The True Story Behind the Amistad Rebellion
The True Story Behind the Amistad Rebellion In 1839, 53 Africans—mostly from the Mende people of Sierra Leone—were kidnapped by local slave traders, forced onto the Portuguese slave ship Tecora, and illegally transported to Havana, Cuba. Despite international treaties outlawing the transatlantic slave trade, human trafficking continued in secret. Once in Havana, the captives were fraudulently sold to two Spanish plantation owners, Josรฉ Ruiz and Pedro Montez, who placed them aboard a smaller vessel named La Amistad to be transported to another part of Cuba. Onboard were the 53 captives—men, women, and children—chained and starving. The Uprising at Sea A few days into the voyage, a 25-year-old African named Sengbe Pieh—later known as Joseph Cinquรฉ—managed to free himself and the others. Armed with sugarcane machetes found on the ship, they overpowered the crew, killing the captain and cook, but sparing Ruiz and Montez to help navigate the ship back to Africa. Instead, the Spaniards secre...