Portrait of Cinque by Nathaniel Jocelyn (January 31, 1796 – January 13, 1881)

From March through November 1841, Farmington was home to the African Mendi captives who had rebelled and overtaken the slave-ship, La Amistad. The 53 captives, mostly Mendi from what is now Sierra Leone, had been captured and shipped to Cuba. In 1839, they were sold to work plantations on the other side of Cuba. They were shipped aboard La Amistad. While at sea, they rebelled and the 44 survivors sailed the ship to Long Island, New York. They were taken into custody aboard the USS Washington under the command of Lt. Gedney. They were jailed in New Haven and taken to trials in Hartford and Washington, DC. The trials lasted 18 months. In February 1841 their case was argued by former President John Quincy Adams before the Supreme Court. On March 9, 1841 the decision came down, declaring the Africans to be free people with permission to return to their homeland. Nine days later, they arrived in Farmington, where abolitionists provided housing, schooling, and the fundraising necessary for the Mendis passage back to their homeland.