Instead, they sailed north up the east coast of the United States, sure that the ship would be intercepted and the Africans returned to Cuba as slaves.

Eventually, language professor Josiah Gibbs found James Covey to act as interpreter, and they learned of the abduction.

Spain requested President Martin Van Buren to return the African captives to Cuba under international treaty.

The case was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Mende people, restoring their freedom.

[citation needed] Captained by Ferrer, La Amistad left Havana on June 28, 1839, for the small port of Guanaja, near Puerto Príncipe, Cuba, with some general cargo and 53 African captives bound for the sugar plantation where they were to be delivered.

Armed with machete-like cane knives, they attacked the crew, successfully gaining control of the ship, under the leadership of Sengbe Pieh (later known in the United States as Joseph Cinqué).

They killed the captain Ferrer as well as the ship's cook Celestino;[8] two captives also died, two sailors Manuel Pagilla and Jacinto escaped in a small boat.

Ferrer's slave/mulatto cabin boy Antonio [8] was spared as were José Ruiz and Pedro Montes, the two alleged owners of the captives, so that they could guide the ship back to Africa.

Several New York pilot boats came across La Amistad as on 21 August 1839, when she was discovered thirty miles southeast of Sandy Hook by the pilot-boat Blossom who supplied the men with water and bread.

[9][10] Two days later, the Gratitude pilot boat came across La Amistad when she was twenty-five miles east of Fire Island.

[11] Discovered by the naval brig USS Washington while on surveying duties, La Amistad was taken into United States custody.

The Van Buren administration accepted the Spanish crown's argument, but Secretary of State John Forsyth explained that the President could not order the release of La Amistad and its cargo because the executive could not interfere with the judiciary under American law.

Baldwin and former President John Quincy Adams[13] argued the case before the Supreme Court which ruled in favor of the Africans.

A widely publicized court case ensued in New Haven to settle legal issues about the ship and the status of the Mende captives.

[16] La Amistad had been moored at the wharf behind the US Custom House in New London, Connecticut for a year and a half, and it was auctioned off by the U.S.

Captain George Hawford of Newport, Rhode Island purchased the vessel and then needed an act of Congress passed to register it.

In late 1841, he sailed Ion to Bermuda and Saint Thomas with a typical New England cargo of onions, apples, live poultry, and cheese.

Tri-Coastal Marine,[19] designers of "Freedom Schooner Amistad", used modern computer technology to develop plans for the vessel.

[22] In 2013, Amistad America lost its non-profit organization status after failing to file tax returns for three years amid concern for accountability for public funding from the state of Connecticut.