WEBVTT - Founding Son: Episode 5 - Amistad 0:00:18.080 --> 0:00:32.560 I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding son John Quincy's America. 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:39.199 It's a summer morning, eighteen thirty nine. The hatch leading 0:00:39.239 --> 0:00:42.360 below the deck of the ship lifted. A hard shaft 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.279 of light shot through the dank feted ship's hold. Joseph 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.640 Sinke winced as he struggled to open his eyes, dazed, 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:56.359 unsure of his surroundings, pain shot through his legs. He 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:00.720 tried to lift them. They wouldn't budge. He was chained 0:01:01.279 --> 0:01:07.160 to a long line of men, women and children. Months 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:09.960 had passed since he was in his village in what 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:15.240 is now Sierra Leone. He was surrounded by water, no 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:19.240 idea where he was, how he got here, or where 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:25.160 he was going. When the sun shined, Sinke and the 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:27.720 other captives were brought to the deck for fresh air, 0:01:28.320 --> 0:01:31.120 while the cabin boy shoveled out the excrement from the 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:36.320 slave quarters. Sink took the opportunity to familiarize himself with 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:41.040 his surroundings, taking note of everything he saw. Aboard the 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:47.640 ship named Amistad. There was a captain, a cook, and 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:52.480 a handful of crew members. The details are murky, but somehow, 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.720 perhaps with the nail he'd found in the ship's waterlogged 0:01:55.760 --> 0:02:01.880 boards sink unchained himself and the other captives. When night fell, 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.560 they stormed the deck, found a cache of machetes and 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:06.480 seized the moment. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.800 They killed the captain, and they killed the cook on board. 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.880 Mary Elliott is the curator of American Slavery at the 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:21.160 Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.800 And then they forced the two men on board to 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.000 help them navigate back to Africa, back to Sierra Leone. 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.560 Cinke and the other Africans had no idea the men 0:02:33.640 --> 0:02:38.280 who were now their captives were enslavers, the very men 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:43.639 responsible for their abduction. These men didn't steer the ship 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:44.480 back to Africa. 0:02:44.920 --> 0:02:49.800 Those two men actually managed to navigate the ship into 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:51.120 the US waters. 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.200 They were spotted off the coast of Long Island. A 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.200 lieutenant named Thomas Gedney looked out from his ship to 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.600 see a vessel in tatters. The draggled sails and a 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:05.400 colorfully dressed black crew. Quite a curious sight. Get and 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.760 his crew boarded the suspicious vessel, and they could tell 0:03:08.920 --> 0:03:12.040 right away what had gone down. The human cargo of 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:17.240 the Amistad had risen up and slaughtered their captors. Gedney 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.760 took charge of the Amistad and brought the vessel to 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:24.560 nearby Connecticut. Sinke and the dozens of other captives were arrested, 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.800 charged with murder and piracy, placed in a prison cell 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:34.000 to await trial. Their story hit the newspapers the next day, 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.960 A bloody slave insurrection on the high seas. Overnight it 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.920 became a national sensation. Were these African captives heroes struggling 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:49.120 for freedom or murderers? The headline shattered the peace and 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.720 quiet John Quincy Adams was hoping to enjoy during a 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.520 break at his home, Peacefield. He was preparing for the 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.120 next session of Congress, but couldn't get the Amicod case 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:05.080 out of his head. He knew he shouldn't get involved. 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:18.040 He also knew he couldn't help himself. Chapter five, Amistad. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.760 The Case of the Amistad ignited America's debate over slavery 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:32.800 like never before. 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.480 This becomes a cause celeb for the American abolition movement 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.279 because you've got roughly fifty African people who struck for 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.120 their freedom in a jail cell in New Haven. 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.040 Richard Newman is a professor of history at Rochester Institute 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.360 of technology. He says there were a lot of people 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:55.040 trying to re enslave the African captives now living in 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:59.080 a jail cell, and Lieutenant Gedney, who commandeered the ship, 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.040 was trying to win salvage rights for the human property 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:03.600 he found aboard the Amistad. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.479 He estimates that the property and the enslaved people themselves 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.520 are worth about sixty five thousand dollars at the time, 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:12.640 and so it as to cash in on this, and 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.800 abolitionists rushed to the scene to try to aid the 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:21.839 Amistad rebels and to oppose anything that would re enslave them. 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.480 Black and white abolitionists seized the moment. They rallied around 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:30.760 the case, raised money, recruited new anti slavery activists, and 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.479 while this was becoming a great moment for abolitionists, it 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:38.440 threatened to destroy the coalition keeping President Martin van Buren 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:39.000 in power. 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.720 The Van Buren administration was built on a North South coalition, 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:52.720 and the last thing he wanted was a national case 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.599 which could split that coalition between Southerners who viewed this 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:00.080 as a life and death issue and Northerners, who maybe 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.039 would have been more inclined to side with the captives. 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:09.000 That's John Quincy Adams biographer James Traub. He says Van 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.200 Buren's problems didn't end at home. 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:16.480 The international problem was one that any such administration would 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:21.719 have faced, which is that the captives were seen as 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.560 property of Spanish nationals. 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.000 These Spanish nationals were the two enslavers aboard the Amistad 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:33.320 who survived, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes. They appealed to 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.640 the local courts and the Van Buren administration to have 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:40.960 their human cargo return to them under America's seventeen to 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:45.520 ninety five treaty with Spain. The Spanish government also demanded 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.200 that Van Buren return the captives to Cuba, still a 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:53.520 Spanish colony and the ship's original destination. That's where they 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:55.040 should stand trial for murder. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.040 This is not about people, it's about things. It would 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.320 have required them to return those things to Spain if 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:04.720 Spain requested them. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.360 John Quincy Adams found it impossible to escape the Amistad 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:14.040 case even in the solitude of his Massachusetts home. Old 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:19.120 friends and newspapers reached out repeatedly. Adams, you have too 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.960 great a voice to remain silent, They argued, what is 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:26.240 your opinion on the case. As pressure mounted, Adams kept 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:27.040 his lips sealed. 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:30.720 In his diary, he wrote, prudence would forbid my giving 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.000 an opinion upon it at any time, and if I 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.920 ever do, it must be with great consideration and self control. 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.840 While many tried to pull Adams into the case, there 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.240 were important people pleading with him to stay out of it. 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.520 His surviving son, Charles Francis, was in the middle of 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.720 a campaign for the Massachusetts State House at the time. 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.520 He begged him not to get in any deeper with 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:58.040 the radical abolitionists. 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:00.840 And when his son says, you know, you don't want 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:02.880 to get involved in this, what he's thinking is this 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.880 is a huge cause. Select ye, this could undermine everything 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.000 you're working for. But John Quincy Adams thinks the opposite. 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.960 John Quincy's wife Louisa, also begged him not to get 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:18.520 involved in the case, and he listened and stayed out, 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:25.080 watching from Afar. Meanwhile, abolitionist lawyers representing the African captives 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.960 tried to get their side of the story, but the 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.920 captives didn't speak a lick of Spanish. This was surprising. 0:08:32.439 --> 0:08:36.360 The two enslavers aboard the ship claimed the captives came 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.720 from Cuba, not Africa. This is actually a big deal. 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:46.040 The American government banned the import of slaves into the 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.000 United States in eighteen oh eight. 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.920 No ship could come in from the continent of Africa 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:58.480 importing people into the States to sell into the slave trade. 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.120 Mary Elliott again, so there. 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.120 Was this sense of if someone was brought in from Africa, 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.679 we cannot as enslaved. 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.280 Had they been brought directly to the United States, that 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.280 would have clearly violated the prohibition of the Constitution against 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:14.080 the slave trade. 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.440 James Trupp says the slave traders Montes and Ruiz were 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.559 attempting to do something fairly common at this time, essentially 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:24.280 slave laundering. 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.360 What they tried to do, and this is not uncommon 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.079 at the time, is they brought them to Cuba so 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.079 that they could then claim that they had actually been 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.520 in Spanish property all this while they were not actually 0:09:37.560 --> 0:09:41.960 recently abducted people, and then they could in effect be 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:46.600 rebranded as long standing slaves from Cuba. 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.840 If lawyers for the captured rebels could prove this, they 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:56.280 could shatter Montes and Ruiz's case. But these lawyers had 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.440 never heard any of the languages spoken by Sinke and 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.280 the others, and they had no way to speak with 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:08.320 their clients. Then Listeness leader Lewis Tappan came across a 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.120 sailor in New Haven who recognized that most of the 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.120 captives were in fact known as Mendy, and he spoke 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.920 a shared second language of the Mendy captives, a language 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.040 called VI. Finally, the captives were able to tell the 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:29.199 story of violence and horror they endured. Just weeks later, 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.480 their case kicked off in a district court in Connecticut. 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.920 A man named Roger Sherman Baldwin defended them, and he 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:38.840 had an impressive pedigree. 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:45.160 Roger Sherman Baldwin was the grandson of Roger Sherman, the 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.559 great Connecticut figure who was one of the signers of 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.040 the Constitution. He is the I don't know what great 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.920 grandfather of the man who founded the American Civil Liberties Union, 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.800 Roger Baldwin. So this is a man with a great lineage, 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.600 both before him and beyond him. 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:06.440 When the case kicked off, Montes and Ruiz, the Spanish government, 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.960 and Lieutenant Gedney all claimed some form of ownership of 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:16.280 the captives. Roger Baldwin argued in their defense, explaining that 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:21.040 these African prisoners were not murderers or slaves. They were 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:25.400 free men, women, and children who had been forcibly kidnapped 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.920 from their homes. Cinke sat on the floor of the 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:34.160 court and held his hands together clinched in fists to 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:38.920 show how they were manacled. When the testimony was complete, 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.480 the judge ruled that the captives were quote natives of 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.440 Africa and were born free and ever since have been 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:53.520 and still of right are free and not slaves. The 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.720 judge ordered the captives repatriated to Africa. They joined the 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:03.160 abolitionists in a celebration over the ruling, but it didn't 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:09.360 last long. The US District attorney, under direct pressure from 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.920 the Van Buren administration, filed an appeal with the U. S. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:17.920 Supreme Court. Abolitionists representing the captives worried they wouldn't get 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:19.959 the same ruling in the highest court of the land. 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.240 The first trial took place in the northern state of Connecticut. 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:29.160 The Supreme Court was made up of almost entirely enslavers. 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:34.040 Panic took cold. They needed someone with gravitas and experience 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:39.360 before the High court. A not so secret weapon. In 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.520 eighteen forty, John Quincy Adams received a couple of visitors, 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:50.319 a Boston abolitionist friend and Lewis Tappan, two longtime abolitionists 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.680 who had helped found the American anti slavery movement. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:58.640 Adams knew them because he had become the conduit for 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.440 anti slavery petitions. He was the only man in the 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.120 Congress who was willing to speak up for the nas 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:10.079 antislavery cause, and so the early anti slavery figures looked 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:11.400 to Adams as their champion. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.959 They pressed Adams to join the Amistad defense team. Roger 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.400 Balwin was a good lawyer, but this was primetime. They 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:21.959 needed a well known champion for the national stage of 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:27.640 the Supreme Court. Adams thought they were crazy. He had 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.360 seen too many winters to take on such an important case. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.920 He was in his seventies, his eyesight was fading, he 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:43.160 had arthritis. No, the answer had to be non right. 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:50.520 Initially, he really hesitated, But knowing Adams, you know his character, 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.280 the die was cast. He could never resist a situation 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.760 which would allow him to champion the cause of lonely 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:06.280 discarded people who were seeking their liberty. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.840 Later, Adams recorded in his diary. 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.880 They urged me so much and represented the case of 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.760 those unfortunate men as so critical it being a case 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.000 of life and death, that I yielded and told them 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.360 that if by the blessing of God, my health and 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.640 strength should permit, I would argue the case before the 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:27.440 Supreme Court. 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:36.600 Adams took the case. When we come back, it's the 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:59.520 trial of the century, John Quincy. Adams had no time 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.440 to waste getting up to speed with the Amistad case. 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.840 It was the fall of eighteen forty and Supreme Court 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.800 hearing was scheduled for February of eighteen forty one. The 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.120 ex president headed for New Haven, Connecticut to meet with 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:15.520 his new co counsel, Roger Baldwin. 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.200 He exposed to me his views of the case, the 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.480 points which had been taken before the district and Circuit courts, 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.080 and the motion to dismiss the appeal, which he supposes 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.600 the proper course to be taken before the Supreme Court. 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:32.560 Shortly after his arrival, Baldwin took Adams to visit the captives. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.840 The government's claimed that they are property in fact has 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.320 not been accepted. It's been reversed by the courts, but 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.560 they are being held pending appeal in a kind of 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.360 a courtyard area where they wander around. They have rooms. 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.160 James Traubbs says, the captives have been living in this 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:56.360 purgatory for years. When Adams met with them, many started 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.600 to learn English, including sin Ka, the group's leader. 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.600 Adams was struck, especially by this figure who was known 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.920 as Sinkety, who became thea who became a romantic figure 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.239 in America. He was one of the most drawn figures 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.600 and then photographed in the country. So he must have 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.880 been a very impressive person. And Adams was really struck, 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.600 and so I think that experience made him think, I 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:23.880 must help these people. 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.680 As the trial date drew near, Adams searched for legal 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:31.680 precedents that would free the captives. 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:39.600 He then throws himself into this and spends countless hours 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.760 with the slaves, hearing their story, but also researching the 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:48.600 case law because there have been several other cases where 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:55.040 slaves had mutinied and got themselves to the United States 0:16:55.240 --> 0:17:00.320 and then sought to claim that they were free. 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.560 But many of these cases had ended badly, and Adams 0:17:04.639 --> 0:17:08.080 knew it. While he was president, the Supreme Court ruled 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.520 on a mutiny aboard the Spanish slave ship the Antelope. 0:17:11.919 --> 0:17:15.159 The Chief Justice at the time, John Marshall ruled that 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:20.159 international law barred the liberation of the antelopes human cargo. 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.719 Adams started to worry. Just when the stakes couldn't seem higher, 0:17:26.199 --> 0:17:29.080 he received a letter from one of the captives, a 0:17:29.159 --> 0:17:31.119 Mendi boy named Kalei. 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:33.759 We wants you to ask the quote, what we have 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:38.079 done wrong? What for Americans keep us in prison? Some 0:17:38.159 --> 0:17:42.519 people say Mandy people crazy, Mandy people tults because we 0:17:42.639 --> 0:17:47.159 don't talk American language. American people don't talk Mindy language. 0:17:47.679 --> 0:17:49.279 American people crazy tults. 0:17:50.239 --> 0:17:53.719 Arguments before the Supreme Court started on February twenty second, 0:17:54.199 --> 0:17:59.240 George Washington's birthday. Attorney General Henry Gilpin presented the case 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:03.359 for the United States. He argued that the Amistad was 0:18:03.399 --> 0:18:08.920 a Spanish vessel marying cargo approved by the country's authorities. Therefore, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.959 the United States was obligated by treaty to restore the 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:17.160 ship and its cargo to the rightful owners, the Spanish government. 0:18:17.879 --> 0:18:21.840 That way, the Spanish authorities could try them for piracy 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.279 and murder. After Gilbrien's opening arguments, it was time for 0:18:26.399 --> 0:18:29.199 John Quincy and his co counsel to make their case. 0:18:30.199 --> 0:18:33.239 Baldwin kicked off the defense saying that the whole world 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:33.799 was watching. 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.239 This case is not only one of deep interest in 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:43.760 itself as affecting the destiny of the unfortunate Africans whom 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:49.080 I represent, but it involves considerations deeply affecting our national character. 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.199 In the eyes of the whole civilized world. It presents 0:18:53.479 --> 0:18:56.959 for the first time the question whether the government which 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:01.280 was established for the promotion of justice, which was founded 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.879 on the great principles of the Revolution, as proclaimed in 0:19:04.919 --> 0:19:09.879 the Declaration of Independence, can consistently, with the genius of 0:19:09.919 --> 0:19:14.159 our institutions, become a party to proceedings for the enslavement 0:19:14.239 --> 0:19:18.080 of human beings cast upon our shores and found in 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:22.160 the condition of freemen within the territorial limits of a 0:19:22.199 --> 0:19:23.679 free and sovereign state. 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.759 Baldwin continued, saying, the captives aboard the ship were kidnapped 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.760 and forced into bondage. Why would the US government hand 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:35.400 them back to their. 0:19:35.239 --> 0:19:40.279 Captors, since the master's spirit who guided them had a 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:45.919 single object in view. That object was not piracy or robbery, 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.439 but the deliverance of himself and his companions in suffering 0:19:50.879 --> 0:19:56.040 from unlawful bondage. 0:19:56.239 --> 0:19:59.560 When he finished, Adams thought Baldwin had done a great 0:19:59.639 --> 0:20:03.239 job laying out the legal argument for the defense, but 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.799 where was the showmanship they needed to break through to 0:20:06.879 --> 0:20:11.040 these justices show them the importance of this moment. John 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:14.040 Quincy wrote in his diary that Baldwin had been sound 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:19.399 and eloquent, but exceedingly mild and moderate. Adams had to 0:20:19.439 --> 0:20:25.919 bring the heat. When Adams stood before the court, he 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.119 was no longer the mild mannered president he once was. 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.399 Years of shouting down Southerners in Congress had given him 0:20:33.399 --> 0:20:35.200 an edge ferocity. 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.520 Fitty part of this article was applicable to the case. 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.600 It was in favor of the Africans. They were in 0:20:41.679 --> 0:20:45.119 distress and were brought into our waters by their enemies, 0:20:45.439 --> 0:20:48.359 by those who sought and who are still seeking to 0:20:48.479 --> 0:20:51.800 reduce them from freedom to slavery, his reward for having 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:53.479 spared their lives in a fight. 0:20:54.239 --> 0:20:57.479 Adams railed for over four hours building his case. 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.279 If the good offices of the government are to be 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.119 rendered to the proprietors of shipping in distress, they are 0:21:05.159 --> 0:21:09.199 are due to the Africans only, and the United States 0:21:09.239 --> 0:21:12.679 are now bound to restore the ship to the Africans 0:21:12.719 --> 0:21:16.400 and replace the Spaniards on board as prisoners. 0:21:17.439 --> 0:21:20.320 The court adjourned for the day, deciding Adams could finish 0:21:20.399 --> 0:21:24.239 the next day, but overnight one of the justices died. 0:21:25.639 --> 0:21:28.119 The court sat in recess for a week to mourn 0:21:28.439 --> 0:21:33.359 Justice Philip Barber. When arguments resumed, Adams launched back into it. 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.280 This was the great age of oratory and the ideas 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:38.919 that you just got up and talked. 0:21:39.639 --> 0:21:39.919 Well. 0:21:40.639 --> 0:21:46.879 Nobody could talk longer or better than Adams could. 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.439 He argued that the seventeen ninety five Treaty with Spain 0:21:50.719 --> 0:21:51.840 did not apply in this. 0:21:51.919 --> 0:21:57.359 Case because these people were not chattels merchandise. They had 0:21:57.399 --> 0:21:59.159 been illegally stolen. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:04.119 But Adams, being Adams, wasn't there to simply make a 0:22:04.159 --> 0:22:07.760 legal argument. He was arguing for the soul of the nation. 0:22:08.679 --> 0:22:14.440 This was bigger than case law. This was foundational. Adams 0:22:14.479 --> 0:22:16.440 pointed to the Declaration of Independence. 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:20.199 The moment you come to the Declaration of Independence that 0:22:20.239 --> 0:22:23.879 every man has a right to life and liberty in 0:22:23.959 --> 0:22:29.319 an alienable right, this case is decided. I ask nothing 0:22:29.399 --> 0:22:33.920 more in behalf of these unfortunate men than this declaration. 0:22:34.719 --> 0:22:39.999 He was speaking to a court that consisted in almost 0:22:40.239 --> 0:22:46.320 entirely of slave owners or slave sympathizers. 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:50.799 Adams called out the names of justices he stood in 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:54.999 front of decades ago. For a moment, it was almost 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:57.039 as if he was conjuring them from the grave. 0:22:57.679 --> 0:23:05.199 Marshall, Cushing, Chase, Washington, Johnson, Livingston, Todd. Where are they alas, 0:23:05.719 --> 0:23:09.280 where is one of the very judges of this court, 0:23:09.479 --> 0:23:12.719 arbiters of life and death before whom I commenced this 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:19.320 anxious argument? Where are they all gone? Gone, gone, gone 0:23:19.399 --> 0:23:22.399 from the services watch in their day and generation they 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:24.999 faithfully rendered to their country. 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:30.319 It's mind blowing Richard Numan Again, he says Adams focused 0:23:30.399 --> 0:23:34.479 the men sitting before him on a single idea, justice, 0:23:35.239 --> 0:23:37.159 And he says, I thought the Supreme Court, like the 0:23:37.159 --> 0:23:40.559 American Republic, was dedicated to the principle of justice. And 0:23:40.639 --> 0:23:44.199 whether or not it's an enslaved person struggling for justice 0:23:44.919 --> 0:23:48.320 or an American citizen struggling for justice, that's the principle 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:53.999 that should define international law, American politics, and American jurisprudence. 0:23:54.679 --> 0:23:58.480 When Adams wrapped, a reporter wrote that quote, the closing 0:23:58.520 --> 0:24:01.759 part of the speech was the most touching and affecting 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:06.679 of anything of kind to which I ever listen. He added, 0:24:07.239 --> 0:24:14.560 old man eloquent had given us all. Adams, however, had 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:17.959 more to give. When he finished presenting his case, he 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.080 tidied up his papers on his desk, packed them into 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:24.680 his satchel, and walked from the old Supreme Court chambers 0:24:24.719 --> 0:24:27.279 in one part of the Capitol to his desk on 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:31.839 the house floor in another. The Supreme Court back then 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:35.439 was actually faster in issuing verdicts than it is today. 0:24:36.199 --> 0:24:38.639 The Court came back with its ruling just a week 0:24:38.679 --> 0:24:41.600 and a half later, but in that short time a 0:24:41.679 --> 0:24:46.439 new president had taken office. On March fourth, eighteen forty one, 0:24:46.679 --> 0:24:50.999 William Henry Harrison of Ohio was inaugurated as the ninth 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:54.720 President of the United States. Martin Van Buren was out. 0:24:55.399 --> 0:24:58.319 Would the court case his administration set in motion be 0:24:58.399 --> 0:25:03.440 decided in his favor? Justice Joseph's Story issued the majority 0:25:03.479 --> 0:25:04.439 opinion of the court. 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:08.919 He wrote, they are natives of Africa and were kidnapped 0:25:08.959 --> 0:25:13.039 there and were unlawfully transported to Cuba in violation of 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:15.639 the law and treaties of Spain and the most solemn 0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:17.760 edicts and declarations of that government. 0:25:21.199 --> 0:25:24.999 The Court ruled seven to one in favor of the captives. 0:25:25.359 --> 0:25:28.280 It's pretty clear that before John Quincy Adams actually gave 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:31.439 the serration that some members of the court were leaning 0:25:31.439 --> 0:25:34.199 in this direction. The ground had already been tilled. But 0:25:34.280 --> 0:25:38.560 I'm also sure that John Quincy Adams, as a former president, 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:41.919 a renowned statesman, someone who'd been on the front lines 0:25:41.919 --> 0:25:44.639 of the gagrule debates, and then someone who actually gave 0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:48.879 this great multi hour speech on the side of justice, 0:25:49.159 --> 0:25:52.760 convinced people on the street court that they couldn't go backwards, 0:25:52.959 --> 0:25:56.400 They couldn't support the extradition of the Amistad slave rebels 0:25:56.439 --> 0:26:00.719 after all that had written written about it. And I'm 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:04.040 pretty sure that that convinces at least a few people 0:26:04.080 --> 0:26:07.280 like Joseph's story to support the Amistade Slave Rebels. 0:26:09.040 --> 0:26:11.879 Story later described Adam's argument as. 0:26:12.239 --> 0:26:16.560 Extraordinary for its power and its bitter sarcasm, and its 0:26:16.600 --> 0:26:20.399 dealings with topics far beyond the record and points of discussion. 0:26:21.320 --> 0:26:26.560 Ecstasy rippled through the abolitionist's communities. In the jail, however, 0:26:27.080 --> 0:26:30.080 the captives were cut off from the outside world. They 0:26:30.080 --> 0:26:34.919 were still nervously awaiting the news. Then an abolitionist arrived 0:26:34.919 --> 0:26:37.999 with the newspaper. The Big Court has come to a decision. 0:26:38.600 --> 0:26:42.960 They say that you one and all are free. The 0:26:43.000 --> 0:26:46.359 captives were skeptical. They had been let down by previous 0:26:46.439 --> 0:26:50.559 rulings time and again. But Kala, the group's best reader, 0:26:50.639 --> 0:26:54.000 took a look at the paper. It was true. They 0:26:54.040 --> 0:26:58.639 were going home. The nation celebrated not only the ruling 0:26:58.840 --> 0:27:02.719 but Adams. He had successfully defended the founding ideals of 0:27:02.760 --> 0:27:06.879 the nation when it mattered most. His son was a 0:27:06.919 --> 0:27:10.320 different story. Charles Francis wrote to his father. 0:27:10.679 --> 0:27:14.279 It may be very interesting to yourself and the public 0:27:14.399 --> 0:27:17.159 to be pleading in the Supreme Court, but I must 0:27:17.199 --> 0:27:20.200 admit that I do not greatly admire the anxiety at 0:27:20.199 --> 0:27:22.839 occasions to those of us who do not regard it 0:27:22.879 --> 0:27:24.119 simply as a show. 0:27:25.000 --> 0:27:28.479 And his wife, Louisa, was just glad it was over. 0:27:29.159 --> 0:27:31.760 John Wis Adams did the right thing, and he did 0:27:31.800 --> 0:27:33.559 it knowing that he was the only one doing the 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:33.960 right thing. 0:27:34.800 --> 0:27:38.959