Arts & Humanities

Focal Point Pencil sketches of the Amistad prisoners

Part of Yale’s extensive collections, these series of sketches give life to a piece of New Haven — and American — history.

By
Oscar Sweeting
2 min read

A selection of William H. Townsend’s sketches.

Images courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Four sketches of Amistad prisoners
Object: Drawings of the Amistad Prisoners, by William H. Townsend
Date:1839
Medium:Graphite, paper
Where to find:Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

What to know: In 1839, the Spanish slave ship Amistad, carrying 53 Africans who had previously been abducted from their homeland to be sold as slaves, set sail from Havana on its way to a plantation in Puerto Principe, Cuba. During that journey, the captives revolted, killing the ship’s captain and other crew members but sparing the life of the ship’s navigator so that he could direct them on a course back to Africa. Instead, the navigator surreptitiously steered the ship north and west and, eventually, the Amistad was seized by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Long Island. The Africans were transported to New Haven to await trial for mutiny, murder, and piracy.

New Haven resident William H. Townsend made pencil sketches of the Amistad captives while they were awaiting trial. After two years, their case was successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. The survivors returned to Sierra Leone in 1842; a number of the original captives died awaiting trial and are buried in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven.

Townsend recorded the names of his subjects in these sketches, drawn at the time of their trial.

  • Pencil sketch of Amistad prisoner Pona
    1 / 6

    Pona

    Image courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  • Pencil sketch of Amistad prisoner Saby
    2 / 6

    Saby

    Image courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  • Pencil sketch of Amistad prisoner Marqu
    3 / 6

    Marqu

    Image courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  • Pencil sketch of Amistad prisoner Little Kale
    4 / 6

    Little Kale

    Image courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  • Pencil sketch of Amistad prisoner Bana
    5 / 6

    Bana

    Image courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  • Pencil sketch of Amistad prisoner Kimbo
    6 / 6

    Kimbo

    Image courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

From the expert: “The Amistad rebels were the focus of local and even national attention during their trial and imprisonment in New Haven,” says Hope McGrath, research coordinator for Yale, New Haven, and Connecticut History at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. “In these sketches, the teenage artist William Townsend left us not only a remarkable record of the people at the center of this pivotal event, but also captured the distinctive features — the humanity — of the individuals whose freedom was on trial in 1839.”

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Focal Point