Cinque, The Chief of the Amistad Captives
Joseph Cinqué (ca. 1814–ca. 1879), also known as Sengbe Pieh, was Mende from the Upper Guinea Coast. He helped lead a revolt of many Africans on the Spanish slave ship, La Amistad. Robert Purvis, a leading black abolitionist from Philadelphia, commissioned this studio portrait. Jocelyn was an abolitionist sympathizer. Cinqué is shown in a toga, rather than in traditional Mende clothing. His facial features seem to have been made less African than they actually appeared. For details on Cinque see, for example, John W. Barber, A History of the Amistad Captives (New Haven, Connecticut, 1840) and Mary Cable, Black Odyssey: The Case of the Slave Ship Amistad (New York, 1971). For details on this painting, see Eleanor Alexander, "A Portrait of Cinque," Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin, 49 (1984), p. 31-51; and M. Harris, Colored Pictures (University of North Carolina Press, 2003), p. 34-36. A slide of the image shown here was made from an unidentified secondary source. See also Harris (above) and Hugh Honour, The Image of the Black in Western Art (Menil Foundation, Harvard University Press, 1989), vol. 4, pt. 1, p. 158, fig. 96.
Image Title
Cinque, The Chief of the Amistad Captives
RegID
SI-OB-1026
Date
1840
Title
Cinque, The Chief of the Amistad Captives
Source
Painted by Nathaniel Jocelyn, 1840. Painting held by New Haven Colony Historical Society.
Language
English
Item sets
Portraits & Illustrations of Individuals
Spatial Coverage
North America--Connecticut
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
16-May-11
Identifier
E004