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Lincoln School History
A Brief History of Lincoln School
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Pre-History
On or about June 26, 1838, a schooner, La Amistad,set out from
Havana, Cuba, to a shore town called Puerto Principe, also in Cuba, with more
than 50 slaves. La Amistadbuilt for speed was "long and black
hulled," and rode low in the water. It was built that way to allow for
quick movement and escape with cargoes of slaves. English and American
sea-patrols found it difficult to catch up with her.
Spain had outlawed international slavery 18 years before. England and the
United States outlawed it in 1807-1808. The practice continued, however, for
many years after then. In fact, the last known ship to sail into American
waters and dock was the Clothilde, at Mobile Bay in 1862 with some 150
and more Africans aboard. It is probable that the Clothildecame from
somewhere in the West Indies and not Africa.
Trouble took place on La Armistad on the night of July 1, 1838, and
early the next morning. Events were set in motion that would be heard around
the world. The famous Amistad Mutiny took place when one of the slaves asked
the mulatto cook, Celestino, what was to be their fate. Celestino grinned, and
drew his finger across his throat. Even though joking, his movements indicated
that the slaves would have their throats slit; that they would be cooked and
eaten.
Sengbe (Cinque) believed Celestino. He also convinced others. Cinque and
other male slaves broke their chains, broke into the cargo holds and armed
themselves with razor-sharped machetes. They went on to kill everybody they
could get their hands on, including the captain, one Ramon Ferrer. They took
over the schooner, and demanded that they be taken to Africa. During daylight
hours Pedro Montez, a survivor of the carnage, steered the boat eastward. The
slaves could tell the direction they were going by the position of the sun. At
night, however, Montez steered to the North. The zig-zag course ended in Long
Island Sound on August 25, 1838.
They had been at sea nearly two months. The slaves were captured near
Montauk Point, and went through a long trial with much help from New England
Congregationalists, and an aging and palsied former president of the United
States, John Quincy Adams, a Unitarian. The slaves were eventually returned to
Africa as free people.
Two Congregationalist ministers, Revs. Joshua Levitt and Simeon Jocelyn,
were the prime movers in the defense of the mutineers. Rev. Jocelyn was pastor
of the church that was known formerly as the Dixwell Avenue Congregational
Church (now Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ). Dixwell Avenue
Congregational Church became known later as the first black Congregational
church in the United States, founded in 1828. A black church in Portland,
Maine, however - the Abyssinian Congregational Church - disputes the claim.
They say that they are the oldest, having been founded in 1827. What does all
of this have to do with history of Lincoln School? A lot has to do with
it.
The original group of supporters of the mutineers aboard La
Armistadlater formed at Syracuse, New York, in 1845, the American
Missionary Association. The AMA organized and supported many schools in the
South for newly freed slaves, Native Americans, and poor Whites. The AMA,
however, was notthe founderof what became Lincoln School, as commonly
believed. |
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 City of Marion, Alabama
Marion
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