In 1839, in waters off the coast of Cuba, a group of forty-nine Africans ensnared in the Atlantic slave trade struck out for freedom. They had been captured, sold into slavery, carried across the ocean, sold again, and they were being transported on what was, for millions of Africans, the last leg of the slave trade when they found the chance to seize the initiative. One of them, a man the world would come to know as "Cinque," worked free of his chains and led a shipboard revolt. The vessel they won was a schooner that had been named, in a grim bit of irony, the Amistad ("Friendship"). The Africans tried to force two Cuban survivors to sail them back to Africa, but the Amistad wound up instead in U.S. waters, just past Long Island Sound, where the Africans were again taken into custody. Spain promptly demanded their extradition to face trial in Cuba for piracy and murder, but their plight caught the attention of American abolitionists, who mounted a legal defense on the Africans' behalf. The case went through the American judicial system all the way up to the Supreme Court. The Amistad Case became one of the most important slavery

The anti-slavery groups won the battle, but the war was still waging all over. The fact the slaves were freed on the basis that they were taken illegally was a solid step for the abolitionists, but they were not freed on the basis that they were human beings. The opinion, written by Story, may or may not have fully reflected the thinking of his southern colleagues, but set forth his own views. In it he wrote that the Africans were not pirates and were justified in seizing the Amistad for they had exercised "the ultimate right of all human beings in extreme cases to resist oppression." In the absence of positive law " 'the eternal principles of justice' had to prevail."

The Amistad Case was one of the only times when three main groups of abolitionists came together to form one group in the fight against slavery. "Moral Suasion," was one of the main groups that used graphic illustrations of the wrongs of slavery to turn people against it and join the abolitionists. The second group was a group that believed in using religion in the fight against slavery. They spoke out that slavery was a sin and the government should be built on the principles of God and not man. The third group believed in using government to gain supporters of antislavery, they designed special parties to speak out against slavery. The Amistad brought together all three groups and others in the fight against slavery, they believed the Amistad Case could "undercut barriers based on color and racial prejudices, the South would lose its major bases for slavery."

The Amistad case is considered to be one of the most important cases regarding slavery that was ever brought into the Supreme Court. It united several types of abolitionists with a common goal to accomplish and brought new ideas and processes of freeing blacks to the table. The fact that the two presidents were involved w

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