La Amistad (pronounced: [la a.misˈtað]; Spanish for Friendship) was a 19th-century two-masted schooner built in the US but owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 as the site of a slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been enslaved in Sierra Leone, and were being transported for sale between Havana, Cuba, and other Caribbean islands. The African captives took control of the ship in July 1839, killing some of the crew and ordering the survivors to sail the ship to Africa. The Spanish survivors secretly maneuvered the ship north and La Amistad was captured off the coast of Long Island by the brig USS Washington. The Mende and La Amistad were interned in Connecticut while federal court proceedings were undertaken for their disposition. The owners of the ship and Spanish government claimed the slaves as property; but the US had banned the African trade and argued that the Mende were legally free.