3.3 Amistad: The True Story & the
Film
HUM 211 Course Pack
- Fall 2007
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URL of this page: http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/CoursePack/Amistad.htm
[Unfortunately most
of the links below are now broken. ~C. Agatucci, 29 Dec. 2009]
Try this site:
Linder, Douglas. Famous American Trials: Amistrad Trials, 1839-1840
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/amistad/AMISTD.HTM
"In
1839, in waters off the coast of Cuba, a group of forty-nine Africans ensnared
in the Atlantic slave trade struck out for freedom. They had been captured, sold
into slavery, carried across the ocean, sold again, and they were being
transported on what was, for millions of Africans, the last leg of the slave
trade when they found the chance to seize the initiative. One of them, a man the
world would come to know as "Cinque," worked free of his chains
and led a shipboard revolt.
"The vessel they won was a schooner that had been
named, in a grim bit of irony, the Amistad ("Friendship").
The Africans tried to force two Cuban survivors to sail them back to Africa, but
the Amistad wound up instead in U.S. waters, just past Long Island Sound,
where the Africans were again taken into custody. Spain promptly demanded their
extradition to face trial in Cuba for piracy and murder, but their plight caught
the attention of American abolitionists, who mounted a legal defense on the
Africans' behalf. The case went through the American judicial system all the way
up to the Supreme Court, where former president John Quincy Adams joined the
abolitionists' legal team. Finally, in March 1841, the Supreme Court upheld the
freedom the Africans had claimed for themselves. Ten months later, in January
1842, the thirty-five Amistad Africans who had survived the ordeal
returned to their homelands."
From:
http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/discovery/story/welcome.html
Exploring Amistad at Mystic Seaport: The
Museum of America and the Sea
(located in Mystic, Connecticut)
http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/main/welcome.html
From the "Discovery" section of
this website you can learn the history of the real Amistad
Revolt of 1839-1842 (on which Steven Spielberg's 1997 feature
film
Amistad was based), "a shipboard uprising off the coast of Cuba that
carried itself, inadvertently but fatefully, to the United
States--where the Amistad Captives set off an intense legal,
political, and popular debate over the slave trade, slavery,
race, Africa, and ultimately America itself."
http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/discovery/welcome.html
The true "Story" of the Amistad
experience offers links that detail "the Africans'
enslavement, revolt, legal struggle, and eventual return to Africa":
http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/discovery/story/welcome.html
Parts 1 - 5
of the Amistad
"Story" provide good historical background for understanding the African
Holocaust and the African Diaspora. The entire Amistad story also parallels the experiences of
Olaudah
Equiano, author of one of the first slave
narratives, and of "long memoried" women as dramatically
depicted in the film I Is a Long Memoried Woman:
Amistad. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf.
Djimon Hounsou,
Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins.
[Videotape.] DreamWorks
SKG-Home Box Office, USA, 1997.
Language:
English / Mende; Runtime: USA:152 min.
MPAA
Rated R: some scenes of strong brutal violence and some related nudity.
“Freedom is
not given. It is our right at birth.
But there are
some moments when it must be taken.”
Director:
Steven Spielberg
Producers: Debbie Allen and Robert
M. Cooper
Starring Djimon Hounsou (as Cinque; b. Benin, West Africa), Morgan Freeman (as
Theodore Joadson), Nigel Hawthorne (as Martin Van Buren), Anthony Hopkins (as
John Quincy Adams); and Matthew
McConaughey (as Baldwin).
Screenplay: William Owens (based on
his book Black Mutiny: see synopsis below), David H. Franzoni, and Steven
Zaillian (uncredited)
Cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski
Film Editor: Michael Kahn
Original music: John Williams (II)
SOURCE:
The Internet Movie Database Ltd: "Amistad (1997)":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118607/
External Reviews for Amistad:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118607/externalreviews
Read more about it
[from
amazon.com]:
1.
Mutiny on the Amistad by Howard Jones (Oxford Univ.
Press). Reissued to coincide with Steven Spielberg's motion picture Amistad,
this true saga of a
slave revolt and its impact on American abolition, law, and diplomacy is based
on thorough research and provides excellent and detailed coverage of its
subject.
"A rousing and satisfying tale".--American
Heritage.
2. Black Mutiny : The
Revolt on the Schooner Amistad, by William A. Owens
(Plume). Set in 1839, this is the true story of a revolt on the Spanish slave
ship "Amistad", whose cargo of 53 Africans rebelled against their
captors. Captured off the coast of Connecticut when their desperate attempt to
sail home failed, the Africans are forced to stand trial for the murder of the
crew that had held them prisoner. To win their freedom, they find themselves
taking on not just the Spanish, but the entire American justice system. They are
joined in their fight by a young attorney, former U.S. President John Quincy
Adams, and a fiery abolitionist.
3.
Amistad, by David Pesci
(Shooting Star Press). “Pesci's first novel is a well-researched
fictionalization of the Amistad rebellion and trials. In 1839, the Spanish
schooner Amistad (which means friendship) was carrying slaves illegally captured
in Africa, up the east coast of the United States. The captives were able to
overcome the crew and then attempted to take the ship back to Africa. The vessel
was eventually caught and towed to Connecticut, where the rebels were put on
trial to determine whether they were escaping slaves or freemen fighting for
their rights. With tensions already running high over the slavery issue, the
affair threatened to be the catalyst for igniting civil war. President Van
Buren, who supported slavery, secretly attempted to have the Africans kidnapped
and returned to their Spanish captors, while ex-president John Quincy Adams
supplied legal advice to the defendants. After a protracted series of trials,
ending up in the U.S. Supreme Court, the prisoners won their freedom and
returned to Africa. A thought-provoking look at a fascinating episode of
American history.”
--Eric Robbins, Booklist:
American Library Assn., 1997.
