AMISTAD, THE MOVIE (1997)

1- What is the movie about? Summarize the plot of the film.

Amistad is an American historical drama film based on the true story of the events in 1839 aboard the slave ship La Amistad. It has an important historical meaning because the case was a watershed fact for America-Spain relations, and reveals the political machinations as it holds repercussions on the North-South conflict eventually leading to America's Civil War.

Amistad ship is carrying a large group of Africans who have been abducted and sold into slavery in Cuba, taken on board, and chained in the cargo hold of the ship, who were Mende tribesmen. They gained the control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and when they arrived to the U.S they get prisoned as runaway slaves. That envolved them on an international legal battle. They didn't speak a word of English, and they seemed like they are doomed to die for killing their captors when an abolitionist lawyer decided to take their case, arguing that they were free citizens of another country and not slaves at all. The case finally got to the Supreme Court, where John Quincy Adams maked an impassioned and eloquent plea for their release to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841. Finally the prisoners returned to their home, Africa.


2- What was the triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it? 

 
It is a historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions. Triangular trade was a type of trade across the Atlantic Ocean between three regions that took place between the 16th and the 19th century and is characterized by its triangular shape. It was a very effective commerce method that rectify trade imbalances between regions. Arms, rum, textiles and wine were shipped from Europe to Africa, slaves from Africa to the Americas, and sugar, tobacco, cotton and coffee from the Americas to Europe. The main nations that were benefited from the triangular trade were; Western Europe, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain and North America.


3- Do some research and explain the conditions in which slaves were captured and transported from Africa to the Americas.

Slaves suffered very poor conditions. Most of them had been taken from their homeland and were from different countries and cultures, so they spoke different languages. Many of them had never seen the sea before and neither a ship, besides hey had no Knowledge of where they were going or what was waiting for them. The Atlantic passage was notorious for its brutality and for the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions on slave ships. Hundreds of Africans were chained together, and the low ceilings did not permit them to sit upright. Men, as they were considered more dangerous and stronger, were shackled together in pairs using leg irons or shackles, On the other hand, women and children were kept in different quarters in the deck, but with limited freedom of movement. They were used to live without any belongs. The heat was intolerable. They could not use to the toilet buckets and it was easy to be infected by lots o diseases due to the terrible smell that was contaminating the air. Also hunger was a serious causative of get ill, because they were given some food, but only the fastest could catch it. Epidemics were frequent. The captives were often in poor health from the physical and mental abuse they had suffered. Historians estimate that between 15 and 25 percent of the African slaves bound for the Americas died aboard slave ships. Those whom died were thrown overboard, and those who were sick were killed.



4. What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?

The Enlightenment ideas tell us that the right to freedom is equal for all without subordination or subjection; and that all men should be restrained from violating the rights of others and that every person has the right to defend their life and property from such invasion. Is based on the thought of The natural state of man as freedom. The most important enlightened ideas that appear in the movie are the right of the freedom and equality. We can see almost every enlightened idea in president John Quincy Adams´ argument. His lecture is based on freedom and equality and on “The Natural Law”, which says that God has given to every human being certain rights and they can do anything to achieve that state. He also argues that there is no difference for God between black and white and defends the abolition of slavery.

 5. Who was Joseph Cinqué? Did he really exist?

He existed. Joseph Cinqué, also known as Sengbe Pieh, was a West African man of Mende. He was a rice farmer, married, with three children, when he was captured illegally by African slave traders in 1839 and sold to Pedro Blanco, a Spanish slave trader. Cinqué was taken to Havana, Cuba, where he was sold with 110 others to Spaniards José Ruiz and Pedro Montez. He was the African man who led the revolt of fellow slaves on La Amistad and also his participation in the trials. After being set free, Cinqué and the other Africans reached their homeland in 1842 in Sierra Leone.





6. What is the role of John Quincy Adams, former US President, in the movie?John Quincy Adams was president of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He argued to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Amistad captives on two separate days in 1841, the 24th of February and the 1st of March. He used philosophical arguments like the “state of nature” and legislative arguments by saying that slaves are reflected like "people with a dutie" in the Constitution of the United States.