Historedia
Episode 1 of 3

Adams Oral Argument

When
February 24, 1841
Where
Supreme Court Building
Part of
Supreme Court rules in United States v. The Amistad

Former President John Quincy Adams argued the case before the Supreme Court, speaking for four hours on February 24, 1841.

Adams joined the case at the request of Lewis Tappan and Ellis Gray Loring. He appeared on February 24, 1841, and spoke for four hours. The district court proceedings had separately established that the Africans were captured in Mendiland, sold to a Portuguese trader, and taken to Havana illegally on a Portuguese ship.

Sources

  1. John Quincy Adams Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
  2. United States v. The Amistad Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-16

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.