The Judicial Process – A chronology
August 29, 1839
U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
Judge Andrew Judson convened a special session of the U.S. District Court. The court allowed Lieutenant Gedney to submit his libel for a salvage award and heard testimony about the revolt on the Amistad. Judson ordered the marshal to take the Africans on board the Amistad into custody. A warrant of arrest authorized holding the male Mende in custody on charges of murder and piracy, while the warrant of seizure authorized holding all of the Mende, pending determination of the salvage claim.
September 17, 1839
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut
The circuit court impaneled a grand jury to consider the U.S. attorney’s indictment of the Mende on charges of piracy and murder. Justice Smith Thompson later ruled that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over an alleged crime on a foreign vessel at sea and dismissed all criminal charges against the Mende.
Attorneys for the Mende asked the court to release their clients from federal custody. Thompson refused to release the Mende as long as the district court was considering property claims that alleged they were slaves. The circuit court adjourned on September 23.
September 18, 1839
U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
José Ruiz and Pedro Montes submitted libels requesting the district court to order the return of their property on the Amistad, including the Mende, whom these planters claimed as slaves.
September 19, 1839
U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
Judge Judson opened the district court session to consider the various libels filed in response to Gedney’s libel for salvage. William Holabird, the U.S. attorney, asked the court to consider the Spanish ambassador’s request for the return of all property on the Amistad, with no deduction for salvage. Holabird alternatively requested that the court order the return of the Mende to Africa if it determined that they were not slave property. A group of men who gave provisions to the Mende on the New York shore submitted their own libel for a salvage award.
Judson ordered a panel of attorneys in the case to determine the precise location where the Navy crew seized the Amistad, so that he could establish which district court had jurisdiction. The district court adjourned on September 23.
November 19, 1839
U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
The Mende formally entered the district court proceedings as respondents to the several libels asserting that they were slaves. A lawyer for the Mende asked the court to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction, on the grounds that the Mende had arrived as free persons in the district of New York. The U.S. attorney presented the court with the claim that the Spanish ambassador had sent to the Secretary of State, asking for the return of all Spanish property on the Amistad. The Spanish consul from Boston asked the court to order the return of the slave Antonio to the heirs of Ramon Ferrer, the slain captain of the Amistad.
At this session of the district court, Judge Judson heard the first trial testimony. Judson postponed further testimony due to the illness of the translator for the Mende. The district court adjourned on November 21.
January 7, 1840.
U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
Judson opened the Amistad trial and heard testimony for five days. Witnesses included three of the Mende: Cinque; Grabeau; and Fuliwa. At the opening of this session, the owners of a portion of the cargo on the Amistad submitted their request for the return of their goods.
On January 13, Judson delivered his decision that the Mende were not slaves under Spanish law and that he could not order their return to Cuba.
January 23, 1840
U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
Judson issued the decree ordering the delivery of the Mende to the President for return to Africa and granting an award of salvage in the ship and its cargo for Gedney and his crew. Judson also ordered that Antonio be delivered to the heirs of the captain of the Amistad.
The U.S. attorney, citing the Spanish ambassador’s demand for the return of all property, immediately appealed every part of the decree except that relating to the slave Antonio. The owners of the goods on the Amistad appealed that portion of the decree ordering payment of a salvage award.
April 29, 1840
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut
Justice Smith Thompson presided over the two appeals of the district court decree. He also considered a motion from the Mende’s lawyers to dismiss the appeal of the U.S. attorney. Thompson denied the motion for dismissal and affirmed the district court’s decree. Immediately following Thompson’s decree, the U.S. attorney filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. Thompson granted that appeal to the next term of the Supreme Court, which would begin in January 1841.
September 17, 1840
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut
The court ordered that the schooner Amistad and the goods on board be sold at public auction. The proceeds were delivered to the court pending final disposition of the case.
February 22, 1841
Supreme Court of the United States
Oral arguments in the Amistad case began. The Court suspended arguments after Justice Barbour died on February 25. Arguments in the case resumed on March 1, and closing arguments were heard on March 2.
March 9, 1841
Supreme Court of the United States
Justice Joseph Story delivered his opinion for the Supreme Court. The Court ordered the U.S. Circuit Court in Connecticut to free the Mende held in custody. Justice Thompson, as circuit justice for the district of Connecticut, subsequently ordered the release of the Mende.
April 28, 1841
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut
The circuit court distributed the proceeds from the sale of the Amistad and its cargo. It awarded one-third of the value to Gedney and the others who submitted the libel for salvage.
Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery — Historical Background and Documents