The Revolt on La Amistad

"Death of Capt. Ferrer, the Captain of the Amistad, July, 1839."


Author: Adrian Lopez

Before we can start discussing the Revolt we have to look at how many people were aboard the ship “La Amistad”. According to the article “ The Amistad Revolt” by Arthur Abraham, he states “ Apart from the fifty-three Africans and their Spanish owners, the schooner carried a crew comprising the master, Ferrer; his two black slaves, Antonio ( the cabin boy) and Celestino (the cook); and two white seamen.”( Abraham, 4) We can see from this quote that there were in total about 62 people aboard the La Amistad. It is important to have an understanding of how many people were aboard La Amistad because this revolt would have been more difficult to happen if there weren't as many African slaves on board. While aboard the Amistad these African slaves were being mistreated, whipped, and given little portions of food every day. It was starting to come to the point where they could not take this constant abuse from these slave owners that they felt they needed to do something about it. A lot of these slaves aboard the Amistad were hoping that they could return home to their families but knew that it would be more than impossible for that to happen. Once again according to Abraham he states “ Sengbe used a loose spike he had removed from the deck to unshackle himself and his fellow slaves… Sengbe armed himself and the others with cane knives found in the cargo hold.” ( Abraham, 5)  Sengbe was known in the United States as Joseph Cinque, who was the one who started this revolt on La Amistad and many others followed him. When it comes to a revolt of any kind most of them are planned but in this case, Cinque seems to have not planned this it was just a natural reaction that happened. Since Cinque was able to free himself he then helped others out to get out of their shackles. Once they had freed themselves they took control over the ship and Cinque had ordered Montez ( Spanish Slave Owner) to sail the ship back towards Africa. Montez tried to sail the ship to remain in Cuban waters but due to the weather conditions, the wind actually made the ship sail Northeast which the ship ended up arriving along the United States coastline.


Abraham, Arthur, and the United States. Department of State. Office of International Information
Programs. 1998. The Amistad Revolt: An Historical Legacy of Sierra Leone and the United States. Washington, D.C.]: [U.S. Dept. of State, International Information Programs].

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