A story of resistance that would continue to be told through the years in verse and on film began in 1839 when Portuguese kidnappers forced large numbers of native Africans from an area in present-day Sierre Leone, which the National Archives said was violation of “all treaties then in existence.” The captives were sent to Havana, Cuba, to be sold into slavery. Spanish plantation owners, Don Jose Ruiz and Don Pedro Montez, bought 53 African captives in Havana.