The film Amistad, directed by Steven Spielberg, was about a slave ship that became entrenched in American politics between 1839 and 1841. Amistad, covers many different forms of African slavery. Slave trade. This film describes how Amistad became involved not only in a controversial Supreme Court case, but also how she was exposed to the brutality of slavery, divisions among citizens, corruption, and the American political system . The Supreme Court case United States v. Amistad was a critical affair because it embodied the mentalities and practices of the nation at the time. The Amistad Supreme Court case also influenced how the Northern and Southern states would develop in the years to come. The Amistad Affair was one of the factors that ultimately contributed to the American Civil War. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay In the excerpt from the interesting account of the life of Olaudah Equiano, the author writes about the brutality of slavery and how he experienced it. Equiano writes: “One day they had caught a number of fish; and when they had killed and satisfied the number which they judged fair, to our great astonishment, which were on deck, rather than giving us some to eat, as we hoped, they threw the remaining fish again on the deck. seat, although we put some in bags and paid for them as best we could, but in vain; and some of my compatriots, pressed by my hunger, took advantage of it, while they thought that no one saw them, I try to have a little secret; but they were discovered, and this attempt earned them very severe floggings. This quote from the excerpt really puts images in people's minds of how unfairly slaves would be treated and what they had to endure: hunger and beatings. Until something like this is actually noticed, it often doesn't have as much of an impact on people. In the film, similar horrors of slavery were projected. When slavery was practiced illegally off the west coast of Africa by Spanish slavers, the owners whipped the slaves unjustly. When Africans were shipped on the Tecora (slave ship), they did not receive proper care or food. Most often, slaves did not have enough food and suffered from malnutrition. Often, when slave owners felt like they were going to get caught for illegally transporting slaves, they killed them. The Amistad ship was extremely inhumane. As shown in the film, a woman and her baby freely jumped from the ship into the ocean. Returning to the extract from the interesting account of the life of Olaudah Equiano, it explores a similar situation of what these slaves would do. “…, I would have jumped overboard, but I couldn’t; and, moreover, the crew kept a very close eye on us, who were not chained to the decks, lest we should go into the water: and I saw some of these poor African prisoners very severely cut for having tried to do so…”. The torture suffered on the slave ship was unimaginable. Many men, women and children were unjustly killed because it was profitable to exploit others. The transportation and unfair care of the slaves was horrific and was properly presented in the film. The slavery exchange demonstrates to the people how morally corrupt political systems can be, as well as to the people who achieve them. The moral hypocrisy of men due to slavery was induced by European education, i.e.that men have learned to consider Africans as unequal citizens. This was illustrated in the film when remarks were made regarding the handling of slaves as property or livestock. African advocate Roger Sherman Baldwin advanced the idea of ​​pleading the slaves' case for property to abolitionists who attempted to help Africans gain freedom. Sherman said one can win a case on the property, which was his specialty as an attorney. Since then, Africans were considered inferior by the people of Europe and America, with both populations claiming to be able to treat Africans as property. Such a form of moral corruption contributes to the disgusting cruelty and political corruption of the film. Men were also morally corrupt due to the lucrative nature of the slave trade. They also didn't care about their actions because they thought it was worth the amount of money they would profit from. Barbarism is used and visible in many illegal acts aimed at making money. Terrible atrocities are still committed in the world today for economic gain. It was because of political corruption that the case was heard numerous times until it finally reached the Supreme Court. Attorney Roger Stephen Baldwin and fellow abolitionists Lewis Tappa and Theodore Joadson won the Amistad case three times. Two of those victories came at the state level and one at the Supreme Court. At one time, Secretary of State John Forsyth was under pressure from the South, Spain, and President Martin Van Buren. This was to ensure that Africans remained the property of Spain. John Forsyth replaced the judge and eliminated the jury in order to gain the judge's favor. Forsyth brought a young lawyer to the bar in order to establish laws against Africans. The explanation behind Forsyth's plan to acquire a young judge was the ability to manipulate his decision using issues such as corruption and reputation. As young judges, they would likely be more convincing due to their lack of experience and honor in the field of law. The young judge, however, was no longer sure whether to listen to Forsyth or his religious beliefs. His sense of morality assured him that he must liberate the Africans, regardless of the effects on his career. Forsyth's plan backfired when the judge came to his senses. This example of political corruption at the time shows the need for stricter laws to protect both the legal system and citizens due to the lack of separation of powers. This was not the end of corruption. The case was again dismissed and transferred to the Supreme Court, where seven of the judges were southerners and two were northerners. The President and the South thought they would finally get their way, but once again their plans to undermine them continued to fail. The American justice system was repeatedly corrupted, but ultimately prevailed and the Africans were freed. A final theme displayed by Amistad was division among the American public. Most South Americans engaged in slavery because it was their “way of life.” Southerners assumed that everyone had slavery to maintain their way of life since they assumed the country was run by free labor or slaves. However, in the North, many abolitionist religious communities insisted that Africans were equal human beings and should not be treated like animals. Many abolitionist groups regularly demonstrated in front of federal buildings...