Steven Spielberg’s, “Amistad” is a fairly accurate depiction of the slave mutiny and ensuing political proceedings that occurred in January 1839. The story begins with the capture of hundreds of native Africans near in Mendeland, which is what I assumed to be an area or province near Sierra Leone. After their capture, the slaves were sold into the Spanish slave trade. These slaves endured much brutality; sickness and death were almost synonymous with each other. Their journey would take them to the then Spanish colony of Havana, Cuba aboard the extremely notorious Portuguese slave ship the Tecora. When the slaves arrived in Cuba, they were falsely classified as native Cuban-born slaves and were sold by auction into the hands of Don Jose Ruiz and Don Pedro Montez, whose intent for the slaves was to transport them to their plantation in Cuba. The irony of this movie is that “La Amistad”, which is the name of the Spanish cargo schooner the slaves were transported from, means “friendship” in Spanish. Three days into their voyage, the slaves led by a 25 year old Mende slave named Sengbe Pieh known to the Spaniards as Cinque, incited a mutiny aboard the ship. Cinque freed himself by meticulously removing a nail from the ship’s structure and picking the lock on his shackles. It’s interesting to note that in this particular scene in the movie, the traditional form of slave transport was very accurately portrayed. The slaves were stacked on each other in order to create the maximum space possible. The brutality of the Mid-Atlantic Slave Trade is not to be underestimated.
The mutiny aboard “La Amistad” was a relative success. Although several Africans were killed, the majority of the Spanish crew is also killed save two of the ship’s officers. Cinque kept these two officers alive because he believed that they could sail the ship full of Africans back to their homeland. Some time passes in the movie and the ship begins to deteriorate and their supplies of food and clean...