Custom House
New London
Tamora Syphrett, Melissa Syphrett
The U.S. Custom House, built in 1833 from a design by architect Robert Mills, was where Africans were brought from the Spanish slave ship Amistad by the U. S. Coast Guard on August 27, 1839. Although the ship remained in New London for more than a year, the captives stayed for less than a week and were transferred to the New Haven jail. One African youth who died during the brief New London stay was buried in an unmarked grave in the city's Third Burying Ground. A marker on the front of the U.S. Custom House highlights a separate case in which an escaped slave won his freedom in 1850 through the legal efforts of Augustus Brandegee and the custom collector, John Mather. When asked if he wanted to be free, the man replied, "Free!" The U.S. Customs House is on the National Register of Historic Places and open to the public under the direction of the New London Maritime Society.