Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/232

 being rendered as "sound". As a matter of fact, "ladinos" was a local term used in Cuban law to designate slaves born in the country or imported previous to 1820. The translation was a fraud, and the beginning of a shameful attempt to deceive the people of the United States, including the courts. For it was at once learned that neither the forty-nine negroes claimed by Ruiz nor the three claimed by Montez were "ladinos". Cuban slave-dealers had imported them from Africa in a Portuguese vessel called "Teçora", on June 12th — fifteen days only before they were taken on board the "Amistad". They had been landed near Havana, and taken to a barracoon near the city, and there, on June 22d, Ruiz and Montez had purchased them. The purchasers had then obtained the usual permit for taking "ladinos" coastwise. But how it had happened that the Havana official was willing to issue a "ladino" permit, when these negroes had been landed contrary to the Spanish law, does not appear in the printed proceedings.

In short, the abolitionists said these negroes, that had been taken from their African homes and carried to Cuba, contrary to the laws of Spain, were not slaves but freemen, and when they were confined as slaves on the "Amistad" they had the natural right to rise against those who restrained them, and to regain liberty even if they had to kill two men to do it.

So issue was joined, and in the course of time (1841) the case reached the United States Supreme Court, where Justice Story delivered the opinion of the court. He said that in order to sustain the claims of Ruiz and Montez "it is essential to establish: 1st. That these negroes under all the circumstances fall within