The movie Amistad is not found in any history books, but considering who writes the texts, this does not surprise me
In February of 1839, Portuguese slave hunters captured a large group of Africans from Sierra Leone and shipped them to Havana, Cuba, a center for the slave trade. This abduction violated all of the treaties then in existence. Fifty-three Africans were purchased by two Spanish planters and put aboard the Cuban schooner Amistad for shipment to a Caribbean plantation. On July 1, 1839, the Africans seized the ship, killed the captain and the cook, and ordered the planters to sail to Africa. Fifty-three days later, the Amistad was seized off Long Island, New York, by the United States brig Washington. The court ruled that the case fell within Federal jurisdiction and that the claims to the Africans as property were not legitimate because they were illegally held as slaves. After the United States District Court ruled in favor of the Africans, the United States District Attorney filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. So in January of 1841, the case went to Supreme Court and former President John Quincy Adams argued the Africans’ case. Adams defended the right of the accused to fight to regain their freedom. The Supreme Court decided in favor of the Africans, and thirty-five of them were returned to their homeland. The others died at sea or in prison while waiting trial.
