Documents Relating to the Africans Taken in the Amistad
In honor of Black History Month, the Lillian Goldman Law Library is pleased to make publicly available one of the most comprehensive contemporary accounts of the case of the Amistad captives. Documents Relating to the Africans Taken in the Amistad was originally published as a 16-page special issue of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter, a monthly newspaper published in New York City by the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
Dated December 1840, the “Extra” begins with a lengthy account of the Amistad incident by Judge William Jay, one of the society’s founders. It reprints court documents, official correspondence, and records from the Spanish and British governments. In addition there are biographical sketches of the captives, and a facsimile reproduction of a letter from one of the youngest captives, Ka-Le, to Lewis Tappan, the society’s founder.
Documents Relating to the Africans Taken in the Amistad is one of several historic publications in the American Trials section of the Yale Law Library Special Collections documents collection, part of eYLS, the Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository.
ConnecticutHistory.org has put together a thorough guide to online resources on the Amistad case.
To find all of the Law Library’s holdings on the Amistad case, do a subject search for “Amistad (Schooner)” in our online catalog, MORRIS.
– MIKE WIDENER, Rare Book Librarian
