AMISTAD, THE MOVIE (1997) - QUESTIONNAIRE

What is the movie about? Summarize the plot of the film mentioning the main characters.

"La Amistad" is the name of a Spanish ship that carried  African black people to be slaves on America. During the travel, already close to the U.S., Cinqué leads a mutiny and takes over the ship killing practically the entire crew. But when they arrived in the U.S they were supposed to be runaway slaves from Cuba.
This film is about the slave dispute between being free or belonging to the two Spaniards in American courts and being slaves. Also that struggle between ideologies in favour of slavery and the new enlightened principles that were beginning to emerge around the world.

What was the Triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it?
It was a type of commerce that took place during the period of the colonialism. It is called "Triangular trade" indicating that shape of a triangle that creates the routes.  From Europe, they were exported to Africa: shirts, furniture, manufactured goods. From Africa to America a large number of slaves and from America to Europe they exported raw materials. We can see that with these form of trade the principal benefited countries were; Spain, Great Britain, Portugal and North America while all the African and Central American colonies were heavily exploited. 

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

Blacks were kidnapped in Africa and put on the boats.  As we can see in the image, they travelled in minimal spaces and without clothes, which produced a bad smell and poor hygiene, which is a great propensity for diseases.

Also, children and women were separated on one side, and men on the other. With chains in the neck and with insufficient food (only given to those who were perfectly healthy).

All this caused that 1 of every 5 blacks who were on board died, and those who died were thrown overboard.

What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?

The film 'Friendship', especially the final speech by John Quincy Adams, deals with many of the ideas of enlightenment and John Loke. Above all, we see that idea that God has created us all equal and with the same rights and that is how he sees us (without making distinctions between whites and blacks), based on that freedom and equality of 'The Natural state'.

Who was Joseph Cinqué? Did he really exist? 

Joseph Cinqué was a black man known as Sengbe Pieh who lived in a village called Mende in Africa. As in the movie, he was imprisoned along with more people from the village and put on a black boat bound for America.

During the trip he was able to disengage from the chains and lead a revolt against the crew, taking the control of the ship. 

What is the role of John Quincy Adams, former US President, in the movie?

In 1840 Lewis Tappan and Ellis Gray Loring of the Amistad Committee approached the 72-year old Adams to defend the Amistad captives.  Initially hesitant, he eventually took the case believing it would be his last great service to the country.  In February 1841 he argued the Mende were free men illegally captured and sold into slavery, and as such should be returned to Africa.  After the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the captives Adams wrote his co-counsel, Roger Sherman Baldwin, saying, “The decision of the Supreme Court in the case of the Amistad has this moment been delivered by Judge Story.  The captives are free...Yours in great haste and great joy.”