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The Conversation USA

Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad

  • Written by Kate McMahon, Historian of Global Slavery, Smithsonian Institution
imageJohn Warner Barber's 'Death of Capt. Ferrer,' 1839.Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

On the night of July 1, 1839, 53 enslaved Africans revolted aboard the slaving schooner La Amistad – Spanish for “Friendship” – while they were being shipped to a plantation in Puerto Príncipe, Cuba.

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