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

by Howard Jones

This volume presents the first full-scale treatment of the only instance in history where African blacks, seized by slave dealers, won their freedom and returned home. Jones describes how, in 1839, Joseph Cinqué led a revolt on the Spanish slave ship, the Amistad , in the Caribbean. The seizure of the ship by an American naval vessel near Montauk, Long Island, the arrest of the Africans in Connecticut, and the Spanish protest against the violation of their property rights created an international controversy.
The Amistad affair united Lewis Tappan and other abolitionists who put the "law of nature" on trial in the United States by their refusal to accept a legal system that claimed to dispense justice while permitting artificial distinctions based on race or color. The mutiny resulted in a trial before the U.S. Supreme Court that pitted former President John Quincy Adams against the federal government. Jones vividly recaptures this compelling drama--the most famous slavery case before Dred Scott--that climaxed in the court's ruling to free the captives and allow them to return to Africa.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Law

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 1987

About the author

A specialist in the history of American foreign policy, Howard Jones was Distinguished University Research Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama.

Reviews

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book ought to have been titled, The Complete Legal Struggle Involving the Amistad Mutiny Case and Its Ramifications on the American Cause for Abolition of Slavery. It is an interesting and factually detailed book from that perspective, and very informative. However, the mutiny and mutineers are only involved when some legal plea or other involves them. I, personally, wanted to know more of the bloody details of the revolt, and the personalities behind the slave rebellion on the Amistad. Joseph Cinque, the leader of the mutineers, should have been more fully realized as a historical person--he may have been fascinating and magnetic, but the book barely describes him. And it does not really discuss what happened when the (spoiler) Amistad rebels were returned to Sierra Leone--is there any record of what happened to them beyond that? If so, this book does not tell.

Again, an interesting historical read of the legal case involving the Amistad. But only that.

[Erica Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very balanced examination of the Amistad affair that began in 1839 after the blacks aboard the Amistad ship revolted against their Spanish captors. What ensued was a very long, complicated battle over whether the blacks were slaves and subject to return to Spain under Pinckney's Treaty, or whether they were free men who had rightfully escaped their oppressors. While the final verdict did not secure the victory the abolitionists were clearly looking for, it did feed into greater discussions about natural law versus positive law.

Jones painstakingly followed every up and down this case had to offer. Sometimes the level of detail was excessive, but I can understand how documenting a significant historical event like this one requires precision. This was a very educational and interesting book to read!

[Jacob Lines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so much that I sent it along as my contribution to a family book exchange that my siblings did a few years ago. My non-lawyer brother called several days later and told me that he was reading it, and it made him feel like he was right there in the courtroom as things happened. I was pleased, because that was my favorite thing about the book. “Yep,” he said, “like I’m sittin’ right there, listening to every excruciating detail of every legal argument the lawyers made.” I guess that is a revealing reaction to the book. As a lawyer, I loved it. Perhaps non-lawyers won’t.
As you probably already know, the Amistad was a Spanish slave ship that was taking a load of slaves and farming supplies to the Caribbean when the recently-enslaved Africans got some of the farming supplies (cane knives) and took over the ship. They killed all but two of the crew, because they needed someone to sail the ship for them. The surviving sailors sailed the ship slowly east while the sun was up, and the Africans could tell which direction they were going, and then went as quickly to the northwest as they could as soon as the sun set. They eventually ended up off the coast of New York. That is when the legal proceedings started, as different crews of ships tried to claim the ship and its cargo as their own.
The whole affair blew up as abolitionists heard of it and funded a legal battle to win the freedom of the Africans. The political and legal landscape was fraught with difficulty for such an argument, though. President Van Buren’s Democratic Party could only survive if slavery were kept off the national agenda, so he worked mightily to get the case to go away quietly, even preparing to ship the Africans off immediately after a court decision so that no appeal could be taken. The Spanish government was involved, pleading the cause of its citizens that were accused of illegally trading slaves. John Quincy Adams, formerly president and now a member of Congress, got involved to argue the case before the United States Supreme Court. It is a tale worth reading.
The great deficiency in this book is the voice of the Africans. They were the center of the controversy but we don’t hear much from them at all. I don’t know if it is possible to tell their story at this point – I don’t know what kind of historical record was made about them personally. If someone were able to piece together their life histories, I would buy that book in a flash. That is missing from this book, but what the book does, it does well enough to be more than worth a read.

[Peregrine 12 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book completely changed my view American history related to slavery. It took a lot of my preconceived ideas of slaves, slavers, slave society, and stood them on their heads. (So much more to it all than what little we learned in public high school!)

The most important thing I got from reading this book was something like a two-sided coin: on one hand, everyone took part in the slave trade, not just white colonists/Americans; on the other hand, opposition to slavery came from all sides, *including* white colonists/Americans, and especially from the Christian coalition of the time. The British were among the first to condemn international slave trade, and President Van Buren proved himself, in my eyes, to be one of the most selfish and corrupt men in American history.

In the end, the truth prevailed. Not even an entire, corrupt system could withstand it. Yeah, I learned a lot from reading this book.

[James McCormick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief telling of the mutiny on the Amistad. Most of the book deals with the aftermath. Detailed review of 19th century slave law in America and Spain, along with how the courts interpreted the law and how people on both sides of the issue - up to the president of the United States - tried to influence the outcome, both inside and out of the law.

It's not an easy read by any means. It feels written both by and for law students. Doing so, if read carefully, provides considerable insight into how the respective courts came to their decisions.

I am glad they made a movie about it, because the dramatization compliments the dry legal story well.

[Michele Ongele Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book on the history of African Americans. Read for African American History class.

[Gary Schantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was very good but a bit dense by way of the numerous different positions that both the defense and the government argued the Amistad case to the Supreme Court.

[Dwight Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent book on a fascinating topic, this covers the legal and political machinations behind the case of the Amistad. It does not attempt to delve into the human side of the story of who these Africans were, how the experience felt from their perspective and what happened to them after they returned to Africa. However, what it does recount is the complexity of intentions of the other various parties -- abolitionists, Spanish slavers, the Van Buren administration which had a strong Southern slave-holding base in its coalition, the Spanish government, local judges and administrators, the Navy officer and private citizens separately suing for "salvage" of the ship and it's "cargo" and ultimately the Supreme Court. The legal arguments of each of these actors is traced with subtlety and detail. The African mutineers themselves, even the impressive Cinque, the central character of the Amistad movie, are for the most part sidelined, likely because they did not leave the same kind of written trail and this is a history book, not a novel.

One fascinating detail that stood out for me was that a key point of evidence in the case was linguistic one. The proof that the mutineers were kidnapped and carried to Cuba after the transatlantic slave trade had been made illegal was that the three young girls among them spoke only Mende and no Spanish. A native Mende speaker found among the crew of a British ship in New York met with the Africans in jail, and testified about their origin. The significance of this testimony was backed up and explained by a Yale professor of Linguistics. This Supreme Court ruled that this evidence took precedent over the falsified documents the slavers had gotten in Havana attesting that they were "domesticated" slaves who had arrived in Cuba over a decade earlier.

In the end it seems the significance of the Amistad case is not that it was a resounding victory for Justice and the Natural Rights of Mankind -- unfortunately, it wasn't. At best it was an ambiguous outcome for a thorny legal case that most of those in power just wanted to go away. The Supreme Court decision in favor of the mutineers did not proclaim that slavery is a wrong and human beings cannot be property, but rather that technically speaking they were not legally slaves in the first place. Given that the court majority were Southerners, the outcome could well have been worse and perhaps it moved the needle of public opinion ever so slightly.

This book is not the inspirational page turner that one might wish it could be. It's a bit of a slog, and to some extent, it seems to assume the reader knows more about the law than I ever want to. For instance, the fact that "suing for libel" in this case refers to a marine salvage claim rather than spreading lies is something I had to find from Wikipedia not a simple footnote. What it is, however, is a clear-eyed, well researched account that, for this reader, impressed me with just how twisted and intractable the social and legal realities of the American "slave question" in the 1840s were. History is not simple, but it is edifying.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is good about this book is that it lays out a little known (until they turned it into a movie) event in US history, which is the only time enslaved African took over a slaving vessel, won their freedom, and were able to return home. It is critical that such history, in all its detail, be remembered, understood, and honored.

But as someone who does not care about the minutiae of legal matters, this book was exhausting. It reports on every (and I mean EVERY) twist and turn, every opinion, every document filed, every public opinion voiced, every lawyer or politician who got involved, every judge who made a minor or major decision that shifted anything. It was as dry as anything I have ever read, and I have never in my life had to work so hard to make myself finish a book.

The one thing that this book was hardly about was the Africans. They are only barely present, which is a disappointment. It truly is a book about the legal case to free them.

[Joseph Durham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The movie made upon this historical event was stirring and moving. By the necessities of the clock, directors are challenged to present the entire historical record on the movie screen. Books written about events usually will portray a more detailed and nuanced picture. Howard Jones book does that very well. The clash of ideas, controversies, and personalities in this drama mirrors is some ways the passions of our times. That is what makes learning and reading about history worthwhile. For further reading here is a link to John Quincy Adams' presentation before the Supreme Court in this case by the Avanlon Project: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_cent...

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Others have compared this book to a dissertation and it definitely reads academic. There may be more recently written books about the kidnapping of Mende men and children and the long legal battle to free them that might be more digestible. However, if you study international law, maritime law, the history of freedom suits, resistance struggles, the abolition movement of the 1840s, and antebellum American politics, this book is full of valuable information.

[Valzebub · Rating 2 out of 5]

A more appropriate title would be "The Complete Legal Proceedings surrounding the Amistad Affair". If you want a deep and repetitive dive into the legal actions that followed the Amistad being found off the US coast, grab this book.

[Miles Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a clinical history that is nonetheless a slog to read. All the pertinent information is present, but the writing is disappointing. I skimmed through the last 25 pages. Its a work that historians may find useful, but laypeople will probably be better served by Marcus Rediker's book.

[Lyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an alright book. I think if I had chosen to read it myself it would have been more interesting. But in this case I had to read it for a class. I then watched the movie which made me appreciate the book more. It was full of facts (the book, that is) and many dates and it just seemed like everything was being repeated constantly, even from chapter to chapter.

[Fredrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good true story of what happened to a group of Africans when the the slave ship that they were cargo on is captured by the navy. It gives a good view of the American system at the time in regards to slavery.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Amistad was a slave ship carrying slaves to the United States. The black cargo overpowered the slavers and took control. When caputured, the case went before the Supreme Court with a future president defending the blacks.

[Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book. It particularly goes at length into the legal manuvering and a very left handed Supreme Court decision that reflected the inconsistency of the time. Its a very interesting study. I recommend it highly.

[Desmund Gaskin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its really good i wanted to read this book because i had watch the movie so i wanted to read the book and its good so far.

[Jacob Lessem · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine history book. Well researched. Very dated language.

Not a particularly riveting read.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great professor. Great book.