Throughout New London, hidden ties connect the city to Black history — one of the most important lies in its ocean.
The Amistad, a slave ship holding captured Africans, would become a catalyst that sparked the abolition movement in Connecticut.
The African captives, already undergoing The Middle Passage from West Africa, set sail from Havana, Cuba in June 1839. Tired of their oppression, they staged an uprising and demanded their slavers return them home.
The slavers, unbeknown to the Africans, reversed the ship’s course and arrived on the coast of Long Island in August. Despite the ship’s discovery in New York, a U.S. Navy sailor instead instructed the ship to be brought to New London.
“The reason was New York had abolished slavery in 1827. Connecticut still had not abolished slavery. He brought it to Connecticut because he was hoping to claim salvage rights on the [human] cargo,” said Tom Schuch, a historian of African American history in New London.
Schuch was part of efforts to establish New London’s Black Heritage Trail in 2019.
New London historically was supportive of slavery. A meeting held among the town’s residents condemned abolitionists and pledged support to Southern enslavers in 1835, four years before the Amistad’s arrival.
Connecticut’s textile industry, dependent on the labor of enslaved Black people, fueled northern support for the preservation of slavery. However, the Amistad’s arrival began to change sentiments on slavery throughout New London.
“Controversy started to erupt in New London and there were churches that were divided over the issue of slavery … The Amistad brought it out,” Schuch said.
Quickly, the abolitionist fervor began to spread. Into the 1840s, abolitionist newspapers solidified the voice of New London’s intersectional anti-slavery movement of white and Black men and women.
Judge Andrew Judson, despite opposing the education of Black children as a state legislator, ruled in August 1839 that the Africans among the Amistad had acted in self-defense, bolstering abolitionist efforts in the city.
However, the Amistad case was appealed by the federal government, under President Martin Van Burren’s direction in 1841. Van Burren, up for reelection, sought Southern votes and forced the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The African survivors won the case, with former President John Quincy Adams arguing that U.S. law prohibited the slave trade since 1808 and the unlawful “act of importing them shall operate in their favor as an act of emancipation.”
African survivors of the Amistad resided in Farmington. To return home, they fundraised through cultural exhibitions, schools and public spaces to return to Africa throughout the state. Soon, residents began to understand their humanity.
“They realized these are fine human beings that are being treated this way. This is not right,” Schuch said of Connecticut residents. “It’s a phenomenal thing.”
Almost a decade later in 1848, Frederick Douglass, an orator and abolitionist, came to New London in hopes of spreading abolitionist sentiments. In his account of his speeches, Douglass said New London was “about the best part in the state” in its support of abolition.
In June, three weeks after Douglass’ New London speech, Connecticut abolished slavery. The last to do so in New England.
“What happened? The Amistad happened, the abolition movement happened … It changed New London from being a pro-slavery state to being pro-abolitionist,” Schuch said.
