AMISTAD

1. What is the movie about? Summarize the plot of the film mentioning the main

characters.

In 1839 a boat is carrying a group of Africans who have been sold as slaves. While the ship is

crossing the Ocean to the U.S.A., Cinqué, the leader of the African slave’s rebels with other

slaves against the Spaniards. They continue to sail, with the hope of finding help, but in the

contrary they find an American ship and they are taken to the United States, they are

imprisoned as runaway slaves. When they arrive at the court a young lawyer with lots of effort

take the case for him. After having the case already won, the case finally gets to the Supreme

Court, where John Quincy Adams makes an impassioned and convincing appeal for their

release.

The main characters are:

• Matthew McCaughey as Roger Sherman Baldwin

• Djimon Hounsou as Sengbe Pieh/José Cinqué

• Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams

• Morgan Freeman as Theodore Joadson

• Nigel Hawthorne as Martin Van Buren

2. What was the Triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it?

The slave trade began with Portuguese, and some Spanish, traders taking African slaves to the

American colonies they had conquered in the 15th century. British sailors became involved in

the trade in the 16th century, and the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) gave them the right to sell

slaves in the Spanish Empire.

In the 18th century, perhaps 6 million Africans were taken to the Americas as slaves, at least a

third of them in British ships.

For the British slave traders, it was a three-legged journey, called the 'triangular trade':

• Taking trade goods, such as guns and brandy, to Africa to exchange for slaves.

• Then taking the slaves on the 'Middle Passage' across the Atlantic to sell in the West

Indies and North America.

• Finally, taking a cargo of rum and sugar back to sell in England.

Conditions on the Middle Passage were terrible, and many slaves died.

3. Do some research and explain the conditions in which slaves were captured and

transported from Africa to the Americas.

Conditions on the Middle Passage were hard. The ship’s hull might hold 100 or 700

slaves. Most of the enslaved Africans did not live by the coast. They had never seen

the sea before, let alone been on a ship. Many would suffer from seasickness. Men

were chained together, to prevent rebellion. Chained, they would find it difficult to

get to the buckets that served as toilets. Usually, all the slaves were taken up on

deck for fresh air and exercise each day. The hull could be cleaned at that time. But

in bad weather, the slaves had to remain in the hold, perhaps for weeks on end.

The conditions they lived in can only be

4. What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?

The movie includes a lot of enlightened ideas, such as a progress, brotherhood, tolerance, constitutional government, and of course LIBERTY.

5. Who was Joseph Cinqué? Did he really exist?

Joseph Cinqué (1814 –1879), also known as Sengbe Pieh, was a West African man of

the Mende people who led a revolt of fellow Africans on the Spanish slave ship, La Amistad.

After the ship was taken into custody by the United States Coast Guard, Cinqué and his fellow

Africans were eventually tried for killing officers on the ship. This reached the US Supreme

Court, where Cinqué and his fellow Africans were found to have rightfully defended

themselves from being enslaved through the illegal Atlantic slave trade and were released with

the help of the ex-president John Quincy Adams. Americans helped raise money for their

return to Africa.

6. What is the role of John Quincy Adams, former US President, in the movie?

John Quincy Adams, byname Old Man Eloquent, was born July 11, 1767, Massachusetts and

died February 23, 1848, Washington D.C.), sixth president of the United States (1825–29) and

eldest son of President John Adams. In his pre-presidential years, he was one of America’s

greatest diplomats (formulating, among other things, what came to be called the Monroe

Doctrine), and in his post presidential years he conducted a consistent and often dramatic fight

against the expansion of slavery.

Anthony Hopkins, winner of one Oscar, one Golden Globe, two BAFTA and two Emmys. In this

movie he plays the role of John Quincy Adams, now a member of the U.S. House of

Representatives from Massachusetts who fights in front of the Supreme Court to abolish slavery.