Most of us (hopefully) know the horrors of slavery, but the horrors didn’t just start in the Americas. The journey there was just as brutal.
If a passenger managed to survive the journey, they were lucky. The conditions for slave ships weren’t fit for animals. PETA would have a fit if a dog was aboard one of those ships. Passengers were packed like sardines and starved to near death and actual death. The lack of sanitation led to disease. Passengers were subjected to the violence of the crew. The ocean was littered with countless dead bodies as a result.
Given these conditions, it’s no surprise that passengers would revolt when the chance presented itself. Amistad tells the story of mutiny aboard the slave ship La Amistad. Mende tribesmen managed to take control of the ship. They were trying to make it back to Africa, but the navigators who were spared tricked them into going to US.
This led to a legal battle, one that went all the way to the Supreme Court where it was determined that the Mende were illegally transported.
Amistad was well received among critics and was nominated for numerous awards. It won several including a couple of NAACP Image Awards for Djimon Hounsou and Morgan Freeman. It is available here.
