Cinque: Freedom Fighter

In 1839, slave traders captured Joseph Cinque, a young Mendi African. After enduring the horrific Middle Passage, Cinque, along with 52 other Africans, boarded the Amistad in route to his new masters' plantation. Cinque successfully unlocked his chains and shackles, as well as those of the other slaves and took over the ship. Two months later, the ship sailed into the Long Island Sound, and Cinque and the surviving slaves were tried in Connecticut, where the courts found them free. President Martin Van Buren, hoping to carry the South in the upcoming presidential election, appealed the decision. Joseph Cinque found himself in front of the Supreme Court with former President John Quincy Adams as his defender.

Cinque: Freedom Fighter would be useful for classes on American history, African-American history, World History, American Culture, Maritime History and Political Science. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.

• ambush
• barbarity
• charismatic
• composure
• dread
• eloquent
• endurance
• intuition
• linguistic
• ominous
• optimism
• perils
• perseverance
• quell
• sadistic
• validate

1. Cinque was able to free himself and fifty-two others by unlocking their chains. How did he do this? How did he manage to do this undetected by the crew of the Amistad?

2. Europeans thought Africa had no history before they arrived. Why did they believe this? What do these beliefs say about their ethnocentricity?

3. What is a "rite of passage?" What was Cinque's rite of passage that all young men of the Mendi tribe underwent? What are some of the rites of passage of your culture?

4. Four African men captured Cinque and sold him to the slave traders. Why did Africans help enslave other Africans?

5. In order to enslave other humans, slaveholders need to have some moral justification for doing so. How did slave owners justify the enslavement of Africans?

6. Describe and discuss the conditions of the Middle Passage.

7. Why did Cinque orchestrate the revolt aboard the Amistad?

8. The Amistad was sailing in Cuban waters, south of the United States. How did the Amistad end up off the coast of New York's Long Island?

9. Roger S. Baldwin defended the captives of the Amistad. What did he use as his line of defense?

10. John Quincy Adams, senior statesman, senator and former president, came to the aid of Cinque and the other Amistad captives. Why did Adams, along with many other prominent people of the era, come to the aid of the Amistad captives?

11. What is the legacy of Cinque?

1. Create a model or a diagram of a Middle Passage slave ship. Use your model/diagram to describe the conditions endured by Africans in route to a life of slavery.

2. Research newspaper accounts of Cinque's trial and reconstruct the story using these accounts. How can primary sources, such as newspapers, tell a different story than secondary accounts?

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