History
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On June 28, 1839, the schooner Amistad sailed from Havana with fifty-three captive Africans: forty-nine adult males and four children, three of them girls. Four days later, in a life and death struggle for freedom, the Africans killed the captain and seized control of the ship. While attempting to sail home to Africa, they were captured by the United States Navy and, on August 29, towed into New London Harbor. They were jailed in New Haven, and their claim to freedom was supported by abolitionists throughout Connecticut. U.S. Circuit and District courts ruled in their favor, and after appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the captives were ordered freed in 1841. In November 1841, the thirty-five survivors sailed to Sierra Leone. Back in New London, the Amistad and its contents were auctioned from the US Custom House steps.
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New London, Connecticut · United States
