1839 Warrant for Habeas Corpus - The Amistad Case - Inquiry Unlimited practitioner formerly sited at Boston KidWeb at the Joseph Lee School, Boston, MA

Two Lessons from Inquiry Unlimited based on

The Amistad Trial, 1839 - online reference

Question to consider: Before boarding the Amistad, were the captives free individuals that were illegally captured?

Primary and Secondary Sources

Classroom literacy reading assignment - The Slave Ship (Originally The Long Black Schooner) by Emma Sterne, 1980.
Context - Where it all began - the geography of the incident
The electronic version of "A History of the Amistad Captives" by John W. Barber (1840) is a timely resource for this incident.

Focused primary source: The 1839 Warrant and 1839 Warrant Transcription for the Amistad Trial.
Supplementary source: Sketches of the people to be printed, mounted, and used for our second lesson, a role playing activity.
Supplementary sources for background:

Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery, Federal Judicial Center
"Incited by the Love of Liberty" - The Amistad Captives and the Federal Courts - Prologue, National Archives Publication.

This lesson's primary source document:

Section 1 - Amistad Warrant for Habeas Corpus

September, 1839

Analyze this document using Bloom's Taxonomy.

Knowledge

After transcribing the document:
- By whom was this document written?
- To whom was the document addressed?
- What does this document request be done with the thirty-six Africans?

Comprehension

As a warrant for Habeas Corpus, what legal rights are being addressed?

Application

Using the 1839 Warrant, create a Word Bank list for students to use as a classroom discussion vehicle that would help them understand the meaning and intent of this document.

Student performance of understanding - Oral Language Application

As a role playing activity, recreate the January, 1840 civil case in New Haven, Connecticut presided over by District Judge Andrew Judson. Present evidence that proves that the Amistad captives were illegally captured from Africa.

Focus:
- Use legal and personal documents involving the lives of the individual captives to gather factual evidence.
- Expand your reservoir of factual evidence by gathering online supportive documents that supplement the incident. (Tecora and Amistad Voyages)
- Assign individual students roles of the characters to represent the class in your trial (Judge Andrew Judson, James Covey, Abolitionist Lewis Tappan, Cinque (Singbe), Kale's letter1 and letter2 to John Quincy Adams, Kinna's letter to John Quincy Adams, biographical information about Grabeau, Kimbo, and other captives.
- Lewis Tappan's 1839 letter
- Plan, set up, and conduct the trial.
- Enjoy the experience!

Student Performance Rubric

[ Revolutionary Period | The City as a Classroom | Abolitionism | Student Slave Narratives | Rev. Period Index ]