United States v. The Amistad

In spite of Van Buren's inclination to avoid the subject of slavery due to its tendency to divide both the nation and the Democratic Party, former President John Quincy Adams had returned to the House of Representatives and remained vocal on the issue throughout the 1830s, in spite of a series of gag rules passed by the House to prevent discussion of slavery or its abolition in the chamber.

In 1839, a Spanish ship by the name of Amistad, which had sailed from Africa with a cargo of slaves, experienced an uprising as it sailed from Cuba to the southern United States.

The rebel slaves seized control of the ship and sailed it to the port of New London in the free northern state of Connecticut.

Van Buren was ever fearful that the issue would split the nation and believed the Africans on board should be returned to the Spanish authorities in Cuba.