[1] She was fast and maneuverable in order to evade British patrols that attempted to stop such illegal slave ships off the coast of Africa.
Two Spanish plantation owners, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes, bought 53 of the surviving Africans: 49 men, a boy, and three girls.
Ruiz and Montes packed their cargo and the slaves on board the schooner La Amistad and set sail for their plantation at Puerto del Príncipe, Cuba.
After a drawn-out legal affair that reached the United States Supreme Court, the Africans, represented by American abolitionist attorneys (including former President John Quincy Adams) won their freedom in 1841.
Some 35 survivors chose to return to Africa, and their voyage in 1842 was paid by private funds raised by various sources, including a black religious organization from Brooklyn, New York.