A History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture Near Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of Each of the Surviving Africans. Also, an Account of the Trials Had on their Case, before the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources

New Haven, CT. Published by E.L. & J.W. Barber. Hitchcock & Stafford, Printers, 1840.

Price: $40,000.00

Softcover. First edition. Octavo. 32pp. Large folding wood-engraved frontispiece; 38 wood-engraved illustrations of silhouette profiles, one map, and two illustrations. In the original plain pale purple wrappers. Wrapper lightly toned, a few small chips, spine mostly perished with some glue residue along the spine. Scattered light foxing and slight offsetting from wrapper on one blank panel of the folded frontispiece and onto the final page. Very good, with the striking folding frontispiece very bright and attractive. Neatly housed in a cloth chemise and quarter morocco and cloth slipcase gilt.

Barber’s highly important history documenting what one historian called “the most famous of all shipboard revolts,” published in the same year that the New Haven court ruled that the slave traffickers had no claim on the Amistad rebels, and preceding the publication of Adams and Baldwin’s 1841 Supreme Court arguments. The work features Barber’s famous large frontispiece engraving depicting the uprising on the ship and the death of the Amistad’s captain; along with Barber’s 38 engraved profiles of the Amistad rebels made during his visits to the New Haven jail where they were incarcerated. The work also features a map of Mende on the West African coast, an engraving of a Mende village, and an engraving of nine Amistad Africans chained in the ship bound to Cuba.

In 1839, 53 enslaved Africans aboard the Amistad rose up near Cuba, killed the captain and one other crew member, and captured their slavers, José Ruiz and Pedro Montes. The new crew took control of the vessel and sailed it to Long Island, where they were captured by the U.S. Navy and ultimately incarcerated in New Haven. In 1841, after a remarkable trial, the Supreme Court declared the Amistad rebels free. Exceptionally uncommon. *Sabin* 3324; *American Imprints* 40-480; *Library Company, Afro-Americana* 881.

Item #543798

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Item #543798 A History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture Near Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of Each of the Surviving Africans. Also, an Account of the Trials Had on their Case, before the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources. John W. BARBER.
A History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture Near Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of Each of the Surviving Africans. Also, an Account of the Trials Had on their Case, before the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources
A History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture Near Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of Each of the Surviving Africans. Also, an Account of the Trials Had on their Case, before the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources
A History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture Near Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of Each of the Surviving Africans. Also, an Account of the Trials Had on their Case, before the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources
A History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture Near Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of Each of the Surviving Africans. Also, an Account of the Trials Had on their Case, before the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources
A History of the Amistad Captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, by the Africans on Board; Their Voyage, and Capture Near Long Island, New York; with Biographical Sketches of Each of the Surviving Africans. Also, an Account of the Trials Had on their Case, before the District and Circuit Courts of the United States, for the District of Connecticut. Compiled from Authentic Sources