The Amistad - Significance, Cinque On Trial, Further Readings

john appellant court justices

Appellant

United States

Appellees

Joseph Cinque, et al.

Appellant's Claim

That the slaves aboard the Amistad should be convicted of mutiny.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

Harry D. Gilpin, U.S. Attorney General

Chief Lawyers for Appellees

John Quincy Adams, Roger S. Baldwin

Justices for the Court

Philip P. Barbour, John Catron, John McKinley, John McLean, Joseph Story (writing for the Court), Smith Thompson, Roger Brooke Taney, James M. Wayne

Justices Dissenting

Henry Baldwin

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

January 1841

Decision

The Court would not convict the participants in the Amistad mutiny.

Additional Topics

The Amistad - Significance

When the courts refused to convict slaves from the schooner Amistad after they killed their captors in order to free themselves, the decision was widely hailed as a victory for the cause of abolition. By the 1830s, many countries were beginning to take steps to limit the age-old institution of slavery. Although slavery was still legal in the U.S., it was illegal to bring new slaves into the countr…

The Amistad - Cinque On Trial

In New London, Ruiz and Montes described the slave rebellion to the American authorities, and pressed their claim for the return of the Amistad with its cargo of slaves. Despite the illegal capture of the slaves, the Spanish government backed Ruiz's and Montes' claim. With the blessing of President Martin Van Buren's administration, District Attorney William S. Holabird charged Cinque and the othe…

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