Primary source analysis of the Amistad revolt

Amistad

The story of the Amistad has become part of the less glamorous history in the United States and the wider Western world in terms of the human rights violation that was slavery. The story began in February 1839, when Portuguese slave traders violated all the treaties in existence at the time and abducted Africans from Sierra Leone in order to ship them to Cuba to be sold as slaves. In Cuba, 53 African men and women were sold to Spanish planters. The Cuban schooner Amistad would ship them to a plantation in the Caribbean. However, the simplicity of this plan was ruined by revolting Africans, who seized the ship in on 1 July 1839. The captain and the cook were killed, and the remaining crew members were told to sail to Africa. This plan, however, also did not work, as the U.S. brig Washington seized the Amistad off Long Island, New York. The commander of this ship was Lt. Thomas R. Gedney. The document to be examined here is his libel, a written statement to Judge Andrew T. Judson of the district court, to describe what happened during his encounter with the Amistad, along with the details of the cargo. Gedney's aim was to obtain salvage for the ship; therefore, his account of the ship's cargo and its value is very detailed.

Created during August, 1939, when the ship was seized, the libel was written on the Amistad and estimated the value of the ship's cargo at $40,000, while the Africans were valued at $25,000 if they were to be sold as slaves. Maritime law at the time dictated that people who were able to save ships or their cargo from loss could claim compensation in the form of salvage. It is on the strength of this law that Gedney claimed his right to salvage compensation, since it was with great "difficulty and danger" to themselves that he and his crew were able to save the Amistad, its cargo, and its value in human slaves. In other words, they saved the ship from loss to its "rightful" owners. Furthermore, since, according to Gedney, the slaves could speak only African languages, while only one of the Spaniards was able to speak English, Gedney received and relayed a very one-sided account of the mutiny in his libel, as told by Jose Ruiz. Gedney's intent in creating the document was therefore clearly to obtain salvage compensation for himself and his crew by having seized the Amistad. The language he used for making his claims, along with the viewpoints he included, all focus on obtaining this aim.

As mentioned, Gedney was the commander of the Washington. As such, he was bound by maritime law while also being concerned with obtaining as much as possible in terms of compensation for himself and his crew. Gedney was probably white, which gave him a sense of entitlement when it came to slaves and slavery. Being male, he must have considered himself to be superior in terms of negotiation and business skills. Hence, his libel carried the air of conviction in terms of his own goals and skills.

I am not completely convinced that there are any "historical facts" to be learned from the source. Gedney, in his zeal to convince the Judge of his right to salvage, might have embellished some of the details regarding not only the value of the ship and its contents, but also of the events as they occurred. Furthermore, the singular account of the mutiny as told by Ruiz might have been somewhat one-sided, being told from a ship's commander. From the perspective of the slaves, the account might have been entirely different.