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The movie Amistad is about the basic rights of a human and the rights of those Africans who were stolen from their own land and forced onto a Spanish ship named Amistad. The ideals and principles of justice throughout the film are comparable to those of many philosophical writers and the fundamental forms of justice. One of the first forms of justice in the movie is the retributive which is seen when many of the people believed that the slaves should stay slaves no matter the evidence shown, because of their social status when brought to America. The court systems involved in the film also had a lot to do with the retributive form of justice considering this form has to deal with the punishment of law breakers and the compensation of victims.
There are many leaders in this film making choices, while they were not all educated choices, like the Spanish who kidnapped the slaves and were working on the Amistad. To those like the abolitionists, their lawyer, and the former president, who all wanted nothing but justice for these Africans. Another detrimental decision maker in this story are the judges both in the Supreme Court and the state level they are both the ultimate decision makers and any choice they make, direct affects the Africans and others involved. While retributive justice is used to keep social order. In the context of the movie, these courts were used to keep social order, whether the outcome is or way or
One broad argument supporting slavery is in fact the economic side of slavery. During that time period, slaves brought in profit for the New World. Though they did, slaves were not paid, the allocation of money was not used towards the slaves, considering they hardly got food, the majority of money was given to the plantation owners. Plantation and slave owners in the New World were not the only ones financially effected by the slavery institution. The Spaniards that stole the Africans struggled with distributive justice, so much that they were picking which Africans to feed and which ones were not getting fed. They had such little rations, that they had “kick-off” some of the Africans from the Amistad while in the middle of the ocean. The Spaniards picked who was living and getting food by who looked healthy and like they weren’t getting
1. Describe the historical relevance of the following characters of the movie. (Joadson, Van Buren, Quincy Adams, Tappan) In the movie Amistad, therer were several people depicted from this historical period. Joadson is an a freed slave and also a abolitionist who is working with Tappan who is also a prominent abolitionist from New York on the defense of the Africans.
We can conclude with her analyses that the criminal justice in America is biased an even though I don’t agree with the suggestion Alexander has heard from other people that mass incarceration is a “conspiracy to put blacks back in their place” (p.5). It is clear that the justice system in the US is not completely fair, and that collective action must arise to struggle it.
Robinson trial; (2) prejustice and its effects on the processes of the law and society; (3)
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
In this story it clearly shows us what the courts really mean by freedom, equality, liberty, property and equal protection of the laws. The story traces the legal challenges that affected African Americans freedom. To justify slavery as the “the way things were” still begs to define what lied beneath slave owner’s abilities to look past the wounded eyes and beating hearts of the African Americans that were so brutally possessed.
This demonstrates to us that no matter how much your legal or moral laws are violated, what matters is how you as an individual react to the situation, justly or unjustly. This movie is centered around the notion that if you are a person of ethnic background, that alone is reason for others to forsake your rights, although in the long run justice will prevail
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 defendants had to deal with a higher human authority, the judge and jury of their area. In To Kill A Mockingbird Tom Robinson had to deal with an alleged rape, and no matter what the evidence said, or how hard his lawyer worked, he was convicted and later died. Tom was falsely accused, and his death was untimely and could have been avoided. But he accepted his fate calmly, as if he knew no matter what he would be convicted. The defendant in A Time To Kill, Carl Lee was accused of murder of the two men who raped his daughter. Carl was found not guilty, even though he did kill those men, and later on in life will have to deal with his actions. Both men had to deal with what the court brought against them, and they both did. Carl and Tom dealt with multiple issues, but the prejudices of their race, and the time they were tried ultimately determined their fates.
Throughout this essay I explained the movie Amistad and how race relations were seen throughout the movie. This movie really helps people see how horrible it was for African Americans back in 1839-1842. The movie showed the bias that this country had against people from Africa and how horrible our country treated slaves. Through John Quince Adams speech it stated how the problem was going to be fixed, and that was through a civil war.
The main issue that arises during courtroom sessions is the issue of ownership. There is also a large divide between the Africans and the lawyer, Baldwin, who is trying to free them. Cinque manages to slightly understand what the lawyer is trying to ask him. Eventually, the lawyer is able to find a person who speaks both the Mende language and English. Near the beginning of the film, before the 44 slaves are put to trial, the lawyer says that “the only way one may sell or purchase slaves is when they are born slaves, as on a plantation” (Spielberg, Amistad). According to his statement, the lawyer’s main argument is to prove that the prisoners originate from a place that is not a plantation.
In the early twentieth century, the United States was undergoing a dramatic social change. Slavery had been abolished decades before, but the southern states were still attempting to restrict social interaction among people of different races. In particular, blacks were subject to special Jim Crow laws which restricted their rights and attempted to keep the race inferior to whites. Even beyond these laws, however, blacks were feeling the pressure of prejudice. In the legal system, blacks were not judged by a group of their peers; rather, they were judged by a group of twelve white men. In serious court cases involving capital offenses, the outcome always proved to be a guilty verdict. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the plot revolves around a Depression-era court case of a black man accused of raping a white woman. The defendant Tom Robinson is presumed guilty because of one thing alone: the color of his skin.
The Amistad case is an interesting one and surprisingly well handled by the United States government. There were plenty of legal challenges that the United States became quickly aware of before pursuing further on the case. The United States government gathered all the facts that were available to them at the time and acted appropriately in this situation, making sure that the African Americans on the La Amistad would receive justice in America. Despite the verdict of the Amistad case the details forced Americans to reexamine slavery.
Sixty-three years after these famous words were first written, a significant event occurred that had profound political consequences and propelled our nation on a course that inevitably helped pave the way for Civil War. The case of the “Amistad” ignited the abolitionist movement in the Northeast and caused a political and legal firestorm that ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court. Disturbingly, the case was not about the human beings that were the central focus of the story – it centered solely on the issue of “property rights”. Hundreds of Africans were captured illegally from Mendeland, South Africa by Portuguese slave traders who then transported them to Havana, Cuba which was a busy hub for slave trade. Fifty three of the slaves were bought by the Spanish and transported to the Amistad, a Cuban vessel for transport to the Caribbean. The men, women and children African Americans were stripped ...
Selfish, uncaring, and ignorant were all words that could be used to describe President Van Burens actions towards us, the Mende slaves, in the movie Amistad. President Van Buren was only eager to please Southern voters and Queen Isabella of Spain by ensuring that none of us, the captured Africans went free, including Me Cinque. Though his actions and decisions he made might have seemed correct to him, we were being put through the worst at such an early stage in our lives.I remember the stormy night during the summer of 1839, the 53 men imprisoned on the Spanish slave ship La Amistad escaped. I, the lion-hearted Cinque, led them. We all took control of the vessel, killing most of the crew. Adrift somewhere off the coast of Cuba and we were
The film Amistad is based on a true event that occurred in 1839. It is about a mutiny by recently captured slaves, who take over a ship known as La Amistad, and the legal battle that followed regarding their freedom. The movie begins by showing many Africans chained together on the lower deck of La Amistad. They manage to break free and go to the upper deck and attack the sailors, leading a mutiny and taking over the ship. They leave two men alive to guide them back to Africa, but they point them towards the US. When they arrive in the states, the Africans are thought to be runaway slaves, and are imprisoned. The case of their freedom is taken to court, to decide whether the Africans were originally slaves or free men. One lawyer decides to fight for them, and pleads his case that the Africans were never slaves and were indeed free men. The case eventually makes it to the Supreme Court and a translator is eventually found to communicate with the leader of the Africans, and he tells his story. He was one of many illegally captured in Africa, and sold into slavery. When the time comes for the trial, John Quincy Adams pleas for their freedom. After a grueling trial, the slaves are said to be free men, and are to be sent back to their homeland, Africa.