Cinqué was born around 1814 in what is now
Sierra Leone. His exact date of birth remains unknown. He was a rice farmer, and married with three children, when he was sold into slavery to redeem a debt. He was bought by the
Vai king Siaka and in 1839 sold to
Pedro Blanco, a Spanish slave trader. He was imprisoned on the Portuguese
slave ship Tecora, in violation of treaties prohibiting the international slave trade. Cinqué was taken to
Havana, Cuba, where he was sold with 110 others to Spaniards José Ruiz and Pedro Montez. The Spaniards arranged to transport the captives on the coastal
schooner La Amistad, with the intention of selling them as slaves at ports along the coast of Cuba for work on
sugar plantations. On June 30, Cinqué led a revolt, killing the captain and the cook of the ship; two African captives also died, and two sailors escaped. The Africans took Ruiz and Montez, the merchants who had purchased them, as prisoners and demanded that they direct the ship back to Sierra Leone. Instead, at night, the pair directed the navigator in the opposite direction, toward the Americas, in the hope of attracting the attention of one of their fellow Spaniards who would save their ship and regain control. The ship had an uneven course between the coasts of the United States and Africa. After about two months,
La Amistad reached United States waters near
Long Island, New York. Members of the
USS Washington boarded the vessel. When they discovered what had happened (as told by the Spaniards), they charged the Africans with
mutiny and murder. The ship and the Mende were taken to
New Haven, Connecticut, to await trial. '' on August 31, 1839The two Spaniards claimed that the Africans had been born in Cuba and were already slaves at the time of their purchase, and were therefore legal property. Interpreters from
Mende to English were found, who enabled the Africans to tell their story to attorneys and the court. Cinqué served as the group's informal representative. The district and circuit courts found in favor of the Africans; the Spanish parties and their government appealed to the
Supreme Court of the United States. In March 1841, the Supreme Court ruled that the Africans mutinied to regain their freedom after being kidnapped and sold illegally. The advocacy of former
U.S. President John Quincy Adams, together with
Roger Sherman Baldwin, was critical to the Africans' defense. The court ordered the Africans freed and returned to Africa, if they wished. This decision was against the protests of President
Martin Van Buren, who worried about relations with Spain and implications for domestic slavery. Cinqué and the other Mende reached their homeland in 1842. In Sierra Leone, Cinqué encountered civil war. He and his group maintained contact with the local mission for a while, but Cinqué left to trade along the coast. Little is known of his later life, and rumors circulated. Some maintained that he had moved to
Jamaica. Others held that he had become a merchant or a chief, perhaps trading in enslaved people himself. The latter charge derived from
oral accounts from Africa cited by the twentieth-century author
William A. Owens, who claimed that he had seen letters from
American Missionary Association missionaries suggesting Cinqué was a slave trader. More recently historians such as Howard Jones in 2000 and Joseph Yannielli in 2009 have argued that, although some of the Africans associated with the
Amistad probably did engage in the slave trade upon their return, given the nature of the regional economy at the time, the allegations of Cinqué's involvement seem implausible in view of the lack of evidence, and the unlikelihood of a conspiracy of silence leaving no traces. Samuel Pieh, a great-great-grandson of Sengbe Pieh and language coach for the 1997
Amistad film, stated that Cinqué became a key figure in Sierra Leone and helped to Christianize the country. == In popular culture ==