The Amistad Case: A National Story

The outcome for this battle was the court ruling that the Mendes were not slaves. This led to freedom for the slaves. The other outcome included transportation of the slaves to West Africa instead of Spain as ruled by the District Court. The money for the transportation was raised when the public was asked to pay in order to attend the hearing (Osagie 32).
How the Amistad case become a national story The case became a national story because it attracted the attention of the public. This is because prominent people in the society were involved in the case. For instance, one of the legal representatives in the case was the former president John Quincy Adams. In addition, the case took place when anti-slavery movements had grown in the country. The African slaves as a party in the case attracted many people especially those who supported the abolition of slavery. Moreover, the case led to the transformation of the courts …show more content…
One of the impacts included changing of people’s attitudes toward slave trade abolitionist movements. Before this case, few Americans supported the movement because most of them were racists who thought that the movement was mean to destroy Americans. However, after the court’s decision, slavery and slave trade became a major debate in the country. As a result, people started having positive attitudes towards the movements. In addition, the court’s decision strengthened the abolitionists’ movements. For instance, they started created films which featured the negative impacts of slavery. The films appealed to the emotions of many Americans making them to sympathize with slaves. The decision also not only made the Amistad slave return to their homes, but also other slaves. It also created an impression that the principle of justice did not only apply to whites but also people of other races. This was proved after the black slaves won the case in the federal court (Rodriguez