Within a week of the Amistad s capture a group known as the Amistad Committee was formed. The legal battle took two years to resolve. The first step was to learn their language. At last the Mendi s story could be told, from their side, and the cause picked up momentum. The legal case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled against President Van Buren and in favor of the Mendi.
Justice always requires help.
The Amistad Committee, out of its faith in Christ, provided that help to the Mendi. But justice, they realized, had not arrived for all, and so five years later the Amistad Committee helped form the American Missionary Association, the first anti-slavery mission society in the United States. The AMA s chief aim included education for those who had suffered from injustice, and it founded over 500 schools and colleges throughout the South after the Civil War to educate the newly freed slaves. Board for Homeland Ministries is the heir of the AMA as it continues to work on our behalf for justice and human rights. I confess that I love history, and have ever since I was a child.