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At Mystic Seaport, CT, looking at some old ships
I didn’t expect to be reminded of slavery, chains and whips!
Moored to the pier in the distance, I discovered something odd
A small old ship named La Amistad
I didn’t recall anything about it on Mystic’s website
It was so small (120' long by 23' wide) I kept thinking, this just can’t be right?
I found a sign that confirmed it was the very same historic schooner
There were people working onboard, I wished I’d noticed them sooner
I walked over to ask a question
Busy with renovations, they didn’t have time to share a history lesson
It was low tide, so the deck was a few feet below the pier
I explained to my daughter the history of what once happened here
In 1839, 53 slaves (including four kids) taken from Sierra Leone to Cuba revolted
When the ship’s cook joked that he’d be killed, salted, and cooked Sengbe Pieh (Cinque) was insulted!
The ‘cargo’ killed the cook and the captain and ordered the navigator to take them home
The navigator sneakily sailed to New York instead, impervious to Stockholm syndrome
The Amistad was seized in Long Island, the surviving victims charged and arrested
The merchants said the slaves were born in Cuba, but eventually had to confess it
Cinque learned English and won his Supreme Court cases
President Van Buren appealed twice because he was extremely racist!
Cinque and the rest of the Mende finally made it back to Africa three years after they were originally taken!
