Amistad

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I believe that the movie Amistad is excellent movie, but very historical. It is done in a way for everyone to understand it. It is ironical that the name of the ship was Amistad,

which means friendship, totally contrary to what was happening. This movie shows the

way slaves were treated and how the American judicial system worked at that time.

The movie starts in a ship “La Amistad” a slave named Cinque, frees himself from his

chains and frees the rest of his tribe, the African slaves then kill their captors, the Spanish

but they did spare the lives of two Spaniards who were needed to help navigate the

ship back to Africa. After 6 weeks an American ship finds them and tows the slave ship into

a New England port were they are …show more content…

The court has to decide if the slaves were legal slaves from Cuba or

illegally brought from Africa. If the slaves were legal slaves they could be charged with

murder, but if they were illegally brought from Africa they could be free and return

home.

In court everyone wanted the slaves; two abolitionists were there too and

wanted to help the slaves, Tappan and Joadson. Baldwin was a good lawyer for the

slaves, he said born salves could be sold if they came from a plantation unlike illegally

acquired slaves could no longer be slaves under law. The slaves were thought of as

livestock and not people. Baldwin wanted to prove that these people weren’t legal

slaves but slaves illegally acquired. He tried to talk to them, at first speaking in English

then Spanish if they had come from Cuba they would know Spanish. The basic legal

issues in the movie are that slaves were being brought to America illegally, being

brought from Africa when there was a law against that. Language was a very big

barrier because Baldwin couldn’t communicate with the Africans, but this shows how

even though the language is not the same you can . Baldwin tries to talk to …show more content…

Not many people in the 19th century would offer their help like this and

some others would quit when they found out that the president was doing everything in

his power not to let these people be free. I think that without Baldwin and maybe with

someone who didn’t really care about the Africans the slaves would have probably

gone back to Cuba or had been killed. Cinque and Baldwin had a connection, some

kind of trust for each other.

I think that the movie was really good. It’s good to know about the history of this

country and how slavery was a horrible thing and that it should never be repeated. It

shows how slaves were beaten, killed and looked as not humans but possessions. They

way they were treated was horrible and there is no excuse for what was done to them.

Watching the movie shows you how it really was during that time, how slaves suffered

and didn’t own their own lives. The way people in power would rather have their

reputation then follow the law as President Van Buren did, hoping to get re-elected. A

lot of people didn’t agree about slavery and Van Buren thought that by keeping

everyone happy would secure him his second term as president. But the Supreme

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