Amistad: As Told by Spielberg, Essay Example

The movie, Amistad, directed by Steven Spielberg (1997), raises questions relative to the identity of the “other” in the shaping of the modern world. This movie tells about slavery, identity, and rights in the United States about 175 years ago. The film is based on the true account of Ka-le and his compatriots from Sierra Leone who defied capture during their trek from Africa to the United States, via Cuba. “All we want is make us free,” they plead, only to be held, against their will for about 18 months as “property.”

The case of their dispensation was celebrated, with John Quincy Adams, who a dozen years before had been the President of the United States, arguing their rights before the Supreme Court. They were subsequently freed to travel home. About 30-40 of them actually made it back alive, but their lives were changed forever from their unintentional trip to North America.

This unusual situation forced Americans to re-think, yet again and up close and personal, the plight of all who lived in involuntary servitude within state borders. What was the proper definition of a slave? When people fought and won their freedom, were they truly free? These were the kind of questions that the peculiar circumstances of the Africans held in Connecticut. It would be another twenty years before the United States put these questions to rest, once and for all.

La Amistad, the name of the ship that brought the Africans to these shores, stands today as a reminder that personal liberty is not just a thing to talk about; it is a thing to practice within our global community.  Spielberg’s movie reminds us that slavery was a flashpoint issue at the time of the Amistad, when certain people were not seen as people but as things to be owned. It was difficult for Americans to think of Africans as free people, even the indigenous ones on their native continent. Black people had to prove their status as free people more so than did whites or light skinned immigrants. Blacks were supposed enslaved until proven otherwise, whereas Whites did not bear such a burden.