II.

Background

In June 1839 Spanish planters Pedro Montez and José Ruiz purchased 53 Africans in Havana, Cuba. The Africans—49 adult men, 3 girls, and 1 boy—had recently been imported into Cuba illegally by Portuguese slave traders. Ruiz and Montez obtained fake identification papers to indicate the blacks had been born in Cuba and thus were legally slaves there. They then placed the Africans on the ship L'Amistad and set out with them on a voyage to another part of Cuba. After a few nights at sea the Africans freed themselves from their chains and revolted. Led by two men who had been given the names Cinque and Grabeau, the slaves killed the captain and cook and took over the ship. Two other crewmembers disappeared in the revolt. The slaves did not kill Montez and Ruiz because they believed the two men could navigate the ship back to Africa. They also spared the cabin boy, who was a Cuban-born slave.

For nearly two months Montez and Ruiz sailed the ship east during the day, as if headed for Africa. However, at night they turned north, hoping to reach one of the southern ports of the United States. Eventually L'Amistad ended up off the coast of Long Island, New York. It was almost entirely out of food and water, and some of the Africans had died. In late August two fishermen, Henry Green and Peletiah Fordham, began to negotiate with the Africans to sell them food and water. Green and Fordham planned to bring the ship into port and claim it for salvage—that is, request the court to award them compensation for recovering the ship and its cargo. Before they could do so, Lieutenant Thomas R. Gedney, who commanded The Washington, a U.S. Coast Guard ship, boarded L’Amistad and towed it to New London, Connecticut. On board he found Montez, Ruiz, the cabin boy, and 39 surviving Africans.