Leading up to the trial of the Africans, Spielberg illustrates the horrors the slaves endured as they were captured and taken from their homes. It is very distressing to see the cruelty that was imposed on the slaves as they were captured. The slaves were shackled and chained, then packed in an unsanitary, overcrowded slave ship, and exposed to inhuman treatment, on the Portuguese slaver Tecora as it makes its way through the Middle Passage towards Cuba. Although a third of the slaves died aboard the Tecora before it reached its destination, those that survived the trip were eventually auctioned into slavery in Havanna, Cuba.

Djimon Hounsou, a 33-year old native of Benin played the role of Cinque a native Mendi African from Sierra Leone. He does an outstanding job in the portrayal Cinque. The most impressive scene being when Cinque, stands up in the courtroom scene where he stands up and says, "Make Us Free", "Make Us Free". I felt this was the most emotional part of the entire movie.

While Stephen Spielberg did use humor to help subdue the emotional content of the movie the historical content remained relatively true to fact with a few exceptions. There were a few historical facts that were omitted from the move. In the movie, John Quincy Adams was moved to represent the Africans by a talk he had with Cinque in John Quincy Adam's greenhouse. The true facts are that John Quincy Adams was moved to support the Africans in the Supreme Court by a letter that was written by Kali, one of the African children. In this emotional letter she makes the statement, "All We Want Is Make Us Free".

ship Amistad resulted in the deaths of the captain and cook of the ship. The Africans did spared the lives of two Spaniards who were needed to help navigate the ship back to Africa. The Africans had control of the Amistad for only a short time before it was seized by the U.S. Army, capturing the Africans and forcing them to face a trial, on charges of murder and mutiny. This trial marked the beginning of a court case that dramatically challenged our judicial system.

The Supreme Court rules the slaves free, stating that the slaves had been "kidnapp

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