The Supreme Court of the United States…

The Supreme Court of the United States rules in United States v. The Amistad that the Africans who had seized control of the ship had been taken into slavery illegally.

John Quincy Adams, the congressman and former president, had argued eloquently for the Amistad mutineers when the U.S. government appealed the ruling in the Amistad case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841.

In a surprising victory for the country's antislavery forces, the Supreme Court upholds the lower court, and private and missionary society donations help the thirty-five surviving Africans secure passage home. (A committee formed to defend the slaves will later develop into the American Missionary Association, incorporated in 1846).