Amistad Essay Questions

1 There are several different facts of the Amistad case including African slaves were bought and then brought from Cuba to the United States. John Quincy Adams was against slavery. The District Court ruled that the Africans be turned over to the President and be sent back to Africa.The slaves were accused of murder and seen as cargo. The constitutional issues included rule of law, the independent judiciary, freedom of speech, trial by jury, popular sovereignty, and freedom of religion.

In 1839 the 53 slaves that were bought were illegally bought. Since the slaves were seen as cargo, they were locked under the ship tied up in shackles. Some of them were able to break free from their shackles and take over the ship to try to go in the right direction, the way they came from. The slaves killed the captain and the cook then a few of the …show more content…
They killed the captain and a couple other members on the ship. A few of the slaves were able to get away on a lifeboat and then the crew tricked them and then sailed north at night. Their only motivation was to go home and they argued because they were kidnapped by other Africans and it was illegal to take Africans out of Africa.

2 Queen Isabella's rule in the case was for them to keep following the treaty because since its Spanish property she should get it back. Her motivation was to continue slavery and her basis for the argument was the Pinckneys treaty. She didn't want to keep slavery like the abolitionist. She helped the Spanish government and wanted to continue slavery.

Isabella helped the Spanish government because she fought for what she believed in.
She wanted to keep slavery because it would make most of the people happy. She wanted the U.S. to follow the treaty so she would get all of the property back. Isabella didn't want to keep it like the abolitionist because they didn't want slavery to continue but she