Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History
The 1839 Amistad Revolt: Slavers, Abolitionists, and the Supreme Court
In 1839, fifty-three Africans held captive on the Cuban slave schooner La Amistad rose up, killed the captain, and seized control of the ship, setting off a legal and political firestorm that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. This episode traces the revolt led by Sengbe Pieh (Joseph Cinqué), the dramatic trial that pitted abolitionists against the Van Buren administration, and the surprising alliance of former president John Quincy Adams, who argued the captives' right to freedom. We explore the role of the Mendi people of Sierra Leone, the complex web of Cuban slavery, Spanish colonial…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.