La Amistad
It is a case that challenges the very foundation of our legal system, but for the African captives on trial, this is not a clash of politics or ideologies. This is a fight for the basic right of all mankind...freedom. It is the story of the Amistad, a slave ship that didn’t quite make it. When it arrived in this country, it brought out both the best and worst in people, and the American justice system. It has been talked about to this day, and the 1998 DreamWorks film Amistad re-invoked the idea of it in the minds of many people. But the real question is, was this portrayal of this very controversial incident accurate. It is very accurate. The entire story of the movie is true up ...
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to rely on the two surviving members of the crew. But they are tricked. After two months on a ragged course up the eastern seaboard, an American naval ship off the coast of Connecticut captures the Amistad and the Africans were charged with murder and piracy.
In the beginning, the Africans are championed by abolitionists Theodore Joadson (played by Morgan Freeman) and Lewis Tappan (played by Stellan Skarsgard), and a young real estate attorney named Roger Baldwin (played by Matthew McConaughey). However, as the case becomes the symbol of a nation divided, two great Americans lock horns in the debate. Pro-slavery President Martin Van Buren (played by Nigel Hawthorne), seeking re-election, is willing to sacrifice the Africans to appease the South, as well as Queen Isabella of Spain (played by Anna Paquin). But his will is challenged by former President John Quincy Adams (played by Anthony Hopkins), who comes out of retirement to fight the Africans' cause in the United State Supreme ...
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and lowered Ruiz’s bail. Eventually, they both fled to Cuba. Also, there was never a dismissal of a judge, only appeals. The case started in the US Circuit Court, then continued to the Federal District Court, and ended in the US Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
A very true fact is that Montes and Ruiz and the crew of the USS Washington claimed the slaves as property. In a response to this, members of the Amistad Committee wrote that they did not believe that the negroes were from Cuba. “…Each of them are natives of Africa and were born free, and ever since have been and still of right are and ought to be free and not slaves…” (4)
A slight difference between the movie ...
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La Amistad. (2008, December 25). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/La-Amistad/95196
"La Amistad." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/La-Amistad/95196>
"La Amistad." Essayworld.com. December 25, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/La-Amistad/95196.
"La Amistad." Essayworld.com. December 25, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/La-Amistad/95196.
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