Essay, Research Paper: Amistad(The Movie)

Amistad
Being an African American male, I have been told somewhat the story about
slavery. I mean of course I have been told of the Martin Luther Kings, the Malcolm
Xs, and the Rosa Parks and the many struggles and life threatening obstacles they
went through for all blacks to become free from opression. Before watching the
movie Amistad, I never really knew of the boat rides, the chaining of women and
men together and putting boulders at the end of the ropes and throwing the boulders
over the edge of the boat drowning many. Just because I did not know about these
different situations, I can’t and will not blame anyone else. I never really asked or
took it upon myself to learn what went on with my own people. After reviewing
certain scenes from the movie Amistad, directed by Steven Spilberg, it made me
angry, wondering why they waited so long to make a movie about the real story of
how they miss treated slaves during the Middle Passage. After I thought about it I
know what took so long, they(the white people) never really wanted us to know.
Amistad was a story about a slave named Cinque, and his fight for freedom in
a white world. It showed the abuse that slave took from whitemen for no reason.
Many of them were taken from their homes and forced onto a ship below the deck
were they received little food and were chained together. See this action really
upsets me. They never bothered any Spaniards, but they felt could make money off
of them. Sadly I watched beautiful African American women were being drowned
because they served no purpose to the sailors. The only reason they kept the
women is for breeding. They also drowned the weak and the sick. They felt that
they would serve any purpose to the buyers if they were weak. They only bred the
strong to produce strong. Some of the slaves were taken their own lives. A woman,
holding her new born child, jump off the side of the boat. She rather die than spend
her life in slavery or being killed by the whiteman. Not many of the slaves that were
aboard the Amistad were not accounted for. Many of the slaves were killed and
thrown overboard. Cinque was one of the few that survived and told his story to
others.
At first. Cinque did not know if he could trust his lawyer because he was
white and he did not understand a word that they were saying. He sat in court
playing attention really hard to see if he could understand. finally they got him a
translator so they could talk to him and he could talk to the court. Sitting in jail one
night, another slave had an copy of a bible. They were flipping through the pages
looking at the pictures. While they were looking the other slave was explaining to
Cinque about the pictures. The pictures revealed the story of Jesus. When they
won the case the slaves were happy and the slave held the bible up. At the end
when it was all over, Cinque and his fellow African American were allowed to go
home. The Supreme Court let them go back to their home land. When arriving at
home they were faced with the bad news that their friends and many of their family
members had been killed. I do not know how I would deal with coming home from
a long fight for freedom and finding out that all my friends and relatives were dead.
I would feel real cheated out of my life if I was taken from my country and my
children and wife had been killed.
Here at Howard University he had the honor to say we had a part in helping
Amistad get to the big screen. Debbie Allen was the lady that set out to find a
director and produce the movie. I am glad she set out on the mission to get this
movie on the big screen. She was also given the honor to co-produce and to
co-direct the movie beside Steven Spilberg. She did a great job in my eyes of telling
the story of the Middle Passage.
They were only as good as its cast. Djimon Honsou played the best role I
have ever seen him display. He took the job of learning another language and taking
some abuse. He should have won an award for his performance but he did not. Just
another African American not given any credit for his hard work. Morgan Freemen
also played a big role as a person that help abolis slavery. Even though the slaves
thought he was white because he could not speak the language, he was still set out
to help them.
Thank you for introducing and finally making it understood what really went
on. I finally know how bad we were miss treated. Now I feel like I and others who
do not know all that they need to know about the middle passage need to take upon
ourselves to learn this information. Many people died to give me and many others
of my kind the right to sit in the classrooms I sit in everyday so that I may learn
what I don’t know and much more. Now I pay real close attention when history
about African American is being taught.


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