POLB30H3 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: William Marbury, Ginger Beer, Federalist No. 78
17 Oct 2017
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In 1839, fifty-three illegally purchased african slaves being transported from cuba on the ship amistad managed to seize control of the vessel. They killed two crew members and ordered the remainder to head for africa. But by altering course at night, when the position of the sun did not reveal the ship"s course, they sailed in a northeasterly direction. Eventually, the amistad was intercepted by an american brig off the coast of long island. The two spaniards who had enslaved the africans were freed by the americans, and the slaves were imprisoned. President martin van buren, along with many newspaper editors, favored extraditing the. But abolitionists and other northern sympathizers won an american trial for them: at a hearing in hartford, a federal district court judge ruled that the africans were not liable for their actions because they had been enslaved illegally.
