Sengbe
Pieh,
the son of a local chief, was born in Mani, Sierra Leone, in about
1815. He became a rice farmer and was married with three children
when he was captured by Spanish slave-traders in 1839. The Spanish,
who gave him the name Joseph Cinque, took him to Cuba
where he was sold to Jose Ruiz.
Ruiz purchased 48 other slaves in Havana and hired Ramon Ferrer to
take him in his schooner Amistad,
to Puerto Principe, a settlement further down the coast of Cuba. On
2nd July, 1839, the slaves, led by Cinque, killed Ramon Ferrer, and
took possession of his ship. Cinque ordered the navigator to take
them back to Africa but after 63 days at sea the ship was intercepted
by Lieutenant Gedney, of the United States brig Washington,
half a mile from the shore of Long Island. The ship was towed into
New London, Connecticut and the Africans were imprisoned in New Haven.
The Spanish government insisted that the mutineers be returned to
Cuba. President Martin van Buren was sympathetic
to these demands but insisted that the men would be first tried for
murder.
Lewis Tappan and James
Pennington took up the African's case and argued that while slavery
was legal in Cuba, importation of slaves from Africa was not. The
judge agreed, and ruled that the Africans had been kidnapped and had
the right to use violence to escape from captivity.
The United States government appealed against this decision and the
case appeared before the Supreme Court.
The former president, John Quincy Adams,
was so moved by the plight of Joseph Cinque
and his fellow Africans, that he volunteered to represent them. Although
now seventy-three, his passionate eight-hour speech won the argument
and the mutineers were released.
Lewis Tappan and the anti-slavery
movement helped fund the return of the 35 surviving Africans to Sierra
Leone. They arrived in January, 1842, along with five missionaries
and teachers who formed a Christian anti-slavery mission in the country.
Cinque discovered that his wife and three children had been killed
while he had been away. He left the mission to do some trading further
down the coast but he never returned. It is not known when or how
he died.
(1)
New York Journal of Commerce (30th August, 1839)
On board the brig we also saw Cinques, the master spirit and hero
of this bloody tragedy, in irons. He is about five feet eight inches
in height, 25 or 26 years of age, of erect figure, well built, and
very active. He is said to be a match for any two men on board the
schooner. His countenance, for a native African, is unusually intelligent,
evincing uncommon decision and coolness, with a composure characteristic
of true courage, and nothing to mark him as a malicious man. He is
a negro who would command in New Orleans, under the hammer, at least
$1500.
He is said, however, to have killed the captain and crew with his
own hand, by cutting their throats. He also has several times attempted
to take the life of Senor Montes, and the backs of several poor negroes
are scored with the scars of blows inflicted by his lash to keep them
in subjection. He expects to be executed, but nevertheless manifests
a sang froid worthy of a Stoic under similar circumstances.
(2) The Colored American (19th October,
1839)
We have seen a wood-cut representation of the royal fellow. It looks
as we think it would. It answers well to his lion-like character.
The head has the towering front of Daniel Webster, and though some
shades darker than our great countryman, we are struck at first sight,
with his resemblance to him. He has Webster’s lion aspect. -
his majestic, quiet, uninterested cast of expression, looking, when
at rest, as if there was nobody and nothing about him to care about
or look at. His eye is deep, heavy - the cloudy iris extending up
behind the brow almost inexpressive, and yet as if volcanoes of action
might be asleep behind it.
The nose and mouth of Cingues are African. We discover the expanded
and powerful nostrils mentioned in the description, and can fancy
readily its contractions and dilations, as he made those addresses
to his countrymen and called upon them to rush, with a greater than
Spartan spirit, upon the countless white people, who he apprehended
would doom them to a life of slavery. He has none of the look of an
Indian - nothing of the savage. It is a gentle, magnanimous, generous
look, not so much of the warrior as the sage - a sparing and not a
destructive look, like the lion’s when unaroused by hunger or
the spear of the huntsman. It must have flashed terribly upon that
midnight deck, when he was dealing with the wretched Ramonflues.
We bid pro-slavery look upon Cingues and behold in him the race we
are enslaving. He is a sample. Every Congolese or Mandingan is not,
be sure, a Cingues. Nor every Yankee a Webster. “Giants are rare,”
said Ames, “and it is forbidden that there should be races of
them.” But call not the race inferior, which in now and then
an age produces such men.
Our shameless people have made merchandise of the likeness of Cingues
- as they have of the originals of his (and their own) countrymen.
They had the effrontery to look him in the face long enough to delineate
it, and at his eye long enough to copy its wonderful expression.
By the way, Webster ought to come home to defend Cingues. There is
indeed no defence to make. It would give Webster occasion to strike
at the slave trade and at our people for imprisoning and trying a
man admitted to have risen only against the worst of pirates, and
for more than life - for liberty, for country and for home.
(3)
The New York Morning Herald reported that one of its readers
had visited Joseph Cinque in prison (18th September, 1839)
Instead of a chivalrous leader with the dignified and graceful bearing
of Othello, imparting energy and confidence to his intelligent and
devoted followers, he saw a sullen, dumpish looking negro, with a
flat nose, thick lips, and all the other characteristics of his debased
countrymen, without a single redeeming or striking trait, except the
mere brute qualities of strength and activity, who had inspired terror
among his companions by the indiscriminate and unsparing use of the
lash. And instead of intelligent and comparatively civilized men,
languishing in captivity and suffering under the restraints of the
prison, he found them the veriest animals in existence, perfectly
contented in confinement, without a ray of intelligence, and sensible
only to the wants of the brute.
(4)
Report of Joseph Cinque's testimony in court, New York Journal
of Commerce (10th January, 1840)
Cinque, the leader of the Africans, was then examined. Cinque told
Captain Gedney he might take the vessel and keep it, if he would send
them to Sierra Leone. His conversation with Captain Gedney was carried
on by the aid of Bernar, who could speak a little English. They had
taken on board part of their supply of water, and wanted to go to
Sierra Leone. They were three and a half months coming from Havana
to this country.
Cross examined by General Isham. Cinque said he came from Mendi. He
was taken in the road where he was at work, by countrymen. He was
not taken in battle. He did not sell himself. He was taken to Lomboko,
where he met the others for the first time. Those who took him - four
men - had a gun and knives. Has three children in Africa. Has one
wife. Never said he had two wives. Can't count the number of days
after leaving Havana before the rising upon the vessel. The man who
had charge of the schooner was killed. Then he and Pepe sailed the
vessel. Witness told Pepe, after Ferrer was killed, to take good care
of the cargo.
The brig fired a gun, and then they gave themselves up. When they
first landed there they were put in prison. Were not chained. They
were chained coming from Africa to Havana, hands and feet. They were
chained also on board the Amistad. Were kept short of provisions.
Were beaten on board the schooner by one of the sailors. When they
had taken the schooner they put the Spaniards down in the hold and
locked them down.
Grabbaung and Fuliwa, two more of the Africans, testified, in the
main, to the same facts as above. Fuliwa stated that Captain Ferrer
killed one of the Africans, Duevi by name, before the Africans killed
him.
(4)
Henry Highland Garnet, speech on slavery in Buffalo, New York (16
August 1843)
Joseph
Cinque, the hero of the Amistad. He was a native African, and
by the help of God he emancipated a whole ship-load of his fellow
men on the high seas. And he now sings of Liberty on the sunny hills
of Africa, and beneath his native palm trees, where he hears the lion
roar, and feels himself as free as that king of the forest.
(5)
James Monroe Whitfield, To Cinque (1853)
All hail! thou truly noble chief,
Who
scorned to live a cowering slave;
Thy
name shall stand on history's leaf,
Amid
the mighty and the brave:
Thy
name shall shine, a glorious light
To
other brave and fearless men,
Who,
like thyself, in freedom's might,
Shall
beard the robber in his den.
Thy
name shall stand on history's page,
And
brighter, brighter, brighter grow,
Throughout
all time, through every age,
Till
bosoms cease to feel or know
"Created
worth, or human woe."
Thy
name shall nerve the patriot's hand
When,
'mid the battle's deadly strife,
The
glittering bayonet and brand
Are
crimsoned with the stream of life:
When
the dark clouds of battle roll,
And
slaughter reigns without control,
Thy
name shall then fresh life impart,
And
fire anew each freeman's heart.
Though
wealth and power their force combine
To
crush thy noble spirit down,
There
is above a power divine
Shall
bear thee up against their frown.
