/amistad.mysticseaport.org/library/misc/barber.1840.amis.capt.html#initial.investigation),1. The trials and arguments revealed much about contemporary attitudes toward slavery. The ultimate decision made by the courts had many implications and created conflicts within the United States over slavery.The conflict at hand was that the Africans said " that they are not natives of Africa, and were born free, and ever since have been and still of right are and ought to be free and not slaves; that they were domiciled in the island of Cuba, or in the dominions of the Queen of Spain, or subject to the laws thereof."(http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/library/court/supreme/1841.01.decision.2.htm) The United States argued that its treaty with Spain required it to return ships and property seized by U.S. government vessels to their Spanish owners. The Supreme Court called the case "peculiar and embarrassing." It ruled for the Africans, accepting the argument that they were never citizens of Spain, and were illegally taken from Africa, where they were free men under the law. The Supreme Court accepted that the United States had obligations to Spain under the treaty, but said that that treaty "never could have been intended to take away the equal rights of [the Africans]."(http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/library/court/supreme/1841.01.decision.2.html) The Supreme Court also rejected a fairly novel argument by the United States. The U.S. argued that the Africans should not be freed because, in commanding a slave ship and piloting it into the United States, the Africans violated the laws of the United States forbidding slave trade. The Supreme Court stated that the slaves could not "possibly intend to import themselves into the United States as slaves, or for sale as slaves." (http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/library/court/supreme/1841.01.decision.2.html) Senior Justice Joseph Story wrote and read the decision of the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that...
