Amistad

The true story of the August 25, 1839 revolt on the Spanish slave ship La

Amistad. The slaves were from Sierra Leone, West Africans who had been borne

across the vast ocean to Havana, Cuba in an abusive Portuguese slave ship. Sold

there at a slave auction and moved to the bowels of the Amistad ("Friendship" in

Spanish), where they were chained like wild animals, the 44 African slaves had

released themselves through a bloody insurrection on the high seas. Their leader

was a tall, muscular man in his mid 20s, whose name is known as Cinque. While in

the Amistad for transport to another part of the island, the Africans broke free,

killing the captain, the chef and other crewmates. It was not long before a U.S.

Navy brig, the Washington, appeared and seized the Amistad and all its slaves on

board. They were taken to New London, Conn., a state where slavery would not

become illegal until 1848.

Looking out for the Africans' interests are abolitionists Theodore Joadson

(Morgan Freeman) and Lewis Tappan (Stellan Skarsgard), as well as Roger

Baldwin (Michael McConaughey), a young attorney struggling practice. I

Connecticut, the captives initially were charged with murder and piracy.

Eventually, the Amistad African's case makes it to the Supreme Court, with former

President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) arguing on their behalf.

Unfortunately, President Martin Van Buren was testifying against Martin Van

Buren. On February 22, 1841, the Supreme Court arguments began, and the

attorney general and Baldwin laid out the same opposing cases that had been made

in New Haven. Then Adams turned his declamatory guns on Van Buren. He said,

"It was nothing more than a question of justice vs. injustice". The Supreme Court

upheld the District Court decision. The Amistad Africans were free. But the

abolitionists who supported them wanted to save their souls as well as their bodies.

For about nine months the Africans studied the Bible, hymn-singing and the

English language, so that they could return to Africa to spread the Christian faith.

On November 27, 1841, Cinque and his friends, along with some Christian

missionaries, Sailed for Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the ship Gentlemen. John

Adams scrupulous man, had one more detail to attend to. He asked the marshal of

The District of Connecticut to amend the 1840s federal census so that the Africans

would appear as free men.

Many groups and people were claiming the slaves. In the beginning of the

movie, when the slaves get captured, Queen Isabella of Spain argues that the

Africans are rightfully hers, declaring that the passengers were Cuban-born slaves,

the British Navy lay a counter claim since, as they maintain, the passengers were not

slaves, but free people illegally captured in West Africa. Also the Spanish

government immediately claimed ownership of the slaves and urged that they be

returned to Havana, Cuba, for a murder trial. When the captives were charged

with murder and piracy, a legal issue later centered on attempts to have the captives

returned to the two Spanish slavers. Which landed them in U.S. District Court. At