neighboring towns 

and elsewhere, who throng the prison continually to see these interesting strangers 

from a distant land. ...

... I distributed some religious tracts, in the morning, to the convicts, and attempted 

to instruct the African prisoners, especially the children. Th ey pronounce words in 

English very distinctly, and have already nearly the numerals. In showing them some 

books containing pictures of tropical animals, birds, &c., they seemed much pleased 

to recognize those with whose appearance they were acquainted, endeavoring to 

imitate their voices and actions. With suitable instruction these intelligent and docile 

Africans would soon learn to read and speak our language, and I cannot but hope that 

some of the benevolent inhabitants of this city will diligently continue to improve 

the opportunity to impart instruction to these pagans, brought by the providence of 

God to their very doors. Towards evening we made a visit to Shinquau [Cinque], 

and conversed with him a considerable time. He drew his hand across his throat, as 

his room mates said he had done frequently before, and asked whether the people 

here intended to kill him. He was assured that probably no harm would happen to 

him – that we were his friends – and that he would be sent across the ocean towards 

the rising sun, home to his friends. His countenance immediately lost the anxious 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

46

and distressed expression it had before, and beamed with joy. He says he was born 

about two days travelling from the ocean; that he purchased some goods, and being 

unable to pay for only two-thirds of the amount, he was seized by the traders, his 

own countrymen, and sold to king Sharka for the remaining third. “I don’t tell a bit 

of a lie about it,” he said. He says he left in Africa both his parents, a wife and three 

children. Two of the children, he remarked, are a little larger than the African girls 

who are prisoners, and the other about as large. We endeavored to ascertain what 

his ideas were about a Supreme Being, if he had any. He said, “God is good.” His 

countrymen, he says, know nothing about reading or writing. ...

Cingues 

The Colored American, October 19, 1839

The Colored American was the nation’s leading African American newspaper during its brief run from 1837 to 1841. The New York-based publication brought news 

of the Amistad court proceedings and accounts of the Mende captives to its African 

American readers throughout the northeastern United States. At the opening of the 

Supreme Court term in 1841, the newspaper sent a special correspondent to Washington to cover the arguments before the justices.

 This essay on Cinque, or “Cingues,” as the paper called him, placed the Mende 

leader in the company of great heroes of the era. In a fantasy of prominent men honoring Cinque, the writer imagined Daniel Webster representing the Mende in court, 

John Marshall (who died in 1835) conducting the trial that would lead to “acquittal and triumph,” and Lord Nelson’s fi rst offi cer at the battle of Trafalgar providing 

escort to the Mende homeland. No ship of the United States was deemed worthy of 

the responsibility. By the time of the Amistad case, the British Navy was associated 

not with protection of that nation’s once fl ourishing slave trade, but rather with its 

recent determination to rid the Atlantic world of all commerce in slaves. 

 

We are inclined to call the noble African by this name, although he is called by as 

many diff erent titles as our republicanism off ers reasons for enslaving his people. 

We have seen a wood-cut representation of the royal fellow. It looks as we think it 

would. It answers well to his lion-like character. Th e head has the towering front of 

Webster, and though some shades darker than our great country-man, we are struck 

at fi rst sight, with his resemblance to him. He has Webster’s lion aspect. . . .

. . . We bid pro-slavery look upon Cingues and behold in him the race we are enslaving. He is a sample. Every Congolese or Mandingan is not, to be sure, a Cingues. 

Nor was every Corsican a Napolian, or every Yankee a Webster. “Giants are rare,” 

said Ames, “and it is forbidden that there should be races of them.” But call not the 

race inferior, which in now and then an age produces such men.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

47

 Our shameless people have made merchandise of the likeness of Cingues – as 

they have of the originals of his (and their own) countrymen. Th ey had the eff rontery 

to look him in the face long enough to delineate it, and at his eye long enough to 

copy its wonderful expression.

 By the way, Webster ought to come home to defend Cingues. He ought to have 

no counsel short of his twin spirit. His defence were a nobler subject for Webster’s 

giant intellect, than the Foote resolutions or Calhoun’s nullifi cation. Th ere is indeed 

no defence to make. It would give Webster occasion to strike at the slave trade and 

at our people for imprisoning and trying a man admitted to have risen only against 

the worst of pirates, and for more than life – for liberty, for country and for home.

 Webster should vindicate him if he must be tried. Old Marshall would be the 

man to try him. And after his most honorable acquittal and triumph, a ship should 

be sent to convey him to his country – not an American ship. Th ey are all too near a 

kin to the “low, long, black schooner.” A British ship – old Nelson’s line of battle, if it 

is yet afl oat, the one he had at Trafalgar; and Hardy, Nelson’s captain, were a worthy 

sailor to command it to Africa. He would steer more honestly than the treacherous 

old Spaniard. He would steer them toward the sunrise, by night as well as by day. An 

old British sea captain would have scorned to betray the noble Cingues. He would 

have been as faithful as the compass.

“The Captured Africans” 

New York Morning Herald, September 17, 1839

Among the New York City newspapers that closely followed the Amistad trial, none 

was more tireless in its attacks on the abolitionists and the Mende captives than the 

Morning Herald. The paper announced in early September that it was sending two 

correspondents to Connecticut to challenge the “extraordinary fabrications” of the 

abolitionist-owned Journal of Commerce. Typical articles fi led by the Morning 

Herald correspondents mocked the abolitionists’ efforts at religious education and 

repeatedly described the Mende as savages. The coverage by the Morning Herald

made clear that even as the anti-slavery movement found unprecedented public 

support during the Amistad trial, many readers in New York City preferred to read 

the racist stereotypes and sensationalism of “penny press” newspapers like the Morning Herald. Despite the denial of support for slavery, this article, like many others, 

expressed more concern for the slaveholders of the southern United States than for 

the Mende who faced reenslavement.

 

New Haven Sept. 13

... Th e excitement respecting the Africans is still on the increase here, and I notice 

by the prints from various sections of the country, that it is attracting great attention 

in every quarter. It is really a question of the gravest importance, and its settlement 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

48

is fraught with portentous consequences to the South. Th e papers are fi lled with 

preposterous twaddle, purporting to be argument on the subject, but it does neither 

good nor harm. My object has been, not to discuss the question, but to apprise you 

of such facts and circumstances as I could collect, that had a bearing on the case, 

and to recapitulate and expose the absurdities put forth by the Abolitionists. It is 

not to be denied that these infatuated and mischievous men have long been hard at 

work in the hope of producing a fatal schism between the free states and the slave 

states. In this nefarious design they are abetted by certain reckless politicians who 

fan the embers, in the hope of rendering the excitement subservient to their ulterior 

purposes. Th e aff air of the Amistad is a godsend to these men. Th ey have already 

told lies enough to jeopard the eternal welfare of half the negroes in Christendom 

(always supposing them to have souls worth looking after,) and they will, no doubt, 

tell twice as many more before the matter is settled. ...

...Th e fact is, those people who are making all this bustle and clamor about the “poor 

Africans” are entirely uninformed respecting their social and physical condition at 

home. Th ey are slothful and thievish, and altogether are sunk in a state of ignorance, 

debasement and barbarism, of which no adequate conception can be formed. Th e 

history of the world presents no instance where the whites have been in a condition 

so degraded. Th ey are a distinct and totally diff erent race, and the God of nature never 

intended that they should live together in any other relation than that of master and 

slave. I am no advocate of slavery, but I am clear in the conviction that the blacks 

can never be raised to a footing of equality with the whites, and that eff ort directed 

to this end is worse than useless.

“Keep Cool”

The Colored American, November 2, 1839

The editors of the nation’s leading African American newspaper closely followed the 

coverage of other New York newspapers during the Amistad proceedings. The city’s 

papers presented a broad range of opinion about the case, although many, especially 

those among the “penny press,” expressed exaggerated prejudice against the Mende 

and their abolitionist supporters. The Colored American reserved special criticism 

for the “brothel Morning Herald,” which had sent a reporter to Connecticut and 

printed some of the cruelest and most vulgar accounts of the African captives. Here 

the Colored American explicitly linked the racist coverage in northern newspapers 

with the southern defenders of slavery.

 

We have been highly pleased, for some weeks past, with the independent and fearless 

tone of the N.Y. Sun, while discussing the rights and wrongs of the Amistad aff air. It 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

49

views this matter as it ought, and reasons it with sound judgement and good sense. 

We are also happy to fi nd a like spirit alive in several others of our most respectable 

penny papers, of which are the SIGNAL and the TATTLER. ... Th ese paper do not 

permit their columns to be disgraced, in this matter, with the low born and vulgar 

prejudice – the mean and contemptible spirit - the absurd and weak dogmas, and 

the fi end-like nature, which are the characteristics of a junto of infamous prints in 

this city ycleped [sic] as follows: the N.Y. Star, N.Y. Gazette, Courier & Enquirer, the 

brothel Morning Herald, and a few others equally detestable in character.

 Ever since the capture of the Amistad, and the confi nement of the Africans, the 

editors of these latter papers have been growling and fi ring volley upon volley of 

abuse from their smut-machines upon these men, because, forsooth, they had dared, 

after having been stolen from their native land, and torn from the arms of their wives 

and children, and forced on board a slave-ship, being bound in irons and otherwise 

cruelly treated, to break their shackels and assert their “inalienable rights to life, 

LIBERTY,” &c. Yes, because they had dared to this, they have been denounced as 

pirates, as murderers, and have had every epithet heaped upon them which these 

editors could cull from their natural vocabulary. Chiveralrous, high-minded editors, 

they! How valiantly – how corageously they fi ght those forty poor African prisoners!!! Th e South will owe them much – perhaps, grant them a pension!
Blank pages inserted to preserve pagination when printing double-sided copies.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

51

Historical Documents 

The libel of Lieutenant Thomas R. Gedney, August 29, 

1839, in the U.S. District Court for the District of 

Connecticut

Gedney’s libel initiated the federal judicial proceedings related to the Amistad and the 

Africans on board. A libel was the form used to submit a claim to the district court in 

an admiralty proceeding. Gedney’s libel asked the court to grant him and his crew a 

salvage award in recognition of their role in rescuing the Amistad and its cargo. (In 

a modern admiralty case, this form of action would be called a complaint.) In the 

typical form of a libel for salvage, this document listed the contents of the cargo and 

estimated the value of the ship and cargo at $40,000. Following the detailed list of 

the dry goods on board, Gedney also claimed salvage in all fi fty-four slaves originally 

transported on the Amistad, with an estimated value of $25,000. In support of his 

claim, Gedney insisted that the Amistad and all its contents would have been lost at 

sea if the Navy crew had not intervened and brought the ship to New London.

 The libel included the standard request for the court to issue a monition, by which 

it would print a public notice of Gedney’s claim and advise any interested parties to 

submit their own libels when the district court held its next session. At the district 

court session that opened on September 19, 1839, the several owners of the Amistad 

and its cargo and the purchasers of the enslaved Africans submitted libels in opposition to the salvage claim. Gedney’s claim and these responses offered the lawyers for 

the Africans the opportunity to present their own claim that the captive Africans in 

fact were not slaves.

 [Document Source: Thomas R. Gedney & c. v. The Schooner Amistad, &c., Case 

fi les, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and 

Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).]

 

To the Honorable Andrew T. Judson Esq. Judge of the District Court of the United 

States in & for the District of ConnecticutTh e libel of Th omas R. Gedney Lieutenant in the United States Navy Commanding 

the United States Surveying Brig Washington employed in the service of the United 

States in the Coast Survey, And on behalf of Richard W. Meade a Lieutenant on 

board said Brig and the offi cers & Crew of said Brig Washington & all others interested or entitled - humbly Sheweth - that on the 26th day of August A.D. 1839 

the said libellant being in and with said Brig, Surveying between Montauk Point 

& Gardiners Island in the State of New York discovered a Strange and Suspicious 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

52

looking vessel off Culloden point near said Montauk point, that they took possession of said vessel which proved to be a Spanish Schooner called the Amistad of 

Havanna in the Island of Cuba of about 120 Tons burthen, and the said libellants 

found said Schooner was manned by forty fi ve negroes some of whom had landed 

near said point for water, & there were also on board two Spanish Gentlemen who 

represented and as the libellants verily believe were part owners of the Cargo & of 

the Negroes on board who were Slaves belonging to said Spanish Gentlemen, Th at 

said Schooner Amistad sailed on the 28th day of June A.D. 1839 from the Port of 

Havanna bound to a port in the Province of Principe both in said Island of Cuba 

under the command of Raymen Ferrer as master thereof, that said Schooner had on 

board & was laden with a large & valuable Cargo Consisting of and Amounting to 

as the libellants believe to be 1 Box with 4 fowling pieces 1 Crate 11 Boxes Crockery 

& Glassware 200 Boxes vermacelli 15 ps. linen Stuff . 1 Case Sugar 25 Bags Beans 

20 Boxes Raisins 50 Horse equipments 10 doz. Morocco skins 5 doz. Calf skins 5 

Saddles 2 doz. Bits 200 feet Rods 20 sides Sole Leather 6 iron Drums for warehouse 8 crowns 1 Box with 200 wedges 3 Iron Kettles 14 packages common linen 4 

packages Holland linen 4 doz. parasolls or umbrellas 30 pieces muslin 10 yds each 2 

doz.1/2 Hose 3 doz.ovens 21 Ingots 10 ps. Silesia 2 ps. Victoria 9 ps. drilling 34 ps. 

Long lawn 54 ps. Calicoes 5 ps. Laces 14 ps. Muslins 67 pieces stripes 4 ps. stripes 

148 ps. Ribbon 10 ps. linen Cambric 43 ps. Glazed linen 4 ps. Rouen Cassemire 1 

Doz. Shawls, fans, Gloves, Shirts, Tapes thread towels umbrellas, 29 muslin Dress 

patterns 16 Woolen shawls 4 silkes 15 Rugs Buttons Saddles 75 ps. Stripes 48 ps. 

Silesia 30 ps. Long lawn 1 ps. Black HKff s 7 ps. French Linens 8 doz. linen cambric 

HKff s, umbrellas. 42 ps. Striped Ribbins 2 ps. Ribbins 6 coloured Mantles 40 ps. 

linen Cambric 800 yds Striped linen 2 ps. Merino 30 Dress patterns 6 Musquito 

netts 5 ps. Satin 18 Blankets 1 Box Hardware 12 doz. HKff s 18 ps. Coarse linen 60 

vols Books 2 Boxes Books 70 sheets of Copper Hardware 50 Demijohns Olive Oil 

20 Boxes Vermacilli 20 Quintals Jerked Beef 15 sides Sole Leather 6 kegs Olives 2 

Quintals Hams 190 ps. muslins 26 ps. Stripes 3 ps. Brown Drilling 4 ps. linens 21 

ps. Coloured & fi ne linens 11 Doz. ladies Hose 2 Doz. Belts 10 Doz. linen Cambric 

HKff s 12 common D[itt]o and a large quantity of Silks Linens, Hardware & provisions to the Amount in all of $ 40,000 Dollars - And also fi fty four Slaves to wit, fi fty 

one male Slaves & three young female Slaves who were worth twenty fi ve thousand 

Dollars & while on said voyage from Havanna to Principie the said Slaves rose upon 

the Captain & Crew of said Schooner & Killed & murdered the Captain & one of 

said Crew & two more of said Crew escaped & got away from said Schooner, that 

the two Spaniards on board to wit, Pedro Montes and Jose Ruis, remained alive on 

board said Schooner after the murder of the Captain and after the said negroes had 

taken possession of said vessel & cargo that their lives were spared to assist in the 

sailing of said vessel & it was directed by said negroes that said Schooner should be 

navigated for the Coast of Africa, and said Pedro Montes & Jose Ruis did accord-
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

53

ingly steer as thus directed & compelled by said negroes at the peril of their lives in 

the Day time and in the night altered their Course and steered for the American 

Shore, but after more than two months on the Ocean they succeeded in coming 

round Montauk point, then they were discovered & boarded by the libellants and 

the said two Spanish Gentlemen begged for & claimed the aid and protection of the 

libellants, that said Schooner was accordingly taken possession of & recaptured from 

the hands and possession of the said negroes who had taken the same as aforesaid & 

that said Schooner was brought into port of New London in the District aforesaid 

where she now is, and said Schooner would with great diffi culty exposure and danger 

have been taken by the libellants but for the surprise upon the said Blacks who had 

possession thereof a part of whom were on Shore - and but for the aid assistance and 

services of the Libellants the said vessel & said Cargo would have been wholly lost 

to the respective owners thereof that said Cargo belongs to divers Spanish merchants 

& others resident in said Island of Cuba and to the said Pedro Montes & Jose Ruis, 

the latter owning most of said Slaves.

Now inasmuch as the said Th omas R. Gedney & said offi cers and Crew have with 

so much diffi culty & danger saved said Schooner Amistad and said Cargo and said 

Slaves which would otherwise in all human probability have been totally lost to the 

owners thereof respectively, will your Honor please to order the said vessel Cargo 

& Slaves now on board said vessel to be attached and taken by the process of this 

Honorable Court and that a Monition issue to all persons concerned to show cause 

if any they have why a reasonable Salvage should not be decreed thereon to the Libellants & all others entitled and that such further and other steps shall be taken as 

the course of this Honorable Court shall direct.

 Th os R. Gedney Lieut. Comm. U.S. Brig Washington

 R. W. Meade Lieut. U.S.N.

 -by I. Isham his atty

The U.S. attorney’s advice on criminal prosecution

William S. Holabird to John Forsyth, September 9, 1839

The United States district attorney for Connecticut, William S. Holabird, relied on 

Secretary of State John Forsyth for instructions related to the Amistad cases. Holabird 

also served as an important source of information for Forsyth, who directed the Van 

Buren administration’s response to the Spanish government’s request for the return 

of all property from the Amistad. On September 5, Holabird told Forsyth that when 

the circuit court convened, “I suppose it will be my duty to bring them [the African 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

54

captives] to trial, unless they are in some other way disposed of.” In this letter written fi ve days later, Holabird cited several related cases and concluded that the federal 

courts could not exercise criminal jurisdiction over the captives from the Amistad. 

He also suggested that the abolitionists would be correct in arguing that the courts 

could not detain individuals who were not accused of a crime. Despite his doubts, 

Holabird presented an indictment of the captives on charges of murder and piracy, 

and when the court dismissed the criminal charges, Holabird presented the district 

court with the property claims of the Spanish government. 

[Document Source: W.S. Holabird to John Forsyth, September 9, 1839, Miscellaneous Letters, May–September 1839, State Department, RG 59, National 

Archives and Records Administration (microfi lm 179).]

 

 Hartford Ct. Sept. 9 1839

Sir

 I wrote you a few days since on the subject of the blacks taken on board the 

Spanish Schooner “Armistad,” since then I have made a further examination of the 

law on the subject of the Jurisdiction of our Courts, which has brought me fully to 

the conclusion, that the Courts of this, nor of any other district in the U.S. can take 

cog[n]izance of any off ence they have committed, as the off ence by them committed, was done, & committed on board a vessel, belonging exclusively to citizens of a 

foreign state, on the high seas, & on & against subjects of a foreign state, & they (the 

blacks) not being citizens of the U. States, the vessel having a national character at 

the time the off ence committed, I refer you to the case of the U.S. v Palmer et al. 3 

Wheat 610 — U.S. v Pirates 5 Wheat 195. & the more recent case of U.S. v Henry 

Kessler 1 Baldwins CC Rep 15.

 Th e abolitionists here & in the adjoining districts are getting up an excitement in 

favor of the negroes, it presents a case well calculated to awaken the sickly sympathies 

of that class of fanaticks. Our next Circuit Court sits at this place on the 17th Inst. 

I conjecture that the abolitionists will get out a writ of Habeus Corpus, should they 

do so, I do not see but the Court would be obliged to set them at liberty, they would 

of course, should the Court entertain the same view of the law that I do.

 I would respectfully inquire sir whether there is no treaty stipulations with the 

Govt of Spain, that would authorise our Govt to deliver them up to the Spanish 

Authorities. & If so, whether it could be done before our Court sits?

 Your advice & instructions in the matter is anxiously solicited.

 I am Sir very respectfully your obt Servant,

 W.S. Holabird, U.S. Dist. Atty Dist. Cont
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

55

The libel of José Ruiz, September 18, 1839, in the U.S. 

District Court for the District of Connecticut

The young planter José Ruiz submitted this libel in response to Lieutenant Thomas 

Gedney’s libel, in which Gedney claimed a right to a salvage award for bringing the 

Amistad to safety. Ruiz wanted the district court to return to him all of his claimed 

property, including the men he had purchased as slaves in Havana, without any 

deduction for a salvage award. His libel asserted that the treaty between Spain and 

the United States obligated the United States to return all Spanish property.

 Although the lawyers for the African captives had not yet fi led a challenge to the 

claims for slave property, Ruiz and his attorneys knew that the abolitionists intended 

to argue that the captives were never legally held as slaves in Cuba. The libel asserted 

that Ruiz legally purchased the slaves in a country where slavery was allowed by law. 

The Ruiz libel presented both the Spanish names applied to the African captives in 

the passes endorsed by Spanish offi cials and the African names by which they “are 

known at present.” The four deleted names in the libel refer to the Mende who died 

between the time the document was written and the date it was introduced in court. 

Pedro Montes, the planter who purchased the four young Mende on the Amistad, 

submitted a similar libel requesting the return of the alleged slaves and his other 

property. 

 [Document Source: Thomas R. Gedney & c. v. The Schooner Amistad, & c., Case 

fi les, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and 

Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).] 

 

To the Honorable Andrew T. Judson Esquire, Judge of the District Court for said 

District. 

Th e libel and complaint of José Ruiz of Puerto Principe in the island of Cuba, a 

subject of her Majesty the Queen of Spain humbly shows that on the 28th day of 

June last past this libellant embarked on board of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, 

whereof one Ramon Ferrer was master, and shipped on board of said schooner, which 

sailed from Havana aforesaid to the port of Guanaja, another port in the island of 

Cuba, the following goods and merchandize and property belonging to and owned 

by this libellant viz. 10 dozens glass knobs, 39 and a half thousand needles, 48 rolls 

of wire, 45 bottles of essence, 45 maps of the city of Puerto Principe, 13 maps of 

the city of Puerto Principe, 6 mill rollers, 8 cogg wheels, 6 pieces of iron, one box of 

iron wedges, 3 large iron pots, 1 Case containing several pieces of iron, 25 bags of 

spanish beans, 25 boxes of raisins, 20 boxes of Castile Soap, 2 bags of rice, 3 bales 

containing 500 pounds of jerked beef, 50 pairs of shirts and pantaloons, 200 boxes 

of vermicelli, 1 box containing 4 percussion guns, 1 box containing books, 5 boxes 

containing ribbands, one package of quills and other small articles of merchandize, 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

56

the whole being of the value of three thousand fi ve hundred dollars – and likewise 

forty nine black male slaves, named and known in Havana aforesaid as follows 

Antonio, Simon, Lucas, Jose, Pedro, Martin, Manuel, Andres, Eduardo, Celedonio, 

Bartolono, Ramon, Agustin, Evaristo, Casimiro, Merchor, Gabriel, Santorion, Escolastico, Pascual, Estanislao, Desiderio, Nicolas, Estevan, Tomas, Cosme, Luis Bartolo, 

Julian, Federico, Salustiano, Ladislao, Celistino, Epifanio, Eduardo, Benancio, Felipe, 

Francisco Hipolito, Benito, Isidoro, Vicente, Dionisio, Apolonio, Esequies, Leon, 

Julio, Hipolito & Zenon - of whom several have died, as this deponent is informed 

and believes, and the survivors of them this libellant is informed are known at present by the names following viz. Cinque, Burnah 1st, Carpree, Dammah, Fourie 1st, 

Shumah, Wolwah, Touah, Conomah, Choolay, Burnah 2d, Baah, Cabbah, Poomah, 

Kimbo, Peea, Bang-ye-ah, Saah, Carlee, Parele, Morrah, Yahouie, Narquoi, Quarto, 

Sesse, Con, Fourrie 2d, Kennah, Lammane, Fahjarrah, Faah, Yahboy, Fahquannah, 

Berrie, Fawnee, Chockammaw & Gabbow, Casa and Faja, which said slaves were and 

are now the property of this libellant and are of the value of twenty-two thousand 

dollars; 

Th at on the fi rst day of July last past, as they were proceeding in the voyage aforesaid, 

the aforesaid slaves arose upon the aforesaid captain, the crew, this libellant and one 

Pedro Montez, they murdered the Captain, and the Cook, took possession of the 

aforesaid schooner and compelled this libellant and the said Pedro Montez to steer 

towards Africa; but this libellant and the said Montes contrived to bring them to the 

Coast of the United States -- Th at after having been at sea about two months and 

on the 26th day of August last past when said schooner was at anchor off Culloden 

Point near Montauk Point, they were taken by the United States Surveying Brig 

Washington commanded by Lieutenant Th omas R. Gedney and brought into New 

London in the District aforesaid, where said Schooner now is;

And this libellant further shows that a libel has been fi led in this Honorable Court by 

the aforesaid Th omas R. Gedney, Lieutenant Richard W. Mead and others belonging 

to the aforesaid United States brig Washington; 

And this libellant further shows that all of the aforesaid slaves were by him legally 

purchased and owned in Havana aforesaid where slavery is tolerated and allowed by 

law as in all parts of the said island of Cuba; 

And this libellant humbly insists that the aforesaid slaves the property of this libellant 

and his other property above specifi ed ought by the laws and usages of nations and 

of these United States of America and according to the treaties between Spain and 

these United States to be restored to this libellant, without diminution and entire;

Wherefore your libellant prays that the said Gedney, Mead and others belonging 

to said Brig Washington may be subjected to answer this libel, with Costs and that 

process of attachment and proceedings may be issued against the aforesaid slaves & 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

57

other property of these libellants, according to law, all this being within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court; and that after proper process this Honorable Court 

should decree the aforesaid Slaves and other property of this libellant to be delivered 

to him or the representatives of Her Catholic Majesty in these United States, as may 

be most proper in the premises; And this libellant will ever pray &c.

José Ruiz

R.J. Ingersoll

Wm. Hungerford

J B Purroy

 Attorneys and of Counsel for the Libellants

District of Connecticut

Special District Court at Hartford Sept. 18, 1839.

Personally appears Jose Ruiz the signer of the foregoing libel & made Oath to the 

truth of the allegations set forth in sd libel according to his best knowledge & belief.

Attest

Chas A. Ingersoll Clerk

 And said Court made an order theron in the words following to wit.

District of Connecticut

Special District Court at Hartford Sept. 18. 1839. Th is libel is allowed and the trial 

therof is directed to be held at Hartford within and for the District aforesaid on the 

19th day of September 1839 at 10 O Clock A.M. and the Clerk of this Court is 

directed to issue a warrant of seizure and other process according to law.

Attest.

Chas. A. Ingersoll Clerk

The libel of William S. Holabird, U.S. Attorney, September 

19, 1839, in the U.S. District Court for the District of 

Connecticut

The U.S. government’s attorney entered the admiralty proceedings in the district 

court with this libel containing two alternate claims. Secretary of State John Forsyth 

had ordered Holabird to take whatever action was necessary to keep the Mende in 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

58

the custody of the federal government. In the fi rst part of the libel, Holabird presented 

the Spanish ambassador’s demand that the Amistad, its cargo, and the alleged slaves 

be delivered to their Spanish owners. Holabird never endorsed this claim; he only 

requested that if the court found the Spanish demand to be legally valid, it should 

dispose of the claimed property in whatever manner was required by the 1795 treaty 

between Spain and the United States. 

 Holabird suggested the alternative that if the court decided that the Mende captives 

were not slaves and had been transported illegally from Africa to the United States, 

it should provide for their return to the coast of Africa in accordance with the laws 

prohibiting the African slave trade. Judge Judson’s fi nal decision in the district court 

granted this second claim of Holabird.

 In the fi rst draft of this libel, Holabird initially described the Mende as being either 

slave or free. He then crossed out the words “free persons” and replaced the phrase 

with “negroes and persons of color.” Subsequent drafts of the libel used the latter 

phrase. 

[Document Source: Thomas R. Gedney & c. v. The Schooner Amistad, & c., Case 

fi les, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, Record Group 21, National 

Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).]

 

Th omas R. Gedney &c. 

v.

Schooner Amistad &c. Libel

Be it remembered that on this the 19th day of September in the year of our Lord 

one thousand eight hundred and thirty nine into the District Court aforsaid comes 

Wm. S. Holabird attorney for the United States for the district aforsaid, who for the 

United States gives this Court to understand that since the Libel aforsaid of Th omas 

R. Gedney and others was fi led in this Court, to wit, within the present month of 

September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty nine, the 

duly accredited Minister to the United States, of her Catholic Majesty the Queen 

of Spain, has offi cially presented to the proper Department of the United States 

Government, a claim which is now pending upon the United States setting forth that 

the vessel aforsaid, called the Amistad, and her cargo aforsaid, together with certain 

slaves on board the same vessel, all of them being the same as described in the Libel 

aforsaid are the property of Spanish subjects and that said vessel cargo and slaves 

while so being the property of said Spanish subjects arrived within the jurisdictional 

limits of the United States, and were taken possession of by said public armed Brig 

of the United States under such circumstances as make it the duty of the United 

States, being the property of to cause the same vessel, cargo, and slaves, being the 

property of said Spanish subjects to be restored to the true proprietors and owners 

of the same without further hindrance or detention, as required by the treaty now 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

59

subsisting between the United States and Spain. Now the Attorney aforsaid in behalf 

of the United States prays this Hon. Court on its being made legally to appear, that 

the claim aforsaid of the Spanish Minister aforsaid is well founded and is conformable to the treaty aforsaid that this Court may make such order for the disposal of 

the said vessel cargo, and slaves, as may best enable the United States in all respects 

to comply with their treaty stipulations, and pursue the public faith inviolate.

But if it should be made to appear that the persons aforsaid described as slaves are 

free persons ^

are negroes and persons of color^ who have been transported from 

Africa in violation of the laws of the United States and brought within the United 

States contrary to the same laws, the said Attorney in behalf of the United States 

claims that in such case this Hon. Court would will make such further order in 

the premises as may enable the United States if deemed expedient to remove such 

persons to the coast of Africa, to be delivered there to such agent or agents as may 

be authorised to receive and provide for them, pursuant to the laws of the United 

States in such case provided or to make any such other order as to this Hon. Court 

shall seem right & proper in the premises. 

W. S. Holabird U. S. Dist. Atty for the Dist. of Connecticut

Justice Smith Thompson’s remarks in the U.S. Circuit 

Court, September 23, 1839

Justice Smith Thompson presided in the U.S. Circuit Court session that considered 

the habeas corpus petitions for the release of the Mende from federal custody. He 

recognized that some people thought the matter before the court “was a question of 

LIBERTY,” when in fact the judge was only ruling on the district court’s jurisdiction 

to detain the Mende while it considered claims that they were slave property. As 

Thompson delivered his order denying the release of the Mende, he also addressed 

public interest in the case by carefully explaining that he was offering no opinion 

on the legal right to hold these individuals in slavery and that he personally found 

slavery “abhorrent.” In the following remarks he suggested that public interest in the 

case imposed a special responsibility on the court. With no time to write a formal 

opinion, he urged the several reporters in the courtroom to be especially careful in 

recording his decision. 

 [Document Source: The African Captives. Trial of the Prisoners of the Amistad 

on the Writ of Habeas Corpus, before the Circuit Court of the United States, for the 

District of Connecticut, At Hartford: Judges Thompson and Judson (1839), reprinted 

in The African Slave Trade and American Courts: The Pamphlet Literature, ed. Paul 

Finkelman (New York: Garland Publishing, 1988).] 

 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

60

On the opening of the Circuit Court, Monday, September 23d, Judge Th ompson 

gave his decision with respect to the application of the prisoners’ counsel, to have the 

Africans discharged under the writ of habeas corpus – and denied the motion. He 

said the question before the Court was simply as to the jurisdiction of the District 

Court over this subject matter. He regretted that the case had not been held up for 

further consideration, and that he had so little opportunity to examine the various 

important questions that are involved in it, with that thoroughness and deliberation that was desirable. He regretted this the more, as the case is a very peculiar 

and complicated one. It was one also diffi cult to be understood by the public. He 

could not be insensible to the fact, that the feelings of the community were deeply 

involved in the question, and he feared there might be misapprehensions of the real 

questions to be disposed of by the Court. It is possible, he said, that there may be 

some misrepresentation. He would therefore have preferred that time should have 

been allowed for him to give a written opinion. ...

... Th e Court said, that as they perceived there were note-takers present, they hoped 

they would be careful to make a true representation of the decision. Th e Court does 

not undertake to decide that these persons have no right to their freedom, but leave 

that matter in litigation in the District Court, subject to appeal. And for reasons 

assigned, deny this motion.

The several plea of Cinque and the other Mende captives, 

November 19, 1839, in the U.S. District Court for the 

District of Connecticut

The Mende held in federal custody formally entered the district court case as respondents in this plea submitted by their lawyers, Seth Staples and Roger Sherman 

Baldwin. The plea challenged the claims of Navy Lieutenant Gedney, U.S. Attorney 

Holabird, and the two Spanish planters—all of the claims alleged that the Mende 

were the slave property of the planters. Drawing from their interviews with Cinque 

and other captives, the lawyers for the Mende argued that their clients had been born 

free and by every right were still free individuals. They maintained that the Mende 

had been kidnapped in Africa, illegally transported to Cuba, and sold as slaves in 

knowing violation of Spanish laws.

 Staples and Baldwin also challenged the jurisdiction of the district court of Connecticut, since the Navy crew had “forcibly & unlawfully” removed the Mende from 

New York in order to fi le their salvage claim in Connecticut. The plea of the Mende 

included an assertion of their natural right to secure their own liberty and return to 

their families or to seek asylum in a state where slavery was illegal. Their request for 

immediate release from federal custody, however, relied on their insistence that the 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

61

district court had no constitutional or legal authority to exercise jurisdiction over 

them. It was this argument that ultimately prevailed in the Supreme Court.

 The deleted names in the plea refer to the Mende who died during the fall of 1839 

while in federal custody.

 [Document Source: Thomas R. Gedney & c. v. The Schooner Amistad, & c., Case 

fi les, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, Record Group 21, National 

Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).]

 

United States of America

District of Connecticut

To the Honorable Andrew T. Judson Esqr., Judge of the District Court of the United 

States for the District of Connecticut.

Th e several plea of Sinqua, Burnah 1st, Carpree, Dannah, Fourrie 1st, Shumah, 

Fouluah, Conoma, Chooley, Burnah 2nd, Baah, Cabbah, Poomah, Kimbo, Peeah, 

Bangyeah, Saah, Carlee, Parle, Morrah, Yahome, Nahquoi, Quato, Sesse, Con, 

Fourrie 2, Kennah, Lammame, Fajanah, Faah, Yahbey, Faquannah, Berrie, Fawnee, 

Chockamaw, Gabbo, Carre, Teme, Kene, Mahgra,--Africans now in the custody 

of the Marshal of said District under color of process issued from this Honorable 

Court on the 29th day of August A.D. 1839, against the Schooner Amistad and 

the articles of personal property on board of her, then lying in the harbor of New 

London in said District, on the libel of Th omas R. Gedney a Lieut. in the United 

States Navy, commanding the United States Brig Washington, in the service of the 

United States in the coast survey, & on behalf of Richard W. Meade, a Lieut. on 

board said Brig & the offi cers & crew & all others interested or entitled, claiming 

salvage to be awarded them by this Honorable Court as for a meritorious service in 

seizing and securing the respondents & holding them as slaves to certain Spaniards 

belonging to the Island of Cuba, named in said libel; And also under process of this 

Honorable Court issued and served at Hartford on the 18th day of September 1839, 

while the Respondents were in custody of the Marshal of said District as aforesaid, 

& within the body of the county of Hartford, & within said District & State of 

Connecticut, on the libel & claim of Wm S. Hollabird Esqr., District Attorney of 

the United States for the District of Connecticut, and on the libels respectively of 

Pedro Montes & Jose Ruis;

Th e said Respondents severally, by protestation, not confessing or acknowledging any 

of the matters and things in said Several libels to be true, as therein alleged, for plea 

thereto respectively say that they are severally natives of Africa and were born free, 

and ever since have been, and still of right are and ought to be free, and not slaves, 

as is in said several libels pretended or surmised; that they were never domiciled in 

the Island of Cuba, or the dominions of the Queen of Spain, or subject to the laws 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

62

thereof; that on or about the 15th day of April 1839 they and each of them were, in 

the land of their nativity, unlawfully kidnapped & forcibly and wrongfully carried on 

board of a certain vessel, near the coast of Africa then & there unlawfully engaged 

in the slave trade, by certain persons to them unknown, and were thence in said vessel contrary to the will of the respondents, unlawfully transported to the Island of 

Cuba for the unlawful purpose of being there sold as slaves, and were there illegally 

landed for the purpose aforesaid: 

Th at Jose Ruis, one of said libellants, well knowing all the premises, and confederating with the person by whom the Respondents were unlawfully held as aforesaid, 

and intending to deprive them of their liberty made a pretended purchase of the 

said Respondents, except the sd Carre, Teme, Kene, and Mahgra; and that the said 

Pedro Montes well knowing the premises and confederating in like manner with said 

persons, made a pretended purchase of the said Carre, Teme, Kene & Mahgra; that 

said pretended purchasers were made from persons who had no right whatever to the 

Respondents or any of them, and were null and void, and conferred no title on the 

said Ruis or Montes, or right of control over the respondents on either of them;

Th at afterwards on or about the 28th day of June 1839, the said Ruis and Montes, 

confederating with each other, and with one Raymon Ferrer, now deceased, Capt. of 

said Schooner Amistad, caused the respondents severally without law or right to be 

placed by force on board of said Schooner to be transported with said Ruis & Montes 

to some place unknown to these Respondents, and there severally enslaved for life; 

Th at the respondents, being treated on board said vessel, by said Ruis & Montes, & 

the Capt. & crew thereof with great cruelty and oppression, and being of right free 

as aforesaid were incited by the love of liberty natural to all men, and by the desire 

of returning to their families and kindred, to take possession of said vessel, while 

navigating the high seas as aforesaid near said Island of Cuba, as they had right to 

do, with the intent to return therein to their native country, or to reach an asylum 

in some free State where Slavery did not exist, in order that they might enjoy their 

liberty under the protection of its government; 

Th at the said Schooner, on or about the 26th day of August 1839, arrived in the possession of the Respondents at Culloden point near Montaug & was there anchored 

within about 3/4ths a mile of the shore and within the Territorial jurisdiction of the 

State of New York; that the respondents Jinqua, Carpree, Carlee, Dammah, Baboo, 

Morrah, Nahquoi, Qualto, Con, Fajanah, Berrie, Gabbo, Foola, & others, while said 

schooner lay out at anchor as aforesaid, went on shore within said State of New York 

to procure provisions and other necessaries, and while there, within the jurisdiction 

of a free state where slavery does not exist, and under the protection of its laws, the 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

63

respondents were severally seized, as well those who were on shore aforesaid, as those 

who were on board of & in possession of said Schooner, and were by the said Lieutenant Gedney, his offi cers & crew of said United States Brig Washington, forcibly 

& unlawfully taken at the instance of said Spaniards Ruis & Montes with intent to 

keep & secure them as slaves for the said Ruis & Montes respectively & to obtain an 

award of salvage therefor from this Honorable Court, as a meritorious act; that for 

that purpose the said Respondents were by said Lieut. Gedney & his crew forcibly & 

unlawfully withdrawn from the jurisdictional limits of the State & District of New 

York where they were seized as aforesaid, & brought to the Port of New London in 

the District of Connecticut, where they were taken into the custody of the Marshal on 

process issuing on the Libel of sd Lieut. Gedney as aforesaid, & were by said Marshal 

confi ned in the gaol in the City of New Haven in said District, & subsequently in 

the gaol of the City of Hartford and were while so confi ned within the body of said 

District & State of Connecticut subjected to the further process of this Honorable 

Court on the several libels & claims subsequently fi led as aforesaid.

Wherefore the respondents severally say that neither by the constitution or laws of 

the United States, or any Treaty pursuant thereto, nor by the laws of nations doth 

it pertain to this Honorable Court to exercise any jurisdiction over the persons of 

these respondents or any of them by reason of any of the proceedings aforesaid and 

they severally pray to be hence dismissed and suff ered to be and remain as they of 

right ought to be free & at liberty from the process of this Honorable court under 

which, or under color of which they are holden as aforesaid. 

 by Staples & Baldwin

Judge Andrew Judson’s decision (excerpts), U.S. District 

Court for the District of Connecticut

On January 13, 1840, after fi ve days of testimony in the district court, Judge Andrew 

Judson appeared before a crowded courtroom in New Haven to read his decision in 

the Amistad case. When he declared that the Mende were free under Spanish law 

and could not be returned to Cuba, Judson surprised nearly everyone involved in the 

case. The many reporters in the courtroom quickly sent word of the dramatic decision 

to return the Mende to their homeland, and within two days newspapers in New 

York printed the full text of the decision for an eager public. The following excerpts 

include the most important parts of the decision and convey Judson’s awareness of 

the unusual responsibilities for a judge in this case.

 [Document Source: Gedney et al. v. L’Amistad, 10 Fed. Cases 141–51.] 

 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

64

GEDNEY et al. v. L’AMISTAD.

Judson opened his decision with an acknowledgment of the importance of the case, 

an explanation of his management of the proceedings, and a defense of the treatment 

of the Mende held in custody. He also stated that a case of such signifi cance should 

be reviewed by the Supreme Court. 

In the discussion of this case have been involved numerous questions, of great importance, requiring, as we have seen, industrious examination and patient deliberation. 

It has been my endeavor to aff ord time for this investigation; and the ability with 

which these questions have been discussed at the bar must satisfy all, that everything 

which talent and learning could accomplish has been done. It devolved upon the 

court to dispose of these various and complicated questions, in such manner as will 

seem to be demanded by the laws of the land, and of this the responsibility rests on 

me. Th at responsibility will be met, and when discharged according to the dictates 

of my own conscience, I shall be relieved from its further perplexities. It will be a 

satisfaction, while doing this, that neither party or claimant can be prejudiced by 

my determination, because the laws secure an appeal to the highest tribunal in this 

country, where my decision may be reviewed, and if wrong corrected. It is then of 

little importance to the persons in interest, what may be the determination of this 

court, for a case like this will not and should not rest upon a single trial, without 

review before the supreme court, in whose decisions all would be satisfi ed. Th e case 

is not only important to those immediately interested, but there are involved principles important to the nation and the world. If a few months have elapsed since 

this cause has been pending, it has been owing to circumstances beyond my control, 

but this surely has produced no inconvenience or suff ering to those in custody. Th ey 

have all been humanely treated; liberally fed and clothed by the government, into 

whose hands they have been providentially cast. Whatever may be the fi nal result of 

this case, so far it may be safely said that not one step has been taken which could 

have been avoided.

Judson declared that his court had proper jurisdiction over the Amistad case and 

then proceeded to the salvage claim that originally brought the case to the federal 

courts. He awarded Gedney and his crew a salvage award of one-third the value of 

the schooner and the goods on board, but denied the claim for salvage in the alleged 

slaves. Without revealing his decision about the status of the Mende, he explained 

why he could not order their sale or determine their monetary value.

Th e next question is, can salvage be allowed upon the slaves? Th ere are insuperable 

objections to this portion of the claim. Th ere is no foundation here laid for a decree 

in personam. Th e decree, if at all, must operate in rem. Th at is, the salvage must be 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

65

considered as a lien upon the slaves themselves, and the amount to be decreed must 

be raised out of them, as out of other property. Here, then, I fi nd the claim hedged 

about by fi xed and known laws, over which it would be impossible for me to leap. 

I have heretofore decided, in the very outset of this case, that these alleged slaves 

cannot be sold. Th ere is no law of the United States nor of the state of Connecticut 

by which the title can be given to them under any decree of this court. I am still 

confi rmed in that opinion. It is impossible. Can a decree be predicated upon a supposed valuation to be ascertained by an appraisal? Th ere is no authority in this court 

to cause such an appraisal. Who can appoint the appraisers? Who can administer 

to them an oath? And above all, by what rule could their estimate be formed? Are 

they to be estimated by their value in the district of Connecticut? Th at is not one 

cent. Th e laws which I am bound to administer can recognize no value on them. Can 

the appraisers travel into other states or countries to seek their value? Surely not. If 

a decree should be framed, it would be wholly nugatory, inoperative and void. Th is 

the court is never called upon to do. When a decree is made, it always presupposes 

that the court making it, possesses the power of enforcing it. Th is part of the claim, 

therefore, will be passed over.

At the center of the Amistad case was the issue of whether or not the Mende were 

the slave property of the planters, Ruiz and Montes. Here Judson recognized that the 

unique nature of the case and the source of public interest rested in the fact that the 

Africans themselves came into court to challenge that property claim.

Th e two great questions still remain to be settled. Shall these Africans, by a decree 

of this court, be delivered over to the government of Spain, upon the demand of 

her minister, as the property of Don Pedro Montez and Don Jose Ruez? But if not, 

what ultimate disposition shall the government of the United States make of them? 

Th e other questions, in importance, cannot be compared with these. Here we have 

her majesty, the queen of Spain, by her resident minister, at the court of the United 

States, unequivocally demanding for her subjects these Africans, as their property in 

the fulfi llment, as he says, of treaty stipulations, solemnly entered into by this nation. 

Th ese Africans come in person, as our law permits them to do, denying this right. 

Th ey say, that they are not the slaves of Spanish subjects, and are not amenable to 

Spanish laws. We have also the humanity of our own laws, ready to embrace them, 

provided we are not compelled by these treaty stipulations to deliver them up.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

66

Judson’s most important decision was that the Africans on board the Amistad were 

not slave property under the laws of Spain that were in force in Cuba. From this 

conclusion, Judson determined that the federal courts had no obligation or authority 

to return the Mende to Cuba. 

I fi nd, then, as a matter of fact, that in the month of June, 1839, the law of Spain did 

prohibit, under severe penalty, the importation into Cuba of negroes from Africa. 

Th ese negroes were imported in violation of that law, and be it remembered that, by 

the same law of Spain, such imported negroes are declared to be free in Spain. ...

... If, by their own laws, they cannot enslave them, then it follows, of necessity, they 

cannot be demanded. When these facts are known by the Spanish minister, he cannot but discover that the subjects of his queen have acquired no rights in these men. 

Th ey are not the property of Spain. His demand must be withdrawn. Th e very essence of his demand consists in the supposed Spanish right of property in the thing 

demanded. Th at being removed, by his own law there can no longer be cause for 

complaint. At all events, this cannot be expected at my hands, because the supreme 

court have already refused to surrender property, unless there was proof of title in 

the claimants. Th e same rule applies equally to foreign and domestic claimants. Title 

must be shown in the property claimed, as belonging to the claimant, or it cannot 

be surrendered.

Judson agreed that the treaty of 1795 between Spain and the United States required 

the return of all legally held Spanish property included in the Amistad claims, even 

if that property was a slave. Antonio was by his own admission, born into slavery in 

Spanish territory, and under Spanish law remained the property of his owner. Judson 

announced that he would order the return of Antonio to the heirs of Captain Ferrer, 

who had been killed on the Amistad.

... and to show that I abide by the treaty, and that authority, I take another branch of 

this case. Antonio is demanded, and the proof from him is that he is a Creole, born, 

as he believes, in Spain. He was, at the time his master was murdered by Cinquez, 

a slave, so recognized and known by the laws of Spain. Th e property in him was in 

Raymond Ferrer, a Spanish subject, at the time of his death on board the schooner, 

and now is in his legal heirs. Here is both right and property in Spanish subjects. I 

shall decree a restoration of this slave, under the treaty of 1795. 

Judson accepted the proposal of U.S. attorney William Holabird that the court order 

the return of the Mende to Africa under the terms of a congressional act of 1819. 

Judson acknowledged that the law did not apply precisely to the Amistad case, but 

he asserted that the humanitarian goals of the act called for a broad interpretation 

of its provisions for return to Africa of victims of an illegal slave trade. In the most-
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

67

widely quoted portion of the decision, Judson referred to two of the Mende by name 

and recognized their poignant desire to return home.

Th e question remains: What disposition shall be made of these negroes by the government of the United States? Th ere is a law of congress, passed the 3d of March, 

1819 [3 Stat. 532], which renders it essential that all such Africans as these should 

be transported, under the direction of the president of the United States, to Africa. 

Th e humane and excellent provisions of this act, characterize the period when it was 

adopted. Among the prominent provisions of congress to ameliorate the condition 

of Africans brought away from their homes in this traffi c, which is spoken of and 

believed to be odious, is this act of 1819. Considering the object embraced within 

these provisions, the statute itself must receive the most liberal and generous construction. Th e technicalities of construction, which pertain to another class of acts, 

do not belong to this act. Th ose rules which govern courts in deciding on penal acts, 

are to fi nd no place by the side of this statute. Th ey must govern no mind employed 

in carrying out the noble intentions of the framers of this law. What is the spirit of 

that act? It is to return to the land of their nativity all such Africans as may have 

been brought from thence wrongfully. Th is being the spirit of that act, I stop not 

in the mere forms of legislation. I do not want to consider whether every letter and 

syllable of that act has been followed by the offi cers of the law. When the spirit of 

goodness is hovering over us, just descending to bless, it is immaterial in what garments we are clad to receive the blessing. I do not maintain this construction upon 

my own mere suggestion, but I shall be able to show, by a recent determination of 

the supreme court of the United States, that the door has already been opened, and 

the passage already provided, to send these men back to their own Africa. Th at if 

the aspirations of these unfortunate beings have been heard to rise for Sierra Leone, 

the law of that country into which they have been cast has provided the means, and 

already the supreme court have, in their profoundest wisdom, given a construction 

to that law which bids them Godspeed. ... 

Cinquez and Grabeau shall not sigh for Africa in vain. Bloody as may be their 

hands, they shall yet embrace their kindred. I shall put in form a decree of this court, 

that these Africans, excepting Antonio, be delivered to the president of the United 

States to be transported to Africa, there to be delivered to the agent, appointed to 

receive and conduct them home. To do it, we have ample authority, and ample means. 

What American can object to this decree? No one surely, when the case is correctly 

understood. It will indeed require the executive arm to carry out this decree. Th is 

may well be anticipated, because the facts which I have found and shall put upon 

record, will carry conviction to every mind. Antonio, falling clearly within the other 

principle, and in the presence of the court, expressing a strong wish to be returned, 

will be decreed to the government of Spain, with the vessel and goods, the vessel and 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

68

goods being alone subject to the lien which necessity of the case has thrown upon 

them, for the salvage service and the cost.

The U.S. attorney responds to the district court decision 

(two letters); January–February 1840

Shortly after Judson’s decision in the district court case, U.S. Attorney William Holabird wrote to Secretary of State John Forsyth and Attorney General Henry Gilpin 

with his assessment of the decision and a discussion of plans for the appeal. Holabird 

was surprised Judson ordered the delivery of the captives to the President for return 

to Africa, since the government had dropped that motion when it resubmitted its 

libel in November. Although he expected the circuit court to reverse the decision, 

Holabird feared that he would be unable to demonstrate that the Spanish planters had the proof of property required by the treaty between Spain and the United 

States. From the secretary of state he requested further information on Spanish laws 

governing slave property, and from the attorney general he asked for copies of correspondence between the former ambassador to Great Britain and that country’s 

foreign minister. That exchange between Andrew Stevenson and Lord Palmerston 

regarded American claims for slaves granted freedom by British offi cials when the 

ships transporting them were driven by storms into British territory. Holabird also 

warned the attorney general that the abolitionists were trying to implicate President 

Van Buren in improper interference in the judicial process.

William S. Holabird to John Forsyth, January 28, 1840. 

 [Document Source: Miscellaneous Letters, October 1839–March 1840, State 

Department, RG 59, National Archives and Records Administration (microfi lm 

179)]

 

 Winchester 28th Jan. 1840

Sir

 Your instructions in relation to the matter of the Amistad & negroes, of the 12th

& 17th Inst, were duly recd, and in compliance of which, I have entered an appeal 

in all parts of the case, except that relating to the Slave Antonio. You remark that 

instructions will be forwarded me, designating the parties to whom he is to be delivered. I would suggest that Antonio’s testimony will be material on the trial before 

the Circuit Court, which will sit in April next. If it is necessary that he should go 

out of the country before that time, I should like to know it in time, to procure his 

deposition, his testimony in person would be much better than his deposition, he 

is rather an intelligent boy. I hope the Spanish Minister will consent to have him 

remain unless there is some serious objection to it.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

69

 I send you herewith at the request of the District Judge, his published opinion. 

I suppose Mr. Willcox the Marshal gave you a full explanation. Th at Count of the 

Libel, upon which the decision is founded, was abandoned long before the trial, 

and originally fi led only, for the purpose of holding the negroes in custody for the 

time.

 Under the 9th Article of the Spanish Treaty (which is the one under which I 

claimed the surrendry) proof of property is contemplated “and restore entires to 

the true proprietor, as soon as due & suffi cient proof shall be made concerning the 

property thereof.” Now Sir I fear that the Circuit Judge may hold that he will go 

back to the Ships papers, & inquire into the title of Montes & Ruiz to the blacks, or 

rather, that the permit of the Capt. General to transport the negroes from Havana 

to Guanaja, is not “due” & suff t proof of property in them. I have no other evidence 

of property except those permits. (the same as sent to your department) If the Spanish Minister can furnish any other evidence I wish he would. I also wish he would 

furnish me with the Spanish Laws relating to this subject, the Edict prohibiting the 

importation of slaves from Africa, and whether it had ever been adopted in Cuba.

 I am Sir most respectfully Your Obt Servant

 W.S. Holabird

William S. Holabird to Henry D. Gilpin, February 3, 1840

 [Document Source: Letters Received by the Attorney General’s Offi ce, 1809–

1870; RG 60, National Archives and Records Administration (microfi lm 2012)]

 

 Winchester 3 Feby 1840

Dear Sir,

 If you have a spare copy of the correspondence between Mr. Stevenson and Lord 

Palmers[t]on on the subject of the slaves set free at Bermuda you will much oblige 

me by sending me one.

 Th e decision of the District Judge in case of the negroes of the Amistad I believe 

has surprised every body and no one more than myself. I do not believe that the 

Circuit Judge will sustain the decision, yet I have some fear he may hold, that there 

is not suffi cient evidence of property in Ruiz & Montes to authorise a surrendry 

under the 9th Article of the Treaty with Spain.

 Th e statement made in the “Emancipator” regarding the appeal of the case, “that 

it was made by the direction of the President, and [dictated?] by me” is entirely incorrect. I was fully aware that our New England abolitionists were anxious to place 

the President, in this matter, in an attitude, that they might attack him, and when I 

took the appeal, I stated to the Court, that the Spanish minister, through the Gov-
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

70

ernment took that appeal, and it was so announced in our papers. I should be very 

glad to have your views of the decision, which I presume you have seen before this.

 I am Sir most respectfully Your Obedient Servant

W. S. Holabird

Supreme Court arguments of John Quincy Adams 

(excerpts)

John Quincy Adams declined to include his arguments for the Amistad case in the 

Supreme Court Reports and instead chose to publish them separately. The published 

arguments reached a large audience, just as Adams’ appearance in the Supreme Court 

attracted a large crowd of listeners. Justice Joseph Story said the arguments were 

notable for their sarcasm and for their disregard of the legal questions at hand, but 

Adams understood the source of public interest in the Amistad case. The fi rst excerpt 

emphasizes that the case was not just about property claims and treaty obligations, 

but would determine the fate of 36 individuals.

 [Document Source: Argument of John Quincy Adams, before the Supreme Court 

of the United States, in the case of the United States, appellants, vs. Cinque, and others, Africans, captured in the schooner Amistad, by Lieut. Gedney, delivered on the 

24th of February and 1st of March, 1841, with a review of the case of the Antelope, 

reported in the 10th, 11th and 12th volumes of Wheaton’s Reports (New York: S.W. 

Benedict, 1841).] 

 

And in a Court of Justice, where there are two parties present, justice demands that 

the rights of each party should be allowed to himself, as well as that each party has 

a right, to be secured and protected by the Court. Th is observation is important, because I appear here on the behalf of thirty-six individuals, the life and liberty of every 

one of whom depend on the decision of this Court. Th e Court, therefore, I trust, in 

deciding this case, will form no lumping judgment on these thirty-six individuals, 

but will act on the consideration that the life and the liberty of every one of them 

must be determined by its decision for himself alone.

Th ey are here, individually, under very diff erent circumstances, and in very diff erent 

characters. Some are in one predicament, some in another. In some of the proceedings by which they have been brought into the custody and under the protection of 

this Court, thirty-two or three of them have been charged with the crime of murder. 

Th ree or four of them are female children, incapable, in the judgment of our laws, of 

the crime of murder or piracy, or, perhaps, of any other crime. Yet, from the day when 

the vessel was taken possession of by one of our naval offi cers, they have all been held 

as close prisoners, now for the period of eighteen long months, under custody and 

by authority of the Courts of the United States. I trust, therefore, that before the 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

71

ultimate decision of this Court is established, its honorable members will pay due 

attention to the circumstances and condition of every individual concerned.

Much of Adams’ lengthy argument focused on the Van Buren administration and its 

support of the Spanish claims that the Mende were slave property. Here he charges the 

administration with preferring the interests of Spain over the demands of justice and 

strongly implies that the executive branch’s actions were based on racial prejudice.

It is, therefore, peculiarly painful to me, under present circumstances, to be under the 

necessity of arraigning before this Court and before the civilized world, the course of 

the existing Administration in this case. But I must do it. Th at Government is still 

in power, and thus, subject to the control of the Court, the lives and liberties of all 

my clients are in its hands. And if I should pass over the course it has pursued, those 

who have not had an opportunity to examine the case and perhaps the Court itself, 

might decide that nothing improper had been done, and that the parties I represent 

had not been wronged by the course pursued by the Executive. ... 

Th e charge I make against the present Executive administration is that in all their 

proceedings relating to these unfortunate men, instead of that Justice, which they 

were bound not less than this honorable Court itself to observe, they have substituted 

Sympathy!-sympathy with one of the parties in this confl ict of justice, and antipathy

to the other. Sympathy with the white, antipathy to the black.

The laws of a slave society, by recognizing a slave as both private property and a willful individual, created many inconsistencies, and as Adams pointed out, absurdities. 

Story, with none of the sarcasm evident here, agreed that it was illogical to suggest 

the Mende had stolen themselves.

But my clients are claimed under the treaty as merchandise, rescued from pirates 

and robbers. Who were the merchandise, and who were the robbers? According to 

the construction of the Spanish minister, the merchandise were the robbers, and the 

robbers were the merchandise. Th e merchandise was rescued out of its own hands, 

and the robbers were rescued out of the hands of the robbers. Is this the meaning of 

the treaty? Will this Court adopt a rule of construction in regard to solemn treaties 

that will sanction such conclusions.... Is any thing more absurd than to say these 

forty Africans are robbers, out of whose hands they have themselves been rescued? 

Can a greater absurdity be imagined in construction than this, which applies the 

double character of robbers and of merchandise to human beings?
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

72

Pointing to the two copies of the Declaration of Independence which hung on the 

walls of the Supreme Court chamber, Adams briefl y summarized his argument that 

the fate of the Amistad captives should be decided on the basis of natural rights; the 

same natural rights that were the foundation of the American system of government. 

Because the Constitution protected slave property, Adams appealed to the principles 

of the Declaration, which he argued should guide the Court in interpreting the laws 

of the United States.

Th e moment you come, to the Declaration of Independence, that every man has a 

right to life and liberty, an inalienable right, this case is decided. I ask nothing more 

in behalf of these unfortunate men, than this Declaration.

Adams closed his two days of arguments with an emotional recollection of his earlier 

appearances before the Supreme Court and the great fi gures of the law during that 

era. History, he implied, would judge the actions of the current justices of the Court 

based on their determination of the Amistad case.

I said, when I began this plea, that my fi nal reliance for success in this case was on 

this Court as a court of JUSTICE; and in the confi dence this fact inspired, that, in 

the administration of justice, in a case of no less importance than the liberty and 

the life of a large number of persons, this Court would not decide but on a due consideration of all the rights, both natural and social, of every one of these individuals. 

I have endeavored to show that they are entitled to their liberty from this Court. 

I have avoided, purposely avoided, and this Court will do justice to the motive for 

which I have avoided, a recurrence to those fi rst principles of liberty which might 

well have been invoked in the argument of this cause. I have shown that Ruiz and 

Montes, the only parties in interest here, for whose sole benefi t this suit is carried on 

by the Government, were acting at the time in a way that is forbidden by the laws of 

Great Britain, of Spain, and of the United States, and that the mere signature of the 

Governor General of Cuba ought not to prevail over the ample evidence in the case 

that these Negroes were free and had a right to assert their liberty. I have shown that 

the papers in question are absolutely null and insuffi cient as passports for persons, 

and still more invalid to convey or prove a title to property. ...

May it please your Honors: On the 7th of February, 1804, now more than thirtyseven years past, my name was entered, and yet stands recorded, on both the rolls, as 

one of the Attorneys and Counsellors of this Court. Five years later, in February and 

March, 1809, I appeared for the last time before this Court, in defence of the cause 

of justice, and of important rights, in which many of my fellow-citizens had property 

to a large amount at stake. Very shortly afterwards, I was called to the discharge of 

other duties-fi rst in distant lands, and in later years, within our own country, but in 

diff erent departments of her Government.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

73

Little did I imagine that I should ever again be required to claim the right of appearing in the capacity of an offi cer of this Court; yet such has been the dictate of 

my destiny-and I appear again to plead the cause of justice, and now of liberty and 

life, in behalf of many of my fellow men, before that same Court, which in a former 

age I had addressed in support of rights of property I stand again, I trust for the last 

time, before the same Court- “hic caestus, artemque repono.” I stand before the same

Court, but not before the same judges-nor aided by the same associates -nor resisted 

by the same opponents. As I cast my eyes along those seats of honor and of public 

trust, now occupied by you, they seek in vain for one of those honored and honorable 

persons whose indulgence listened then to my voice. Marshall – Cushing – Chase 

– Washington – Johnson – Livingston –Todd - Where are they? Where is that eloquent statesman and learned lawyer who was my associate counsel in the management 

of that cause, Robert Goodloe Harper? Where is that brilliant luminary, so long 

the pride of Maryland and of the American Bar, then my opposing counsel, Luther 

Martin? Where is the excellent clerk of that day, whose name has been inscribed on 

the shores of Africa, as a monument of his abhorrence of the African slave-trade, 

Elias B. Caldwell? Where is the marshal - where are the criers of the Court? Alas! 

where is one of the very judges of the Court, arbiters of life and death, before whom 

I commenced this anxious argument, even now prematurely closed? Where are they 

all? Gone! Gone! All gone! - Gone from the services which, in their day and generation, they faithfully rendered to their country. From the excellent characters which 

they sustained in life, so far as I have had the means of knowing, I humbly hope, 

and fondly trust, that they have gone to receive the rewards of blessedness on high. 

In taking, then, my fi nal leave of this Bar, and of this Honorable Court, I can only 

ejaculate a fervent petition to Heaven, that every member of it may go to his fi nal 

account with as little of earthly frailty to answer for as those illustrious dead, and 

that you may, every one, after the close of a long and virtuous career in this world, be 

received at the portals of the next with the approving sentence - “Well done, good 

and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Supreme Court opinion (excerpts)

Justice Joseph Story delivered the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Amistad case on 

March 9, 1841, and instructed the circuit court in Connecticut to free the Mende 

captives. Story was joined by six other justices; Justice Henry Baldwin dissented 

without comment. (Justice Philip Pendleton Barbour died before oral arguments 

in the Amistad were complete.) In addition to the opinion of the Court, the nineteenth-century reports of Supreme Court cases included extensive summaries of the 

oral arguments, which were submitted to the Court reporter by the lawyers. The 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

74

following excerpts are from Story’s opinion and explain the Court’s rulings on the 

most important issues in the case.

 

THE AMISTAD, 40 U.S. 518 (1841)

(Text is from XV Peters 518)

Th e AMISTAD.

UNITED STATES, Appellants, v. Th e 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.

January Term, 1841

Justice Story offered a summary of the Amistad case as it stood before the Supreme 

Court. After a review of the proceedings in the district and circuit courts, Story wanted 

to emphasize the limited questions on which the Supreme Court would rule, and he 

made clear that the most important question was whether or not the Mende were 

slaves. At each stage of the Amistad case, the judges and justices recognized that the 

unusual popular interest in this federal case obliged them to explain their decisions 

to a broad audience.

Before entering upon the discussion of the main points involved in this interesting 

and important controversy, it may be necessary to say a few words as to the actual 

posture of the case as it now stands before us. In the fi rst place, then, the only parties now before the court on one side, are the United States, intervening for the 

sole purpose of procuring restitution of the property as Spanish property, pursuant 

to the treaty, upon the grounds stated by the other parties claiming the property in 

their respective libels. Th e United States do not assert any property in themselves, 

or any violation of their own rights, or sovereignty or laws, by the acts complained 

of. Th ey do not insist that these negroes have been imported into the United States, 

in contravention of our own slave trade acts. Th ey do not seek to have these negroes 

delivered up for the purpose of being transported to Cuba as pirates or robbers, or 

as fugitive criminals found within our territories, who have been guilty of off ences 

against the laws of Spain. Th ey do not assert that the seizure, and bringing the 

vessel, and cargo, and negroes into port, by Lieutenant Gedney, for the purpose of 

adjudication, is a tortious act. Th ey simply confi ne themselves to the right of the 

Spanish claimants to the restitution of their property, upon the facts asserted in their 

respective allegations.

In the next place, the parties before the Court, on the other side, as appellees, are 

Lieutenant Gedney, on his libel for salvage, and the negroes, (Cinque, and others,) 

asserting themselves, in their answer, not to be slaves, but free native Africans, kid-
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

75

napped in their own country, and illegally transported by force from that country; 

and now entitled to maintain their freedom.

No question has been here made, as to the proprietary interests in the vessel and 

cargo. It is admitted that they belong to Spanish subjects, and that they ought to be 

restored. Th e only point on this head is, whether the restitution ought to be upon the 

payment of salvage or not? Th e main controversy is, whether these negroes are the 

property of Ruiz and Montez, and ought to be delivered up; and to this, accordingly, 

we shall fi rst direct our attention.

Story acknowledged that the treaty with Spain provided for the return of legally 

held slaves from Cuba, but in language even stronger than that of the district court 

decision, Story said that the evidence clearly established that the Mende had never 

been slaves under Spanish law. Even the U.S. attorney acknowledged in court that 

the Mende were recently arrived from West Africa, and thus under Spanish law must 

be free. Story also declared that kidnapped Africans who took possession of a vessel 

in an attempt to return home could not be considered pirates and thus could not be 

demanded by Spain under the treaty of 1795.

If these negroes were, at the time, lawfully held as slaves under the laws of Spain, 

and recognised by those laws as property capable of being lawfully bought and sold; 

we see no reason why they may not justly be deemed within the intent of the treaty, 

to be included under the denomination of merchandise, and, as such, ought to be 

restored to the claimants: for, upon that point, the laws of Spain would seem to furnish 

the proper rule of interpretation. But, admitting this, it is clear, in our opinion, that 

neither of the other essential facts and requisites has been established in proof; and 

the onus probandi of both lies upon the claimants to give rise to the casus fœderis. 

It is plain beyond controversy, if we examine the evidence, that these negroes never 

were the lawful slaves of Ruiz or Montez, or of any other Spanish subjects. Th ey 

are natives of Africa, and were kidnapped there, and were unlawfully transported to 

Cuba, in violation of the laws and treaties of Spain, and the most solemn edicts and 

declarations of that government. By those laws and treaties, and edicts, the African 

slave trade is utterly abolished; the dealing in that trade is deemed a heinous crime; 

and the negroes thereby introduced into the dominions of Spain, are declared to be 

free. Ruiz and Montez are proved to have made the pretended purchase of these 

negroes, with a full knowledge of all the circumstances. And so cogent and irresistible 

is the evidence in this respect, that the District Attorney has admitted in open Court, 

upon the record, that these negroes were native Africans, and recently imported into 

Cuba, as alleged in their answers to the libels in the case. Th e supposed proprietary 

interest of Ruiz and Montez, is completely displaced, if we are at liberty to look at 

the evidence or the admissions of the District Attorney.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

76

If then, these negroes are not slaves, but are kidnapped Africans, who, by the laws of 

Spain itself, are entitled to their freedom, and were kidnapped and illegally carried 

to Cuba, and illegally detained and restrained on board the Amistad; there is no 

pretence to say, that they are pirates or robbers. We may lament the dreadful acts, by 

which they asserted their liberty, and took possession of the Amistad, and endeavored 

to regain their native country; but they cannot be deemed pirates or robbers in the 

sense of the law of nations, or the treaty with Spain, or the laws of Spain itself; at 

least so far as those laws have been brought to our knowledge. ... 

When the Mende in custody entered the district court proceedings as respondents to 

the property and salvage claims, it forced the courts to address their right to contest 

claims submitted in a federal case. Here Story explicitly states that the Africans are 

free, and, like all free foreigners, they may assert their rights in court. Story went 

a step further to announce that what applied to property claims was all the more 

important in a case centering on issues of human life and liberty.

It is also a most important consideration in the present case, which ought not to be 

lost sight of, that, supposing these African negroes not to be slaves, but kidnapped, 

and free negroes, the treaty with Spain cannot be obligatory upon them; and the 

United States are bound to respect their rights as much as those of Spanish subjects. 

Th e confl ict of rights between the parties under such circumstances, becomes positive and inevitable, and must be decided upon the eternal principles of justice and 

international law. If the contest were about any goods on board of this ship, to which 

American citizens asserted a title, which was denied by the Spanish claimants, there 

could be no doubt of the right of such American citizens to litigate their claims 

before any competent American tribunal, notwithstanding the treaty with Spain. A 

fortiori, the doctrine must apply where human life and human liberty are in issue; 

and constitute the very essence of the controversy. Th e treaty with Spain never could 

have intended to take away the equal rights of all foreigners, who should contest their 

claims before any of our courts, to equal justice; or to deprive such foreigners of the 

protection given them by other treaties, or by the general law of nations. Upon the 

merits of the case, then, there does not seem to us to be any ground for doubt, that 

these negroes ought to be deemed free; and that the Spanish treaty interposes no 

obstacle to the just assertion of their rights.

The grant of freedom for the Mende of the Amistad followed the Supreme Court’s 

decision to reverse the circuit court’s affi rmation of the order to deliver the captives 

to the President for return to Africa. Story said that the Act of 1819 authorizing that 

return did not apply to these individuals since they had not been transported to the 

United States in violation of the act. In fact, they arrived as individuals asserting 

their own freedom, not as enslaved people. Story went on to dismiss the government’s 

claim on behalf of Spain and to uphold the award of salvage for Gedney and his crew. 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

77

Finally, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the circuit court and ordered that 

court to issue a decree declaring the Mende free.

Th ere is another consideration growing out of this part of the case, which necessarily 

rises in judgment. It is observable, that the United States, in their original claim, fi led 

it in the alternative, to have the negroes, if slaves and Spanish property, restored to 

the proprietors; or, if not slaves, but negroes who had been transported from Africa, 

in violation of the laws of the United States, and brought into the United States, 

contrary to the same laws, then the Court to pass an order to enable the United States 

to remove such persons to the coast of Africa, to be delivered there to such agent as 

may be authorized to receive and provide for them. At a subsequent period, this last 

alternative claim was not insisted on, and another claim was interposed, omitting 

it; from which the conclusion naturally arises that it was abandoned. Th e decree of 

the District Court, however, contained an order for the delivery of the negroes to 

the United States, to be transported to the coast of Africa, under the act of the 3d 

of March 1819, ch. 224. Th e United States do not now insist upon any affi rmance 

of this part of the decree; and in our judgment, upon the admitted facts, there is no 

ground to assert that the case comes within the purview of the act of 1819, or of 

any other of our prohibitory slave trade acts. Th ese negroes were never taken from 

Africa, or brought to the United States in contravention of those acts. When the 

Amistad arrived she was in possession of the negroes, asserting their freedom; and 

in no sense could they possibly intend to import themselves here, as slaves, or for 

sale as slaves. In this view of the matter, that part of the decree of the District Court 

is unmaintainable, and must be reversed.

Th e view which has been thus taken of this case, upon the merits, under the fi rst point, 

renders it wholly unnecessary for us to give any opinion upon the other point, as to 

the right of the United States to intervene in this case in the manner already stated. 

We dismiss this, therefore, as well as several minor points made at the argument.

As to the claim of Lieutenant Gedney for the salvage service, it is understood that 

the United States do not now desire to interpose any obstacle to the allowance of it, 

if it is deemed reasonable by the Court. It was a highly meritorious and useful service 

to the proprietors of the ship and cargo; and such as, by the general principles of 

maritime law, is always deemed a just foundation for salvage. Th e rate allowed by the 

Court, does not seem to us to have been beyond the exercise of a sound discretion, 

under the very peculiar and embarrassing circumstances of the case.

Upon the whole, our opinion is, that the decree of the Circuit Court, affi rming that 

of the District Court, ought to be affi rmed, except so far as it directs the negroes to 

be delivered to the President, to be transported to Africa, in pursuance of the act 

of the 3d of March 1819; and, as to this, it ought to be reversed: and that the said 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

78

negroes be declared to be free, and be dismissed from the custody of the Court, and 

go without day.

Mr. Justice BALDWIN dissented.

Th is cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record from the Circuit Court 

of the United States, for the District of Connecticut, and was argued by counsel. 

On consideration whereof, it is the opinion of this Court, that there is error in that 

part of the decree of the Circuit Court, affi rming the decree of the District Court, 

which ordered the said negroes to be delivered to the President of the United States, 

to be transported to Africa, in pursuance of the act of Congress, of the 3d of March 

1819; and that, as to that part, it ought to be reversed: and, in all other respects, that 

the said decree of the Circuit Court ought to be affi rmed. It is therefore ordered 

adjudged, and decreed by this Court, that the decree of the said Circuit Court be, 

and the same is hereby, affi rmed, except as to the part aforesaid, and as to that part, 

that it be reversed; and that the cause be remanded to the Circuit Court, with directions to enter, in lieu of that part, a decree, that the said negroes be and are hereby 

declared to be free, and that they be dismissed from the custody of the court, and 

be discharged from the suit and go thereof quit without day.

The Treaty between Spain and the United States, 1795 

(The Treaty of San Lorenzo, also known as Pinckney’s 

Treaty) (excerpts)

The Spanish ambassador to the United States insisted that the treaty between the 

two countries required the United States to deliver the Amistad, its cargo, and the 

Mende captives to the proper Spanish authorities. In early September 1839, Calderón 

de la Barca informed Secretary of State John Forsyth that the Spanish government 

expected that all property would be returned to its owners and that the Africans would 

be delivered for trial in Cuba. According to the ambassador’s reading of Articles VIII, 

IX, and X of the treaty, no court in the United States had authority to grant salvage 

or to try the Mende for crimes committed on a Spanish ship.

 In an opinion written for the President’s cabinet in October 1839, Attorney General 

Felix Grundy agreed that Article IX of the treaty obligated the United States to return 

the Mende captives and all property, but with the case already in federal court, the 

Van Buren administration waited for the outcome of the district court trial. Judge 

Judson ruled that the treaty did not prevent a salvage award in a case like the Amistad, since the award for the rescue of the threatened ship fell within the “reasonable 

rates” of compensation provided by Article VIII of the treaty. The Supreme Court 

denied that Article IX applied to this case. The Mende were not merchandise under 

Spanish law, kidnapped Africans who resisted their captors could not be considered 

pirates, and the planters had no proof of ownership of the property demanded.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

79

 [Document Source: Statutes at Large of the United States of America, 1789–1873 

vol. 8 (1845): 138–53.]

 

Article VIII.

In case the subjects and inhabitants of either party, with their shipping, whether 

public and of war, or private and of merchants, be forced, through stress of weather, 

pursuit of pirates or enemies, or any other urgent necessity, for seeking of shelter and 

harbour, to retreat and enter into any of the rivers, bays, roads, or ports belonging to 

the other party, they shall be received and treated with all humanity, and enjoy all favor, 

protection and help, and they shall be permitted to refresh and provide themselves, 

at reasonable rates, with victuals and all things needful for the sustenance of their 

persons or reparation of their ships and prosecution of their voyage; and they shall 

no ways be hindered from returning out of the said ports, or roads, but may remove 

and depart when and whither they please, without any let or hindrance. 

Article IX.

All ships and merchandise of what nature soever, which shall be rescued out of the 

hands of any pirates or robbers on the high seas, shall be brought into some port of 

either state, and shall be delivered to the custody of the offi cers of that Port, in order 

to be taken care of, and restored entire to the true proprietor, as soon as due and 

suffi cient proof shall be made concerning the property thereof. 

Article X.

When any vessel of either party shall be wrecked, foundered, or otherwise damaged, on the coasts or within the dominion of the other, their respective subjects or 

citizens shall receive, as well for themselves as for their vessels and eff ects, the same 

assistance which would be due to the inhabitants of the country where the damage 

happens, and shall pay the same charges and dues only as the said inhabitants would 

be subject to pay in a like case: And if the operations of repair would require that 

the whole or any part of the cargo be unladen, they shall pay not duties, charges or 

fees on the part which they shall relade and carry away.

Anti-Slave Trade Act of 1819

U.S. Attorney William Holabird fi rst suggested that the Mende from the Amistad

might be returned to their native country under the provisions of section two of this 

statute, which Congress enacted to enforce the prohibition on the foreign slave trade. 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

80

If the district court determined that the Mende were not legally held as slaves in Cuba, 

the judge could order their transfer to the custody of the President for return to Africa 

at the expense of the United States government. Judge Judson ordered this transfer 

to the executive in his decree following his decision that the Mende were not slaves 

in Spanish territory and could not be returned to the planters who claimed them. 

Judson’s order was suspended while the case was on appeal. The Supreme Court, in 

the opinion written by Justice Joseph Story, overturned this part of Judson’s decree. 

The Court said that the act of 1819 could not apply to the Mende, since they were 

not carried into the United States as enslaved persons, but rather they arrived as 

free individuals.

 The Congress fi rst prohibited the foreign slave trade in an act effective January 

1, 1808, the earliest date permitted under the Constitution. Smugglers continued 

to transport enslaved Africans into the United States, and the Congress responded 

with a succession of acts intended to halt this illegal traffi c. The act of 1819 was the 

fi rst to grant the President signifi cant authority to enforce the prohibition and was 

the fi rst act to provide for the return to Africa of the illegally enslaved individuals. 

Earlier acts deferred to state laws, some of which permitted the pubic auction and 

enslavement of the newly arrived Africans. 

[Document Source: Statutes at Large of the United States of America, 1789–1873

vol. 3 (1845): 532–34.]

 

Chap. CI.—An Act in addition to the Acts prohibiting the slave trade.

3 Stat. 532

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, 

in Congress assembled, Th at the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, 

authorized, whenever he shall deem it expedient, to cause any of the armed vessels 

of the United States, to be employed to cruise on any of the coasts of the United 

States, or territories thereof, or of the coast of Africa, or elsewhere, where he may 

judge attempts may be made to carry on the slave trade by citizens or residents of 

the United States, in contravention of the acts of Congress prohibiting the same, 

and to instruct and direct the commanders of all armed vessels of the United States, 

to seize, take, and bring into any port of the United States, all ships or vessels of the 

United States, wheresoever found, which may have taken on board, or which may be 

intended for the purpose of taking on board, or of transporting, or may have transported, any negro, mulatto, or person of colour, in violation of any of the provisions 

of the act, entitled “An act in addition to an act to prohibit the importation of slaves 

into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the 

fi rst day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight, 

and to repeal certain parts of the same,” or of any other act or acts prohibiting the 

traffi c in slaves, to be proceeded against according to law: And the proceeds of all 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

81

ships and vessels, their tackle, apparel, and furniture, and the goods and eff ects on 

board of them, which shall be so seized, prosecuted, and condemned, shall be divided 

equally between the United States and the offi cers and men who shall seize, take 

or bring, the same into port for condemnation, whether such seizure be made by an 

armed vessel of the United States or revenue cutter thereof: And the same shall be 

distributed in like manner as is provided by law for the distribution of prizes taken 

from an enemy. Provided, Th at the offi cers and men, to be entitled to one half of the 

proceeds aforesaid, shall safe keep every negro, mulatto, or person of colour, found 

on board of any ship or vessel so seized, taken, or brought into port, for condemnation, and shall deliver every such negro, mulatto or person of colour, to the marshal 

of the district into which they are brought, if into a port of the United States, or, if 

elsewhere, to such person or persons as shall be lawfully appointed by the President 

of the United States, in the manner hereinafter directed, transmitting to the President 

of the United States, as soon as may be after such delivery, a descriptive list of such 

negroes, mulattoes, or persons of colour, that he may give directions for the disposal 

of them. And provided further, Th at the commanders of such commissioned vessels, 

do cause to be apprehended, and taken into custody, every person found on board of 

such vessel, so seized and taken, being of the offi cers or crew thereof, and him or them 

convey, as soon as conveniently may be, to the civil authority of the United States, to 

be proceeded against, in due course of law, in some of the districts thereof. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, Th at the President of the United States be, and he 

is hereby, authorized to make such regulations and arrangements as he may deem 

expedient for the safe keeping, support, and removal beyond the limits of the United 

States, of all such negroes, mulattoes, or persons of colour, as may be so delivered and 

brought within their jurisdiction: And to appoint a proper person or persons, residing 

upon the coast of Africa, as agent or agents for receiving the negroes, mulattoes, or 

persons of colour, delivered from on board vessels, seized in the prosecution of the 

slave trade, by commanders of the United States’ armed vessels.

Sec. 3. And be if further enacted, Th at a bounty of twenty-fi ve dollars be paid to the 

offi cers and crews of the commissioned vessels of the United States, or revenue cutters, for each and every negro, mulatto, or person of colour, who shall have been, as 

hereinbefore provided, delivered to the marshal or agent duly appointed to receive 

them: And the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and required to pay 

or cause to be paid, to such offi cers and crews, or their agent, the aforesaid bounty, 

for each person delivered as aforesaid.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, Th at when any citizen, or other person, shall lodge 

information, with the attorney for the district of any state or territory, as the case may 

be, that any negro, mulatto, or person of colour, has been imported therein, contrary 
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

82

to the provisions of the acts in such case made and provided, it shall be the duty of 

the said attorney forthwith to commence a prosecution, by information; and process 

shall issue against the person charged with holding such negro, negroes, mulatto, 

mulattoes, person or persons of colour, so alleged to be imported contrary to the provisions of the acts aforesaid: And if, upon the return of the process executed, it shall 

be ascertained, by the verdict of a jury, that such negro, negroes, mulatto, mulattoes, 

person or persons of colour, have been brought in, contrary to the true intent and 

meaning of the acts in such cases made and provided, then the court shall direct the 

marshal of the said district to take the said negroes, mulattoes, or persons of colour, 

into his custody, for safe keeping, subject to the orders of the President of the United 

States; and the informer or informers, who shall have lodged the information, shall 

be entitled to receive, over and above the portion of the penalties accruing to him 

or them by the provisions of the acts in such case made and provided, a bounty of 

fi fty dollars, for each and every negro, mulatto, or persons of colour, who shall have 

been delivered into the custody of the marshal; and the Secretary of the Treasury 

is hereby authorized and required to pay, or cause to be paid, the aforesaid bounty, 

upon the certifi cate of the clerk of the court for the district where the prosecution 

may have been had, with the seal of offi ce thereto annexed, stating the number of 

negroes, mulattoes, or persons of colour, so delivered.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, Th at it shall be the duty of the commander of any 

armed vessel of the United States, whenever he shall make any capture under the 

provisions of this act, to bring the vessel and her cargo, for adjudication, into some 

of the ports of the state or territory to which such vessel, so captured, shall belong, 

if he can ascertain the same; if not, then to be sent into any convenient port of the 

United States.

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, Th at all such acts, or parts of acts, as may be repugnant 

to the provisions of this act, shall be, and the same are hereby repealed.

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, Th at a sum not exceeding one hundred thousand 

dollars, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to carry this law into eff ect.

Approved, March 3, 1819.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

83

“Appeal to the Friends of Liberty.” New York Commercial 

Advertiser, September 5, 1839

Lewis Tappan and other abolitionists organized a committee to support the Mende 

from the Amistad and to hire lawyers to represent the captives in court. One of the 

committee’s fi rst efforts was to publish this newspaper appeal that sought to publicize 

the plight of the Mende as well as raise funds for their protection. Another version of 

this appeal was circulated on broadsides for the public collection of signatures from 

those who pledged support for the Mende. Tappan’s committee emphasized both 

the injustice of the Africans’ detention and the need to care for their material and 

spiritual welfare.

 

Appeal to the Friends of Liberty. Th irty-eight fellow-men from Africa, after having been piratically kidnapped from their native land, transported across the seas, 

and subjected to atrocious cruelties, have been thrown upon our shores, and are now 

incarcerated in jail to await their trial for crimes alleged by their oppressors to have 

been committed by them. Th ey are now ignorant of our language, of the usages of 

civilized society, and the obligations of christianity. Under these circumstances, several 

friends of human rights have met to consult upon the case of these unfortunate men, 

and have appointed the undersigned a committee to employ interpreters, able counsel, 

and take all the necessary means to secure the rights of the accused. It is intended to 

employ three legal gentlemen of distinguished abilities, and to incur other needful 

expenses. Th e poor prisoners being destitute of clothing, and several having scarcely 

a rag to cover them, immediate steps will be taken to provide what may be necessary. 

Th e undersigned, therefore, make this appeal to the friends of humanity to contribute 

for the above objects. Donations may be sent to either of the committee, who will 

acknowledge the same, and make a public report of all their disbursements.

Simeon S. Jocelyn, 34 Wall street. 

Joshua Leavitt, 143 Nassau street.

Lewis Tappan, 122 Pearl street.

New York, Sept. 4, 1839. 
Blank pages inserted to preserve pagination when printing double-sided copies.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

85

Select Bibliography of Works Consulted 

in the Compilation of the Amistad Trial 

Site

Secondary sources

Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government’s 

Relations to Slavery. Completed and edited by Ward M. McAfee. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Jones, Howard. Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and its Impact on American 

Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Noonan, John T., Jr. The Antelope: The Ordeal of the Recaptured Africans in the Administrations 

of James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

“Exploring Amistad: Race and the Boundaries of Freedom in Antebellum Maritime America” 

a website presented by Mystic Seaport (http://amistad.mysticseaport.org).

Court records

Thomas R. Gedney &c. v. The Schooner Amistad, &c., Case fi les, U.S. District Court, District 

of Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).

In the Matter of the Habeas Corpus for the three African girls, September 1839 term, U.S. Circuit 

Court, District of Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and Records Administration 

– Northeast Region (Boston).

Answer and Reply of Burnah, et al., September term, 1839, U.S. Circuit Court, District of 

Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region 

(Boston).

Final Record Book, 1831–43, U.S. Circuit Court, District of Connecticut, RG 21, National 

Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).

Other unpublished sources

Domestic Letters, 1838–1840, State Department, RG 59, National Archives and Records 

Administration.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

86

Letters Received from U.S. District Attorneys, Marshals, and Clerks of Court, 1801–1898, 

Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury, RG 206, National Archives and Records Administration.

Opinion Books of the Attorney General’s Offi ce, 1817–70, RG 60, National Archives and 

Records Administration.

General Letter Books of the Attorney General’s Offi ce, 1818–1870, RG 60, National Archives 

and Records Administration.

William S. Holabird Papers, (Amistad Mutiny Archives) 1829–1853, The Gilder Lehrman 

Collection, on deposit at the Pierpont Morgan Library.

Lewis Tappan Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

Martin Van Buren Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

Published primary sources

Barber, John W. History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture 

of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture near 

Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of each of the Surviving Africans. Also, An 

account of the Trials had on their Case, Before the District and Circuit Courts of the United 

States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources. New Haven, Ct., 

1840. Reprinted in The African Slave Trade and American Courts: The Pamphlet Literature.

Edited by Paul Finkelman. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988.

The African Captives. Trial of the Prisoners of the Amistad on the Writ of Habeas Corpus, 

before the Circuit Court of the United States, for the District of Connecticut, At Hartford: 

Judges Thompson and Judson. New York, 1839. Reprinted in The African Slave Trade and 

American Courts: The Pamphlet Literature. Edited by Paul Finkelman. New York: Garland 

Publishing, 1988.

Gedney et al. v. L’Amistad, 10 Fed. Cases 141–151.

Argument of Roger S. Baldwin, of New Haven, before the Supreme Court of the United States, 

in the case of the United States, appellants, vs. Cinque, and others, Africans of the Amistad.

New York: S.W. Benedict, 1841.

Argument of John Quincy Adams, before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case 

of the United States, appellants, vs. Cinque, and others, Africans, captured in the schooner 

Amistad, by Lieut. Gedney, delivered on the 24th of February and 1st of March, 1841, with a 

review of the case of the Antelope, reported in the 10th, 11th and 12th volumes of Wheaton’s 

Reports. New York, S.W. Benedict, 1841.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery

87

Links Related to the Amistad Case

Read the complete text of the Supreme Court decision:

http://caselaw.lp.fi ndlaw.com/amistad.html

Amistad America is an educational organization that owns and operates the Amistad

replica. This reconstructed sailing vessel tours the country and presents programs 

related to the Amistad incident.

http://www.amistadamerica.org

“Exploring Amistad at Mystic Seaport” a website presented by Mystic Seaport.

This is the most comprehensive resource available for studying the Amistad incident. The site includes an extensive collection of digitized historical documents, 

including newspaper articles, court records, personal papers, and items from 

popular media. Analytical essays place the Amistad incident in a broad context of 

politics, culture, and diplomacy.

http://amistad.mysticseaport.org
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