In 1839, La Amistad was sailing the torturous journey of the middle passage when the African freemen, seized as slaves, struck a daring blow for freedom. La Amistad was portrayed in Spielberg's movie by the clipper replica, Pride of Baltimore II.

The ship dropped anchor off the eastern tip of Long Island, New York to allow men to go ashore for food and water. Before long, a U.S. Navy brig hove appeared. Its commander had his sailors disarm the blacks on board La Amistad and seize the others ashore. The sailors discovered two Cuban planters on board, who said the ship had departed Havana in June, bound for Cuba's north coast, carrying 53 blacks they had purchased. The blacks, led by a strong young man in his 20s, Joseph Cinque freed themselves from their chains and attacked with cane knives, killing the captain and cook. They ordered one of the slavers to steer for Africa, but he tricked them by sailing east in the day but north at night. What the slavers did not say was that the Africans had been brought to the Spanish colony of Cuba in direct violation of Spain's slave laws.

 The brig's commander took the blacks to Connecticut  where they held them on charges of murder and piracy, and where a drama that mesmerized the country began to take shape. On the one hand, the Spanish government, acting through the administration in Washington, sought to get the blacks returned to Cuba, where they most certainly would be put to death. Abolitionists, on the other hand, saw the case as an opportunity to humanize the issue of slavery. The case eventually would be debated all the way to the Supreme Court, where former President John Quincy Adams, would argue on behalf of the Africans.

This web page was prepared by Robert Black an Impact II Web Mentor, and Master Teacher for the Baltimore City School System.

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