Slavery in America by Ciara Campbell

Author:Ciara Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Britannica Educational Publishing
Published: 2015-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

A successful revolt by Africans, led by Joseph Cinque, occurred in 1839 on the slave ship Amistad. When the vessel reached Long Island, New York, the Africans went ashore and were charged with murder and mutiny. Their case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, whereby the Africans regained their freedom and were returned to Africa.

A new wave of unrest spread through the South, accompanied by corresponding fear among slaveholders and passage of more repressive legislation directed against both slaves and free blacks. These measures were aimed particularly at restricting the education of blacks, their freedom of movement and assembly, and the circulation of inflammatory printed material.

Although the slave rebellion known as the Amistad mutiny occurred on a slave ship off the coast of Cuba in the summer of 1839, the 53 African captives who revolted were captured and tried in the United States after their ship entered U.S. waters. Their legal victory in 1840 in a federal court in Connecticut, where slavery was still legal due to gradual abolition, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the following year. With help from abolitionist and missionary groups, the Africans returned home to Sierra Leone in 1842.

In the decades preceding the American Civil War, increasing numbers of discontented slaves escaped to the North or to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Publicity in the North concerning black rebellions and the influx of fugitive slaves helped to arouse wider sympathy for the plight of the slave and support for the abolition movement.

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