La amistad

1. What is the movie about? Summarize the plot of the film mentioning the main characters.
      The movie talks about a group of black people that arrives at United States in a boat with terrible conditions were there has been a slaughter in the middle of the sea. The black people were captured in Africa illegaly and were made slaves. In United States were jailed and if they wanted to be free they needed to prove were they came from. For this option they were helped by lots of people like Mr Baldwin, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Joadson, a traductor and some more. The main character is Joseph Cinque, a black man who was separated from his family. When he is in jail and in court he was who spoke in representation of the rest of the slaves and who talked with all the defenders. Mr Baldwin was a young defender of the rights of the blacks and is the one who fighted for them in the court. John Quincy Adams was an expresident from America that in the last judgement made a speech that gave the slaves to be free by decision of the judges.

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

      What was the Triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it?
It was a type of commerce that took place during the period of the colonialism. It is called "Triangular trade" indicating that shape of a triangle that creates the routes. From Europe, they were exported to Africa: shirts, furniture, manufactured goods. From Africa to America a large number of slaves and from America to Europe they exported raw materials. We can see that with these form of trade the principal benefited countries were; Spain, Great Britain, Portugal and North America while all the African and Central American colonies were heavily exploited.

3. Do some research and explain the conditions in which slaves were captured and transported from Africa to the Americas.

      During the trip from Africa to the Americas that lasted usually for 2 months or even longer a lot of heartless punishments were made to the slaves. They stayed below deck in rooms with hundreds of slaves all packed and without freedom of movement, they even had to be lying in the floor and they were tied with iron chains. They were fed 2 times a day and if they didn´t want to it they were force-fed. Usually 1 of 5 slaves died in the ship and when they died they were throwed overboard. Diseases were very usual things in this boats and for the safety of the crew some gobernments stablished laws for the treat of slaves.


4. What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?

      In the final speech of John Quincy Adams he gives some arguments against enslaving people. He followed some ideas of the ilustrated ideology like the one that says that humans deserve being in his state of nature, but this is not bad. The state of nature was considered by Thomas Hobbes like something negative and he says that people should renounce to some rights giving them to a gobernor to obtain others. John Locke says that people are totally free so they can decide on their possesions and actions, always inside the nature law, and this is what is representated in La Amistad movie.

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

     Joseph Cinqué was a black man known as Sengbe Pieh who lived in a village called Mende in Africa. As in the movie, he was imprisoned along with more people from the village and put on a black boat bound for America.

     During the trip he was able to disengage from the chains and lead a revolt against the crew, taking the control of the ship.


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

     In 1840 Lewis Tappan and Ellis Gray Loring of the Amistad Committee approached the 72-year old Adams to defend the Amistad captives. Initially hesitant, he eventually took the case believing it would be his last great service to the country. In February 1841 he argued the Mende were free men illegally captured and sold into slavery, and as such should be returned to Africa. After the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the captives Adams wrote his co-counsel, Roger Sherman Baldwin, saying, “The decision of the Supreme Court in the case of the Amistad has this moment been delivered by Judge Story. The captives are free...Yours in great haste and great joy.”