Image: Roger Sherman Baldwin painted by Rufus Wright
Written by SCSU Intern, Isaac Rivera and Digital Inclusion Librarian, Alexandria Robison | July 2026
A Brief History
In 1839, La Amistad was transporting 53 kidnapped Mende people, originally from Sierra Leone, to a plantation after being sold into slavery in Cuba. The ship was helmed by Captain Freer and two Cuban plantation owners: Pedro Montes and Jose Ruiz.
Three days into the journey the captive Africans would stage an uprising, led by Sengbe Pie, also known as Joseph Cinque. Captain Freer, several members of the ship’s staff, and two Mende captives were killed. Ruiz and Montez remained alive and agreed to sail to Africa, but at nightfall, they secretly sailed the ship toward the United States.
When approaching Long Island, the U.S. Navy seized the ship and arrested the Africans for murder and mutiny. They were imprisoned in New Haven while they awaited trial, a wait so long that several of the group died in jail. Only 35 of the original 53 captives would make it to the Supreme court trial.
Portrait of Sengbe Pie aka Joseph Cinque by John Sartain
The Amistad off Culloden Point, Long Island, New York on August 26, 1839
Abolitionists Uniting
Northeastern abolitionists quickly came together and formed the Amistad Committee to provide financial support for lawyers, and to organize the return of the Africans to Sierra Leon.
The biggest challenge was communicating with the group. Yale Professor Josiah Willard Gibbs attempted to communicate with them, but he couldn’t understand enough Mende to help defend them in court. Josiah would eventually find James Covey, who spoke both Mende and English, becoming a critical in part of translating their testimonies for court.
A trial was first held in Hartford, then in New Haven at Connecticut’s District Court. While the New Haven judge decided that the men should be free, the Spanish government convinced the U.S. to bring the case to the Supreme Court to try and claim property rights of the kidnapped Africans.
Lawyers Roger Sherman Baldwin—a New Haven native, devout abolitionist, and future Connecticut governor—and Former President, John Quincy Adams—were hired to represent them. The case in the Supreme Court began in February of 1841, nineteen months after the group had first been arrested. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the captured Mende people. They returned home, joined by James Covey, to Sierra Leone in November 1841.
Drawing from A History of the Amistad Captives by John Warner Barber
Daguerreotype of John Quincy Adams by Mathew Brady
Remembering the Amistad
Amistad Committee Inc. was formed in 1988, with the intent of preserving African American history—the history of the Amistad especially.
With the Amistad Committee’s guidance, New Haven commissioned Ed Hamilton—sculptor of The Spirit of Freedom in Washington, DC—to create a memorial to honor the tenacity of those who revolted.
It was unveiled on the 150th Anniversary in 1992. The statue depicts Sengbe Pie, the man on the Amistad said to have led the rebellion.
Today, this memorial stands tall in front of the New Haven City Hall at 165 Church Street. Engraved on its base is a history of the Amistad, accompanied by the inscription “Make Us Free”, Cinque’s famous words spoken before the Supreme Court.
One side of the Amistad Memorial photographed by Renée Ater
Sources
Ater, R. (n.d.) [Photograph] Amistad Memorial (New Haven, Connecticut). https://www.slaverymonuments.org/items/show/1122
Barber, J.W. (1840). A 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. https://archive.org/stream/ASPC0001874900#page/n1/mode/2up (December 11, 2015).
Fishman G. (1996). MSS #262 The Amistad Committee, Inc. Retrieved from NewHavenMuseum.org. https://www.newhavenmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/MSS-262.pdf
National Archives (n.d.) The Amistad Case. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad
New Haven Museum (n.d.). Amistad: Retold A Contemporary View at New Haven Museum. https://www.newhavenmuseum.org/47312-2/
[Photograph of the Amistad Memorial] (n.d.). https://visitnewhaven.com/places/amistad-memorial/
Ragsdale, B.A. (2003). “Incited by the Love of Liberty”: The Amistad Captives and the Federal Courts. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/spring/amistad-1.html
Rediker, M. (2013). The African Origins of the Amistad Rebellion, 1839. International Review of Social History, 58, 15–34. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26394636
Thorton, S. (20 Feb 2022). The Teenager Who Helped Save the Mende Captive. https://connecticuthistory.org/a-different-look-at-the-amistad-trial-the-teenager-who-helped-save-the-mende-captives/
United States v. The Amistad, 40 U.S. 813 (1841). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/40/518/
Visit New Haven (n.d.). Amistad Memorial. https://visitnewhaven.com/places/amistad-memorial/
Wright, R. (1845). The Honorable Roger Sherman Baldwin (1793-1863), B.A. 1811, M.A. 1814, LL.D. 1845 (after a posthumous portrait of 1863) [painting]. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/214