NOW: BLACK PROFILES IN COURAGE


JOSEPH CINQUE
by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

In 1839,  Cinque, a twenty-five year old rice farmer living in his home town of Sierra Leone, West Africa was captured, put on a slave ship and taken to Cuba. Once in Cuba, Cinque and  fifty-two other slaves were purchased by two Spaniards, placed aboard the Amistad,  and set sail north to plantations in Puerto Principe. Conditions on the ship were typically brutal and Cinque organized an early morning revolt and gained control of the ship. They finally ended up in New London, Connecticut, touching off a long legal battle. Eventually, Cinque and the other thirty-five survivors were allowed to return to Africa, leaving New York late in 1841. The courageous action taken by Joseph Cinque and his fellow West Africans had powerful implications; it brought the issue of slavery to the forefront, set legal precedents regarding the writ of habeus corpus, and proved once again that one man’s courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds can have a profound effect for generations.







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