La Amistad
What is the movie about? Summarize the plot of the film mentioning the main characters.
This film tells the story of a large group of Africans who travel in a ship called 'La amistad'. They have been captured for slavery back at their homes, and they mutiny and manage to take control of their captors in order to return to Africa. However, the US Coast Guard troops intercept them and they are finally transferred to the United States, where they are tried for the murder of two of the people on the ship. They remain in prison waiting for their trial to be held, while one of the slaves, Joseph Cinqué, starts working with a lawyer to abolish slavery of all kinds. The trial is full of enlightment ideas and testimonies are overwhelming. A judge acts at first in favour of the slaves, and the slave traders appeal to the Supreme Court. At the very final trial, ex president John Quincy Adams gives a speech based on principles of justice, freedom and equality that convinces the Court and, as a result, Cinqué and his partners are set free and given the chance to return to Africa if they want to.
What was the Triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it?
The best-known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated from the late 16th to early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, Caribbean or American colonies and the European colonial powers, with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe. The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, who were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas, the so-called Middle Passage.
The main trading nations of Western Europe, as well as North America (New England). Great Britain, the Netherlands and Spain.
Do some research and explain the conditions in which slaves were captured and transported from Africa to the Americas.
The Middle Passage took the enslaved Africans away from their homeland. They were from different countries and different ethnic (or cultural) groups. They spoke different languages. Many had never seen the sea before, let alone been on a ship. They had no knowledge of where they were going or what awaited them there.
The slaves were packed below the decks of the ship. The men were usually shackled together in pairs using leg irons, or shackles. The men were considered dangerous, as they were mostly young and strong and likely to turn on their captors if the opportunity arose. Women and children were kept in separate quarters, sometimes on deck, allowing them limited freedom of movement, but this also exposed them to violence and sexual abuse from the crew. People were packed so close that they could not get to the toilet buckets, and so lay in their own filth. Seasickness, heat and lack of air all contributed to the terrible smell. These conditions encouraged disease.
They were fed twice a day and those refusing to eat were force-fed. Those who died were thrown overboard, and those who were 'sick' were killed.
What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?
We can see almost every enlightened idea in former president John Quincy Adams' argument. This argument has been described as 'extraordinary'. He used a really effective rethoric in an emotionally charged setting. Although in the movie we can only see a really small part of the claim, we can see that it'd be based on principles of equality and freedom.
Just as philosophers and thinkers of the time like John Locke, Adams argued that the natural state of mankind is freedom, and therefore no man can submit another. The proof of this was that a man (Cinqué, in this case) would do anything to achive this state of freedomThis was 'known' as the Natural Law, and it was believed that God had given himself certain rights to all people and these rights can't be taken away. All human beings are created equal, and so it doesn't matter if someone was black or white.
Who was Joseph Cinqué? Did he really existed?
Joseph Cinqué, known also as Sengbe Pieh, was an african rice farmer who was captured ilegally by african slaver traders and sold to a portuguese slave trader.
It's true that he existed and that he led the revolt in the slave ship, and also his participance in the trials. After being set free, Cinqué and the other Africans reached their homeland in 1842. In Sierra Leone, Cinqué was faced with civil war. He and his company maintained contact with the local mission for a while, but Cinqué left to trade along the coast. Little is known of his later life.
What is the role of John Quincy Adams, former US President, in the movie?
In the movie, former President John Quincy Adams begins to argue theAmistad case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the son of America’s second president, founding father and avowed abolitionist John Adams. And although he publicly downplayed his abolitionist stance, he too viewed the practice as contrary to the nation’s core principles of freedom and equality.
With his seven-hour long argument, he convinced the Supreme Court to set the slaves free and judge the slavers instead. He was an important part of a revolution that led to a civil war between states. He knew it, but he believed so much in these ideals he said he would let the war come. For him, the principles of freedom and equality were worth people's lives, even his.
This film tells the story of a large group of Africans who travel in a ship called 'La amistad'. They have been captured for slavery back at their homes, and they mutiny and manage to take control of their captors in order to return to Africa. However, the US Coast Guard troops intercept them and they are finally transferred to the United States, where they are tried for the murder of two of the people on the ship. They remain in prison waiting for their trial to be held, while one of the slaves, Joseph Cinqué, starts working with a lawyer to abolish slavery of all kinds. The trial is full of enlightment ideas and testimonies are overwhelming. A judge acts at first in favour of the slaves, and the slave traders appeal to the Supreme Court. At the very final trial, ex president John Quincy Adams gives a speech based on principles of justice, freedom and equality that convinces the Court and, as a result, Cinqué and his partners are set free and given the chance to return to Africa if they want to.
What was the Triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it?
The best-known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated from the late 16th to early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, Caribbean or American colonies and the European colonial powers, with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe. The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, who were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas, the so-called Middle Passage.
The main trading nations of Western Europe, as well as North America (New England). Great Britain, the Netherlands and Spain.
Do some research and explain the conditions in which slaves were captured and transported from Africa to the Americas.
The Middle Passage took the enslaved Africans away from their homeland. They were from different countries and different ethnic (or cultural) groups. They spoke different languages. Many had never seen the sea before, let alone been on a ship. They had no knowledge of where they were going or what awaited them there.
The slaves were packed below the decks of the ship. The men were usually shackled together in pairs using leg irons, or shackles. The men were considered dangerous, as they were mostly young and strong and likely to turn on their captors if the opportunity arose. Women and children were kept in separate quarters, sometimes on deck, allowing them limited freedom of movement, but this also exposed them to violence and sexual abuse from the crew. People were packed so close that they could not get to the toilet buckets, and so lay in their own filth. Seasickness, heat and lack of air all contributed to the terrible smell. These conditions encouraged disease.
They were fed twice a day and those refusing to eat were force-fed. Those who died were thrown overboard, and those who were 'sick' were killed.
What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?
We can see almost every enlightened idea in former president John Quincy Adams' argument. This argument has been described as 'extraordinary'. He used a really effective rethoric in an emotionally charged setting. Although in the movie we can only see a really small part of the claim, we can see that it'd be based on principles of equality and freedom.
Just as philosophers and thinkers of the time like John Locke, Adams argued that the natural state of mankind is freedom, and therefore no man can submit another. The proof of this was that a man (Cinqué, in this case) would do anything to achive this state of freedomThis was 'known' as the Natural Law, and it was believed that God had given himself certain rights to all people and these rights can't be taken away. All human beings are created equal, and so it doesn't matter if someone was black or white.
Who was Joseph Cinqué? Did he really existed?
Joseph Cinqué, known also as Sengbe Pieh, was an african rice farmer who was captured ilegally by african slaver traders and sold to a portuguese slave trader.
It's true that he existed and that he led the revolt in the slave ship, and also his participance in the trials. After being set free, Cinqué and the other Africans reached their homeland in 1842. In Sierra Leone, Cinqué was faced with civil war. He and his company maintained contact with the local mission for a while, but Cinqué left to trade along the coast. Little is known of his later life.
What is the role of John Quincy Adams, former US President, in the movie?
In the movie, former President John Quincy Adams begins to argue theAmistad case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the son of America’s second president, founding father and avowed abolitionist John Adams. And although he publicly downplayed his abolitionist stance, he too viewed the practice as contrary to the nation’s core principles of freedom and equality.
With his seven-hour long argument, he convinced the Supreme Court to set the slaves free and judge the slavers instead. He was an important part of a revolution that led to a civil war between states. He knew it, but he believed so much in these ideals he said he would let the war come. For him, the principles of freedom and equality were worth people's lives, even his.
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