Don Jose Ruiz (1815-) was a Cuban plantation owner who was one of the parties in the Amistad incident of 1839.
Biography[]
Don Jose Ruiz was born in Cuba in 1815, and, in 1839, he purchased 49 adult male Africans as slaves. He obtained false passports for them and listed them as "Black Latinos", masking them as Cuban-born slaves. He joined their transport ship, La Amistad, as it headed from Havana towards Ruiz's plantation at Puerto Principe, and he whipped four of the Africans for infractions such as stealing water. After the 1 July 1839 mutiny, Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes were spared by the slaves so thtat they could guide the ship back to Africa. However, they instead attempted to return to Cuba, but their ship was instead intercepted off Long Island. Ruiz, who spoke English, told the American court about the entire incident, and Ruiz and Montes attempted to press their claims to the cargo (the slaves). However, their claims were rejected when it was discovered that the slaves had been illegally taken from Africa, and, in October 1839, Ruiz was charged with assault, battery, and false imprisonment. While Montes was on his way back to Cuba, Ruiz spent a month in a New York City jail.