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The movie is based on the true story of 53 Africans who were tried before the US Supreme Court for their 1839 mutiny on the slave ship La Amistad. The success of abolitionists in securing freedom for the slaves was a turning point in the US abolitionist movement, culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
Amistad is a powerful, thought-provoking and inspiring film. My main criticism is that Spielberg did not sufficiently preserve the historical integrity of the story.
Fact and Fiction
When it released Amistad, Dream Works sent study guides to US high schools. The study materials mix fact and fiction (just as the movie does), yet leave the impression that Amistad is giving actual history. Theodore Joadson, the movie's heroic black abolitionist never existed, yet the Dream Works worksheet challenges students to analyze his relationship with the real John Quincy Adams. The study guide is also full of inspirational Adams "quotations", all of them made up by Dream Works screenwriters.
The historical record shows that in the Supreme Court case Adams argued for several hours on the finer points of the law, and the slaves were freed on technicalities. In the movie version, Adams appeals to the legacy of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, conveniently omitting the fact that both Jefferson and Washington owned slaves. Adams venerates these American heroes to the point of praying to them--"We have long resisted asking you for guidance." He has adopted this ancestor worship through an earlier conversation with the African slave Cinque. The real Adams went on record as saying that his anti-slavery stance came from the Bible.
Spielberg does provide a riveting portrayal of the evil of slavery, as effectively as he portrayed the horror of Jewish genocide in Schindler's List. Amistad's depiction of the brutal "middle passage"--the journey of African slaves from their homeland to the Americas--is unforgettable.
Christian involvement
As the slaves are herded into the Portuguese ship at the beginning of their journey, a priest is shown giving his blessing to the venture. Other ways in which Christianity was used to support slavery are also shown. The prosecutor in the trial uses Genesis to argue that it is natural for one human being to be subordinate to another.
For me, the portrayal of Christ was the centrepiece of the film. In a moving sequence, the film cuts back and forth between two scenes. In one, a slave named Yamba pages through an illustrated Bible, explaining to Cinque the story of Christ. Christ is shown as identifying with the poor and the oppressed. His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven are clearly set forth. "This is where the soul goes when they kill us," Yamba says. Cinque replies: "It doesn't look so bad."
In the other scene, a Catholic circuit judge kneels before a crucifix and prays for guidance on the night before he must render his verdict on the slaves. President Martin Van Buren gave him the case, thinking his religion would make him favourable to slavery. God answers the judge's prayer, and he surprises everyone by freeing the slaves.
Spielberg gives grudging acknowledgement of the role of evangelical Christians in the Amistad affair, but presents a stilted portrayal of them. The slaves are shown as puzzled by a group of Christians gathered outside the prison singing hymns. In subtitles, the Africans comment on how miserable these people look. The film doesn't mention that during the slaves' imprisonment, Christians throughout Connecticut were protesting and raising money for their legal defence. Seminary students from Yale and members of local churches provided material assistance and tutoring in English.
Lewis Tappan
The greatest injustice in the movie was done to the man who did the most to free the Amistad prisoners--wealthy businessman and evangelical philanthropist Lewis Tappan. In one scene, Tappan is shown arguing that the slaves might be of greater value to the abolitionist cause through their martyrdom. There is no evidence that Tappan ever held such an opinion. In fact, he devoted a huge amount of his wealth to freeing the slaves.
Tappan is portrayed in a very low-keyed manner, and much of his dialogue is delivered so quietly that one can hardly make out the words. The real Tappan was extremely energetic. The historical record shows that as soon as he heard of the Amistad captives, he formed a committee to free them. He visited them in prison and gave an impromptu sermon on the Providence of God, even though none of the slaves understood English. He publicized the plight of the slaves and raised money for their defence. He searched the wharves of New York to find someone who spoke Mende, the slaves' language--an action attributed to the fictitious Joadson and lawyer Roger Sherman Baldwin in the film.
Tappan hired the best lawyers and for almost two years worked on the slaves' behalf. When the case was won, he raised funds to send them back to their homes in Africa, along with several missionaries. The Amistad Committee was merged into a few other organizations to form the American Missionary Association as a protest against missionary societies that refused to take a stand on slavery. The AMA supported as many as 200 missionaries.
As great a film as Amistad is, the integrity of the true Amistad story has been compromised both by what Spielberg added to the historical record and by what he left out.
Walter Unger is President of Columbia Bible College.
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