Name: Amistad (1997 R)
Telephone: When and how did the international slave trade end? How was it legal to transport enslaved people throughout the United States but not across the ocean? What other countries in North and South America still had legalized slavery at the time of the Amistad incident?
Price range: $$

Content Area

Government, History

Rating

Length

2h 35min

Movie Story Line

In 1839, an African man led a mutiny against slave traders aboard the ship Amistad. The enslaved peoples' fate fell to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Topics

racial discrimination, slavery

Teaching Idea #1

When and how did the international slave trade end? How was it legal to transport enslaved people throughout the United States but not across the ocean? What other countries in North and South America still had legalized slavery at the time of the Amistad incident?

Teaching Idea #2

Compare and contrast the differences in how the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of the Amistad versus the earlier case of the Antelope in 1825. Why did John Quincy Adams argue that the Antelope case should not be a precedent for the Amistad case? Research the Creole slave ship mutiny that occurred during the Amistad trail. Why did the U.S. government have a different reaction to the enslaved people's action in the Creole mutiny?