La Amistad

The replica of La Amistad was anchored in Halifax Pier 21 on August 07, 2009 (Ship built in 2000)

Website of Mystic

La Amistad was a 19th-century two-masted schooner of about 120 feet (37 m). In 1839, it was owned by Ramón Ferrer, a Spanish national. Strictly speaking, La Amistad was not a typical slave ship, as it was not designed like others to traffic massive numbers of enslaved Africans, nor did it engage in the Middle Passage of Africans to the Americas. The ship engaged in the shorter, domestic coastwise trade around Cuba, islands, and coastal nations in the Caribbean. The primary cargo carried by La Amistad was sugar-industry products. It carried a limited number of passengers and enslaved Africans being trafficked for delivery or sale around the island. 


Mystic Seaport Museum or Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea in Mystic, Connecticut, is the largest maritime museum in the United States. It is notable for its collection of sailing ships and boats and for re-creating the crafts and fabric of an entire 19th-century seaport village. The museum consists of more than 60 historic buildings, most of them rare commercial structures moved to the 19-acre (0.077 km2) site and meticulously restored.

Established: 1932

Location: Mystic, Connecticut

Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton and Stonington, Connecticut.

Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with over 600 ships built over 135 years starting in 1784. Mystic Seaport, located in the village, is the largest maritime museum in the United States and has preserved several sailing ships, such as the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan. The village is on the Mystic River, which flows into Fishers Island Sound. The Mystic River Bascule Bridge crosses the river in the center of the village. The name "Mystic" is derived from the Pequot term "missi-tuk," describing a large river whose waters are driven into waves by tides or wind. The population was 4,348 at the 2020 census.

 Contemporary painting of the sailing vessel La Amistad off Culloden Point, Long Island, New York, on 26 August 1839; on the left is the USS Washington of the US Navy (oil painting) 

This is a retouched picture, meaning it has been digitally altered from its original version. The modifications are in terms of colours and levels. The original can be viewed under La Amistad (ship). The modifications were made by TheCuriousGnome.

La Amistad (Spanish for Friendship) was a 19th-century two-masted schooner owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives who had been captured and sold to European slave traders and illegally transported by a Portuguese ship from West Africa to Cuba in violation of European treaties against the Atlantic slave trade. Spanish plantation owners Don José Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes bought 53 captives in Havana, Cuba, including four children, and transported them on the ship to their plantations near Puerto Príncipe (modern Camagüey, Cuba). The revolt began after the schooner's cook jokingly told the slaves that they were to be "killed, salted, and cooked." Sengbe Pieh (also known as Joseph Cinqué) unshackled himself and the others on the third day and started the revolt. They took control of the ship, killing the captain and the cook. Three Africans were also killed in the melee.

Pieh ordered Ruiz and Montes to sail to Africa. Instead, they sailed north up the east coast of the United States, sure that the ship would be intercepted and the Africans returned to Cuba as slaves. The revenue cutter Washington seized La Amistad off Montauk Point on Long Island, New York. Pieh and his group escaped the ship but were caught offshore by citizens. They were incarcerated in New Haven, Connecticut, on charges of murder and piracy. The man who captured Pieh and his group claimed them as property. La Amistad was towed to New London, Connecticut, and those remaining onboard were arrested. None of the 43 survivors on the ship spoke English, so they could not explain what happened. Eventually, language professor Josiah Gibbs found James Covey to act as interpreter, and they learned of the abduction.

Two lawsuits were filed. The Washington ship officers brought the first case over salvage property claims, and the second case charged the Spanish with enslaving Africans. Spain requested President Martin Van Buren to return the African captives to Cuba under an international treaty.

The case gained international attention because of ownership and jurisdiction issues as United States v. The Amistad (1841). The Supreme Court finally decided to favour the Mende people, restoring their freedom. The case became a symbol in the United States of the movement to abolish slavery.

From Pier 21 Halifax, NS to Mystic Connecticut

The Amitié (French: "Friendship") was a three-masted frigate of approximately 400 tons displacement in the late 18th century. Most records regarding the ship come from its transportation of the people who were to become known as Cajuns. Amitié was the fifth of seven ships that took part in the exodus of Acadians from France to Louisiana in 1785. On August 20 of that year, under the command of Captain Joseph Beltrémieux, it departed from the French port of Nantes carrying 78 families, a total of 270 Acadians, to Louisiana. They arrived at Lafourche on November 8, 1785. Six passengers died during the 80-day voyage after sickness spread through the ship. Additionally, 19 individuals who were not recorded at the embarkation at Nantes appear on the debarkation list.


The ship was called Amitié when it departed from France but was referred to as Amistad when it arrived in Louisiana, which was then a Spanish colony.


Sketch of an Amistad prisoner, drawn as they awaited trial in New Haven.


Date: between 1839 and 1840

Source: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University 

Amistad est un film historique américain réalisé par Steven Spielberg et sorti en 1997.

Le film est inspiré de faits authentiques, une mutinerie d'un groupe d'esclaves africains transportés à bord du navire négrier espagnol La Amistad en 1839, échoués sur la côte des États-Unis. Leur revendication de liberté est devenue un symbole du mouvement pour l'abolition de l'esclavage aux États-Unis.

Le film reçoit des critiques globalement positives et récolte 58 millions de dollars au box-office.

Le tournage n'a duré que 31 jours. Il a eu lieu à Porto Rico, dans le Rhode Island (Newport, Pawtucket, Providence), dans le Connecticut (Mystic, Groton Long Point, Sonalyst Studios de Waterford), en Californie (Universal City, San Pedro, Oak Glen), dans le Massachusetts (Boston).

Les seize premières minutes du film ont été entièrement tournées en langue mendé (l'une des langues majoritaires en Sierra Leone), langue que Djimon Hounsou a dû apprendre, car le mendé n'est pas parlé dans son pays d'origine : le Bénin. De plus, Djimon Hounsou ne parle que cinq mots d'anglais dans le film.

Le bateau utilisé dans le film est le Pride of Baltimore II, un clipper de Baltimore. La réplique de La Amistad, basée à New Haven, n'a pas servi au film puisqu'elle a été construite en 2000.


Filming lasted only 31 days and took place in Puerto Rico, Rhode Island (Newport, Pawtucket, Providence), Connecticut (Mystic, Groton Long Point, Sonalyst Studios of Waterford), California (Universal City, San Pedro, Oak Glen), and Massachusetts (Boston).

The first sixteen minutes of the film were shot entirely in the Mende language (one of the majority languages in Sierra Leone), a language that Djimon Hounsou had to learn, because Mende is not spoken in his country of origin: Benin. . Additionally, Djimon Hounsou only speaks five English words in the film.

The ship used in the film is the Pride of Baltimore II, a Baltimore clipper ship. The replica of La Amistad, based in New Haven, was not used in the film since it was built in 2000.

La Amistad, d'abord nommée Friendship, est une goélette à hunier construite à Baltimore en 1833, qui a été utilisée par des Espagnols dans la traite des Noirs aux Caraïbes, et dont le capitaine a été tué lors d'une mutinerie par des captifs africains en 1839.

Jugés aux États-Unis, ces Africains ont été acquittés parce qu'ils n'étaient pas des « esclaves » mais avaient été « kidnappés », sauf le garçon de cabine du capitaine considéré, lui, « esclave » et de ce fait condamné à être renvoyé à Cuba ; le navire a été rendu aux marins.

Les aspects politiques de cette histoire témoignent des préjugés raciaux dont ont été victimes les Noirs en Amérique, en particulier de la part des autorités gouvernementales de l'époque qui étaient en faveur de l'esclavage, alors qu'une partie de l'opinion était bouleversée. Les abolitionnistes ont unanimement soutenu les accusés, payé leur retour en Afrique et mis le petit Antonio en sécurité.

Le 2 juillet 1839, un groupe de 53 esclaves africains d'origine Mendé est mené par Sengbe Pieh, plus tard connu sous le nom de Joseph Cinqué, à bord du navire La Amistad dans une révolte face à leurs geôliers. Leur transport d'Afrique vers l'Amérique était illégal et, de ce fait, les Africains ont été déclarés nés à Cuba, alors colonie espagnole2. Après leur révolte, les Africains demandèrent à retourner chez eux mais le propriétaire du navire, qui avait été épargné, les trompa sur leur destination. Il les mena vers le nord, le long de la côte américaine vers Long Island à New York. Les Africains furent arrêtés au Connecticut. La goélette fut prise par la marine américaine. Il y eut ensuite un procès sur le navire et sur le statut des Africains captifs2. Cet événement fait partie des prémices de l’abolitionnisme aux États-Unis. 

La Amistad n'était pas seulement un navire d'esclaves, parce qu'elle n'était pas aménagée pour en transporter. Ce bateau était engagé dans un simple commerce côtier. La première cargaison transportée par La Amistad était du sucre de production industrielle, et sa route normale allait de la Havane à son port d'attache Guanaja. Elle transportait parfois des passagers et plus rarement des esclaves. L'armateur avait maquillé les documents pour lui permettre de légaliser le transport d'esclaves et avait joué sur l'identité de deux navires La Amistad et le Tecora. 

L'histoire sur Wikipedia Fr


"Death of Capt. Ferrer, the Captain of the Amistad, July 1839."

Caption: "Don Jose Ruiz and Don Pedro Montez of the Island of Cuba, having purchased fifty-three slaves at Havana, recently imported from Africa, put them on board the Amistad, Capt. Ferrer, to transport them to Principe, another port on the Island of Cuba. After being out of Havana for about four days, the African captives on board, in order to obtain their freedom and return to Africa, armed themselves with cane knives and rose upon the Captain and crew of the vessel. Capt. Ferrer and the cook of the vessel were killed; two of the crew escaped; Ruiz and Montez were made prisoners."


Date 1840

Source: Colour Engraving and Frontispiece from John Warner Barber (1840). A History of the Amistad Captives. New Haven, Connecticut: E.L. and J.W. Barber, Hitchcock & Stafford, Printers.

Author: This file lacks author information.

Permission: public domain, copyright expired

Les vrais navires esclaves comme le Tecora étaient utilisés pour transporter le plus d'esclaves possible. Une de leurs caractéristiques de construction était la demi-hauteur entre les ponts obligeant les esclaves en chaînes à rester en position allongée ou assise. La hauteur n'était pas suffisante pour rester debout ce qui n'était pas souhaitable pour un navire. L'équipage de la Amistad manquait de place pour les esclaves. 53 captifs furent placés dans la cale et l'autre moitié sur le pont. Ces derniers étaient relativement libres de bouger et cette liberté de mouvement leur a permis de mener leur révolte et de prendre les commandes du navire. 

Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the events in 1839 aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad, during which Mende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and the international legal battle that followed their capture by the ship Washington, a U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841.

Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, and Matthew McConaughey starred, along with Djimon Hounsou in his breakout role as Cinqué; Pete Postlethwaite, Nigel Hawthorne, and a then-unknown Chiwetel Ejiofor appeared in supporting roles.

The film received largely positive critical reviews and grossed over $58 million worldwide.

Cast

The movie is part of the EMMI Mediatech Collection on DVD

Photo Eric Michel's cellular

from the App My Movie on Google Pixel