What happened to Amistad Africans?
The Africans were declared free men. But most Americans were very racist towards black people at the time. The Southern States of America still relied on slaves as labour on the cotton and tobacco plantations. Slavery would only be abolished in the US after a bloody civil war. This broke out in 1861. However, the abolitionists who had fought for the freedom of the Africans raised enough money to buy a ship so that Cinque and his countrymen could return to their homes. 17 of the 53 Africans from the Amistad never made it home as they had died in the prisons that they had been kept in for two years. In January 1842, more than two years after their ordeal had begun, the Africans arrived at Freetown, Sierra Leone. It is a sad and almost unbelievable fact that after fighting for his freedom and getting back home, Cinque started work … as a slave trader.
