64. Ports on the Western Coast of Africa by Captain Alexander T. E. Vidal, R.N., 1837, 38, 39 [Admiralty Chart], British Library, Map Collections; Maps SEC.11 (1690).
65. Testimony of Bacon, New Haven Palladium; Sherwood, After Abolition, 186–87. Much can be learned about Blanco’s slaving operation through documents generated in a legal case against a London merchant who was part of his network: Trial of Pedro de Zulueta, Jun., on a Charge of Slave Trading (London, 1844).
66. “Slave Holding and Trading,” Hull Packet, February 14, 1840; James Hall, “Dr. Hall’s Report as Trustee of the Ship M. C. Stevens,” ARCJ 33 (1857): 338–40. An American sailor aboard the anti-slave-trade vessel Dolphin patrolling the Gallinas Coast in early 1840 heard that Blanco had recently retired from slaving “with a capital of four millions of dollars.” Quoted in Donald L. Canney, Africa Squadron: The U.S. Navy and the Slave Trade, 1842–1861 (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2006), 27.
67. “Dr. Hall’s Report,” 338–40; James Hall, M.D., “Abolition of the Slave Trade of Gallinas,” Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, 33 (1850): 33–36.
68. Forbes, 105–06.
69. Hall, “Abolition of the Slave Trade,” 33–36.
70. Clarke, “Sketches of the Colony of Sierra Leone,” 329, 355; Rankin, vol. I, 143–48; The Palm Land, 190. George E. Brooks, Jr., The Kru Mariner in the Nineteenth Century: A Historical Compendium (Newark, DE: Liberian Studies Monograph Series, 1972).
71. Testimony of Bacon, New Haven Palladium. See Richard Robert Madden’s poem, “The Slave Trade Merchant,” which he wrote during his visit to the United States to give testimony on the Amistad case, dedicated to Trist, and published in The Philanthropist, December 10, 1839.
72. “Abolitionists going to the Devil—False Affidavits—Arming of the Africans,” NYMH, October 23, 1839; Forbes, 82–83.
73. Richard Robert Madden to the Rt. Honorable Lord John Russell, Secretary of State, December 20, 1839; Correspondence from Dr. R.R. Madden, Mr. D.R. Clarke, and the Foreign Office relating to the removal of the “Liberated Africans” from Cuba, 1839, Colonial Office (CO) 318/146, NA.
74. Children were also easier to capture once palisades had been breached. Thanks to Philip Misevich for this point. The prominence of children in the slave trade of the region is also noted by Major H. I. Ricketts, Narrative of the Ashantee War; with a View of the Present State of the Colony of Sierra Leone (London: Simkin and Marshall, 1831), 218.
75. Hall, “Abolition of the Slave Trade,” 33–36; Hull Packet, February 14, 1840.
76. Forbes, 82–84.
77. Forbes, 77–78; The Palm Land, 399–400.
78. Thompson in Africa, 18–19. The origin of the slave ship images used by Thompson was Rev. Robert Walsh, Notices of Brazil in 1828 and 1829 (London: Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis, 1830), Vol. II, facing 479. The part of the image showing the lower deck (“3 feet 3 in. high”) circulated from Walsh to Lydia Maria Child, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (Boston: Allen and Ticknor, 1833), 16, to Barber, 20, to Thompson. Barber redrew the faces of the Africans to reflect his acquaintance with the Amistad Africans in jail.
79. See chapter 5 below. Cinqué’s face is the fifth from the right.
80. It appears that the four children—Margru, Teme, Kagne, and Kali—all came over on a different slave ship, but that the 49 men came over together on the Teçora. See “Case of the Captured Africans,” NYMH, October 1, 1839. For background, see Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History (New York: Viking-Penguin, 2007), especially chap. 9.
81. The Dolben Act stipulated that five slaves could be loaded for every three tons of carrying capacity, or 1.6/1 slave/ton ratio. If we estimate the Teçora at 175 tons, its ratio would have been 2.86/1.
82. Forbes, 86–87; “Case,” NYMH, October 1, 1839.
83. Forbes, 86–87.
84. Grabeau estimated that the Amistad Africans had about 48 inches headroom.
85. Rankin, vol. I, 120–23.
86. Forbes, 95–96.
87. TAST. Based on data collected in Freetown about captured slave ships, Madden reported in 1841 that the slave/ton ratio there was 2.6/1, which is close to the estimate for the Teçora and to the findings of the TAST. Based on his own knowledge of the slave trade to Havana he thought the ratio was higher, the crowding worse, as high as 5/1 in some cases. See Madden, Report on Sierra Leone, 32.
88. Clarke, “Sketches of the Colony of Sierra Leone,” 331; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC; Stephanie E. Smallwood, “African Guardians, European Slave Ships, and the Changing Dynamics of Power in the Early Modern Atlantic,” William & Mary Quarterly 64 (2007): 679–716; Joseph Sturge, A Visit to the United States in 1841 (London, 1842), Appendix E, xliv; [Captain Joseph Denman], Instructions for the Guidance of Her Majesty’s Naval Officers Employed in the Suppression of the Slave Trade (London: T. R. Harrison, 1844), 9.
89. Entry for Wednesday, September 8, 1841, Norton Papers, MS 367, series II, Writings, Diaries, volume III: June 29, 1840–September 15, 1841, box no. 3, folder 18; Kale to Lewis Tappan, Westville, October 30, 1840. Rankin, vol. II, 119–20; Forbes, 100.
90. Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC.
91. “The Negroes of the Amistad,” New Hampshire Sentinel, October 2, 1839; “The Captive Africans,” Emancipator, October 17, 1839; originally published in the New Haven Record; “Case,” NYMH, October 1, 1839; Forbes, 99–100.
92. Testimony of Cinqué, January 8, 1840, U.S. District Court, Connecticut, NAB.
93. Rankin, vol. II, 129; Abraham, Mende Government and Politics, 23–25; Clarke, “Sketches,” 330; Little, The Mende of Sierra Leone, 108, 131.
94. Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC; Testimony of Founi and Kimbo, State of Connecticut, County of New Haven, New Haven, Oct. 7, 1839, Lewis Tappan Papers, Miscellany: “Amistad Case”; “Private Examination of Cinquez,” NYCA, September 13, 1839; “Slavery in Cuba,” PF, November 21, 1839; “Case of the Amistad,” New-York Spectator, November 28, 1839. The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database lists 55 voyages with Cuba as the primary endpoint in 1839: 22,242 slaves were embarked and 19,241 were delivered alive. The significant number of undocumented (and unlisted) voyages, such as the one made by the Teçora, suggest that Madden’s estimate was reasonably accurate.
95. Case of the Amistad. Deposition of Dr. Madden, 7th November 1839, West India Miscellaneous, 1839; vol: Removal of the Liberated Africans from Cuba, Superintendent Dr. Madden and Superintendent Mr. Clarke, Foreign Office, NA; Sturge, Visit, Appendix E, xliv; Correspondence from Dr. R.R. Madden, Mr. D.R. Clarke, and the Foreign Office CO 318/146, NA. For an account of Madden’s tense relationship with the government of Cuba during his tenure as superintendent of Liberated Africans, see David R. Murray, Odious Commerce: Britain, Spain, and the Abolition of the Cuban Slave Trade (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1980), chap. 7.
96. Testimony of Cinqué, January 8, 1840, U.S. District Court, Connecticut, NAB; “Narrative,” NYJC, October 10, 1839.
97. Ibid.
98. “The Case of the Captured Negroes,” NYMH, September 9, 1839, and “Case of the Captured Africans,” NYMH, September 22, 1839.
99. These ports of origin appear in the records of 91 slave ships that arrived in Havana between 1835 and 1845, as recorded in the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database.
100. “Fate in Cuba,” NYJC, November 30, 1839; Emancipator, March 24, 1842. Thanks to Michael Zeuske for information about El Horcón.
Chapter Two: Rebellion
1. This chapter is based on dozens of eyewitness accounts of the rebellion provided by eleven people who were on the vessel: Ruiz, Montes, Antonio, the two sailors, and six of the Africans (Cinqué, Grabeau, Fuli, Kale, Kimbo, and Kinna). It also draws on a letter written by abolitionist missionary Hannah Moore in 1852, in which she summarizes the oral history of the Amistad rebellion as preserved and recalled by a handful of veterans who were still living at the Mende Mission thirteen years
after the event. These included Fabanna (Alexander Posey), Kinna (George Lewis), Margru (Sarah Kinson), Teme (Maria Brown), and perhaps one or two others. See Hannah Moore to William Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC.
2. “Case of the Captured Africans,” NYMH, September 22, 1839. The time of day when the captives boarded was disputed throughout the legal battle over the Amistad, the Africans and abolitionists claiming it took place, secretly and illegally, at night, the Cuban slaveholders Ruiz and Montes saying the opposite: boarding took place in the full light of day. Once the slaveholders had left the Connecticut courts to return home to Cuba, Antonio also admitted that the loading occurred in the evening, which is consistent with the forged papers and other aspects of illegality.
3. “The Africans,” NYMH, October 21, 1839.
4. See Quentin Snediker’s excellent article on the history of the vessel: “Searching for the Historic Amistad,” Log of Mystic Seaport (1998): 86–95, in which he cites Captain George Howland, “An Autobiography or Journal of his Life, Voyages, and Travels with an Appendix of his Ancestry,” 1866, typescript 295, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, Rhode Island and Temporary Registry #15, for the Schooner Ion, ex-Amistad, New London Customs Records, RG36, NAB. Howland bought the Amistad at auction on October 15, 1840.
5. Testimony of Antonio, January 9, 1840, U.S. District Court, Connecticut, NAB.
6. For detailed accounts of the cargo, see NLG, August 28, 1839; “Superior Court,” NYMH, October 24, 1839; Intelligencer, October 27, 1839; and the Libel of José Ruiz, September 18, 1839, U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, NAB. On the scarcity of casks see Captain J. Scholborg to R.R. Madden, Havana, June 28, 1839, West India Miscellaneous, 1839; vol: Removal of the Liberated Africans from Cuba, Superintendent Dr. Madden and Superintendent Mr. Clarke, Foreign Office; Correspondence from Dr. R.R. Madden, Mr. D.R. Clarke, and the Foreign Office relating to the removal of the “Liberated Africans” from Cuba, 1839, Colonial Office (CO) 318/146, NA. The letter carried the same date as the Amistad’s loading and departure from port.
7. Dwight P. Janes to Lewis Tappan, New London, September 6, 1839, ARC.
8. NLG, September 4, 1839. Thanks to William Gilkerson for sharing his knowledge of this type of vessel.
9. Testimony of Bahoo (Bau), “Case,” NYMH, September 22, 1839. Ruiz testified, “Principe is about two days sail from Havana, or 100 leagues, reckoning 3 miles to a league. Sometimes the winds are adverse, the passage occupies 15 days.” See “The Long, Low Black Schooner,” NYS, August 31, 1839; Michael Zeuske and Orlando García Martínez, “La Amistad de Cuba: Ramón Ferrer, Contrabando de Esclavos, Captividad y Modernidad Atlántica,” Caribbean Studies 37 (2009): 97–170.
10. “The Amistad,” NLG, October 16, 1839.
11. “Narrative of the Africans,” NYJC, October 10, 1839.
12. “Private Examination of Cinquez,” NYCA, September 13, 1839.
13. “Mendis Perform,” NYMH, May 13, 1841. In collective memory the amount of food had shrunk by 1852 to half a plantain per meal; see Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC.
14. “Mendis Perform,” NYMH, May 13, 1841.
15. Testimony of Cinqué, January 8, 1840, United States District Court, Connecticut, NAB; “Narrative,” NYJC, January 10, 1840.
16. “Ruiz and Montez,” NYCA, October 18, 1839; “Mendis Perform,” NYMH, May 13, 1841; “Plans to Educate the Amistad Africans in English,” NYJC, October 9, 1839; “To the Committee on Behalf of the African Prisoners,” NYJC, September 10, 1839. Ruiz denied these allegations about poor conditions: “It is untrue that the negroes were taken on board by night,…the negroes all went on board willingly, and required no force or violence to induce them to go on board the schooner—that the negroes were not in irons; that they were never tied on board, but perfectly loose, and went about the deck as they pleased. That there were no irons or fetters on board. That it is not true that they were kept on an insufficient allowance of food neither before nor after the mutiny and the murder of the whites by the negroes.” See “Superior Court,” NYMH, October 24, 1839.
17. “Ruiz and Montez,” NYCA, October 18, 1839. The phrase in pidgin English used by Liberated Africans in Freetown to describe a proud person such as Cinqué is recorded in Robert Clarke, Sierra Leone: A Description of the Manners and Customs of the Liberated Africans; with Observations upon the Natural History of the Colony, and a Notice of the Native Tribes (London: James Ridgway, 1843), 11.
18. Farmer’s Cabinet, November 19, 1841; Joseph Sturge, A Visit To The United States In 1841 (London, 1842), Appendix E, xliv; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC. Cinqué later remarked, “The cook could not speak the Mendi language but used some words that they could understand.” See “African Testimony,” NYJC, January 10, 1840.
19. Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History (New York: Viking-Penguin, 2007), 266–69.
20. W. T. Harris and Harry Sawyerr, The Springs of Mende Belief: A Discussion of the Influence of the Belief in the Supernatural Among the Mende (Freetown: University of Sierra Leone Press, 1968), 83; Jones, 185; Anthony J. Gittins, Mende Religion: Aspects of Belief and Thought in Sierra Leone (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1987), 122.
21. “Mendis Perform,” NYMH, May 13, 1841; “The Long, Low Black Schooner,” NYS, August 31, 1839; “The Amistad,” NLG, October 16, 1839.
22. “Narrative,” NYJC, October 10, 1839; “Mendis Perform,” NYMH, May 13, 1841; Youth’s Cabinet, May 20, 1841.
23. “Private Examination of Cinquez,” NYCA, September 13, 1839; Barber, 13; “The Mendians,” Vermont Chronicle, June 8, 1842.
24. “Correspondence of the Journal of Commerce,” NYJC, July 25, 1839. This evidence was provided by the two sailors, Manuel Padilla and Jacinto Verdaque, after they jumped overboard and managed to get back to Havana. There is no evidence that the abolitionists knew of the revolt aboard the Teçora, and it is not hard to imagine why the Africans would not have mentioned it to them. It is possible that the revolt led to executions of their fellow rebels and shipmates in Havana, and that this was why they feared the place ever after. For background on slave ship revolts, see Eric Robert Taylor, If We Must Die: Shipboard Insurrections in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006).
25. Barber, 11; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC. Faquorna is an especially important figure, as is clear in the narrative of the rebellion above. Unfortunately he died soon after the Amistad was towed into New London. Therefore much less is known about him than about many of the others. On Grabeau’s background, see Vermont Chronicle, June 8, 1842; Testimony of Antonio, United States District Court, January 9, 1840, NAB. It seems likely that the plot was planned by the prisoners kept belowdecks, for those on the main deck, near the crew, would have been more limited in their ability to talk among themselves.
26. “Narrative,” NYJC, October 10, 1839. Kinna also claimed, “We break chain.” See “Mendis Perform,” NYMH, May 13, 1841; “Anniversaries—Amistad Freemen,” Youth’s Cabinet, May 20, 1841; Barber, 11; “The Amistad Negroes,” Farmer’s Cabinet, November 19, 1841; “The Amistad Captives,” Liberator, November 19, 1841.
27. “African Testimony,” NYJC, January 10, 1840; “The Case of the Africans Decided for the Present—Habeas Corpus not Sustained,” NYMH, September 25, 1839. The oral history of the event maintained that Celestino screamed, waking the rest of the crew. It seems that Antonio’s account is more credible on this point as he witnessed the event while those who gave the oral history may not have.
28. “The Long, Low Black Schooner,” NYS, August 31, 1839; “Case,” NYMH, September 22, 1839; “The Amistad,” NLG, October 16, 1839; “The Case of the Captured Negroes,” NYMH, September 9, 1839. Richard Robert Madden wrote in October 1839: “There was much merchandize also on board, and amongst the rest a package of swords or machetes as they are called, which are used for cutting down canes. The female negroes of the party, true to their sex, indulged their curiosity in exami
ning the contents of various packages around them whenever there was an opportunity, and faithful also to the communicative character of the fair part of humanity, they imparted the information they had acquired to their male friends, and the latter true to themselves, and faithful to one bold man among them who became their chief, they acted on it.” The so-called female negroes were the three little girls—Margru, Kagne, and Teme—who used their intelligence, their ability to range freely, and their ability to communicate to find the cane knives and inform their male shipmates of the location, thereby making the successful rebellion possible. See Madden to A. Blackwood, Esq., October 3, 1839, Correspondence from Dr. R.R. Madden, Mr. D.R. Clarke, and the Foreign Office relating to the removal of the Liberated Africans from Cuba, 1839, Colonial Office (CO) 318/146, NA. The oral history suggested that the knives were found before the rebellion began, but this seems unlikely, for it also noted that Cinqué killed Celestino with a “billet of wood.” It is inconceivable that a Mende warrior would have used a club if a cane knife had been available.
29. Interview of Antonio, “The Long, Low Black Schooner,” NYS, August 31, 1839.
30. Kale to John Quincy Adams, January 4, 1841, John Quincy Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. Fuli stated, “Capt. Ferrer killed one of the Africans, Duevi by name, before the Africans killed him.” See “African Testimony,” NYJC, January 10, 1840. Kinna later alleged that Captain Ferrer had killed two of the Africans. One of them, unnamed, seems to have died later of wounds inflicted by Captain Ferrer.
31. “Mendis Perform,” NYMH, May 13, 1841. Ruiz: “The cabin boy said they had killed only the captain and cook. The other two he said had escaped in the canoe—a small boat.” See “The Captured Slaves,” NYMH, September 2, 1839.
32. “Mendis Perform,” NYMH, May 13, 1841.
33. Testimony of Antonio, January 9, 1840, United States District Court, NAB.
34. “The Long, Low Black Schooner,” NYS, August 31, 1839; “The Negroes of the Amistad,” New Hampshire Sentinel, October 2, 1839. According to the oral history as mediated by Hannah Moore, “the ocean reverberated with the yells and frantic dances of a savage clan.” See Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC.
The Amistad Rebellion Page 29
