property and that they be returned. The committee in turn hired a lawyer to represent the Africans. The basis of the legal argument in favor of the Africans was that the purchase of the slaves was unlawful in itself. Spain's laws prohibited the trading of slaves. Thus, the slaves had every right to secure their freedom in any way they could, even if it resulted in the deaths of several crew members. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court with the abolitionists supporting the Africans throughout the case. With their help, including testimony by former president John Quincy Adams, all of the slaves were cleared of any wrongdoing. They were not, however, granted a free return trip to Africa. The abolitionists stepped in again, and their committee raised enough money to return the remaining thirty-five former slaves from the Amistad to Africa. Their ship arrived in Sierra Leone in early 1842. At that point, the men had been gone for nearly three years