La Amistad (;
Spanish for
Friendship) was a 19th-century two-
masted schooner built in the United States but owned by a Spaniard living in
Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 as the site of a slave revolt by
Mende captives, who had been enslaved in
Sierra Leone, and were being transported for sale between
Havana, Cuba, and other
Caribbean islands. The African captives took control of the ship in July 1839, killing some of the crew and ordering the survivors to sail the ship to Africa. The Spanish survivors secretly maneuvered the ship north, and
La Amistad was captured off the coast of
Long Island by the
brig . The Mende and
La Amistad were interned in
Connecticut while federal court proceedings were undertaken for their disposition. The owners of the ship and Spanish government claimed the slaves as property; but the US had banned the African trade and argued that the Mende were legally free.