Steven Spielberg's La Amistad Essay

     In conclusion, both “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” and “Amistad” are important stories that thoughtfully comment on the slavery issue. “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” points out the harsh conditions on the slave ships. The story of “Amistad”, African slaves and the trials they had to go through highlights the injustice of slavery. As Adams said “The natural state of mankind is instead-and I know this is a

The Amistad was a Spanish ship built in Baltimore for the purpose of transporting slaves. For three years, it sailed the high seas delivering its cargo to various locations. But in August of 1838, a scandalous injustice was uncovered after the ship was seized by an American vessel, the USS Washington, a coast guard ship under the command of Lt. Thomas R. Gedney. Lt. Gedney and his crew towed the Amistad into a New England harbor in Connecticut where soon many controversies amounted and drama would unfold.

In the 19th century there a two floored schooner named La Amistad, which is Spanish for “Friendship”. This schooner was built in the United States of American and was used by Cuba. In July 1839 there was a slave revolt led by captives from Sierra Leone. La Amistad was transporting these people to use as slave labor in Cuba. A man by the name of Cinque creatively used a nail to unlock his chains, and then his fellow captives. They were able to take control of the ship after having to kill the captain and other crew members that wouldn’t submit to their rule. They forcibly ordered the remaining crew to sail them back to Africa. The captives were outsmarted by the captives whom had control over the schooner’s directions. The remaining Spanish crew stir the ship to the coast of Long Island. The Mende people were arrested and imprisoned in Connecticut, were they waited during the court proceedings. Now is when the controversy began. The Spanish and there government ordered the U.S to return the slaves and there schooner as property. At the time in the U.S. slave trade was illegal so the U.S. governemnt refused to send back the Africans because technically there were free and not property. The court case United States v. Amistad in 1941 gained much popularity due to the subject matter of ownership and jurisdiction.

Despite certain people having negative thoughts about this possible “statehood” that was brought up in the movie, the state of California was able to vote whether or not they wanted to join the United States. This allowed for the public to have their voice, especially because Mexicans have been oppressed so much they enjoyed being able to have some choice. In this film, the public voted for statehood, and from there the film began. It was filled with action right after the voting ended, which brought up an important person named Zorro.

District attorney William S. Holabird conducts charges of piracy and murder. John Forsyth representing Martin Van Buren argued that the Africans were property of the Spaniards due to a “treaty”. The spanish navigators that tricked the Africans have proof that they purchased the Africans but have no proof that they're are the spaniards property. Lewis Tappan and Theodore Joadson both abolitionist hired a lawyer named Roger Baldwin to help defend the Africans. Roger Baldwin the lawyer defending the Africans, said that the Africans were captured from their homes in Africa and sold to people in the United States illegally. Roger Baldwin then finds documents that are hidden in the Amistad which proved that the Africans were actualy cargo purchased from by the portuguese. This proved that the Africans were actually free people of any country not slaves.

Judge Judson reported that the capture of the Africans and selling them into slavery in Cuba was against the 1817 English-Spanish treaty. Judge Judson then decided that the Mende Africans were transported illegally and were to be set free. Ruiz and Mendes were taken into custody for misrepresenting the origin of the “slaves” on the Amistad. Senator John Calhoun felt “that if the Amistad captives are freed the South might have to begin the Civil War 20 years early.” The government decided to appeal the case.

Eric Foner, a professor at History at Columbia University states that, “Amistad presents a highly misleading account of the case’s historical significance, in the process sugarcoating the relationship between the American judiciary and slavery. The film gives the distinct impression that the Supreme Court was convinced by Adams' plea to repudiate slavery in favor of the natural rights of man, thus taking a major step on the road to abolition.” By this, Foner is stating that the movie is not as historically accurate as it could have

The touchiest subject that a person could bring up in the early 19th century was slavery. Many in the north were wholly against it while many in the south could not live properly without it. The Amistad case intensifies the already bitter feelings between these two parts of the country, and it shows how sectionalist our country had become. On one hand there were the northerners who couldn’t believe that these people were being held for freeing themselves, and on the other hand there were the southerners who said that the Negro’s were animals and should be sent back to Cuba to be hung. There were not only two different attitudes on what should happen to the Africans, but each group also had different opinions on how to handle the story.

The movie’s screenplay by David Franzoni is based on Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy, a 1987 book by historian Howard Jones. Steven Spielberg directs the

Another theme that is depicted in La Amistad is the voiceless nature of slavery. The entire Supreme Court case it seems is based on whether or not the Africans are property of the Spaniards. Even though international slave trade had been banned, some people got around this by falsifying documents. This is what happened in the case of Cinque’ and the other Africans. The Spaniards were trying to pass them off as Spanish slaves called “ladinos” but the fact that they could not speak Spanish was a clue that the documents were fake. However, it was not enough evidence that Cinque’ and his people should be returned to their homeland and not taken to Cuba, a Spanish colony (McFeely 1987, BR9). The decision on their fate was in the hands of other people and there was no concern about what the Africans themselves had to say.

The movie, Amistad, was produced by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on a real story of a slave ship in 1839. More than fifty people from Africa were abducted as slaves; however, one of the African slaves, Cinque, succeeds in taking his chains off, and he and his party kill their enemies on the ship. Nevertheless, while they are trying to go back to their country, they are captured and put on trial in America because of the stratagem of two Spanish crewmen whose lives Cinque and his party spare in order to sail the ship. In the trial, there are arguments such as who is going to get the right of ownership of African slaves among people who claim they have the right of ownership, like the queen of Spain, slave traders, and the captain of Amistad’s Naval Ships. Nevertheless, some people like Theodore Joadson and Roger Sherman Baldwin state that Cinque and other African people may not be slaves and should be released. Because of these emancipationists’ great effort, African slaves eventually gain the right of freedom even though more than half of the nine judges are the slave-owners. There were two reasons that convinced this hostile audience to allow Africans to remain free

This, unfortunately, is the exact scenario that the African characters of Amistad underwent. Amistad primarily focuses on Singbe, who was respected and admired in his West African Mende village for the bravery he displayed in defeating a vicious lion with only a rock as his weapon. This act elevated his status to that of local “chief” but he lived a simple, satisfying life on the family farm. “He saw his hut and his farm, the broad field that he and Stefa and his father had worked so hard to clear. They had planted well” (David Pesci pg 4). This bucolic existence with his wife and children, however, suddenly came to an unexpected and inexplicable end. Singbe was among hundreds of native West Africans caught and placed in a “slave prison” where they were held under barbaric conditions until they were forced to undertake an even more brutal transatlantic journey to Cuba. “He grabbed Singbe’s throat with both hands, thumbs digging deep into the neck, and squeezed. “Die you bloody-shit nigger! Die!” (Paolo pg 6) This violent verbal and physical attack on Singbe hardly shows the extent of horrors that the captives faced in prison and on the ship, but it certainly reveals the contempt and cruelty to which these innocent Africans were subjected. Singbe was born into an upbringing of freedom and

Steven Allan Spielberg, an Academy winning filmmaker, director, and producer of many films. Such as, Schindler’s list, The Color Purple, E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati Ohio. Eldest of four, and the only son. Spielberg’s father was an electrical engineer, who focused in the new field of computers. His mother had been a major concert pianist.

Amistad case revolved around of Atlantic Slave There were about fifty- four Africans being taken over.(Amistad)The Amistad film should be used for an education tool. It should show students of what really happened during the Amistad. It should show students that of how the fifty- four Africans were captured and of how some of them survived. It can show the how John Quincy Adams set free the enslaved African for freedom of making slavery illegal.

The film depicts a time period where there was a great amount of “ [...] slave resistance in Brazil,” as stated in the Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography translated by Franklin W. Knight and Henry Louis Gates. The film revolves around a group of runaway slaves, lead by Abiola, who have rebelled against the Portuguese and Dutch and had left the mountain in order to escape from the consequences. The first scene starts off with settled runaway slaves who have established their own community and traveled their way to into the Palmares. The director does this because he wants the viewers to understand that the slaves wanted to go to the land