The outcome of the movie, Amistad, was the Supreme Court recognized the Africans as free because they were illegally captured and sold. The Amistad Case was very important because it influenced the abolitionist movement and proved that many influential people in the United States were in favor of abolishing slavery on the whole. With the help of Edward Tappin, an abolitionist leader, they obtained the services of an attorney Roger S. Baldwin of Connecticut to defend the Africans by proving the origin of the Africans and eventually claim them as free.
In 1839, fifty-three illegally purchased Africans were being transported from Cuba on the ship, La Amistad. The Africans were shackled and chained, then packed in an unsanitary, overcrowded slave
…show more content…
As tensions rose even more of the Africans on the ship, they revolted against the ship owners and crew, resulting in the deaths of the captain and cook of the ship. Although, the Africans spared the lives of two Spaniards so they can help them navigate the ship back to Africa. Eventually, the Africans have discovered land. They think that they have arrived in their home: Africa, but surely renough the Spaniards directed the ship to the United States. It wasn’t until they saw a white man on a bicycle that they knew that they were not on African soil. The Africans had control of the Amistad for only a short time before it was taken over by the U.S. Navy; they were captured and were forced to face a trial on charges of murder because they had killed most of the crew member on the ship. When taking to court, it seemed that the outcome would have been that they were property of Spain and taken into slavery because Africans and African-Americans have never won a court case. To prove that these Africans were free, abolitionists began publicizing the horror stories and brutalities of slavery to show that it is not humane to do such things to people. However, slavery still thrived in the South of the United States, meaning that there was …show more content…
The Amistad Africans captured the attention of the general public, at least in the North. Not only were they spared physical assaults and threats, but they inspired paintings, newspaper accounts, theater plays dramas, and an exhibit. Due to this, the outcome of the case made some citizens question their morals of whether black men should be free in the United States; it made people want the abolitionists to share their beliefs. Equally important, this incident also helped abolitionists in their fight against slavery, with which they finally won with the addition of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in