INTRODUCTION

The original Amistad revolt led to a U.S. Supreme Court Case in 1841. Two months after the Africans escaped their chains and killed most of the Spanish, the boat was found off the coast of New York. The Supreme Court considered the question whether the Africans should be given their freedom in America or sold into slavery. Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams argues before the Supreme Court in favor of giving the Africans their freedom. Trading in slaves was by now abolished in the U.S. by an act of Congress in 1807. Many states took steps to abolish slavery and some states emancipated slaves who came within their borders. At the time of Amistad, in New York and Connecticut, the primary states involved in the Amistad case, slavery was illegal.

TASK:

The year is 1841, and you are an African who was captured and sold into slavery by Spanish slave-traders. You have now been placed aboard a Spanish slave ship, put into shackles and placed in the hull of the galley. The ship is bound for Havana, Cuba.

Three days into the journey, another slave managed to free himself and released the Africans on the ship. You and the other slaves revolt, killing most of the crew of the Amistad, demanding that the remaining crew return the ship to Africa.

However, the crew has sabotaged your journey, and the ship was grounded near Montauk Point Long Island, in New York State. Trading in slaves was by now abolished in the United States. Many states took it upon themselves to abolish slavery, emancipating those slaves that came within their borders.

The United States government has now seized the ship and charged you with piracy and murder. You have been classified as property. Your owners want to send you back to Cuba. Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams will argue before the Supreme Court that you should be set free.

Using the resources you will help John Quincy Adams make the argument for setting the slaves free.

PROCESS:

-You will be assigned a role, to work in a group of five, to create a re-enactment of the

Amistad case.

-You will write a brief summary of your argument, using the vocabulary list, in favor of

setting the slaves free, based on the Amistad decision.

-You will help John Quincy Adams prepare for trial before the United States Supreme

Court by filling in the chart.

-You will visit the Schomburg Museum and will research the slave ship exhibit on the

Amistad.

-You will take notes that will help you prepare your argument.

- You will visit the African Slave Memorial and pay tribute to the slaves buried there.

RESOURCES:

http://www.amistadamerica.org/new/main/html/history6.html

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/amistad/AMISTD.HTM

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/amistad.html

http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html

http://www.indieplanet.com/preview/features10_27/feat_art_ambabic_2.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ja6.html

EVALUATION:

Student summaries will be evaluated on a 4 point rubric : how well there argument is organized, sentence structure and grammar as well as punctuation.

CONCLUSION:

By helping John Quicy Admas prepare his argument that he gave which ultimately won the freedom of these African slaves you have contributed to freedom of these slaves.

You will have helped prepare a legal argument that would save someone’s life.