The 1839 Amistad Captives in Cuba: A Legal Battle for Freedom

Before the famous Supreme Court case, the Amistad captives spent months in a Connecticut jail while lawyers fought over their fate. This episode follows the men and women who were kidnapped from West Africa, sold in Havana, and seized control of the schooner La Amistad in July 1839. We trace their journey from the barracoons of Lomboko to the trial that captivated America — and the unlikely alliance of abolitionists and former president John Quincy Adams that secured their freedom. We explore the roles of Spanish slavers José Ruiz and Pedro Montez, the U.S. Navy officers who claimed salvage, and the interpreter James Covey, whose testimony broke the case apart. And we reflect on what the ruling — and its aftermath — meant for the enslaved and for the nation on the eve of civil war. #Amistad #SengbePieh #Cinqué #LaAmistad #JohnQuincyAdams #MiddlePassage #AtlanticSlaveTrade #Cuba #Abolitionism #1839 #SupremeCourt #SlaveRevolt #USHistory #MaritimeLaw #JamesCovey #Lomboko #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo