The Indomitable Spirit of Human Freedom

Rating: Null/10 (11 February 2018)

In 1839, a mutiny occurred on board the Cuban schooner La Amistad, wherein the slaves revolted against their Spanish captors, killed the captain and the cook and, for six weeks, attempted to sail back the home of their Mende tribe in the region of Sierra Leone in Africa. Instead, they landed off the coast of Long Island, were apprehended, and transported to New Haven where they were clapped in prison. With a screenplay written by David Franzoni, the Steven Spielberg directed film chronicles the trials of the 44 members of the Mende tribe that took place on American soil.
Under President Martin van Buren and his Secretary of State John Forsyth, the government sought to uphold a treaty with young Isabella II of Spain and return the slaves to their owners. A group of American abolitionists raised funds for the defense of the Mende which argued that they were not human property, due to the ending of the slave trade.
In a memorable moment in the film, former president John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) is approached by Mr. Judson (Morgan Freeman), who casually says that he has been "reading in the papers about the Amistad." Adams wryly asks, "Real papers?" Indeed, before the Supreme Court, Adams introduces into evidence an issue from the organ of the Van Buren administration, "The Executive Review," that would be the rough equivalent of tweets in the twenty-first century. In the propaganda published by Van Buren's cronies, the newspaper was promoting the view that the natural state of humankind is slavery, to which Adams replies that there is an embarrassing, annoying document called the Declaration of Independence that stipulates that "all men are created equal."
Even with one of Van Buren's appointees serving as judge, the lower court in New Haven ruled in favor of the Mende. When Van Buren pressed for an appeal before the Supreme Court, the bench was stacked with seven of the nine justices as slave-holding Southerners. But with only a single dissenting vote, the court upheld the lower court's verdict that the treaty with Spain is invalid. The foreign policy of Van Buren meant nothing to the court, which ruled that the Mende were not slaves, but free individuals with certain moral rights. The blowing up of the notorious Portuguese Lomboko Slave Fortress in Sierra Leone was an exclamation point to the court's verdict.
The film indicates that Isabella of Spain continued to argue the Amistad matter in entreaties with seven more American presidents, most of whom were Southerners. Treaties and foreign policy were impotent before the two court findings. Her hopes finally collapsed with the defeat of the Confederate army in 1864.
The hero of the film, Joseph CInque (Djimon Hounsou), returned to Sierra Leone to discover his people in the throes of civil war. His family members were gone, possibly sold into slavery.
This powerful, moving, and well-photographed film is a testament to the indomitable spirit of human freedom.