The Mendi Bible (also spelled Mende) is a

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

presented to

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...

in 1841 by a group of freed

Mendi Mendi, Papua New Guinea, is the provincial capital of the Southern Highlands Province. The Lai River flows by the town. It is served by Mendi Airport. The town falls under Mendi Urban LLG. Geography The town is located in the Mendi River V ...

captives who had mutinied on the schooner ''

La Amistad ''La Amistad'' (; Spanish for ''Friendship'') was a 19th-century two- masted schooner, owned by a Spaniard colonizing Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been captured and sold to European slave ...

''.

History

in June of 1839, 49 members of the

Mende people The Mende are one of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone; their neighbours, the Temne people, constitute the largest ethnic group at 35.5% of the total population, which is slightly larger than the Mende at 31.2%. The Mende are pr ...

in modern day

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

were captured and put on the Spanish ship the ''

,'' destined for slavery in North America. The captives revolted and took ahold of the ship, however they ultimately landed in the hands of the United States Navy. Once in the United States, their legal status was unclear and they became the defendants of the Supreme Court case '' United States v. The Amistad''. Congressman John Quincy Adams, former president of the United States and known opponent of slavery, served as their attorney. Ultimately, the court ruled that the Mende captives were free and legally justified in their use of force to escape illegal enslavement, and the Mende defendants were able to prepare to go home. Before leaving, the Mende defendants purchased an elegant copy of the Christian Bible with a gold-embossed cover and wrote a letter in it describing their gratitude and their friendship.
The letter of thanks reads in part:

We are about to go home to Africa. We go to
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
first, and then we reach Mendi very quick. When we get to Mendi we will tell the people of your great kindness. Good missionary will go with us. We shall take the Bible with us. It has been a precious book in prison, and we love to read it now we are free! Mr. Adams, we want to make you a present of a beautiful Bible! Will you please to accept it, and when you look at it or read it, remember your poor and grateful clients?... For the Mendi people. CINQUE, KINNA, KALE. Boston, Nov. 6, 1841.

Legacy and preservation

The Mendi Bible is currently curated in the Stone Library next to the Adams' home,

Peacefield Peacefield, also called Peace field or Old House, is a historic home formerly owned by the Adams family of Quincy, Massachusetts. It was the home of United States Founding Father and U.S. president John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams, and o ...

, at the

Adams National Historical Park Adams National Historical Park, formerly Adams National Historic Site, in Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Metropolit ...

in Quincy, Massachusetts. It is not always on public display. The book was stolen from the Adams site in November 1996 and subsequently recovered by the FBI in a gym locker in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in January 1997.

Massachusetts Governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces. Massachuset ...

Deval Patrick, the state's

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

governor, took his oath of office on the Mendi Bible on January 4, 2007, and took his second oath of office on the Mendi Bible on January 6, 2011.

References

{{John Quincy Adams 1841 non-fiction books Individual Bibles La Amistad John Quincy Adams