At one point in the movie Senator Calhoun warns if the Amistad Africans are freed, then the South will have little choice but to go to war to defend its economic interests, in other words, slavery. This is simply not the case, the Amistad case was centered on the Atlantic slave trade which was already outlawed. Spain was breaking international law by transporting kidnapped Africans as slaves to Cuba and its other colonies. The notion that the Africans were tortured and kidnapped as free persons validated their use of force to free themselves from the Spanish. The freedom of the Africans did not endanger America's stability because domestic laws were never even in question. The Spanish slave traders violated International Law and it was this violation that freed them at the end. The movie unsuccessfully tries to link the case with the

It visualizes the horror of slavery, the schism that slavery created among the American people and its politicians, and the emotions felt by the Africans throughout their whole ordeal. The human aspect of the case is certainly captured by the movie. It expands the topic of slavery because of this visual and emotional component that many Americans cannot relate to or even fathom a slave's experience. Overall, the film does an effective job giving a human face to slavery and the millions of slaves that crossed the Middle Passage. Ignoring the various historical inaccuracies and anachronisms, the film accurately portrays the major events associated with La Amistad and those onboard.
Works Cited

Foner, Eric. The Amistad Case in Fact and Film. George Mason University, 1998. Web. 6 Nov 2011.