History of the Federal Judiciary

Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery — Historical Background and Documents

Select bibliography of works consulted in the compilation of the Amistad trial site.

Secondary Sources:

Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government’s Relations to Slavery. Completed and edited by Ward M. McAfee. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Jones, Howard. Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Noonan, John T., Jr. The Antelope: The Ordeal of the Recaptured Africans in the Administrations of James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

“Exploring Amistad: Race and the Boundaries of Freedom in Antebellum Maritime America" a web site presented by Mystic Seaport, http://amistad.mysticseaport.org.

Court Records:

Thomas R. Gedney &c. v. The Schooner Amistad, &c., Case files, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).

In the Matter of the Habeas Corpus for the three African girls, September 1839 term, U.S. Circuit Court, District of Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).

Answer and Reply of Burnah, et al., September term, 1839, U.S. Circuit Court, District of Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).

Final Record Book, 1831-43, U.S. Circuit Court, District of Connecticut, RG 21, National Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (Boston).

Other unpublished sources:

Domestic Letters, 1838-1840, State Department, RG 59, National Archives and Records Administration.

Letters Received from U.S. District Attorneys, Marshals, and Clerks of Court, 1801-1898, Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury, RG 206, National Archives and Records Administration.

Opinion Books of the Attorney General’s Office, 1817-70, RG 60, National Archives and Records Administration.

General Letter Books of the Attorney General’s Office, 1818-1870, RG 60, National Archives and Records Administration.

William S. Holabird Papers, (Amistad Mutiny Archives) 1829-1853, The Gilder Lehrman Collection, on deposit at the Pierpont Morgan Library.

Lewis Tappan Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

Martin Van Buren Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

Published Primary Sources:

Barber, John W. History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture near Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of each of the Surviving Africans. Also, An account of the Trials had on their Case, Before the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources. New Haven, Ct., 1840. Reprinted in The African Slave Trade and American Courts: The Pamphlet Literature. Edited by Paul Finkelman. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988.

The African Captives. Trial of the Prisoners of the Amistad on the Writ of Habeas Corpus, before the Circuit Court of the United States, for the District of Connecticut, At Hartford: Judges Thompson and Judson. New York, 1839. Reprinted in ]The African Slave Trade and American Courts: The Pamphlet Literature.[ Edited by Paul Finkelman. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988.

Gedney et al. v. L’Amistad, 10 Fed. Cases 141-151.

Argument of Roger S. Baldwin, of New Haven, before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of the United States, appellants, vs. Cinque, and others, Africans of the Amistad. New York: S.W. Benedict, 1841.

Argument of John Quincy Adams, before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of the United States, appellants, vs. Cinque, and others, Africans, captured in the schooner Amistad, by Lieut. Gedney, delivered on the 24th of February and 1st of March, 1841, with a review of the case of the Antelope, reported in the 10th, 11th and 12th volumes of Wheaton’s Reports. New York, S.W. Benedict, 1841.