Atlantic Histories

The Amistad Revolt was an important episode in several simultaneous and interlocked histories:

In the history of West Africa .... in 1839 a cluster of peoples and policies coping with the dislocations of the Atlantic slave trade

In the history of Cuba .... in 1839 a Spanish colony, one of the world's largest producers of sugar, and the last major slave society in the West Indies

In the history of the United States .... in 1839 a growing nation, on the threshold of becoming a world power, but also becoming a divided nation, half-slave, half-free.