Amistad
Throughout the study of world history, the ideology of “divide and conquer'; is studied and glorified as the most effective strategy for colonialism. The institution of slavery and the transporting of Africans across the ocean to serve as slaves in the “New World'; depict the most blatant use of coerced division in the Europeans efforts to completely enfeeble African slaves.
The middle passage portrays the Europeans efforts to divide African cultures by separating the slaves so that they were amongst those that spoke different languages and therefore could not communicate with them. The results of this “middle passage'; experience left the African confused, alone, and virtually powerless in an environment foreign to him in every way. Amistad illustrates the result of not separating the Africans and attempting to “conquer'; them without stripping them of the ability to communicate with one another. Without instituting the process of “cultural division'; (and eventual extinction) resulting from the “middle passage';, efforts to conquer the African people were worthless.
Films like Amistad, and the few presentations and rhetoric that portray realistic viewpoints of Africa in the past and present, illustrate the physical, emotional, and spiritual strength of African people. They enable African Americans to be proud of their heritage, and eliminate the false pretenses set by many that African Americans have no connection to the “motherland';. Learning about Africa from coast to coast, and seeing the array of environments from the most primitive tribes, to the big cities and metropolitan areas annul many whites efforts to continue to enfeeble African Americans by portraying the entire continent as “uncivilized';.
History can be learned through several different mediums, and it is arguable that the most popular methods are through film and literature. Each come with their own respective advantages and disadvantages, and can each have a different effect on how an event is both portrayed and conceptualized. When comparing the 1987 book Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and its Impact on American Abolition, Law and Diplomacy by Howard Jones, and the 1997 film Amistad directed by Steven Spielberg, it is apparent that both the book and the film are able to effectively retell the story of the events that took place aboard the Amistad in 1839. Yet each shed a different light on the matter and have been received by people in a different way.
Rediker dedicates an entire chapter to a detailed discussion of the origins of the Africans aboard the Amistad slave ship. Rediker writes that “the original fifty-three consisted of people from at least nine different groups,” including Mende, Gbandi, Kono, Sando, Temne, Loma, Gola, Bullom, and Kondo. Rediker gives the historical and cultural significance of each of these groups, which certainly helps show that these kidnapped slaves were humans with families and deserved the human rights entitled to each human
Stephanie E. Smallwood’s book Saltwater Slavery examines the forced migration of hundreds of thousand African people, and with great detail pieces together their journey into the American slave market. Also, she explains the process of how the Atlantic commodified Africans. The major arguments in Stephanie E. Smallwood’s book is that the Atlantic slave trade was an unknown world to Europeans and the Africans who are forced to travel it. The middle passage was a never-ending cycle for the Africans who experienced “diaspora” because they are forced to leave their life behind, and to form a new identity in a society they were unfamiliar with. A society that was “hollow”, and that offered them very little opportunity to find fulfillment, which caused them “social death”. Smallwood also argues, that the Atlantic
Amistad is about a mutiny in 1839 aboard a slave ship, La Amistad, which eventually comes to port in New England. The West Africans who have commandeered the ship are taken into custody and the plot revolves around who "owns" them or if, indeed, they should be freed. This sets up the main event of the film, a courtroom drama about rights and origins, with the required flashbacks to the voyage and the gruesome conditions aboard the ship. The problem with this approach is that we learn less about the real conditions of slavery and instead focus on the more sanitized conditions surrounding the courtroom. In addition, we get a film which is largely about the efforts of the whites battling the case and much less about the struggles of the Africans themselves.
The debate over prison systems in the United States has been a long controversy. The question as to; if stuffing a facility full with convicted criminals to be guarded by a flock of civilian employees will foster progress. But a main factor that contributes, is the line between guard and civilian. A guard, while trained, is not a military personal. The power given to them over the lives of others when they are simply a citizen is not normal for everyday citizens. This is one of the things Dr. Phillip Zimbardo wanted to test in his prison experiment at Stanford University, working on staff. Zimbardo created a mock prison in the basement, drawing psychologically fit young gentlemen to see what would happen. In a short
This sentence, written in the Declaration of Independence, contains some of the most powerful words ever written. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” (US 1776). They invoke feelings of pride and integrity in the hearts and minds of most Americans. However, these magnificent, well-intentioned words that were written in 1776 are over-shadowed by feelings of shame, sorrow and betrayal for how men, women and children were rejected as human beings worthy of equality simply because of the color of their skin. While things have improved for African Americans in the past two hundred years, we still have not gotten it exactly right. The treatment of African Americans is still a source of frustration for those who truly want to believe in the power of the words “all men are created equal”.
These strict guidelines along with over 10 others helped shape the prison. The guards at the beginning of the experiment formed these guidelines. Their authority, from the start, was absolute. They did not allow prisoners to speak, eat or even use the restroom without permission. Sometimes, unimaginably, the inmates were not granted permission. Day one of the experiment was full of confusion and learning for everyone involved. The events
...on American soil, they were treated with disrespect and forced into a life of servitude and pain. However, they were able to change adapt and find hope even when it didn’t seem as though there was any to be found. The African American culture has been greatly shaped around what their ancestors were put through and the struggles that they endured. The pain and suffering that was inflicted among them will never be forgotten and will forever be apart of the African American culture.
A popular literature has painted this part of the slave experience as uniquely evil and inherently more inhuman that any of the others horrors of the slave life(Klein 130). Slaves were taken from their homes and was forcibly traded.One cannot, of course, mention the Middle Passage without eliciting the horrors of tightly packed men, women and children chained together, to keep them from rebelling, or from choosing the suicidal fate of jumping overboard. The mortality of captives in Africa, therefore, included not only losses among those headed for export at the Atlantic coast but the additional losses among those destined for export to Orient among those captured and transported to serve African masters(Engerman and Inkori 117). The death that the slaves went through while they were being shipped was crucial and insane. It shows how the Middle Passage was the most terrifying journey for the slaves. The terror of the slaves in the manner in which they was carried and the mortality that they suffered, proves how the slaves was treated ruthlessly during the Middle Passage.
The film Amistad begins with a group of Africans, captured from a Havana slave market, on a ship named Amistad. The movie provides a reinactment of the slave journey between Africa and the United States of America. The Amistad was written by David Franzoni and was published in 1977. David Franzoni is well know for his film King Author. The constraints of the movie is the beginning . The extreme graphics that are shown will cause a person with a weak stomach to maybe turn away from watching the complete movie. The middle passage was a long and heart touching journey that the Africans travelled. The main reason for the movie is to manifest the capturing and freeing of the slaves in the 1800s.
There is no other experience in history where innocent African Americans encountered such a brutal torment. This infamous ordeal is called the Middle Passage or the “middle leg” of the Triangular Trade, which was the forceful voyage of African Americans from Africa to the New World. The Africans were taken from their homeland, boarded onto the dreadful ships, and scattered into the New World as slaves. 10- 16 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic during the 1500’s to the 1900’s and 10- 15 percent of them died during the voyage. Millions of men, women, and children left behind their personal possessions and loved ones that will never be seen again. Not only were the Africans limited to freedom, but also lost their identity in the process. Kidnapped from their lives that throbbed with numerous possibilities of greatness were now out of sight and thrown into the never-ending pile of waste. The loathsome and inhuman circumstances that the Africans had to face truly describe the great wrongdoing of the Middle Passage.
“Tomorrow is not promised to anyone.” – Walter Payton. From all walks of life we are born to fail, make life an adventure of our own, and become prosperous in our own individual ways. In terms of lifestyle, America is essentially incomparable to Africa. The abundance of resources, supplies, and safety our nation provides for its citizens is something I personally will forever grateful for. On the other hand, in Africa their resources, supplies, and even safety is nowhere near guaranteed due to their lack of financial stability. Natural born African natives are at a complete disadvantage economically, educationally, and for some, socially. One key aspect of the life that African born boys and girls have on us American kids is their drive to
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study put together by Phillip Zambardo to test the psychological effects of a prisoner and guard scenario in a mock prison setting. The experiment lasted approximately fourteen days and was comprised of twenty-four male students, all of whom were picked at random to take part in the experiment. Each individual was also randomly given the role of either guard or prisoner. The mock prisoners were subjugated to psychological abuse, harsh authoritarian rule by the guards, and intense living conditions to ensure maximum results were met. Due to the intense amount of stress brought on from the ordeal, a few prisoners were unable to continue and the experiment concluded prematurely. Everything about this observation
In the 1800s, the slave trade is very important to many European countries and America. One of the only countries that does not partake in the slave trade is Great Britain. Great Britain outlaws slavery and many countries like the United States have yet to do so. Many Africans make deals with slave traders. They kidnap people from their own tribes and give them to the slave traders. In return the slave traders give them material goods such as guns. The idea and act of slave trading is what leads to the uprising of 1839 on the ship La Amistad. Many Africans are taken from their homes and forced on ships to sail across the seas to unknown lands. The theme of trading is very important to Amistad, the movie, because it is what begins the whole entire issue of
In the first place, when people use alternative medicine, they consume fewer drugs and chemicals in to their bodies and there are fewer side effects to the human beings. This means that, when people get caught in any kind of disease, if they use herbal therapies to heal their illnesses, they do not harm their organs and systems. They can drink a bowl of soup, a cup of tea or a bottle of water regularly if they want to get rid of the pathogens or aches such as sprain, head wrist and ankle. For instance, it is known that there is a man who used to use walking stick for a few y...