Joseph Cinque (Sengbe Pieh) c 1813-1879

This portrait hangs in Mr. Douglass' study. Joseph Cinque, Mendi, West Africa (now Sierra Leone) was captured by African slave traders. He was a defendent in the Amistad case in which former John Quincy Adams played a major role. The court held that Cinque and the other defendents had been captured illegally and ordered them released and returned home.

Note: Text accompanying the sale of this print in the newspaper reads: "Colored American, February 27, 1841, --We acknowledge, with many thanks to Mr. Purvis, the receipt of a mezzotint [sic] likeness of Cinque, the chief of the amistad captives. It is engraved on steel by Mr. Sartain, of Philadelphia, and has been got up by Robert Purvis, Esq., of that city. this is a true likeness, taken from a painted one from real life, by N. Jocelyn, Esq., of New Haven, and now in the possession of Mr. Purvis. We shall be proud to have our apartments graced with the portrait of the noble Cinque, and shall regard it as a favor to our descendants, to transmit to them his likeness. And who that has any humanity in his heart, or any veneration for a hero, and who has any knowledge of this case, would not like to have this likeness about them. Accompanying the likeness is a fac simile of Cinque's hand writing, although he came here a heathen, and unlearned. For sale at the anti slavery offices, 143 and 131 Nassau Street.