United States V. The Amistad - Legacy

Legacy

Some of the laws related to the Amistad case were:

• It had been illegal to import slaves into United States since 1808;
• Slaves were legally recognized as property in Connecticut until 1848;
• The United States had a treaty with Spain (Pinckney's Treaty of 1795) that stated if a vessel of either nation was forced to enter the other's ports, that ship would be released immediately;
• Spain outlawed slavery in 1811;
• Spanish law made it legal to keep slaves if they were born before 1820;
• Ships and property found helpless at sea were subject to claims (salvage rights) made by those who rescued them.

Applicable as it was to the issues of slavery and abolitionism, the Amistad case gained a measure of renown. A number of memorials and commemorations were instituted.

• A statue of Cinqué was erected beside the City Hall building in New Haven, Connecticut.
• A version of the events described here was made into a movie called Amistad in 1997. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams, Morgan Freeman as one of the abolitionists, Djimon Hounsou as Cinqué, and Matthew McConaughey as Roger Sherman Baldwin, their lawyer. This film also depicts the initial transport of the slaves from Africa to Cuba, showing the brutality of treatment.
• In March 2000, a replica of La Amistad was launched from Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut. Its mission is to educate the public on the history of slavery, discrimination and civil rights. The vessel's current home port is New Haven, Connecticut, where the Amistad Trial took place. The ship also travels to port cities for educational opportunities. The official name of the vessel is Freedom Schooner Amistad.
• The Connecticut Historical Society of Hartford, Connecticut, offers a multi-media exhibit recreating portions of the Amistad story, from its beginning in the Mendi villages of West Africa, to the return of 36 captives years later. School programs are offered.
• The Historical Society of Farmington, Connecticut, offers walking tours of village houses that housed the Africans while funds were collected for their return home, as well as the gravestone of Foone, who drowned in the Farmington River.
• Similarly, the Oberlin Heritage Center (Oberlin, Ohio) provides tours of the one-room schoolhouse where Sarah Margru Kinson, one of the Amistad captives, studied beginning in August 1846, at the suggestion of abolitionist Lewis Tappan.