Why was the Amistad so famous?
LA AMISTAD La Amistad (Spanish: “Friendship”) was a 19th-century two-masted schooner of about 120 tons’ displacement. Built in the United States, La Amistad was originally named Friendship but was renamed after being purchased by a Spaniard. La Amistad became a symbol in the movement to abolish slavery, after a group of African captives aboard revolted, and were subsequently recaptured and sold into slavery, resulting in a legal battle over their legal status.
Reason # 1 it was so famous because it drew the lines more sharply between North and South, hardening both sides against any compromise, and strengthened the anti slavery movement, which in the end brought about armed conflict between the states. Reason # 2 was because the case went all the way to the supreme court. It started out as a straight-forward property rights dispute about who owned the passengers, and ended up determining that the passengers were born free men, were enslaved illegally (captured in a British territory where slavery was illegal) and therefore were never slaves and had to be freed and returned to Africa if they wished! Most slaves already here were the children of slaves and this decision did not affect them. Also the Africans on this slave ship revolted against their captors, killing 2 of the crew and not knowing how to navigate the boat, ended up accidentally in US waters. So another angle in the case was should they be tried for murder. But with the decision
