Slavery Biographies | Joseph Cinque Biography

Born c. 1810
Present-day Sierra Leone
Died c. 1880
Sierra Leone

Slave, revolt leader

Cinque, sometimes referred to as Joseph Cinque (pronounced sink-AY), led a slave revolt in 1838 aboard the ship Amistad, which was carrying captured Africans. Tried for his part in the mutiny, Cinque was defended by former U.S. president John Quincy Adams (1767-1848). Adams won the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841, and Cinque and the other mutineers were freed and returned to Africa.

The details of Cinque's early life in Africa are uncertain, and the facts of his death are likewise clouded in mystery. But in the years between his capture and his return to Africa in 1842, Cinque became a celebrated figure among both African American slaves and abolitionists (people who wanted slavery to be abolished). Since then, Cinque has remained a powerful symbol of the eternal desire for...