Amistad book review
The novel Amistad is one that discusses a group of slaves that were originally transported from Africa by Spanish traders employed by Queen Isabella II. These traders, however, claimed that these slaves came from Havanna, Cuba. The book reveals that these slaves were not unaccustomed to slavery in their own country. Cinque said at one point that there were some people who were enslaved because of debts or other such problems. He knew that he did not want to be a slave in America because of the way that he would be treated, and he was somewhat ashamed to say that in his country, his people had been enslaved as well. Cinque knew that slavery was wrong and that he would not like to be one because of the mistreatment that they received in America and in other places. It seems like a double standard that these transported slaves were used to the idea of slavery in their own country, but thought that it was unfair for anyone else to make them slaves. During the trial, the prosecutor also believed that this was a little strange and he tried to use it against them to say that slavery was not wrong; it was a part of life in the enti
I still believe that this is a very useful story because we get the story of what the slaves go through in a more personal way instead of the cut and dry way in which history books portray it. Textbooks do not get into that much detail and we are very desensitized by what we have learned from them. Some documents found in a small crevice of La Amistad further proved that these slaves were not from Cuba, they were in fact transferred from the vessel the Tecora to La Amistad. The crew thought that the more slaves that they packed onto the ship, the more would be left after the voyage since they knew that there would be many deaths. The defense of the case believed that these particular slaves were indeed Mende. However, these slaves did not understand Spanish and if they were from Cuba, they would have been able to understand very simple words in Spanish that they would have known to perform their jobs as slaves. I enjoyed this story because it had much more feeling put into it that we do not get as history students reading accounts of slavery from a textbook did. In my opinion, this book, even though it is historical fiction, has a great deal of influence on the way that we look back on slavery in America. The slaves were forced to throw their friends' dead bodies overboard to the awaiting schools of sharks that swam eagerly alongside the ship. This novel is a very important and useful piece of literature in the understanding of slave trade and why it was outlawed. They learned how to count in Mende so that they could go around the docks, where many people convened to do business, counting in Mende hoping that they would find someone who understood them and could be an interpreter for them in court so the slaves could share their story. The ship the Tecora came from Africa and these slaves were believed to be from Africa, from the Mende village. The strong imagery helped me to more fully understand what it must have been like for the slaves in those times. Food was scarce and those who were lucky enough to receive food were only sustained long enough to be beaten later, sometimes to their deaths for nothing at all except for the enjoyment of the Spanish crew.
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