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
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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
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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
It shows that Negros were able to purchase their freedom and purchase the freedom of their family members. It shows a sense of equality in the way that free blacks could go to court and potentially win cases against white farmers. Free blacks owning slaves and indentured servants, some of which were white, could also be seen as equality. It also shows how free blacks had a thought of a future in the way that they drew up wills in which their family members were granted land and livestock. Knowing that white farming landowners and free blacks lived together in a sense of harmony goes back to the main theme of Myne Owne Ground. It shows that slavery is indeed an embarrassment to our nation. Knowing that blacks and whites were able to live together, trade, and be civil towards each other shows that slavery was unfounded and not
Before he talked about African-American culture he first talked about French speaking people. Saying, “A Frenchman living in Paris speaks a subtly and crucially different language from that of the man living in Marseilles; neither sounds very much like a man living in Quebec; and they would all have great difficulty in apprehending what the man from Guadeloupe, or Martinique, is saying, to say nothing of the man from Senegal--although the"common" language of all these areas is French.”(Baldwin, paragraph 2). Explaining to readers that even though those people in each place speak French they are separated by their dialect. Making the point that speaking a certain dialect of a language ties you with that culture. Pointing the reader to accept or listen to African American expression of English. By giving this example about dialect, Baldwin wants to express that dialect is a way to separate cultures among people. He then talks about the African American “slang” and how it ties to the
Baldwin uses his literary work to reflect on what he, as a black man, has seen and experienced. In the text, Baldwin reflects on the relationship between he and his father. He speaks specifically to the point that he didn’t know his father well throughout his childhood other than the fact that he explicitly remembers the bitter spirit that his father seemed to always posses. Later, after his experience with white business owners in New Jersey, Baldwin realizes that the bitterness that his father possessed was an unfortunate side effect of the socio-political structure of racism that his father had
In 1997 a movie called Amistad depicted the true story of a group of Africans that were taken from their families and forced into slavery. Although the movie was heavily criticized for it's inaccurate tale of the terrible ordeal, it gave the story world-renowned attention. The real story had more drama and tearjerker parts then the movie did. If the movie ever gets remade, hopefully this time it follows the facts exactly.
important event and part of slavery that should have been shown in the movie. Even though I
Baldwin was born into what he termed a Christian nation. Yet he only knew the poverty and oppression in which he lived. It was very early in his adolescence that he realized that he ."..was icily determined...never to make peace with the ghetto but to die and go to Hell before...[he] would accept his place in the republic"(23). Baldwin knew that the odds of getting out of Harlem were stacked against him. He knew, because of a couple of encounters with white policemen at the age of ten and thirteen, and because of the way some of his friends were treated by the military during WWII, and by society afterwards, that blacks could do little to change their situation. Baldwin saw only two ways out for the Black man: ."..wine or whiskey or the needle, and are still on it. And other, like me, fled into the church."(20). In the church he would find acceptance from the community. It took a...
Baldwin begins his essay with a recount of his childhood, growing up black in a nation which considered itself white. Baldwin explains the uphill battle fought by every American Negro, how many “were clearly headed for the Avenue” (Baldwin 296) of whores, pimps, and racketeers. Baldwin argues that the American Negro was doomed to remain in the same state in which he or she was brought into the world, just as “girls were destined to gain as much weight as their mothers, the boys … would rise no higher than their fathers” (Baldwin 298). Even an education would not rescue one from “the man’s” oppression. The man, of course, is the white man who “would never, by the operation of any generous human feel...
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.
...as a reader I must understand that his opinions are supported by his true, raw emotions. These negative feelings shared by all of his ancestors were too strong to just pass by as meaningless emotions. Baldwin created an outlook simply from his honest views on racial issues of his time, and ours. Baldwin?s essay puts the white American to shame simply by stating what he perceived as truth. Baldwin isn?t searching for sympathy by discussing his emotions, nor is he looking for an apology. I feel that he is pointing out the errors in Americans? thinking and probably saying, ?Look at what you people have to live with, if and when you come back to the reality of ?our? world.?
After watching the movie I have a new found respect for blacks who endured racial prejudice and were subject to the mistreatment because of their skin color. The movie made me feel really sad and it gave me visual of what may have taken place in Rosewood, Florida. The violence that the people suffered was hurtful to watch and unimaginable. Reading the report does not have the same effect of the movie because in the movie actually has a more vivid idea of the violence that occurred.
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
Baldwin makes people see the flaws in our society by comparing it to Europe. Whether we decide to take it as an example to change to, or follow our American mindset and take this as the biased piece that it is and still claim that we are the best country in the world, disregard his words and continue with our strive for
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
They were faced with race hatred, mob violence, brutally beaten up, and imprisoned for breaking the law. The African Americans were not able to go into the white people’s facilities.
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.