Argumento [editar]

Amistad es el nombre de un barco de esclavos viajar de Cuba a los Estados Unidos

en 1839. Se est llevando a la gente de frica como su carga. A medida que el
barco est cruzando desde Cuba a los Estados Unidos, Cinque, un lder de los
africanos, conduce un motn y se hace cargo de la nave. Los amotinados sobra la
vida de dos navegantes espaoles para ayudarles a navegar el barco de vuelta a
frica. En cambio, los navegantes juegan los africanos y navegan al norte de la
costa este de los Estados Unidos, donde el barco se detuvo por la Marina
estadounidense, y los 53 africanos que viven presas tal como esclavos fugitivos.

En un pas desconocido y sin hablar una sola palabra de Ingls, los africanos se
encuentran en una batalla legal. Fiscal de Distrito William S. Holabird presenta los
cargos de piratera y asesinato. El Secretario de Estado John Forsyth, en nombre del
presidente Martin Van Buren (que est haciendo campaa para la reeleccin),
representa la afirmacin de la reina Isabel II de Espaa que los africanos son
esclavos y son propiedad de Espaa sobre la base de un tratado. Dos oficiales de la
Armada a reclamar como salvamento, mientras que los dos navegantes espaoles
producen el comprobante de compra. Un abogado llamado Roger Sherman Baldwin,
contratado por el abolicionista Tappan y su socio negro Joadson (un personaje de
ficcin [1]) decide defender a los africanos.

Baldwin sostiene que los africanos haban sido capturados en frica para ser
vendidos en las Amricas ilegalmente. Baldwin demuestra a travs de documentos
encontrados ocultos en Amistad que los africanos fueron inicialmente cargamento
perteneciente a un barco de esclavos portugus, La Tecora. Por lo tanto, los
africanos eran ciudadanos libres de otro pas y no esclavos en todo. A la luz de esta
evidencia, el personal del Presidente Van Buren tiene el juez que preside el caso
sustituido por el juez Coglin, que es ms joven y se cree que es impresionable e
influenciable. En consecuencia, tratando de hacer el caso ms personal, en el
consejo de John Quincy Adams, Baldwin y Joadson encontrar a James Covey, un ex
esclavo que se habla tanto de Mende y Ingls. Cinque cuenta su historia en el juicio.

El fiscal de distrito Holabird ataca "cuento" de Cinqu de ser capturados y

mantenidos en una fortaleza de esclavos Lomboko y especialmente el lanzamiento
de preguntas preciosa carga por la borda. Sin embargo, de la Royal Navy ferviente
abolicionista capitn Fitzgerald de la escuadrilla de frica Occidental copias de
seguridad de la cuenta de Cinqu. Baldwin muestra del inventario del Tecora que el
nmero de personas africanas tomadas como esclavas se redujo en 50. Fitzgerald
explica que algunos barcos de esclavos, cuando fueron interceptados, hacen esto
para deshacerse de la evidencia de su crimen. Pero en el caso de la Tecora, que
haban subestimado la cantidad de provisiones necesarias para su viaje. A medida

que la tensin aumenta, Cinqu se levanta de su asiento y grita repetidamente:

"Danos, nos hace libres!"

Juez Coglin falla a favor de los africanos. Despus de la presin del senador Calhoun
al presidente Van Buren, el caso se recurri al Tribunal Supremo. A pesar de negarse
a ayudar cuando se present inicialmente el caso, Adams se compromete a ayudar
con el caso. En el Tribunal Supremo, que hace una splica apasionada y elocuente
por su liberacin, y es un xito.

Lomboko fortaleza esclavo es liberado por el capitn de marina reales Fitzgerald.

Ordena a los caones de la nave para destruir la fortaleza. A continuacin, dicta una
carta al secretario de Estado, John Forsyth diciendo que l tena razn: la fortaleza
de esclavos no existe.

Debido a la liberacin de los africanos, el presidente Martin Van Buren pierde su

campaa de reeleccin, y la tensin se acumula entre el norte y el sur, lo que
eventualmente culminar en la Guerra Civil.

Reparto [editar]
Morgan Freeman como Theodore Joadson
Nigel Hawthorne como presidente Martin Van Buren
Slavery[edit]
While in the state Senate Van Buren voted for a resolution instructing New York's
members of Congress to vote against the admission of Missouri as a slave state. In
1848 he would be the nominated for president by the Free Soil Party (an anti-slavery
political party).[125] Despite these antislavery views, during his term of office there
was no ambiguity about his position on the abolition of slavery.[126] Van Buren
actually considered slavery immoral, but sanctioned by the Constitution.[127] He
was against its abolition both in D.C. and in the United States altogether, and said
so in his Inaugural Address in 1837: "I believed it a solemn duty fully to make known
my sentiments in regard to it [slavery], and now, when every motive for
misrepresentation has passed away, I trust that they will be candidly weighed and
understood."[128]

"I must go into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of
every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia
against the wishes of the slaveholding States, and also with a determination equally

decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists."[129]
Slavery would be abolished in the District of Columbia on April 18, 1862

Anthony Hopkins como John Quincy Adams

Slavery[edit]
Main article: John Quincy Adams and abolitionism
A longtime opponent of slavery, Adams used his new role in Congress to fight it. In
1836, Southern Representatives voted in a "gag rule" that immediately tabled any
petitions about slavery, thus preventing any discussion or debate of the slavery
issue. He became a forceful opponent of this rule and conceived a way around it,
attacking slavery in the House for two weeks.[7]

The gag rule prevented him from bringing slavery petitions to the floor, but he
brought one anyway. It was a petition from a Georgia citizen urging disunion due to
the continuation of slavery in the South. Though he certainly did not support it and
made that clear at the time, his intent was to antagonize the pro-slavery faction of
Congress into an open fight on the matter.[7] The plan worked.

The petition infuriated his Congressional enemies, many of whom were agitating for
disunion themselves. They moved for his censure over the matter, enabling Adams
to discuss slavery openly during his subsequent defense. Taking advantage of his
right to defend himself, Adams delivered prepared and impromptu remarks against
slavery and in favor of abolition.[7] Knowing that he would probably be acquitted,
he changed the focus from his own actions to those of the slaveholders, speaking
against the slave trade and the ownership of slaves.[59] He decided that if he were
censured, he would merely resign, run for the office again, and probably win easily.
[7] When his opponents realized that they played into his political strategy, they
tried to bury the censure. Adams made sure this did not happen, and the debate
continued. He attacked slavery and slaveholders as immoral and condemned the
institution while calling for it to end.[7] After two weeks, a vote was held, and he
was not censured. He delighted in the misery he was inflicting on the slaveholders
he so hated, and prided himself on being "obnoxious to the slave faction."[7]

Although the censure of Adams over the slavery petition was ultimately abandoned,
the House did address the issue of petitions from enslaved persons at a later time.
Adams again argued that the right to petition was a universal right, granted by God,
so that those in the weakest positions might always have recourse to those in the
most powerful. Adams also called into question the actions of a House that would
limit its own ability to debate and resolve questions internally. After this debate, the
gag rule was ultimately retained.[60]

The discussion ignited by his actions and the attempts of others to quiet him raised
questions of the right to petition, the right to legislative debate, and the morality of
slavery.[7] During the censure debate, Adams said that he took delight in the fact
that southerners would forever remember him as "the acutest, the astutest, the
archest enemy of southern slavery that ever existed".[7]

In 1844, he chaired a committee for reform of the rules of Congress, and he used
this opportunity to try once again to repeal the gag rule. He spent two months
building support for this move, but due to northern opposition, the rule narrowly
survived.[7] He fiercely criticized northern Representatives and Senators, in
particular Stephen A. Douglas, who seemed to cater to the slave faction in
exchange for southern support.[7] His opposition to slavery made him, along with
Henry Clay, one of the leading opponents of Texas annexation and the Mexican
American War. He correctly predicted that both would contribute to civil war.[7] After
one of his reelection victories, he said that he must "bring about a day prophesied
when slavery and war shall be banished from the face of the earth."[7] He wrote in
his private journal in 1820:[61]

The discussion of this Missouri question has betrayed the secret of their souls. In the
abstract they admit that slavery is an evil, they disclaim it, and cast it all upon the
shoulder ofGreat Britain. But when probed to the quick upon it, they show at the
bottom of their souls pride and vainglory in their condition of masterdom. They look
down upon the simplicity of a Yankee's manners, because he has no habits of
overbearing like theirs and cannot treat negroes like dogs. It is among the evils of
slavery that it taints the very sources of moral principle. It establishes false
estimates of virtue and vice: for what can be more false and heartless than this
doctrine which makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the
color of the skin?

In 1841, at the request of Lewis Tappan and Ellis Gray, Adams joined the case of
United States v. The Amistad. Adams went before the Supreme Court on behalf of
African slaves who had revolted and seized the Spanish ship Amistad. Adams
appeared on 24 February 1841, and spoke for four hours. His argument succeeded;
the Court ruled in favor of the Africans, who were declared free and returned to their
homes.[62] Among his opponents was US President Martin Van Buren who had
carried the fight over the Amistad slaves to the US Supreme Court}. In the following
years, the Spanish government continued to press the US for compensation for the
ship, cargo and slaves. Several southern lawmakers introduced resolutions into the
United States Congress to appropriate money for such payment but failed to gain
passage, although supported by Democratic presidents James K. Polk and James
Buchanan.

Djimon Hounsou como Sengbe Pieh / Jos Cinqu

Joseph Cinqu (c. 1814 c. 1879),[1] formerly known as Sengbe Pieh, was a West
African man of the Mende people who led a revolt of fellow slaves on the Spanish
slave ship, La Amistad. After the ship was taken into custody by the United States
Coast Guard, Cinqu and his fellow slaves were eventually tried for killing officers on
the ship, in a case known as United States v. The Amistad. This reached the US
Supreme Court, where Cinqu and his fellows were found to have rightfully
defended themselves from being enslaved through the illegal Atlantic slave trade
and were freed. Americans helped raise money for their return to Africa.

Matthew McConaughey como Roger Sherman Baldwin

fter having been a member of the city government in New Haven, in 1826 and
1828, Baldwin was elected in 1837 and again in 1838 as a member of the
Connecticut State Senate. In 1840 and 1841 he represented the town of New Haven
in the General Assembly. He was chosen Governor of Connecticut in 1844 and was
reelected in 1845. On the death of Hon. J. W. Huntington in 1847, Baldwin was
appointed by Governor Clark Bissell to fill the vacancy thus occasioned in the United
States Senate, and in December of that year he took his seat as a member of that
body. He was elected by the Legislature in the following May to the same position,
which he held until 1851. After that period he held no public office, except that he
was one of the presidential electors in the canvass of 1860, and by appointment of
Governor William Alfred Buckingham was a delegate to the Peace Convention which
met in Washington, in 1861, by request of the State of Virginia. He was described as
a devout Christian who studied the Bible every day.

Baldwin died in New Haven, February 19, 1863; at the age of 70 and was interred at
Grove Street Cemetery. A biographical discourse was pronounced at his funeral by
Rev. Dr. Dutton, which was printed in the New Englander for April 1863, and was
also published as a pamphlet.
David Paymer como Secretario de Estado John Forsyth
Pete Postlethwaite como William S. Holabird
In 1831 and 1833 he was unsuccessful as a Democratic candidate for Congress and
was appointed by Andrew Jackson in 1834 as U.S. Attorney for the District of
Connecticut. As such he presented the government's argument in the Amistad case.
Holabird was later elected the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut for two
consecutive terms, serving from May 4, 1842 to May 1, 1844, while Chauncey Fitch
Cleveland was governor. Cleveland was succeeded as governor in 1844 by Roger S.
Baldwin from the Whig party. Baldwin was known for his defence in the Amistad
Case, where Holabird had been the government's attorney.
Stellan Skarsgrd como Lewis Tappan

Amistad Case[edit]
In 1841, the Amistad case went to trial. Tappan attended each day of the trials and
wrote daily accounts of the proceedings for The Emancipator, a New England
abolitionist paper. He was a frequent contributor. Throughout the trials in New
Haven, Connecticut, Tappan arranged for several Yale University students to tutor
the imprisoned Africans in English. The lessons included their learning to read New
Testament scriptures and to sing Christian hymns. The Africans later drew from
these skills to raise funds to return to Africa.
After achieving legal victory in the US Supreme Court, Tappan planned to use the
Amistad Africans as the foundation for his dream to Christianize Africa.
Razaaq Adoti como Yamba
Abu Bakaar Fofanah como Fala
Anna Paquin como la Reina Isabel II de Espaa
Toms Milin como ngel Caldern de la Barca y Belgrano
Chiwetel Ejiofor como Ens. James Covey
Derrick Ashong como Buakei
Geno Silva como Jos Ruiz
John Ortiz como Pedro Montes
Ralph Brown como el teniente Thomas L. Gedney
Darren E. Burrows como teniente Richard W. Meade
Allan Rich como juez Andrew T. Juttson
Paul Guilfoyle como Fiscal
Peter Firth como el capitn Fitzgerald
Xander Berkeley como Ledger Hammond
Jeremy Northam como Juez Coglin
Arliss Howard como John C. Calhoun
Austin Pendleton como profesor Josiah Willard Gibbs, Hna
Pedro Armendriz Jr. como el general Baldomero Espartero
Retirado del Tribunal Supremo de EE.UU. juez Harry Blackmun tambin aparece en
la pelcula como juez Joseph Story.