Hours & Locations | Get A Card | Ask Us | Support Your Library | Shop |
This program will look at the complex human, political, and legal issues of the Amistad case.
In 1809 Congress outlawed American participation in the African slave trade. However, that did not end slavery. In fact, it did not end the slave trade. What was the legal status of people who had been illegally enslaved and illegally transported? That issue was at the heart of the famous Supreme Court case United States vs The Amistad in 1841. The Amistad was a coastal schooner from Cuba that was found “in distress” off Long Island. Some 38 illegally enslaved Africans had rebelled, taken control of the ship, killed several and tried unsuccessfully to head back to Africa. The court decided that persons enslaved after 1809 were free and within their rights to kill their kidnappers, but Africans enslaved before 1809 (and their descendants) had no rights. This anomaly in American law persisted until the Civil War.
TAGS: | General |