On this day, March 9, in 1841

The men who lead the Amistad slave revolt were freed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Amistad was a Spanish slave ship carrying 49 slaves who revolted and took over the ship. Instead of navigating back to the coast of Africa, their ship mistakenly wound up in U.S. waters where they were re-captured by the US warship Washington. A group of American abolitionists took an interest in their case, which made it to the Supreme Court. The 35 surviving men were eventually allowed to return to their homeland.