The American Missionary Association and the Amistad

By Maggie Dolbow (on behalf of the Race + Equity Team)

The ordeal of the Amistad refugees is captured in 6 murals done by Hale Woodruff in 1938. These are housed at Talladega University, of which at least one Pilgrim is a graduate. She remembers the murals being unveiled and presented to the student body. The murals are very famous, and even toured many museums in the country in 2006. They are done in a style like that of Diego Rivera, and indeed, Woodruff studied under Rivera.

Editor’s note: This piece came out of the Race + Equity team’s ongoing discussions of the racist roots in US history, as well as the ongoing historical efforts to combat racism, particularly efforts from people of faith. Since one of the ancestral denominations of the UCC is the Christian Congregational Church, we are following how the American Missionary Association or AMA grew out of that denomination. 

The American Missionary Association grew out of an abolitionist committee called the Amistad committee. This original committee had been organized by the Connecticut Congregationalists to support and defend 39 refugees who had been kidnapped in Africa and then imprisoned in a large slave ship. After being sold into slavery in Cuba, they were then transported by schooner (La Amistad) to another area. The Africans managed to overtake the crew, and tried to sail home. They were duped by the Spanish navigator of the ship, who steered it into US waters, where the ship and its passengers were taken into custody based upon the testimony of the Spanish. The Amistad Committee under the determined leadership of Lewis Tappan, managed to secure freedom for the refugees who had been arrested and imprisoned during the trials.

The trials centered around international law, states’ rights, the legality of slavery in individual states, among other things. For example, the refugees were captured in NY, which was a free state. Slave owners then pushed for the trial to be held in Connecticut, which, while not a slave state, still recognized slave owners’ “property rights.” This turned into a 3 year ordeal before reaching the US Supreme Court, where John Quincy Adams, who was quite elderly at the time, defended the captives. His powerful defense of humanity where he pointed out that the freedom of 39 lives depended on the decision, set an important historical precedent.

Here are a few interesting details of the story. In order to communicate with the captives, who spoke neither English or Spanish, a law clerk went down to the docks in New London, and counted out loudly in Mendi until he found someone who recognized the language and could serve as a translator. When the Africans could finally tell their story it became obvious that they had been taken against their will and were a free people. The people who later cared for the refugees and were members of the Amistad committee, were  not necessarily good examples of humanity. At least one family abused the people in their care. White privilege and tone-deafness were even stronger than today, and, of course, everyone was determined to turn the “heathens” into Christians.

At last, in 1841, the captives sailed home, accompanied by several missionaries who planned to set up missions in areas in and around Mani, the captive’s home. This did not end up well. The area had completely changed due to inter tribal warfare. Illness plagued the white missionaries. Eventually, a mission was set up in Sherbro Island. In 1846 the Amistad Committee became the American Missionary Association. This group switched attention to educating Southern Blacks before, during and after the Civil War. They built hundreds of elementary and high schools. After 1850 they founded 9 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). They also built many black churches. If a church in the South is named First Congregational and was founded during Reconstruction, it is generally a predominantly Black Church and was started by AMA. 

There is a long history of antiracist missionaries that includes Lewis Tappan, Charles Pennington, and many others, even many women, such as Mary Ann Shadd Cary. These missionaries believed slavery could not stand for one hour, if the churches denounced it. Today’s UCC can be traced back to the American Missionary Society of the second half of the 1800s.

References:

Black Mutiny: the Revolt on the Schooner Amistad, by William Owens, 1953.

www.ucc.org/about-us_hidden-histories_blacks-and-the-american