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"The Case of the Africans Decided for the Present--Habeas Corpus not Sustained,"New
York Morning Herald, 25 Sept. 1839:2.
The case of the Africans decided for the present--Habeas Corpus not sustained.
Hartford, Saturday evening.
Contrary to the wishes of the Court, and the expectation of almost everybody,
Mr. Staples, prompted by Tappan and the rest of the abolitionists, came into court
this afternoon, determined to press the case to a decision immediately, if possible.
Tappan and his coadjutors supposed, from the reluctance of Mr. Ingersoll and Mr.
Hungerford to proceed with the arguments on such brief notice and without preparation
that they felt the weakness of their cause, and their inability to contest it successfully
with the opposite counsel. It was suggested by the abolitionists too, in their secret
consultation with Mr. Staples, that the object of Messrs. Ingersoll and Hungerford
in proposing to submit a brief for the consideration of the Judge, was to gain time
for the purpose of instituting proceedings in the New York District Court. The counsels
for the Africans, therefore, came into court, armed at all points as they supposed,
and expecting to place all the negroes in the hands of the abolitionists before Sunday
morning; and in order to facilitate this laudable and very feasible undertaking,
they had prayed out another writ of habeas corpus , and brought all the Africans
before the court. Mr. Ingersoll thought the gentlemen ought not to precipitate this
matter. His Honor had only called the attention of the counsel to the specific
question, whether these Africans are rightfully and legally held by the District
Court this morning, and there had not been sufficient time to give it that careful
deliberation which its importance demanded.
Mr. Baldwin insisted that, in a case of this kind, where the liberty of a large number
of human beings was involved, the gentlemen ought to be prepared to support their
own process.
Judge Thompson finally decided to go on with the case.
The abolitionists were highly elated at this. The opinion of the Judge this morning,
that the law did recognize the right of property in human beings--or to use
his own words, that in certain circumstances, one man had a right to command the
personal services of another, disturbed them beyond measure. They denounced the Judge
as an abetter of slaveholders, and boldly declared in the streets that the “poor
and oppressed Africans” should not be carried away by the Marshal, whatever
might be the decision of the Court. But they regarded the determination of the Judge
to proceed immediately as a triumph on their part, and as an indication of the release
of the blacks, and an equitable distribution of them was began [sic] among their
brethren of the true faith. At the particular request of Lewis Tappan, Kenyee, the
eldest of the girls, was allotted to him. She was understood to have been the principal
companion of Cinquez in the cabin, during the voyage of L’Amistad; and notwithstanding
the extreme tenderness of her age to which Mr. Staples so feelingly alluded,
she made considerable progress in experimental philosophy, and is well calculated
to aid in the mixture of milk and molasses, which is contemplated on a large scale,
through the instrumentality of these negroes, male and female. Canorno, the
cannibal, was assigned to Garrison, and that very benevolent and enterprising
gentleman proposes to lease his protege to Messrs. Titus & Angevine of
the Zoological Institute, the avails to be applied to the liquidation of the debts
of the liberator. But there were a great many conflicting claims for Joseph and Garrah,
the other tumbler, and the division proceeded slowly. Faquonna, who murdered the
Captain, was in great demand, and it was finally settled that he should be given
up to Mr. Ludlow, of New Haven, who hopes to fit him for holy orders in about three
months.
At this stage of the proceedings it was suggested by a staunch abolitionists from
the eastern part of the State, that the first step towards cooking a fish was to
catch him, and that perhaps it might be as well to suspend further operations until
the decision of the judge.
Meantime the arguments were going on. Mr. Baldwin insisted very strenuously, that
the Court of Admiralty had no jurisdiction in the matter at all.
Mr. Hungerford replied with great fervor, and showed most conclusively that the Court
had jurisdiction. Mr. Ingersoll followed, Mr. Holabird, the District Attorney, made
an argument in support of his claim on behalf the government; and Mr. Staples enclosed
with an impassioned and touching appeal to the feelings of the numerous auditory,
and at nine o’clock the court adjourned to Monday morning, when judgement will be
rendered.
Monday Morning, 9 o’clock.
The Circuit Court has this moment adjourned. Judge Thompson delivered the judgement
of the court on the habeas corpus. He confined himself, as he had wished the
counsel to do, to the specific question, whether the District Court, as a Court of
Admiralty, had jurisdiction over this property. The judge expressed his opinion with
great clearness, and maintained it with irrefragable [sic] arguments. He said this
property was claimed on several different grounds, and these claims must be litigated
somewhere. The question was whether this District Court or the District Court of
the State of New York was to try the case. He concluded by pronouncing the writ of
habeas corpus, not to be sustained, and that the Africans were rightfully
held in custody by the District Court.
The District Court adjourned to meet at Hartford on the third Tuesday of November
next, and then Judge Judson will decide whose property these negroes are. This decision
involves questions of such magnitude, that there will probably be an appeal taken,
in any event, first to the Circuit Court, and ultimately to the Supreme Court of
the United States.
The matter is becoming invested with more and more interest daily. The Abolitionists
are half frantic at the decision of the court, but it accords with the judgment of
all rational men. The Africans are to be kept in prison at Hartford until the session
of the District Court closes.
The facts connected with the Africans, which every day’s examination is developing,
furnish matter for much curious and instructive speculation. Lewis Tappan’s fabrications
respecting their conduct, character, &c., have greatly abused the public mind
concerning them. He undertook in conjunction with two or three imposters, pretending
to be interpreters, to settle at once, every thing respecting their nativity, their
language, condition and previous habits; when the fact is, the whole matter is surrounded
with mystery, and this mystery can only be dispelled, little by little, as some of
the least stupid of the negroes progress in their acquisition of our language. I
spent some time the other day in examing [sic] Bannah, the black whom Senor Ruiz
says understands a little English. Bannah was left at New Haven sick, where he still
remains. He has recovered from everything except the effect of the calomel administered
by the physician. He is treated with great kindness by Colonel Pendleton, the keeper
of the prison, to whom he is much attached. He is at liberty, and ranges wherever
he chooses to go, but he prefers to remain about the house. Bannah’s language is
an odd melange of English and Spanish, with an occasional French word, and
a slight sprinkling of some African lingo. It is exceedingly difficult to make him
understand a question, but when you once beat an interrogatory through his wool,
he will jabber ten minutes in reply. He says his country is half way between Mandingo
and the northern coast of Africa; that he wants to stay here, and not return to “my
countree” at all; and he is anxious to live with Col. Pendleton. He persists in saying
that Faquorna killed the captain, and Cinguez the cook. He was asleep when the attack
commenced, but the noise, or the “whooh” as he calls it, roused him at once, and
he saw Cinguez strike the cook with a club, probably a handspike. Faquorna had a
knife with which he killed the cook. “Antonio,” said Bannah, “fight for he massa,
and Cinguez and Quimbo tie he hands; I say where whitey man? where old man? (meaning
Montez) where sailor man? Cinguez say he will kill ‘em; Cinguez want me tie old man;
I say no--you cut off my head first--Cinguez give me money in cloth; I no take it;
I tell him he no hurt young massa, (Ruiz) he say no, he kill old man; I say no, I
take him off.”
Bannah says he was in Havana only one moon and a half, and it is a matter of curious
inquiry, where and how he got a smattering of three different languages.
