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. A man named Sengbe Pieh, commonly known in the United States as Jose Cinque, was born around 1813 in Mende Country. He was rumored to be the son of a local chief and lived his days as a farmer working the fields. He was a devoted husband with two sons and a daughter. One day he woke up, kissed his wife and kids good-bye not knowing that day in late January 1839 would be different. As he entered the fields, four men jumped him and tied his right hand to his neck. When they were done beating him they dragged him to an area where they held the other slaves that were from Kono, Sherbro, Temne, Kissi, Gbandi and Loma. A man named Mayagilalo, that helped kidnap Pieh, was indebted to a man named Vai King Manna Siaka. To ensure his safety he used Sengbe Pieh to pay off his debts. Pieh stayed in Siaka's village for a month then was taken to Lomboko where he was sold to Pedro Blanco, who was a scumbag slave trader. In March the slaves boarded a schooner called Tecora and was brought to Havana in June. While there he was sold at the slave auction to Jose Ruiz, a Spanish plantation owner, for $450. Ruiz had a sugar plantation in Puerto Principe and decided to go with Pedro Montez, because he was headed in the same area. Ruiz with his forty-nine adult slaves and Montez with his four children slaves boarded the schooner c... ... middle of paper ... ...f="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/aohome.html">http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/aohome.html THE AMISTAD CASE (National Archives and Records Administration) http://www.archives.gov/ THE AMISTAD IN THE GILDER LEHRMAN COLLECTION (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History) http://www.gilderlehrman.org/ AMISTAD RESEARCH CENTER (Tulane University) http://www.tulane.edu/~amistad/ CONNECTICUT: AMISTAD TRAIL (Mystic Media, Inc.) http://visitconnecticut.com/amistad.htm EXPLORING AMISTAD: Race and the Boundaries of Freedom in Antebellum Maritime America (Mystic Seaport) http://www.mysticseaport.org/nf-home.htm
Both, “The Interesting Narrative Life of Olaudah Equiano” and “Amistad” are important stories about slavery in pre-civil war america because they both address the issues of slavery. These gentlemen in the story made a difference in the slave trade. In “The life of Olaudah Equiano”, Olaudah was sold on a slave ship that came to the Barbados. Olaudah worked for his freedom, and in the end became efficient in American language. He worked his way to the free life and in the end it worked out for him, although it leaves scars on his soul. In “Amistad”, Cinque is a slave that leads a revolt on a slave ship after escaping. When they get to america, Baldwin, a lawyer that is representing the slave and the former president Adams helps free the slaves.
The origin tale of the African American population in the American soil reveals a narrative of a diasporic faction that endeavored brutal sufferings to attain fundamental human rights. Captured and forcefully transported in unbearable conditions over the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, a staggering number of Africans were destined to barbaric slavery as a result of the increasing demand of labor in Brazil and the Caribbean. African slaves endured abominable conditions, merged various cultures to construct a blended society that pillared them through the physical and psychological hardships, and hungered for their freedom and recognition.
Equiano was the youngest of his brothers who enjoyed playing outside throwing javelins enjoying the normal life of a small child. At the beginning of the day, the elders would leave their children at home while they went out into the fields to work. While they were gone, some of the children would get together to play but always took precautions of potential kidnappers. Even with all these precautions, people were still seized from their homes and taken away. Equiano was home one day with his little sister tending to the everyday household needs when out of nowhere they were captured by a couple men who had gotten over the walls. They had no time to resist or scream for help before they found themselves bound, gagged, and being taken away. Equiano had no idea where these people were taking him and they didn’t stop once until nightfall where they stayed until dawn. He tells us about how they traveled for many days and nights not having any clue where they were going or when they would get there. Slaves traveled by land and by sea, but Equiano’s journey was by sea. He tells us how he was carried aboard and immediately chained to other African Americans that were already on the ship. Once the ship halted on land, Equiano along with many other slaves were sent to the merchant’s yard where they would be herded together and bought by the
10. Richmond, Douglas. “The Legacy of African Slavery in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1810.” Journal of Popular Culture 35, no. 2 (2001): 1-17.
An estimated 8 to 15 million Africans reached the Americas between the 16th and 19th century. Only the youngest and healthiest slaves were taken for what was called the middle passage of the triangle trade, partly because they would be worth more in the Americas, and they were also the most likely to reach their destination alive. Conditions aboard the ship were very gruesome; slaves were chained to one anoth...
The experiences that Richard Frethorne endured were in a lot of ways similar to those of James Revel. Both suffered from sickness and disease, lack of resources such as clothes and shelter, and most unfortunately limited access to food. The big distinction between these two, however, is that Frethorne was shipped to the New World on his own accord in hopes of a free and better life. While Revel was forcibly shipped as a felon, sent in punishment to serve his sentence in slavery.
Chambers, Glenn A. . "From Slavery to Servitude: The African and Asian Struggle for Freedom in Latin America and the Caribbean." Herbert S. Klein and Ben Vinson III. 36.
Hine, Darlene C., Hine, William C., Harrold, Stanley: The African-American Odyssey Volume Two: Since 1865. Second Edition. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. 2003.
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.
“The ‘Blessings’ of a Slave,” in Kennedy, David M. and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Spirit: United States History as Seen by Contemporaries. Vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
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.
Slave: My True Story, the Memoir of Mende Nazer, depicts how courage and the will to live can triumph over oppression and enslavement by showing the world that slavery did not end in 1865, but is still a worldwide problem. In Slave: My True Story, Nazer personally and vividly chronicles her life, which began in the Nuba Mountains of southern Sudan. Her early life with the Karko Tribe in a rural and isolated area was very simple and happy. Nazer grew up in a family that was, by Nuba standards, considerably well off.
“As I stare through the floor of an unknown vessel into an everlasting sea of clouds I ponder on what I had did to be in this situation or would I ever reunite with my family or will the gentleman beside me make it through the night.” The realization that slavery caused many families, lives, and individuals to be destroyed is gruesome. Through the memoir of Olaudah Equiano, the first-person accounts of the treatment of enslaved and free Africans is revealed, which helps him in the battle against African enslavement.
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.
Howard Jones, Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy, rev. ed. (1998); Iyunolu Folayan Osagie, The Amistad Revolt: Memory, Slavery, and the Politics of Identity in the United States and Sierra Leone (2000).