Amistad A Long Road to Freedom

In 1839, the slave ship "Amistad" set sail from Havana, Cuba. She was bound for Puerto Principe. Along the way, the captives she was carrying, led by Sengbe Pieh, rebelled against the slavers, killed the captain, and siezed control of the ship. They attempted to sail to Africa but instead wound up in the United States, where they were imprisoned and put on trial. As the case unfolded, what had at first appeared to be a slave rebellion proved to be a much more complicated matter. In fact, the captives had never been slaves--they had been illegally kidnapped from Africa. But it took three long years and several court trials before they were finally able to return home. The fight for the freedom of the African men and children of the "Amistad" received national attention as abolisionists took on the cause. Artists painted their portraits; poets wrote about them. It was an event that brought our country face-to-face with its position on slavery. For the first time in American history, the nation saw black men who had not been raised as slaves, who had never learned to be subservient, who were leaders. Using historic photographs, sketches, newspaper accounts, and correspondence, award-wining author Walter Dean Myers powerfully documents the "Amistad" captives' long struggle for freedom.