Mutiny on the Amistad: The Events that Inspired the Major Motion Picture: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy

Jones, Howard

ISBN 10: 0195038290 / ISBN 13: 9780195038293

Published by Oxford University Press, 1997

About this Item

Published to coincide with the movie "Amistad", this is the story of the only instance in history where African blacks, seized by slave dealers, won their freedom and returned home. The 1839 revolt on a Spanish slave ship ignited events which climaxed in the US court's ruling to free the captives. Num Pages: 296 pages, halftones, 1 map. BIC Classification: 1KBB; 3JH; HBTB; HBTS; HBTV; JFSL3; JPWQ. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 214 x 140 x 18. Weight in Grams: 408. . 1997. Revised ed. paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780195038293

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mutiny on the Amistad: The Events that Inspired the Major Motion Picture: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195038290
• ISBN 13: 9780195038293
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This volume presents the first full-scale treatment of the only instance in history where African blacks, seized by slave dealers, won their freedom and returned home. Jones describes how, in 1839, Joseph Cinqué led a revolt on the Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, in the Caribbean. The seizure of the ship by an American naval vessel near Montauk, Long Island, the arrest of the Africans in Connecticut, and the Spanish protest against the violation of their property rights created an international controversy.
The Amistad affair united Lewis Tappan and other abolitionists who put the "law of nature" on trial in the United States by their refusal to accept a legal system that claimed to dispense justice while permitting artificial distinctions based on race or color. The mutiny resulted in a trial before the U.S. Supreme Court that pitted former President John Quincy Adams against the federal government. Jones vividly recaptures this compelling drama--the most famous slavery case before Dred Scott--that climaxed in the court's ruling to free the captives and allow them to return to Africa.

About the Author

Howard Jones is Professor of History at the University of Alabama and author of The Course of American Diplomacy and To the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.