Product Description

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 Cinque 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #496750 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-20
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Library Journal
In this well-crafted narrative Jones has fleshed out what was heretofore a footnote in the history of the American antislavery movement. The cause of the small band of black slaves who had mutinied during transport off Cuba and eventually washed up on Long Island (1839) temporarily united disparate factions of the fledgling abolitionist movement. Besides raising fundamental legal questions about the relevance of slavery and race to the American conception of liberty, the Amistad affair adversely affected relations between the United States and Spain and forced President Van Buren into improper interference with the judicial process. A key volume for scholars of 19th-century America and for specialists in the abolitionist movement. Thomas E. Schott, Office of History, Engineering Installation Division, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A nearly flawless historical study of an important episode in American diplomatic, legal, political, and ethnic history; Mutiny on the Amistad raises important questions in all of these fields and is highly recommended reading."--Journal of American Ethnic History
"Mutiny on the Amistad is based on thorough research and provides excellent and detailed coverage of its subject. It makes important contributions both to the history of slavery and to abolition, especially on the legal aspects of each."--Journal of Southern History
"[A] well-documented study of the Amistad affair....Lively."--The New York Review of Books
"An analysis of an important moment in American history that casts a light upon politics and society during the preceding half-century, back to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and similarly illumines the approaching Civil War."--The National Review
"An impressive piece of work....A well organized book, handsomely illustrated, generously documented....Valuable and illuminating."--Civil War History
"A rousing and satisfying tale, and it is well worth hearing it again in this careful and thoughtful telling."--American Heritage

About the Author

Howard Jones is Professor of History at the University of Alabama and author of The Course of American Diplomacy and To the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.

Customer Reviews

Really Poor!
Pay close attention to the other reviewer's comments. This IS one dry, boring book. And that is a shame because this event is a signal event in the course of our Nation's history. This 1839 mutiny by black Africans aboard a Spanish slave ship resulted in a trial before the US Supreme Court that pitted former President John Quincy Adams, who came out of retirement to defend the Africans, against the federal government. Importantly, this trial was held during the time in which the Gag Rule was in effect within the United States Congress, i.e., it was illegal to simply speak about slavery within Congress.

It is a shame that this, the most famous and compelling slavery case before Dred Scott, is dealt with so poorly in this book

Great story robbed of its impact
Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy by Howard Jones.

In July 1839, a group of Africans that had been illegally imported into Cuba used violence to take over the Amistad while it was transporting them from Havana to Puerto Príncipe. In August, the Amistad and the Africans were seized off Long Island. These events set off a judicial, legislative, and diplomatic battle that would not be completely resolved until the Civil War ended slavery in the United States. Mutiny on the Amistad looks at the laws, issues, and people involved in this landmark case.

The key questions are: Who has jurisdiction over the case? Are the Africans legally slaves? If so, who has the rights to them? Are they "salvage," like the Amistad? Will the case worsen the relations with Spain and strengthen Great Britain's claims in Cuba? Will it become the catalyst the abolitionists need to give them and their cause credibility with the northern public? And how will Martin Van Buren's administration deal with such a controversial case in a re-election year?

While the case attracted the attention of abolitionists like Arthur and Lewis Tappan and John Quincy Adams; the administration of Martin Van Buren and even those of some of his successors; and several governments, including those of Spain and Great Britain, Jones's repetitive treatment of the story robs it of much of its drama. For example, he makes the declarative statement that the Van Buren administration's focus was solely on re-election and ensuring the Amistad case did not interfere with that objective more than a dozen times. Some of the primary source quotes do not seem well selected to expand upon the contemporary view; in too many cases, quotes consist of one or two words, such as "gross injustice," that are too out of context or are such common expressions that they become meaningless. The best quotes come, not from the case or the participants, but from the various southern, northern, and abolitionist publications; these headlines reveal contemporary perceptions, beliefs, and biases. As for the participants, the only voice that seems to express any passion is that of John Quincy Adams, who is clearly emotional about the abolitionist cause.

In the meantime, the voices of Joseph Cinqué and the rest of the Africans-the subjects of the entire controversy-are heard only rarely, primarily through letters to the abolitionists complaining about the poor conditions they are subjected to in prison. It is not clear if this is because their testimony was generally deemed irrelevant (they seldom speak for themselves) or if their feelings and thoughts are poorly documented because of the language and literacy barriers they initially face. Jones does try to interject them periodically, but during the long passages in which they are missing the reader feels as though the case has become an exercise in legal argument without victims.

Ultimately, it is not clear what the Amistad case accomplished. For many in the north, Cinqué and the other Africans are objects of both curiosity and sympathy, but it is not apparent that the Amistad case significantly advanced the cause of abolition-in itself an irony since Cinqué and company were never legally slaves (one point that the courts and even the district attorney agree upon). Jones asserts that the case raised public awareness of the conflict between natural law (such as man's right to freedom and to kill to obtain it) and positive law (such as that enabling slavery and preventing slaves from rebelling). The scope of Jones's research and quotations, save those from newspapers, does not support this; there is little presented to show that the case was discussed every day in ballrooms, parlors, and bars or that the general public's perception was permanently altered. What is clear, however, is the racism that is prevalent throughout. Even some of the abolitionists, most of whom are spiritual leaders who find slavery an abomination against God, do not consider Africans their equals.

The facts of the case are all here, along with much of the background. Some of the conclusions seem incomplete. Throughout, one gets the impression this could have been a shorter, more succinct, and, more importantly, a more dramatic and tightly argued book had Jones or his editor cut the repetitions, redundancies, and minutiae and focused on a more cohesive discussion of the relevant specifics of the case and its effects on the public, the U.S. government, and policy. As it is, in Jones's hands this case appears less interesting and less important historically than it probably was, and even the source of all this, Cinqué and his comrades, lose their three-dimensionality-their humanity, as it were. If you are interested in the Amistad case and in the story of the abolitionist movement, this is probably a must-read-but don't stop here.

Diane L. Schirf, 16 February 2004.

Dry, but informative.
I saw the movie, and it performed its function well: it piqued my interest. But, of course, being a dramatization, it was not bound by little things like facts; it took the basic story, and made it as interesting and dramatic as possible.

This caused me to develop an interest in the subject, and a curiosity as to what the actual truth of the story was, and this book served admirably to answer that question.

If you're interested in an entertaining story that has drama, characterization, and closure, see the movie. But if you're interested in historical facts, and literal truth rather than symbolic truth, read this book.