Education: A Godly Play

Sengbe
(The Amistad)

INTRODUCTION (this section is for teachers only)

This is the story of the Amistad Revolt. It was a very important event in the anti-slavery movement and in the life of the United Church of Christ. The revolt happened on a slave ship, La Amistad, and was led by an African named Sengbe (Seng-bay). Many books refer to him as Cinque because that is what the Spanish (who could not pronounce Sengbe) called him. The Congregational Church had a very important role in helping the Africans obtain their freedom. The group that formed to support this effort was called the Amistad Committee. Made up of faithful Congregationalists and (our forebears) Presbyterians they went on to become the American Missionary Society (AMA) which still exists today as a part of the Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ. The AMA has a strong history of building schools and universities for former slaves and in black communities.

The story is told using a number of different objects that are laid out on an underlay as the story unfolds (see photo below). At the end of the story the class is invited to wonder together about the story. It is designed to let children wonder widely and freely. The questions are open ended and do not suggest a particular answer that is correct, but enable the children to explore where and how this story touches them and their lives.

In this story you will need :

1 underlay
1 picture of Sengbe
1 net and rope
1 notice of sale of slaves
1 small sailing vessel
1 chain
1 nail
1 ship’s steering wheel
1 cross
several gold coins
1 small gavel
1 model of supreme court house

All the objects and underlay are kept in a carefully prepared box.

(End of teacher's only section)

Sengbe
(The Amistad)

Roll out underlay. Take out picture of Sengbe.

Many, many years ago in West Africa, in a place called Mendeland (men-day), there lived an African named Sengbe Pieh (Seng-bay Pee-ay). Sengbe was tall and strong and free. God made Sengbe tall. God made Sengbe strong. God made Sengbe black. And God made Sengbe free.

Sengbe lived with his father, his wife, and his three sons. Sengbe was a rice farmer. Every morning he left his family and walked to the rice fields to work.

Put out net.

One morning, as Sengbe was walking to work, four Africans jumped out of the woods and captured him.

Put rope on top of net.

They bound him up, tying his arms and legs together. They whipped him and beat him like an animal. They took him away from his family and sold him into slavery. Now there were people who treated Sengbe like property. It was a terrible thing. They could tell Sengbe what to do and where to live and how to behave. But Sengbe knew that God had made him a free man, and nothing and no one could take that knowledge away from him. God made him free.

Put out notice of sale.

Sengbe and 300 hundred other African men and women were put on a very crowded boat and sent across the ocean to the West Indies. Many men and women died on the trip. When they got to the West Indies, the Africans were sold to farmers and plantation owners. Sengbe and 48 other African men were bought by a plantation owner named Jose Ruiz for $ 450.00 each. An elderly Spaniard, Pedro Montes, bought three little girls and one boy. They were all then put on a boat called La Amistad.

Put out boat.

They were sailing up the coast back to the plantation. On the Amistad the Africans were kept in chains.

Put out chain.

Their feet were chained together. Their hands were chained together. They were not free to move around. Sengbe knew that when they got to the plantation they would be forced to work as slaves for the plantation owners. But, like everyone, Sengbe was born to be free.

Put out picture of man in chains and put nail on top of it.

One day Sengbe found a loose nail in the boat. He took the nail and carefully hid it. He used the nail to open the lock which held his chains together. Now he was free of his chains. The men passed the nail around and loosened their chains. Sengbe had been held captive for 6 long months. In the dark of the night Sengbe led the Africans up on the deck. He knew it was far better to live free, or to die trying to be free, than to live as a slave. They killed the captain of the Amistad and seized control of the ship. Sengbe told Jose Ruiz, the man who had bought them to work on his plantation, to take them all back to Africa or die.

Put out the ship’s wheel.

During the day Ruiz steered the ship toward Africa. But at night he turned the boat around and sailed toward the United States. They spent 2 months zigzagging across the ocean until finally the Amistad was seized by the U.S. Navy and the Africans were taken to the United States. In the United States there were many people who still owned slaves and many people who believed that some people, especially black people, were born to be slaves. Slavery was still legal, although bringing people from Africa to be slaves was illegal. The Africans were put back in chains and put in jail in New Haven, Connecticut. They were charged with the murder of the captain of the Amistad.

Put out cross.

In New Haven there were a number of ministers and members of local Congregational and Presbyterian churches who knew that slavery was wrong. They came together and formed the Amistad Committee.

Put out money.

The Amistad Committee raised money and support for the Africans. They wrote letters in the newspapers. They contacted Abolitionists throughout the country. People became very interested in Sengbe and his friends. Artists came and painted their pictures. Authors wrote stories about them. Poets wrote poems about them.
(For older class put out poem and read it.)

The Amistad Committee worked hard to show other Americans that these Africans were born to be free. They found a lawyer, Roger Baldwin, to defend them. They learned to count to ten in Mende, the language Sengbe and his friends spoke, and went to the ports in New York City, where they found a man who understood Mende. Now the Africans could tell their own stories of what had happened to them.

Put out gavel.

(You might need to explain what this is to young children: “Do you know what this is ? This is a gavel, a special hammer that a judge in a court uses to get every one’s attention. The judge hits it on the table and then everyone knows they have to listen to what the judge has to say. ” Then put the gavel down on the underlay.)

The day finally came when Sengbe and the other Africans went to court. They walked into the courtroom in chains. Many of the Africans bowed their heads in shame. But Sengbe stood tall and proud. Many Americans had never seen such a tall, proud African. He certainly didn’t look like a slave. And he certainly didn’t act like a slave. They began to wonder, was he really meant to be a slave?

Roger Baldwin, their lawyer, argued that the Africans were illegally enslaved and therefore should be allowed to go back to Africa as free men. As the arguments were made before the judge, Sengbe and his friends sat and listened. Most of the English they did not understand. But they did understand that this trial was about their freedom. At one point Sengbe stood up and stretched out his chained hands. He knew in his heart and in every bone of his body that God made him to be free. “Give us free, ” he cried, “Give us free. ” The courtroom sat in complete silence. They knew that Sengbe had spoken the truth. The judge decided that Roger Baldwin and Sengbe were right.

The Africans were illegally enslaved. They should be free.

Put out courthouse.

But many people in America did not agree. In their minds, Sengbe and his friends were, and always would be, slaves. The case was argued all the way to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. There a former President, John Quincy Adams, argued before the nine Supreme Court Justices. He stood before these men and argued for the truth, the truth that was stated in the country’s Declaration of Independence, “We believe these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal. ” All men.

On March 9, 1841, two years after Sengbe was captured in Africa, the Supreme Court declared that he and all the other Africans were free and could return to their homeland. They were free but they had nowhere to go. They had no money to hire a ship to take them home.

The Amistad Committee worked to raise a lot of money to pay for the Africans’ trip home. They offered the Africans a place to live. They offered the Africans a place to worship. They invited people to hear Sengbe and his friends tell their story. Together they raised a lot of money

(For older kids…)
Eight months later the work of the Amistad Committee was done. The Amistad Committee would go on to become the American Missionary Association working hard for the health, education and welfare of all American blacks who were soon to be granted their freedom.

In November 1841 Sengbe and his fellow Mende boarded the ship Gentlemen and set sail for Africa. He left behind him hundreds of men, women, and children, good United States citizens who understood for the first time that God made all men, women and children to be free: white, black, brown, yellow and red. All shall be free.

WONDERING:

I wonder what it feels like to be a slave ?
I wonder how Sengbe knew he was supposed to be free ?
I wonder what people saw when they looked at Sengbe that changed their minds about slavery ?
I wonder how it feels to lose your freedom and then to be free again ?
I wonder what is your favorite part of the story?
I wonder what is the most important part of the story?
I wonder if there is any part of the story that you could leave out and still have the same story ?
I wonder if there is any part of this story that is about you ?

This lesson was prepared by Rev. Elizabeth Wieman, Minister of Christian Education, Families, and Youth at Church of the Covenant, Boston MA. For more information you may contact her at the church.