Abolitionists take action

Dwight P. Janes, a Connecticut abolitionist, new the slave trade had been outlawed in Spain and it's colonies. He contacted Roger Baldwin and told him that Ruiz said he had bought 49 men from a foreign slave trader and had taken them aboard the Amistad. Janes asked Baldwin to find an african who could speak the language of the prisoners so that they could tell their story. He also asked Baldwin if he could take the case of the prisoners.

http://www.tulane.edu/~amistad/amessays.htm