The Amistad Rebellion (42 page)

17
. “Ruiz and Montez,”
NYCA
, October 18, 1839. The phrase in pidgin English used by Liberated Africans in Freetown to describe a proud person such as Cinqué is recorded in Robert Clarke,
Sierra Leone: A Description of the Manners and Customs of the Liberated Africans; with Observations upon the Natural History of the Colony, and a Notice of the Native Tribes
(London: James Ridgway, 1843), 11.

18
.
Farmer’s Cabinet
, November 19, 1841; Joseph Sturge,
A Visit To The United States In 1841
(London, 1842), Appendix E, xliv; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC. Cinqué later remarked, “The cook could not speak the Mendi language but used some words that they could understand.” See “African Testimony,”
NYJC
, January 10, 1840.

19
. Marcus Rediker,
The Slave Ship: A Human History
(New York: Viking-Penguin, 2007), 266–69.

20
. W. T. Harris and Harry Sawyerr,
The Springs of Mende Belief: A Discussion of the Influence of the Belief in the Supernatural Among the Mende
(Freetown: University of Sierra Leone Press, 1968), 83; Jones, 185; Anthony J. Gittins,
Mende Religion: Aspects of Belief and Thought in Sierra Leone
(Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1987), 122.

21
. “Mendis Perform,”
NYMH
, May 13, 1841; “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839; “The Amistad,”
NLG
,
October 16, 1839.

22
. “Narrative,”
NYJC
, October 10, 1839; “Mendis Perform,”
NYMH
, May 13, 1841;
Youth’s Cabinet
, May 20, 1841.

23
. “Private Examination of Cinquez,”
NYCA
, September 13, 1839; Barber, 13; “The Mendians,”
Vermont Chronicle
, June 8, 1842.

24
. “Correspondence of the Journal of Commerce,”
NYJC
, July 25, 1839. This evidence was provided by the two sailors, Manuel Padilla and Jacinto Verdaque, after they jumped overboard and managed to get back to Havana. There is no evidence that the abolitionists knew of the revolt aboard the
Teçora
, and it is not hard to imagine why the Africans would not have mentioned it to them. It is possible that the revolt led to executions of their fellow rebels and shipmates in Havana, and that this was why they feared the place ever after. For background on slave ship revolts, see Eric Robert Taylor,
If We Must Die: Shipboard Insurrections in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006).

25
. Barber, 11; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC. Faquorna is an especially important figure, as is clear in the narrative of the rebellion above. Unfortunately he died soon after the
Amistad
was towed into New London. Therefore much less is known about him than about many of the others. On Grabeau’s background, see
Vermont Chronicle
, June 8, 1842; Testimony of Antonio, United States District Court, January 9, 1840, NAB. It seems likely that the plot was planned by the prisoners kept belowdecks, for those on the main deck, near the crew, would have been more limited in their ability to talk among themselves.

26
. “Narrative,”
NYJC
, October 10, 1839. Kinna also claimed, “We break chain.” See “Mendis Perform,”
NYMH
, May 13, 1841; “Anniversaries—Amistad Freemen,”
Youth’s Cabinet
, May 20, 1841; Barber, 11; “The Amistad Negroes,”
Farmer’s Cabinet
, November 19, 1841; “The Amistad Captives,”
Liberator
, November 19, 1841.

27
. “African Testimony,”
NYJC
, January 10, 1840; “The Case of the Africans Decided for the Present—Habeas Corpus not Sustained,”
NYMH
, September 25, 1839. The oral history of the event maintained that Celestino screamed, waking the rest of the crew. It seems that Antonio’s account is more credible on this point as he witnessed the event while those who gave the oral history may not have.

28
. “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS,
August 31, 1839; “Case,”
NYMH
, September
22, 1839; “The Amistad,”
NLG,
October 16, 1839; “The Case of the Captured Negroes,”
NYMH
, September 9, 1839. Richard Robert Madden wrote in October 1839: “There was much merchandize also on board, and amongst the rest a package of swords or machetes as they are called, which are used for cutting down canes. The female negroes of the party, true to their sex, indulged their curiosity in examining the contents of various packages around them whenever there was an opportunity, and faithful also to the communicative character of the fair part of humanity, they imparted the information they had acquired to their male friends, and the latter true to themselves, and faithful to one bold man among them who became their chief, they acted on it.” The so-called female negroes were the three little girls—Margru, Kagne, and Teme—who used their intelligence, their ability to range freely, and their ability to communicate to find the cane knives and inform their male shipmates of the location, thereby making the successful rebellion possible. See Madden to A. Blackwood, Esq., October 3, 1839, Correspondence from Dr. R.R. Madden, Mr. D.R. Clarke, and the Foreign Office relating to the removal of the Liberated Africans from Cuba, 1839, Colonial Office (CO) 318/146, NA. The oral history suggested that the knives were found before the rebellion began, but this seems unlikely, for it also noted that Cinqué killed Celestino with a “billet of wood.” It is inconceivable that a Mende warrior would have used a club if a cane knife had been available.

29
. Interview of Antonio, “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839.

30
. Kale to John Quincy Adams, January 4, 1841, John Quincy Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. Fuli stated, “Capt. Ferrer killed one of the Africans, Duevi by name, before the Africans killed him.” See “African Testimony,”
NYJC
, January 10, 1840. Kinna later alleged that Captain Ferrer had killed two of the Africans. One of them, unnamed, seems to have died later of wounds inflicted by Captain Ferrer.

31
. “Mendis Perform,”
NYMH
, May 13, 1841. Ruiz: “The cabin boy said they had killed only the captain and cook. The other two he said had escaped in the canoe—a small boat.” See “The Captured Slaves,”
NYMH
, September 2, 1839.

32
. “Mendis Perform,”
NYMH
, May 13, 1841.

33
. Testimony of Antonio, January 9, 1840, United States District Court, NAB.

34
. “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839; “The Negroes of the Amistad,”
New Hampshire Sentinel
, October 2, 1839. According to the oral history as mediated by Hannah Moore, “the ocean reverberated with the yells and frantic dances of a savage clan.” See Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC.

35
. “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839; “Case,”
NYMH
, September 22, 1839.

36
. Testimony of Antonio, United States District Court, NAB; “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839; Barber, 11; “Superior Court,”
NYMH
, October 24, 1839.

37
. “The Case of the Africans Decided,”
NYMH
, September 25, 1839. Antonio also wanted Burna to hold his money; he gave it to him “tied up in a stocking.” See “Herald on Amistad Trial,”
NYMH
, November 21, 1839.

38
. Antonio, “Case,”
NYMH
, September 22, 1839; “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839.

39
. Testimony of Antonio; Testimony of Kinna, November 19, 1839, U.S. District Court, NAB.

40
. Antonio, “Case,”
NYMH
, September 22, 1839; “The Amistad,”
NLG
,
October 16, 1839. The body of Celestino had apparently been thrown overboard soon after the rebellion ended.

41
. Much of the evidence in this section comes from the extraordinarily long and detailed account of the post-rebellion voyage written by José Ruiz and Pedro Montes, especially the latter, who was navigating the vessel the entire time. This 6,600-word account originally appeared on the Spanish-language newspaper
Noticioso de Ambos Mundos.
It was translated into English and republished in the
NLG
on October 16, 1839. I have relied on the latter version, supplementing it with other evidence where possible. The
Amistad
Africans said little about the voyage.

42
. “Case,”
NYMH
, September 22, 1839.

43
. “The Amistad,”
NLG
, October 16, 1839. The long account provided by Montes and Ruiz described extensive communication between the two Spaniards and the Africans, made possible by Antonio’s ability to translate and interpret.

44
. “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839.

45
. Lewis Tappan to Joseph Sturge, November 15, 1841, reprinted in Sturge,
Visit
, Appendix E, xlvi.

46
. “The Amistad African Appearance,”
NYCA
, September 4, 1839. The story was repeated in
A True History of the African Chief Jingua and his Comrades. With a Description of the Kingdom of Mandingo, and of the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants.—An Account of King Sharka, of Gallinas. A Sketch of the Slave Trade and Horrors of the Middle Passage; with the Proceedings on Board the “Long, Low, Black Schooner,” Amistad
. (Hartford, New York, and Boston, 1839), 11.

47
. “The Amistad,”
NLG
, October 16, 1839; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC.

48
.
Ibid.

49
. “The Amistad,”
NLG
, October 16, 1839.

50
. For a survey of the history and arts of Mami Wata, see Henry John Drewal,
Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diaspora
(Los Angeles: Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2008). On Mende water spirits, see M. C. Jedrej, “An Analytical Note on the Land and Spirits of the Sewa Mende,”
Africa: Journal of the International Africa Institute
44 (1974): 40–41. The suggestion that irons and chains were thrown overboard is based on the fact that none of the several post-rebellion inventories of the
Amistad
disclosed their presence on the vessel.

51
. “The Amistad,”
NLG
, October 16, 1839.

52
. Testimony of Henry Green, November 19, 1839, U.S. District Court, Connecticut, NAB.

53
. “The Amistad,”
NLG
, October 16, 1839.

54
.
NLG
, August 28, 1839; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC.

55
. “Case,”
NYMH
, September 22, 1839; J. M. Harris, “Some Remarks on the Origin, Manners, Customs, and Superstitions of the Gallinas People of Sierra Leone.”
Memoirs Read Before the Anthropological Society of London, 1865–1866
(London: Published for the Anthropological Society, by Trubner and Co., 1866), vol. II, 26.

56
. Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC. At this point the oral history maintained that the Africans “approach[ed] New Haven and anchor[ed].” They probably thought of New Haven as the entire region rather than a city per se.

57
. “The Amistad,”
NLG
, October 16, 1839.

58
. Ibid.

59
. Testimony of Green. Lewis Tappan reported on another interview with Henry Green in “To the Committee,”
NYJC
, September 10, 1839.

60
. Testimony of Green.

61
. The white men had probably seen the article, “A Suspicious Sail—a Pirate,”
NYMH
, August 24, 1839.

62
. Testimony of Green; Testimony of Cinqué, January 8, 1840, Records of the U.S. District and Circuit Courts, NAB.

63
. “Case of the Amistad,”
Charleston Courier
, November 26, 1839; Testimony of Captain Fordham; Testimony of Green, Records of the U.S. District and Circuit Courts, NAB; “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839.

64
. Testimony of Cinqué, January 8, 1840, U.S. District Court, Connecticut, NAB; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852, ARC.

65
. Rough transcript of the first day’s testimony in district court at Hartford, Conn., Coll. 247—box 1, folder 6, Andrew T. Judson Papers, Coll. 247, f. 4, Manuscripts Collection, G. W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut.

66
. Testimony of Dr. Sharp, n.d., Records of the U.S. District and Circuit Courts for the District of Connecticut: Documents Relating to the Various Cases Involving the Spanish Schooner Armistad, NAB.

67
. Libel of Thomas R. Gedney, Records of the U.S. District and Circuit Courts, NAB. There was disagreement about the number of men on shore when the brig Washington arrived on the scene. The lowest estimate was 8–9, the highest 30. Most of the eyewitnesses, three of the white men and Antonio, put the number around 20.

68
. Depositions of James Ray and George W. Pierce, December 1839, Records of the U.S. District and Circuit Courts, NAB.

69
. Testimony of Lt. Richard Meade, November 19, 1839, Records of the U.S. District and
Circuit Courts, NAB; “The Low Black Schooner Captured,”
NYJC
, August 28, 1839; “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839.

70
. “The Long, Low Black Schooner,”
NYS
, August 31, 1839; Moore to Harned, October 12, 1852. The
Sun
printed these speeches separately, with images of Cinqué, and sold them in the streets as broadsides and handbills.

71
.
NLG
, September 4, 1839.

72
.
NLG
, August 28, 1839.