In 1839, two Portugese slave hunters acquired fifty-three slaves in Havana, Cuba. Jose Ruiz purchased 49 slaves, and his friend, Pedro Montes acquired 4 Africans. Ruiz hired a man named Ramon Ferrer to take them in his schooner, the Amistad, to a Cuban coastal town, Puerto Principe. Aboard the ship were five white men, a black cabin boy, fifty-three slaves and a cook. According to a story told by the Africans, the cook had told them they would be "cut to pieces, and salted as meat" for the Spaniards when the ship arrived at its destination. On the fourth night at sea, the slaves freed themselves. Led by Joseph Cinque, they killed the captain, Ramon Ferrer, and also the cook. Pedro Montes and Jose Ruiz lives were spared because their help was needed in steering the ship. They put many ashore in the Caribbean, but ordered Montes and Ruiz to sail to Africa, their homeland. Montes steered the Amistad toward Africa but very slowly. At night, he reversed his course, and headed west to America. .
On August 24th, the ship was seized off Long Island, New York by Lieutenant Gedney and the United States Brig, the Washington. The Amistad was then towed into Connecticut. The Africans, or Amistads, as they became known, were imprisoned on charges of murder. On September 18, Ruiz and Montes filed claims. These claims stated that they were the true owners of the slaves. President Martin Van Buren and most of the nation's press advocated extraditing the Africans to Cuba. Abolitionists in the North opposed extradition, and raised money for the defense counsel. Lewis Tappan and James Pennington defended the Africans" case, and argued that while slavery was legal in Cuba, importation of slaves from Africa was not. Judge Judson agreed, and ruled that the Africans had been kidnapped, and they had the right of escape, even if they had to use violence. He ordered that President Van Buren send these people back to their homeland and to their families.