Monday, July 14, 2008

La Amistad slave ship

Slave ship La Amistad (Spanish meaning: "Friendship") was a two-masted schooner built in 19th century in the United States but it was owned by a Spaniard that was living in Cuba. This ship became famous as the scene of an African captives revolt. Captured slaves were being transported from Havana. They took control over La Amistad in July 1839 and they were later captured by the US Navy.

La Amistad soon became a symbol of movement against slavery. The United states took control of the vessel, which resulted in a legal battle over the African slaves status , because slave importation into the US was prohibited since 1808.


1 comment:

Jessica said...

To learn how cruel humans can be towards others who are different from them is truly devastating. How can anyone treat another human being in that manner. To separate families, drown, rape, beat, starve, and overall mistreat and neglect another individual is inhumane. No one is better than the other and what treating others in that manner shows is the fear that the following ethnicities have promise and should be the ones running the world. From Native Americans, Africans, Jews, etc. It's just sad that things have changed but have remained the same in some cases.