Roger Sherman Baldwin
Defense Attorney for the Amistad Captives
Connecticut Circuit Court, Sept., 1839
District Court, Nov., 1839-Jan., 1840
Co-attorney with John Quincy Adams,
U.S. Supreme Court, Feb., 1841
ROGER SHERMAN BALDWIN (1793-1863) born in New Haven, Ct., was the
grandson of Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence and delegate
to the constitutional Convention. Baldwin 's father, Simeon Baldwin, was a prominent
Connecticut lawyer, mayor of New Haven, Congressional representative, judge, and
an outspoken opponent of slavery. In 1790, Simeon was one of the founders of the
"Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom and for the Relief of Persons
unlawfully holden in Bondage . . . having with grief and abhorrence long beheld a
considerable number of our fellow men groaning under the iron band of slavery . .
. ." In 1791, with President Stiles of Yale, he petitioned Congress "for
the prevention of the horrors of the slave trade."
Graduating from Yale in 1811, Roger Sherman Baldwin was admitted to the
bar in 1814, and in 1814 married Emily Perkins. Given his father's fervent opposition
to slavery it is not surprising that Baldwin became an abolitionist early in his
career. In one case, he won a fugitive slave's freedom on the issuance of a writ
of habeas corpus, a tactic he was later to use in the Amistad trials.
With Simeon Jocelyn he confronted an anti-abolitionist mob in 1831 determined to
block their efforts to build a black training school near Yale.
Following the family tradition of active participation in politics he served in the
state legislature and in the governor's office (1844-45), and was elected to the
U.S. Senate from 1847-1851, but failed in his re-election bid because he would not
new to the Whig party line.
When the Amistad captives were seized in August, 1839, Dwight Janes, a New
London abolitionist, urged Baldwin to join the attorneys for the defense on the grounds
that the Spanish "owners" did not have legal title to the Africans. Baldwin
accepted, and in speaking for a writ of habeas corpus that would free the
Africans, he argued before the circuit court that the prisoners were not slaves,
were free when first found and must be treated as persons. If President Van Buren
were to order the return of the Mende tribespeople if would make the Americans into
"slave catchers" for a foreign government.
At the district court session Baldwin and his associates reiterated their argument
that the transactions were illegal, fraudulent, and the Mendes were free people.
Baldwin spoke in a carefully reasoned, cogent manner. Convinced, Judge Judson ruled
on January 13, 1840, that the Africans "were born free," were unlawfully
sold as slaves in Cuba, and were not property.
When the Van Buren administration, desirous of placating Spain and appeasing Southern
voters, appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, ex-President John Quincy
Adams joined Baldwin in arguing the case for the defense. When the court convened
in February, 1841, Baldwin opened for the defense by proclaiming "that the case
affected . . .'America's national character in the eyes of the whole civilized world'."
He again repeated the charges of fraud he had raised in the lower courts and then
went on to deny federal jurisdiction in the case, insisting there was no authorization
in the Constitution establishing slavery. If the United States upheld a foreign nation's
slave laws, it would violate America's own laws, the law of nature, or the "law
of God. On February 23, Adams wrote in his diary "Mr. Baldwin firmly maintained
their [the Africans] right of self-emancipation, but spoke in cautious terms to avoid
exciting Southern passions and prejudices . . . ."
Although Adam's lengthy argument following that of Baldwin attacked executive interference
and made a passionate appeal to natural rights, Justice Story's decision for the
majority of the court, freeing the Africans once and for all, clearly reflected Baldwin's
painstaking preparation in writing the defense brief for the high court. After the
decision had been handed down, Baldwin generously praised Adams for saving "the
national character from reproach and dishonor."
Nearly a decade later, Baldwin spoke out against the abuses of slavery on the floor
of the Senate in denouncing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. He reviewed the Amistad
case and attacked the clause in the Fugitive Slave Act which simply accepted the
word of a slave claimant without any recourse to judicial action to determine whether
or not the fugitive was, in fact, a free individual. At the end of an immensely successful
law career he was a Connecticut delegate to the National Peace Conference in Washington
in 1861. Often called upon to deliver written opinions on difficult legal questions
he is considered one of the most able interpreters of law in Connecticut history.
Calvin Lane
Further Reading:
Baldwin, Simeon E. "The Captives of the Amistad.." New Haven Colony
Historical Society. Papers, IV (New Haven, 1888).
Dexter, R.B. Yale Biographies and Annals, 1805-1815, Series 6. New
Haven: 1912.
Jones, Howard. Mutiny on the Amistad. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
(Well documented consideration of Baldwin's role in the Amistad trial).
Manchester, Mary E. "Baldwin, Roger Sherman." Dictionary of American
Biography, Vol. I. New York: Scribner's 1936.
(Good summation of Baldwin's law career and political activity).
