Analyse af filmen 'Amistad' og temaet slaveri

The Amistads main theme is slavery, which I think has taken place since the dawn of humankind.

Slavery means if you by force make another human work for you without his or hers accept.

I think that this incident with the Amistad opened some American eyes and therefore it must have had an impact in the American civil war. The reason why the American civil war occurred is because that the Northern states wanted to stop all slavery in the country and the Southern states wanted to keep their slaves because who else would work in their fields for free, therefore the American civil war occurred. which I am glad for having occurred, because I think that slavery is wrong. As it says in the Declaration of Independence written by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson “All humans must be free” And “We are all equal”. One of the problems for the black Africans Is that 6 out of 9 judges had slaves at home and not only that, they were also from the South. And when the case came to the Supreme Court the Judge who was chosen was of course from the South which meant that he probably also had slaves at home. Amistad which means friendship is based on a historical occurrence, and it is about a slave rebellion, which takes place in June 1839. The Africans rise up and begin a killing massacre against their captors on the high seas and are brought to trial in New England court. The court must decide if the Africans are actually born as slaves or if they were illegally brought from Africa. If the Africans were born as slaves then they would be guilty of murder, but if they were brought here from Africa it would be illegal, because they had the right to defend themselves. This was not such a simple issue since the slave trade had been banned by big countries like America and England at the time of the Amistad incident in 1839. Our story begins on board the Amistad. On the ship the leader of the Africans, Cinque, frees himself from his chains and frees the rest of the Africans. The slaves are being taken from Havana slave market to another destination in Cuba. The two men who bought them are spared, and promise to take the slaves back to Africa, back to the sun. Instead, the Amistad is guided into US waters, and the Africans end up being tried in a New England court. Luckily, it is a Northern court. If the slaves had ended up in the South they would have no chance of getting off. The slaves are first defended by Roger Baldwin a well-off real estate lawyer who bases the case on property law. Only slowly does Baldwin come to see his clients, the slaves, as human beings. Also, two Boston abolitionists, an immigrant called Tappan, and a former slave named Joadson are in the defense. Together these men work to try to free the 53 slaves aboard the Amistad. After the slaves are tried and freed at the court, they must go to the Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court John Quincy Adams, former president, who is fighting for the freedom of all men, defends them. He gives an speech and persuades the Supreme Court to free the slaves as individuals because all men are free under the Declaration of Independence. The slaves are freed once and again and choose to return to their homeland.