The Amistad
In February , Sengbe Pieh was working in the rice fields of Mendeland — or present-day Sierra Leone, a nation on Africa’s west coast. The nearly year-old farmer and trader was a family man, with a wife and three children. He had never left his home country.
Yet more than , people from the region had left — albeit forcibly and brutally, as the slave trade, as early as the 15th century, wrought its heinous terror, capturing and transporting Africans to European colonies in the Caribbean and North America. By , Great Britain outlawedthe transatlantic slave trade after an abolitionist campaign spearheaded by William Wilberforce; the United States, Spain and Portugal banned the practice in , and , respectively.
However, illegal activities did not stop. Pieh, along with “countless others,” was abducted in the rice fields by Portuguese slave hunters, taken to Lomboko— a slave-trading factory where he was incarcerated — and sold into slavery. With more than 50 men and women and four children, Pieh was purchased by two Spanish plantation owners, Pedro Montes and Jose Ruiz, and boarded the schooner, La Amistad, on June 28, Its destination: Camagüey, Cuba, then a Span
Portuguese merchants kidnapped and enslaved a large group of Africans in Sierra Leone and transported them to Havana, Cuba, on the slave ship Tecora, where they were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Don Pedro Montez and Don Jose Ruiz, two Spaniards, purchased 53 victims, Mende people, in Havana and imprisoned them inside of the schooner La Amistad for a voyage to a nearby plantation. The enslaved revolted just three days into the journey, when year-old Sengbe Pieh, also known as Cinque, freed himself and set about freeing the other hostages.
Language barriers and taunts from the ship’s cook who teased the entrapped Mende with threats that they were to be eaten drove the Mende captives to fight back against their captors. They killed the ship’s captain and forced Montez and Ruiz to direct the ship back to Africa. During the day, the ship sailed east, following the position of the sun, but at night, Montez and Ruiz silently changed their route away from Africa towards the coast of the United States. This journey took nearly two months until the Amistad arrived in Long Island, New York, on August 24, The ship and her cargo were confiscated by the United States feder
“Make Us Free”
Downtown in New Haven in New Haven County, Connecticut &#; The American Northeast (New England)
Amistad Memorial
Photographed by Michael Herrick, September 1,
1. Amistad Memorial
“Make Us Free”. Amistad Memorial. [ south side ]
The Amistad, Artists and the Struggle Against Police Brutality Today
In January , 53 African natives were kidnapped from eastern Africa and sold into the Spanish slave trade. They were then placed aboard a Spanish slave ship bound for Havana, Cuba.
Once in Havana, the Africans were purchased at auction by two Spaniards, Don Jose Ruiz and Don Pedro Montez. The two planned to move the slaves to another part of Cuba. The slaves were shackled and loaded aboard the cargo schooner Amistad for the brief coastal voyage.
Three days into the journey, a year-old slave named Sengbe Pieh (or “Cinque” to his Spanish captors) broke out of his shackles and released the other Africans. The slaves then revolted, killing most of the crew of the Amistad, including the captain. The Africans then forced Montez and Ruiz to return the ship to Africa.
During the day, the ship sailed due east, using the sun to navigate. However, at night Montez and Ruiz would change course, attempting to return to Cuba. The zigzag journey continued for 63 days.
The ship finally grounded near Montauk Point in New York state. The U.S. federal government seized the ship and its African occupants, who under U.S. law w
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