This section provides a chronological framework for the Amistad incident by summarizing relevant historical events. These events are arranged by thematic timelines.

The Amistad timeline describes the revolt event, the court hearings and judgements, and the return to freedom.

The Atlantic Slave Trade timeline provides a brief history of slavery on both sides of the ocean, including significant treaties and legislation abolishing the practice.

A relevant history of Africa and Sierra Leone traces early colonial settlement, and attempts to stop the illegal coastal slave trade.

The West Indies timeline chronicles events of Cuba and the Carribean, with the rise of a slave trade market despite legislative prohibitions.

A United States timeline considers national history relevant to the slave trade, emancipation, and the early beginnings of the Civil Rights movement.

Follow the legal path of the Amistad case with the Courts timeline.

The Library houses the archive of Amistad documents. As of July 1998, the Library includes over 500 documents.

Warning: these documents reflect the racial and social attitudes of antebellum American popular culture. Some contain disturbing material. A few are extremely racist, and we are a little uncomfortable putting them on-line. But they are an important aspect of this history, part of the climate that surrounded the Amistad Africans as they made their way through the United States.

Browse the collection of documents using the following categories: (Each document in the collection is searchable.)

Newspapers

Personal Papers

Court Records

Government Papers

Popular Media

Maps

Gallery

For documents and resources not available on the web, visit the Teaching Bibliography section.

View the Staff Picks page for links to the documents, images, and contextual materials that Amistad project staff have found most compelling, unusual, or interesting.

Do you want to introduce your students to the Amistad Incident? The Curriculum section contains a number of starting points for exploring Amistad in the classroom.

For publications not available on the Internet, but accessible for research and coursework, view the Bibliography page.

Do you have another way to bring the Amistad story into the classroom? Let us know via the Forum Feedback section of this website, so we can share your ideas with the community of educators committed to exploring Amistad in their classrooms.

The Amistad story resonates in some way with each of us#what does it mean to you?

We are presenting below some feedback from readers expressed in 2000 just around when the Amistad was launched - it shows that some issues never die and that a need for discourse will be always present