View Document Frames
"The Captured Slaves," New York Morning Herald, 2 September, 1839.
The Captured Slaves--Their curious position
The probably fate of the unfortunate and miserable negroes recently taken on
board the Spanish slaver, L'Amistead, is beginning to excite great attention, and
considerable discussion. They have been taken and imprisoned as pirates and murderers,
on the charge of killing the crew and passengers, and seizing the schooner and cargo,
and money on board of her. There are 38 of these blacks now alive, and in confinement
at New Haven, besides the leader, Jose Cinques. The greater part of them are in a
miserable condition, almost as thin as Calvin Edson was, with swollen feet, and hands
and heads. An indictment has been framed against them, and they are to be tried thereon
at the next court at Hartford, the 17th of this month. Such is their position at
present. The following facts, in connection with their capture have not yet been
given by any paper.
It has been erroneously stated, in several papers, that Capt. Gedney was not on board
the Washington at the time of the capture of the schooner. He was engaged in running
a line of soundings at the time the schooner was discovered by Lieut. Meade, who
then had charge of the deck. After reconnoitering through his glass, Capt.G. seeing
several waggons[sic] on shore and boats passing to and from the vessel, concluded
that she was a smuggler and dispatched a boat in charge of Lieut. R.W. Meade, and
passed midshipman D. D. Porter, and six men, with arms to board her, while he crowded
all sail to reach her. On coming alongside, the two Spanish gentlemen made their
appearance exclaiming in Spanish, "Bless our Holy Virgin; you are our preservers."
The boat laid aboard the schooner, the officers and men leaping on deck with their
arms in their hands, and immediately drove the negroes below. Mr. Meade, in Spanish,
demanded of them who was their Captain and what were their colors. A tattered Spanish
ensign was produced, and he ordered it set in the main rigging, which was a signal
of distress, to induce Capt. Gedney to send more men on board, and another boat was
accordingly dispatched to their relief. The papers were produced, and Mr. Meade and
two men remained in charge of the prize, while Mr. Porter, with the four remaining,
went ashore after the boat and the negroes, among whom was the ring leader and his
principal accomplices. On their approach the blacks jumped into their boats and rowed
towards the schooner, when Mr. Porter discharged a pistol, which hove them to. They
were then taken on board, when Cingues jumped overboard and evinced great tact in
swimming to elude his pursuers, until he was caught and carried on board the brig,
when he was confined. The joy of the two Spanish gentlemen at their deliverance was
unbounded. Senor Montez, the older gentleman, on hearing his own language spoken
by Mr. Meade, threw his arms around him, who, thinking at such a time, from the by
no means gentle manner of the embrace that the situation was any thing but amicable,
presented a loaded pistol to the old gentleman's face, at the same time telling him
if he did not relax his hold that he would shoot him. He was, however, very soon
convinced of his actual feelings. The two passengers had suffered much from their
harrassing state of suspense and their destitution of fresh water, while they were
compelled to drink that of the sea.
The negroes were intending to go to sea that night, as they had a good supply of
provisions,and had refiled their casks with water at Culloden. But for their providential
rescue by Captain Gedney and his officers, we have cause to believe that lives of
these two men must have inevitably been sacrificed and the remainder of the cargo
destroyed.The two Spanish gentlemen, as well as the Consul from Boston, are desirous
that Captain Gedney and his fellow officers and crew should receive a liberal salvage.
The Spanish minister has been written to on the subject, and meantime the Consul
is awaiting his advice. The negroes have all been taken to New Haven, where they
will be imprisoned till the session of the Court in September. The vessel is at the
wharf, in New London, discharging her cargo. The probability is that both vessel
and cargo will be sold at auction.
The following is the only correct list of the slaves that has yet been published,
and it also contains their African names. This has been politely furnished to us
by Lieut. Meade, who, with Mr. Porter, are prize officers:
Cingues, the chief, about 25 or 26 years of age, five feet ten inches in height--fine,
erect, and compact figure, with remarkably determined, but rather benevolent countenance.
Qroarte, the brother of Cingues--apparently his senior, and about six feet in height.
Faquana, second to Cinque--helped to kill the captain.
Quinaboe, helped to kill the captain also.
Fan, also one of the murderers--slept on shore the night before the capture.
Llamorni, very cruel to the cabin boy and passengers.
Nunru, helped in the murder of the captain and cook.
Gabao, a short, fat negro, with mustachios, next to Cinques, appears to have lived
the best of any of the gang, and evidently one of the ringleaders from his dress,
&c.; but not a malicious, though an arch fellow.
Funny, their cook, and evidently amiable.
Dama, a great friend of the cabin boy, whose life he saved.
Guanna, Sessi, Con, Pana.
Juan, speaks very little English--a very arch fellow.
Tua, Paulo, Yabry.
Conorna, a cannibal, with six prominent teeth at right angles with each other.
Jaoni, Pie, Naguoir, Caba, Baa, Berry, Pnimua, Faha, Hrubo, Fuen 1st., Paa, Chiera,
Faguana, Chockamau, Fuen 2d, Pasoma, Banguna, Kinna, Carre, Capen, Aupnio,Gonzaliz,
black cabin boy Cune, nine years old.
Females: Serne, 13, Kine, and Naugru.
These are the unfortunate wretches whom it is proposed to try for piracy and murder.
and before discussing the right to try and execute them, let us briefly trace their
short eventful history. About the 14th of May all these slaves, with several others,
were stolen between Nova Redonda and old Benguela, on the coast of Africa. They were
shipped in a Baltimore built clipper, said to have been furnished with American cut
registers, through some connivance on the part of the American Consulate at Havana.
They reached Havana in about four weeks from the time of leaving Africa; and in about
ten days afterwards, 49 of them were purchased by Don Jose Ruis, at Havana, who intended
to take them to his plantation, near Guanajo, Puerto Principe, Island of Cuba, about
300 miles from Havana. About the same time, Don Pedro Montez bought four slaves (children,
3 girls and a boy) from the same lot. All these blacks, with their owners, were shipped
on board the L'Amistad, at Havana, on the 29th of June last, to be taken to Guanaja.
The only persons on board the vessel, besides these, were Capt. Ramen Flues, two
white sailors and two mulattoes, one a cook (murdered), one a cabin boy, new in the
schooner, who speaks African and Spanish. Such were the passengers; the cargo was
of a mixed nature, including a large stock of choice provisions. On the fifth day
out, when about seven leagues, the negroes rose on the captain and crew, and got
possession of the vessel; they killed the captain and his mulatto cook; the cabin
boy was saved; the two white sailors escaped in the schooner's boat; the lives of
Ruiz and Montez, the two passengers and owners of the slaves, were also saved; but
in the scuffle and fight, Montez got two or three severe cuts. The blacks then told
Montez to steer for the coast of Africa. He contrived, however, to run the vessel
on to this coast, and the slaves have thus been taken and imprisoned. Such are the
facts of the whole affair, plain and simple; and upon these, their fate is to [be]
determined.
Any intelligent person, therefore, can judge for himself, how far these blacks have
offended against the laws of nations generally, and our government in particular.
Calling the transaction by its most harsh appellation, they murdered a Spanish captain
and the mulatto cook of a Spanish vessel, bound from one port of Cuba to another.
No branch of our Government can try them for this offence. Again--they seized a Spanish
vessel with money and a cargo on board; for this they are accountable to the Spanish
government. Twist it as much as possible, it will be difficult for the most astute
lawyer, under all the circumstances, to make this out to be a special act of piracy
in violation of the laws of civilized nations. Again, it is said, they were cruizing
about the high seas, hoisting a red flag when approached, and therefore were actually
pirates. This is not a correct inference. They were beating about off our coast at
the mercy of the winds and waves; because they were unable to reach the home, whence
they had been so recently stolen from. They molested no vessel, nor any individual;
they paid for water; and had they not been captured, would have sailed that night
for the coast of Africa. Who will say that in all these movements they were not justifiable?
We despise the humbug doctrines of the abolitionists and the miserable fanatics,
who propagate them; but if men will traffic in human flesh, steal men from their
homes on the coast of Africa, and sell them like cattle at Cuba, they must not murmur
if some of the men stealers get murdered by the unfortunate wretches whom they have
wronged and stole. We will suppose that this same schooner, after the murder, had,
in crossing the Atlantic, fallen in with a British vessel of war, cruising to intercept
the slave trade; there is no doubt but that under these circumstances, the blacks
would all have been taken to the coast of Africa and set free. It is certain that
the Spanish Government, at Havana, recognizing the right to steal, buy and sell blacks,
will, instantly demand the slaves of this government; it is also possible that this
government will give up the men, and sell the vessel and cargo for salvage; in that
case it is also certain that every one of the male blacks, who rose on the captain
will be executed.
The various questions that will arise will be most curious; and the great difficulty
will be that the vessel they seized was not a slaver; that they had been sold as
merchandize in Cuba, and seized a merchant vessel, and killed a merchant Captain.
This alone will constitute them pirates in the fullest sense of the word. Had they
merely seized the vessel, without murdering any one, and tried to take her to Africa,
our government would have been justified in sending them back to their native homes.
Or had they rose on the Captain of the slaver that brought them from Africa, and
murdered the Captain and all the crew, by the laws of God and man, the laws of nature
and of nations they would have been perfectly justified. But their having been landed
at Havana from a slave ship, sold there, and reshipped, although this only occupied
ten days, will totally alter the aspect of their position and be the main ground
of all the arguments for delivering them up and treating them as pirates. It is a
hard case, for had they rose on their Captain and his crew two weeks before or been
driven into Halifax or Bermuda, they would now have been free was the winds of Heaven.
As it is, they will probably be hung.
Let the case be decided as it may, they in all probability, will have to suffer.
It is a lamentable state of things. It is not improbably that these blacks are some
of the slaves that have been stolen from Africa, by the connivance or imbecility
of Her Consul first; for it is said that all these Spanish slavers have American
cut registers. There is a treaty between England and Spain for the suppression of
the slave trade on the high seas; here then is a case for the interference of the
British Government. There is no treaty on that head between this country and Great
Britain, but there is a law of this country which declares all those slavers that
carry blacks from Africa to the West Indies to be pirates, and decrees the punishment
accordingly. Again, these slaves were taken and sold contrary to the laws of all
those countries of Europe, which have international treaties and mixed commissions
for trying the Captains and crews of slavers, and liberating their cargoes. Under
all these circumstances, their case is a very curious one; and the ultimate disposition
of those unfortunate wretches will be looked for with the utmost anxiety by all classes
of society. In the mean time, the Abolitionists are moving heaven and earth to effect
their release; several members of the society have left town for Connecticut to see
them, to employ the most able counsel in their behalf, and to contest every point
inch by inch; and, judging from appearances, we should say that there are general
preparations making in all quarters for a grand explosion in this matter of slavery
and the slave trade. We shall have our special agent and reporter on the spot, and,
as usual, we shall furnish the fullest and best account of the whole affair when
it takes place.
