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Thursday, April 25, 2024

Amistad captives were never legally slaves

April 21, 2015 12:00 am • Last Updated: April 21, 2015 5:07 pm

xxxxx

I believe you owe your readers a correction regarding, "Amistad tours will be available in New London to students," (April 14) by reporter Joe Wojtas. "In 1839, the 53 slaves who were abroad the original Amistad took control of the ship…" and "...three years later the U.S. Supreme Court declared the slaves were free."

The reporter should get the story correct; the Africans were captives, not slaves. They had not yet been sold into slavery. The U.S. Supreme court didn't declare the slaves were free; it declared they weren't slaves at all.

Helen Sandalls

New London

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