Answer: The Amistad case (or United States v. The Amistad).

The ship La Amistad was seized off the New York Coast by the United States Navy on 24 August 1839.  The remaining passengers were set free while the Africans were sent to prison on murder charges in Connecticut.  The case was brought before the lower courts of Connecticut starting in September 1839; and it was only a few months before it was heard in the United States Supreme Court.  Gilpin presented the U. S. government’s side of the case, while the Africans were represented by former President John Quincy Adams and attorney Roger Sherman Baldwin.  The court eventually ruled in favor of the Africans and ordered that the survivors be transported back to Africa, which occurred in early 1842.

In addition to the papers of the Gilpin family (#238), HSP also has several collections that include papers on the slave trade, such as the records of Sir Robert Mends (Am .6825), the Pennsylvania Abolition Society collection (#490), and the Henry Laurens papers (#356).  In addition, our library has a large selection of pamphlets on slavery and abolition.