Chapter 7

The Amistad Trial

Summary
      This chapter focused on the Amistad trial in 1841, which dealt with 53 African captives from the Spanish slave ship Amistad, on its way to Cuba. Those African slaves slaughtered the crew and seized the ship, but the white survivors tricked them and went to the US instead of back to Africa like they wanted. The major controversy surrounding these captives is if they should be set free or treated like property and returned to their Spanish owners. Factors such as "antislavery opinion, Spanish demands, an Southern alarm" played a part in the decision of Martin Van Buren, president at that time, but since he needed support from the South, he wanted the Africans back in Spanish custody (98). Abolitionists from the North; however, intervened, and the case went to the Supreme Court.
      John Quincy Adams was chosen to defend the captives, a mixed blessing because, although he hated the South and the Van Buren administration, he was an extremely busy man. He barely had any time at all to research about the case and prepare, causing him to become very stressed and worried about whether or not he could keep his cool in court. In mid-January, Adams and his partner Baldwin went to the Supreme Court asking for the case to be dismissed and the captives freed; it was postponed instead, but even that didn't help Adams relax. Finally, one day in Congress, he broke under the stress and went on a crazy rant against Democrats who supported slavery. When the trial began, though, Adams did not crack under the pressure and presented a great case, even if he did "[assail] the federal government for a threatened injustice rather than calmly [advocate] what would have been justice for the captives" (108). Still, the Court "declared the captives free persons, given the facts of the case," an important moment for abolitionists everywhere, and for Adams (109).

Reflection
      I find it very easy to relate to the stress that Adams felt. When we can't say no to things that people ask us to do, such as the demands for Adams' public lectures, it's difficult to manage our duties and responsibilites, and it's easy to fly off the handle and lose our temper like Adams did in Congress. It's very impressive that he managed to pull himself together and "address the justices for two whole days" (108). I was, however, a little annoyed with Adams because, like the author said, he seemed to be more focused on his own political agenda during the trial than true justice for the Africans. It all turned out okay in the end though, even if slavery was not declared wrong and natural law was not put above property law (110).
      What does that mean, anyway? I suppose natural law relates to everyone having the same rights and property law has to do with Africans being able to be bought and sold as posessions. Something else I didn't know was that Democrats in those days were the ones from the South who had more conservative, traditional views, especially on the topic of slavery. Nowadays isn't the Republican Party more conservative? I wonder when that changed.