FILM Analysis- Amistad PDF

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Historical Film Analysis of the movie 'Amistad'. I received a grade of 19/20 ....

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DY, KRISTINE ANNE F. 2018118254

4HST 28 SEPTEMBER 2021

The one thing about slavery that not many people know is that before it became a transatlantic trade, it originally started in Africa itself. The center of Slavery was in West Africa, especially in Ghana, where warring political communities fought each other, and their captured enemies were forced as slaves.1 When Portugal and other European kingdoms were finally able to reach other continents such as Africa, they began kidnapping Africans that were on the west coast and brought them back to Europe as slaves.2 Europeans preferred African slaves because it was cheaper than acquiring lower-class European slaves. The African slaves come at a lower price for the Europeans. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, people were often kidnapped and taken from Africa to be sold as slaves in Europe and America. The Africans sold in America were forced to be slaves and were exploited as workers at the plantations for tobacco and later on cotton gin. Slavery was first brought in America when the privateer The White Lion ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia. The ship was twenty or more Angolans kidnapped by the Portuguese.3 This event marked the beginning of the two and a half centuries of slavery in North America. Most slaves were brought to the south to be servants and workers in the plantations and influential families. They were set to work for free and for a limited period to pay off their debts. The European settlers in North America turned to enslaved Africans as a cheaper alternative for workers. Based on the research conducted regarding the movie's historical accuracy, some aspects of the movie are fictional. Fictional characters were added to the movie in order to add a more dramatic effect to the plot. An example of a fictional character added for the plot is Mr. Theodore Joadson, an ex-slave, runs a known newspaper about anti-slavery called The Emancipator. Theodore Joadson is an African American Abolitionist who joined his friend Lewis Tappan in defending the 53 African captives of La Amistad. In the movie, the numbers of slaves captured are different from what was reported in the Amistad's real Amistad cases; they only counted 44 slaves, 40 adults, and four children. Some other characters are added to the plot, but it is believed 1 https://research.cornell.edu/news-features/curious-history-slavery-west-africa 2 Dr Hakim Adi, “History - British History in Depth: Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” BBC (BBC, October 5, 2012), https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml. 3 “First Enslaved AFRICANS Arrive in Jamestown Colony,” History.com (A&E Television Networks, August 13, 2019), https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-african-slave-ship-arrives-jamestown-colony.

that the setting, condition, and other events are accurate. It is also important to note here that the slave fortress mentioned in the movie is authentic, it also believed it was fictional, but research says otherwise. The Lomboko Slave Fortress can be found in present-day Sierra Leone, Africa. The slave fortress was owned by the infamous Spanish slave trader Pedro Blanco.4 The Lomboko slave fortress played an essential role in the movie because it was shown in the film that the Amistad slaves were taken to that slave post in sierra leone, and from there, they were transferred to Cuba, where the slaves were sold. However, there are also some historical inaccuracies in the movie, such as the re-election campaign of President Van Buren. It was shown that he was incessantly campaigning for his re-election, but studies show that during the 1840s election, Van Buren did not campaign much, unlike his opposition. 5 Another inaccurate depiction of history is the relation of the Amistad case towards the American Civil War. The movie mentioned numerous times about the country going into a civil war; however, this is misleading because the Amistad case is about the transatlantic slave trade. The Amistad case was not a ‘turning point’ in the American perspective of Slavery. Therefore, although the movie portrayed the Amistad case wonderfully, we cannot deny that there are still some misleading and inaccurate historical events in the film. It can be assumed that maybe the Amistad case did influence the perspectives of some Americans regarding slavery. However, it is not the turning on which the abolition of slavery is centered at. The movie Amistad is a great watch to learn about slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. Although the triangle trade was not discussed in detail, it was still mentioned in the movie. The Amistad case is another inspiring story about freeing African slaves; however, it is also sorrowful to know that Africans would force other Africans to be slaves, and some might even sell them to the Europeans. Furthermore, although the case did not have a tremendous and instantaneous effect on Slavery in North America, it can still be assumed the case had left a lasting impression on the americans and negroes.

REFERENCES:

4 Benjamin N. Lawrance, Amistad's Orphans: An Atlantic Story of Children, Slavery, and Smuggling (Yale University Press, 2015) p. 118. 5 “The Election of 1840,” National Parks Service (U.S. Department of the Interior), accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/mava/learn/historyculture/the-election-of-1840.htm.

VARA-DANNEN, THERESA C. “The Limits of White Memory: Slavery, Violence and the Amistad Incident.” Journal of American Studies 49, no. 1 (2015): 19–54. doi:10.1017/S0021875814001297. History.com Editors. “Amistad Case.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, October 27, 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/abolitionist-movement/amistad-case. Admin. “Teaching American History and the Movie Amistad.” American Studies Journal, August 31, 2021. http://www.asjournal.org/53-2009/teaching-american-history-and-the-movieamistad/. History.com Editors. “Slavery in America.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, November 12, 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery. History.com Editors. “Abolitionist Movement.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, October 27, 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/abolitionist-movement. “William Lloyd Garrison.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, April 22, 2021. https://www.biography.com/writer/william-lloyd-garrison. Higgins, Abigail. “How an African Prince Who Was Kidnapped into Slavery Outsmarted His Captors.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, February 8, 2019. https://www.history.com/news/african-prince-slavery-abdulrahman-ibrahim-ibn-sori. Little, Becky. “One of the LAST Slave Ship SURVIVORS Describes His Ordeal in a 1930s Interview.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, May 3, 2018. https://www.history.com/news/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon-slave-clotilda-survivor. Elliott, Mary, and Jazmine Hughes. “A Brief History of Slavery That You Didn't Learn in School.” The New York Times. The New York Times, August 19, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/19/magazine/history-slaverysmithsonian.html. “400 Years since Slavery: A Timeline of American History.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, August 16, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/aug/15/400-years-sinceslavery-timeline. Diaz, Jaclyn. “Johns Hopkins, Long Believed an Abolitionist, Actually Owned Slaves, University Says.” NPR. NPR, December 10, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/944906903/johnshopkins-long-believed-an-abolitionist-actually-owned-slaves-university-say. “Johns Hopkins Was a Slave OWNER, UNIVERSITY REVEALS.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, December 9, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/2020/dec/09/john-hopkins-university-founder-slave-owner-baltimore.

Adi, Dr Hakim. “History - British History in Depth: Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.” BBC. BBC, October 5, 2012. https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml. “The Curious History of Slavery in Africa.” Cornell Research, September 13, 2017. https://research.cornell.edu/news-features/curious-history-slavery-west-africa. “First Enslaved AFRICANS Arrive in Jamestown Colony.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, August 13, 2019. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-africanslave-ship-arrives-jamestown-colony. Lawrance, Benjamin N. Amistad's Orphans: An Atlantic Story of Children, Slavery, and Smuggling. Yale University Press, 2015. “The Election of 1840.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/mava/learn/historyculture/the-election-of1840.htm....