10 powerful times enslaved Africans rebelled to show that slavery was not a choice

Amistad, 1839 

This widely documented and written about revolt of Mende slaves aboard a ship from Sierra Leone to Havana, Cuba is one of the most powerful proofs that slavery was not a choice.

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In July 1839, enslaved Africans aboard the Spanish ship, La Amistad, took control of the ship, killing some of the crew and ordering the survivors to sail the ship to Africa. The Spanish survivors who were tasked with the ship’s navigation secretly maneuvered the ship north, where it was captured off the coast of Long Island by U.S. officials.

As the Mende and La Amistad were held in Connecticut, the case was taken to federal court where the owners of the ship and Spanish government claimed the slaves as property. The US had banned the African trade, however, and argued that the Mende were legally free. Eventually, in 1841, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of the Mende, restoring their freedom.

This powerful victory was a symbolic victory for the U.S. in the movement to abolish slavery.