Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy by Howard Jones

Abstract

Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and It's Impact on Amer- ican Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy, By Howard Jones. Oxford: Oxford Uni- versity Press. 1987. Pp.ix, 271. Mutiny On The Amistad, is an account of how a shipload of African cap- tives one day appeared in New York harbor and confronted the American nation with the issue of slavery and the rights of Blacks. The book presents a step-by-step view of the preceeding turmoil among the American government, the Spanish government, the abolitionists who defended the captives, and the southern slaveowners. Chapter one gives a historical perspective of the circumstances which led to the Amistad's appearance in New York harbor in the summer of 1839. The Amistad captives were taken from Africa to Cuba in violation of Spanish law which forbad slave trading, but not slavery within Cuba. Once in Cuba, the slaves were sold to the owners and operators of the Amistad. On July 1, 1839, the captives led by Joseph Cinque, revolted and took control of the ship. They intended to have the ship return them back to Af- rica, however, due to their lack of navigational skills they had to rely on their new captives to sail the ship. The captain by day sailed the ship toward Africa but at night he turned the ship in a northernly direction towards the American coast. After nearly two months of zig-zagging, an American patrol ship seized the Amistad which was anchored off the coast of Long Island, N.Y. What followed was the judicial turmoil which Jones dedicated most of the book to analyze. Chapter two characterizes the effort of the abolitionists to use the Amis- tad case as an emotional arena to debate the issue of slavery. The two Spanish shipowners petitioned the U.S. government to return their property at once. The abolitionists were determined to establish that Black persons, irrespective of color, were human beings and thus were entitled to certain rights. The abolitionists attempted to appeal to the religious and moral ideals of the na- tion. They felt that before emancipation was achieved, they first had to evan- gelize the nation. The Amistad case presented a forum to force the nation to confront the horror of slavery. However strong the abolitionists' effort, they still were not able to curb the strong sentiment of racism even among themselves. Chapter three characterizes the turmoil which President Van Buren's ad- ministration was faced with. The abolitionists pleaded with him not to use executive authority to turn the ship, cargo, and captives over to Spain. The southerners demanded that the U.S. government stay out of Spanish law and turn the captives over to Spain. President Van Buren, thinking of reelection, took a laissez-faire attitude on the issue. His administration feared that whatever stand they took would offend some of their constituents. So they sat back and stayed soft on the issues and hoped that time would let the matter blow over. Chapter four presents the first trial along the road toward ultimately se- curing the release and freedom of the Amistad captives. Their strategy was to petition the court for three separate writs of habeas corpus to secure the re- lease of three young girls who were not involved in the bloody mutiny and thus had no reason to be detained. The abolitionists hoped that if the writs