Amistad Quotes
About a 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship that is traveling towards the northeastern coast of America. Much of the story involves a court-room drama about the free man who led the revolt.
John Quincy Adams: [to the Court] This man is black. We can all see that. But can we also see as easily that which is equally true: that he is the only true hero in this room? Now, if he were white, he wouldn't be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white and his enslavers were British, he wouldn't be standing, so heavy the weight of the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him. The great authors of our times would fill books about him. His story would be told and retold, in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it, would know his name as well as they know Patrick Henry's. Yet, if the South is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, The Declaration of Independence? What of its conceits? "All men created equal," "inalienable rights," "life, liberty," and so on and so forth? What on Earth are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion.
[tears papers in half]
[tears papers in half]
Yamba: [looking at a Bible]
Joseph Cinque: You don't have to pretend to be interested in that. Nobody's watching but me.
Yamba: I'm not pretending. I'm beginning to understand it.
[outside, a priest blesses himself]
Yamba: Their people have suffered more than ours. Their lives were full of suffering.
[turns to a picture of the newborn Jesus Christ]
Yamba: Then he was born, and everything changed.
Joseph Cinque: Who is he?
Yamba: I don't know, but everywhere he goes he is followed by the sun.
[turns to a picture of Jesus healing a man]
Yamba: Here he is healing people with his hands...
[shows Jesus defending Mary Magdalene]
Yamba: protecting them...
[shows Jesus and the children]
Yamba: being given children...
Joseph Cinque: [sees Jesus walking on water] What's this?
Yamba: He could also walk across the sea. But then something happened. He was captured, accused of some sort of crime.
[shows Jesus with Pontius Pilate]
Yamba: Here he is with his hands tied.
Joseph Cinque: He must have done something.
Yamba: Why? What did we do? Whatever it was, it was serious enough to kill him for it. Do you want to see how they killed him?
[shows the crucifixion of Jesus]
Joseph Cinque: This is just a story, Yamba.
Yamba: But look, that's not the end of it.
[shows the disciples taking Jesus' body down]
Yamba: His people took his body down from this... thing... this...
[signs the cross in the air]
Yamba: They took him into a cave. They wrapped him in a cloth, like we do.
[shows the Resurrection of Jesus]
Yamba: They thought he was dead, but he appeared before his people again and spoke to them. Then, finally, he rose into the sky.
[shows the Ascension of Jesus]
Yamba: [the priest prays in the background]
Yamba: This is where the soul goes when you die.
[shows a picture of Heaven in the clouds]
Yamba: This is where we're going when they kill us. It doesn't look so bad...
Joseph Cinque: You don't have to pretend to be interested in that. Nobody's watching but me.
Yamba: I'm not pretending. I'm beginning to understand it.
[outside, a priest blesses himself]
Yamba: Their people have suffered more than ours. Their lives were full of suffering.
[turns to a picture of the newborn Jesus Christ]
Yamba: Then he was born, and everything changed.
Joseph Cinque: Who is he?
Yamba: I don't know, but everywhere he goes he is followed by the sun.
[turns to a picture of Jesus healing a man]
Yamba: Here he is healing people with his hands...
[shows Jesus defending Mary Magdalene]
Yamba: protecting them...
[shows Jesus and the children]
Yamba: being given children...
Joseph Cinque: [sees Jesus walking on water] What's this?
Yamba: He could also walk across the sea. But then something happened. He was captured, accused of some sort of crime.
[shows Jesus with Pontius Pilate]
Yamba: Here he is with his hands tied.
Joseph Cinque: He must have done something.
Yamba: Why? What did we do? Whatever it was, it was serious enough to kill him for it. Do you want to see how they killed him?
[shows the crucifixion of Jesus]
Joseph Cinque: This is just a story, Yamba.
Yamba: But look, that's not the end of it.
[shows the disciples taking Jesus' body down]
Yamba: His people took his body down from this... thing... this...
[signs the cross in the air]
Yamba: They took him into a cave. They wrapped him in a cloth, like we do.
[shows the Resurrection of Jesus]
Yamba: They thought he was dead, but he appeared before his people again and spoke to them. Then, finally, he rose into the sky.
[shows the Ascension of Jesus]
Yamba: [the priest prays in the background]
Yamba: This is where the soul goes when you die.
[shows a picture of Heaven in the clouds]
Yamba: This is where we're going when they kill us. It doesn't look so bad...
[the slave fortress in Sierra Leone is being bombarded from sea]
Captain Fitzgerald: Fire. Fire. Fire. Take a letter, Ensign. To His Honor, the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Forsyth. My dear Mr. Forsyth, it is my great pleasure to inform you that you are, in fact, correct. The slave fortress in Sierra Leone does not exist.
Captain Fitzgerald: Fire. Fire. Fire. Take a letter, Ensign. To His Honor, the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Forsyth. My dear Mr. Forsyth, it is my great pleasure to inform you that you are, in fact, correct. The slave fortress in Sierra Leone does not exist.
Baldwin: Cinque describes the cold-blooded murder of a significant portion of the people on board the Tecora. Mr Holabird sees this as a paradox. Do you, sir?
Captain Fitzgerald: Often when slavers are intercepted, or believe they may be, they simply throw all their prisoners overboard and thereby rid themselves of the evidence of their crime.
Baldwin: Drown hundreds of people?
Captain Fitzgerald: Yes.
Holabird: It hardly seems a lucrative business to me, this slave trading. Going to all that trouble, rounding everybody up, only to throw them all overboard.
Captain Fitzgerald: No, it's very lucrative.
Baldwin: If only we could corroborate Cinque's story somehow with evidence of some kind.
Captain Fitzgerald: The inventory. If you look, there's a notation made on May tenth, correcting the number of slaves on board, reducing their number by fifty.
Baldwin: What does that mean?
Captain Fitzgerald: Well, if you look at it in conjunction with Cinque's testimony, I would say that it means this: the Tecora crew had greatly underestimated the amount of provisions required for their journey, and solved the problem by throwing fifty people overboard.
Captain Fitzgerald: Often when slavers are intercepted, or believe they may be, they simply throw all their prisoners overboard and thereby rid themselves of the evidence of their crime.
Baldwin: Drown hundreds of people?
Captain Fitzgerald: Yes.
Holabird: It hardly seems a lucrative business to me, this slave trading. Going to all that trouble, rounding everybody up, only to throw them all overboard.
Captain Fitzgerald: No, it's very lucrative.
Baldwin: If only we could corroborate Cinque's story somehow with evidence of some kind.
Captain Fitzgerald: The inventory. If you look, there's a notation made on May tenth, correcting the number of slaves on board, reducing their number by fifty.
Baldwin: What does that mean?
Captain Fitzgerald: Well, if you look at it in conjunction with Cinque's testimony, I would say that it means this: the Tecora crew had greatly underestimated the amount of provisions required for their journey, and solved the problem by throwing fifty people overboard.
John Quincy Adams: [to the court] James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington... John Adams. We've long resisted asking you for guidance. Perhaps we have feared in doing so, we might acknowledge that our individuality, which we so, so revere, is not entirely our own. Perhaps we've feared an... an appeal to you might be taken for weakness. But, we've come to understand, finally, that this is not so. We understand now, we've been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding... that who we are *is* who we were. We desperately need your strength and wisdom to triumph over our fears, our prejudices, ourselves. Give us the courage to do what is right. And if it means civil war? Then let it come. And when it does, may it be, finally, the last battle of the American Revolution.
John Quincy Adams: [to the court] Well, gentlemen, I must say I differ with the keen minds of the South and with our President, who apparently shares their views, offering that the natural state of mankind is instead - and I know this is a controversial idea - is freedom. Is freedom. And the proof is the length to which a man, woman or child will go to regain it once taken. He will break loose his chains. He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try, against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home.
Holabird: I am looking at the same inventory, Captain, and I am sorry, I don't see where it says 'Today we threw fifty slaves overboard', on May tenth or any other day.
Captain Fitzgerald: As, of course, you would not.
Holabird: I do see that the cargo weight changed. They reduced the poundage, I see. But that is all.
Captain Fitzgerald: It's simple, ghastly arithmetic.
Holabird: Well, for you, perhaps. I may need a quill and parchment, and a better imagination.
Captain Fitzgerald: And what poundage do you imagine the entry may refer to, sir? A mast and sails perhaps?
Captain Fitzgerald: As, of course, you would not.
Holabird: I do see that the cargo weight changed. They reduced the poundage, I see. But that is all.
Captain Fitzgerald: It's simple, ghastly arithmetic.
Holabird: Well, for you, perhaps. I may need a quill and parchment, and a better imagination.
Captain Fitzgerald: And what poundage do you imagine the entry may refer to, sir? A mast and sails perhaps?
[a band of abolitionists approach the outer gate of the prison where the Amistad refugees are being held for trial]
Fala: [in Mende] Who are they, do you think?
[the abolitionists kneel to pray]
Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] Looks like they are going to be sick.
Abolitionists: [singing] Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...
Fala: [in Mende] They're entertainers!
Abolitionists: [singing] ... that saved a wretch like me...
Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] But why do they look so miserable?
Fala: [in Mende] Who are they, do you think?
[the abolitionists kneel to pray]
Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] Looks like they are going to be sick.
Abolitionists: [singing] Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...
Fala: [in Mende] They're entertainers!
Abolitionists: [singing] ... that saved a wretch like me...
Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] But why do they look so miserable?
John Quincy Adams: [to the court] Your Honor, I derive much consolation from the fact that my colleague, Mr. Baldwin here, has argued the case in so able, and so complete a manner, as to leave me scarcely anything to say. However... why are we here? How is it that a simple, plain property issue has should now find itself so ennobled as to be argued before the Supreme Court of the United States of America?
Baldwin: [writing a letter to John Quincy Adams] To His Excellency John Quincy Adams, Massachusetts member, House of Representatives. I have understood from Mr. Joadson that you are acquainted with the plight of the Amistad Africans. If that is true, then you are aware that we have been at every step successful in our presentation of their case. Yet despite this and despite the unlikelihood of President Van Buren's re-election, he has appealed our most recent favorable decision to the highest court in the land. As I'm sure you are well aware, seven of nine of these Supreme Court justices are themselves Southern slave owners. Sir, we need you. If ever there was a time for a man to cast aside his daily trappings and array himself for battle, that time has come. Cicero once said, appealing to Claudius in defense of the Republic, that the whole result of this entire war depends on the life of one most brave and excellent man. In our time, in this instance, I believe it depends on two. A courageous man at present in irons in New Haven, named Cinque... and you sir. Sincerely Robert S. Baldwin, attorney-at-law.
Theodore Joadson: They were first detained by officers of a brig off Long Island. They were conveyed to New Haven - under what authority, I don't know - and given over to the local constabulary. About forty of them, including four or five children. The arraignment is day after tomorrow. I can only assume that the charge is murder.
Tappan: I'll see what I can do about that.
Tappan: I'll see what I can do about that.
Baldwin: On the other hand, let's say they aren't slaves. If they aren't slaves, in which case they were illegally acquired, weren't they? Forget mutiny, forget piracy, forget murder and all the rest. Those are subsequent irrelevant occurrences. Ignore everything but the pre-eminent issue at hand. The wrongful transfer of stolen goods. Either way, we win.
Tappan: Sir, this war must be waged on the battlefield of righteousness.
Baldwin: The what?
Tappan: Sir, this war must be waged on the battlefield of righteousness.
Baldwin: The what?
Tappan: This news - well of course it's bad news - but the truth is they may be more valuable to our struggle in death than in life. Martyrdom, Mr. Joadson. From the dawn of Christianity we have seen no stronger power for change. You know it's true.
Theodore Joadson: What is true, Mr. Tappan - and believe me when I tell you that I have seen this - is that there are some men whose hatred of slavery is stronger than any, except for the slave himself.
Tappan: If you wish to inspire such hatred in a man, Mr. Joadson, speak to him in that fashion and it may come true.
Theodore Joadson: What is true, Mr. Tappan - and believe me when I tell you that I have seen this - is that there are some men whose hatred of slavery is stronger than any, except for the slave himself.
Tappan: If you wish to inspire such hatred in a man, Mr. Joadson, speak to him in that fashion and it may come true.
John Quincy Adams: How is it that a simple plain property issue should now find itself so ignobled as to be argued before the Supreme Court of the United States of America? I mean, do we fear that all courts which found for as easily somehow missed the truth, is that it? Or is it rather our great and consuming fear of Civil War that has allowed us to heap symbolism upon a simple case than ever has been? And now it would have us disregard truth, even as it stands before us tall and proud as a man. The truth... the truth, has been driven from this case like a slave from court to court, wretched and destitute.
Baldwin: Captain Fitzerald, please explain to us your primary duties in Her Majesty's Navy.
Captain Fitzgerald: To patrol the Ivory Coast for slave ships.
Baldwin: Because?
Captain Fitzgerald: Because slavery is banned in British law, sir.
Baldwin: Yet the abduction of freemen from the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone and their illegal transportation to the New World, as described by Cinque, is not unheard of, is it?
Captain Fitzgerald: Not even unusual, regrettably.
Captain Fitzgerald: To patrol the Ivory Coast for slave ships.
Baldwin: Because?
Captain Fitzgerald: Because slavery is banned in British law, sir.
Baldwin: Yet the abduction of freemen from the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone and their illegal transportation to the New World, as described by Cinque, is not unheard of, is it?
Captain Fitzgerald: Not even unusual, regrettably.
John C. Calhoun: We are inferior in one area: we're not as proficient in the art of gain. We're not as wealthy as our northern neighbors. We're still struggling. Take away our life's blood now, and... well, we all know what happens then. North and South. They become the masters, and we the slaves. But not without a fight!
[the other dinner guests are momentarily silenced]
Martin Van Buren: Senator Calhoun is being modest. He's not inferior in another area, the art of exaggeration.
John C. Calhoun: Ask yourself, Senor Calderon. What court wants to be responsible for the spark that ignites the firestorm? What President wants to be in office when it comes crashing down around him? Certainly no court before this one. Certainly no President, before this one. So, judge us not too harshly, sir. And bid her majesty 'like. Because the real determination our courts and our President must make, is not whether this rag-tag bunch of Africans raised swords against their enemy... but rather, must *we?*
[the other dinner guests are momentarily silenced]
Martin Van Buren: Senator Calhoun is being modest. He's not inferior in another area, the art of exaggeration.
John C. Calhoun: Ask yourself, Senor Calderon. What court wants to be responsible for the spark that ignites the firestorm? What President wants to be in office when it comes crashing down around him? Certainly no court before this one. Certainly no President, before this one. So, judge us not too harshly, sir. And bid her majesty 'like. Because the real determination our courts and our President must make, is not whether this rag-tag bunch of Africans raised swords against their enemy... but rather, must *we?*
John Quincy Adams: What is their story, by the way?
Theodore Joadson: Sir?
John Quincy Adams: What is their story?
Theodore Joadson: Why, they're um... they're from west Africa.
John Quincy Adams: No. What is their story?
Theodore Joadson: [exhales and looks confused]
John Quincy Adams: Mr. Joadson, you're from where originally?
Theodore Joadson: Why, Georgia, sir.
John Quincy Adams: Georgia.
Theodore Joadson: Yes, sir.
John Quincy Adams: Does that pretty much sum up what you are? A Georgian? Is that your story? No you're an ex-slave whose devoted his life to the abolition of slavery, and overcoming the obstacles and hardships along the way, I should imagine. That's your story, isn't it?
Theodore Joadson: [smiles and nods]
John Quincy Adams: [laughs] You and this young so-called lawyer have proven you know what they are. They're Africans. Congratulations. What you don't know, and as far as I can tell haven't bothered in the least to discover, is who they are. Right?
Theodore Joadson: Sir?
John Quincy Adams: What is their story?
Theodore Joadson: Why, they're um... they're from west Africa.
John Quincy Adams: No. What is their story?
Theodore Joadson: [exhales and looks confused]
John Quincy Adams: Mr. Joadson, you're from where originally?
Theodore Joadson: Why, Georgia, sir.
John Quincy Adams: Georgia.
Theodore Joadson: Yes, sir.
John Quincy Adams: Does that pretty much sum up what you are? A Georgian? Is that your story? No you're an ex-slave whose devoted his life to the abolition of slavery, and overcoming the obstacles and hardships along the way, I should imagine. That's your story, isn't it?
Theodore Joadson: [smiles and nods]
John Quincy Adams: [laughs] You and this young so-called lawyer have proven you know what they are. They're Africans. Congratulations. What you don't know, and as far as I can tell haven't bothered in the least to discover, is who they are. Right?
Amistad Slave #1: [in Mende] He reminds me of that Fula of Baoma, you know the one who hires himself to scrape elephant dung from the crop rows.
Amistad Slave #2: [in Mende] A dung-scraper might be just the kind of man we need right now.
Baldwin: [point to a map] Here, Africa? Is this where you're from? A-fri-ca?
Amistad Slave #2: [in Mende] A dung-scraper might be just the kind of man we need right now.
Baldwin: [point to a map] Here, Africa? Is this where you're from? A-fri-ca?
