In this week’s episode, AFROFILES’ Leslie Rose talks with Dr. Marcus Rediker about the history of the Amistad Rebellion, a mutiny staged by enslaved Africans aboard the Spanish ship La Amistad in 1839. The vessel was ultimately taken into custody by the US Navy, and the 53 enslaved people were charged with piracy and murder. Their trial in New Haven, Connecticut became a lightning rod for US abolitionists, and the eventual repatriation of the defendants to Sierra Leone stands as a rare triumph in the story of resistance to the slave trade. 

Dr. Rediker has written extensively about the Amistad Rebellion and produced the documentary, Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of the Rebels, available here: https://www.ghostsofamistad.com/

Our theme music is from RYYZN, audio clips from Charlie Haffner’s “Amistad Kata Kata.”

If you’re interested in learning more about the Amistad Rebellion, sharing this story in the classroom, or seeing a replica of the infamous shop, check out the organization Discovering Amistad here: https://www.discoveringamistad.org/