Amistad and the Lessons of History

Abstract

Director Steven Spielberg's is a dramatic portrayal of a well-documented but little-known 19th-century slave revolt and its repercussions. The year was 1839. A young man, called Sengbe Pieh, from the Mende ethnic group of Sierra Leone was captured as a slave and, along with other men, women, and children, transported across the Atlantic to Cuba where they were purchased by Spanish plantation owners, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montez. It was while the enslaved Africans, numbering 53, were subsequently being shipped from the Cuban capital of Havana to the port of Puerto Principe in the schooner, La Amistad, that the mutiny occurred. Using a nail removed from the deck, Sengbe freed himself and other fellow slaves and then overpowered the crew, killing half of them. Sengbe then ordered Montez to sail in the direction of the rising sun, that is, eastward toward his homeland of Africa. However, a strong gale drove the along the coast of the United States and, after drifting off course for 2 months, the ship was captured by the U.S. Navy and taken ashore to New London, Connecticut. Thence began a prolonged court fight that unraveled several fundamental legal issues that Spielberg captures so dramatically and effectively. Were the jailed Amistad guilty of murder and piracy as charged before District Judge Andrew Judson? Did Montez and Ruiz have a legitimate claim to the Africans as their slaves? Or should the courts capitulate to the ownership demands of the Spanish crown claimed by young princess Isabella II (Anna Paquin) and supported by the U.S. Secretary of State, John Forsyth? At the crux of the interminable legal rambling was the key question of the