hello for the past year I've been in production on a film called Amistad which is based on a very important time in history a time when 53 Africans led a Revolt aboard a slav ship and then found themselves fighting for their freedom and fighting for their lives inside the American judicial system it was a case that was argued by former President John Quincy Adams to the Supreme Court that contributed to an unprecedented decision and yet so very few people have ever heard of the story sometimes history is not handed down to our kids in a careful way and that's a shame because understanding history is finally what will determine our future [Music] [Applause] can you imagine walking home from school or from work or from the grocery store in your own neighborhood when suddenly you are kidnapped stolen taken from your family from your community Shackled and chained you are thrown down into the darkest hold of a huge ship there you're crammed with other captives beaten starved for weeks maybe months then you're taken to a foreign country where no one knows your language no one knows your culture there you are forced to work like a mule or a horse for the rest of your life in this next hour with distinguished Scholars graphic images poetry and music we will explore the transit Atlantic slave trade the black Holocaust the Middle [Music] Passage to have complete power over another human being to be able to use that human being like a beast of burden that has got to be something that is damaging eternally to the spirit to the human spirit in the great empires of the ancient world slavery was part of the culture for thousands of years people were enslaved because they were prisoners of War because they had committed a crime such as a petty theft because they were unable to repay a debt or because somehow they were just different in Mesopotamia in Egypt in Rome slavery was part of the culture the Bible records the Egyptian pharaohs enslaving the Hebrews to achieve their dreams the Romans enslaved thousands to feed their great armies and build new cities through centuries slavery largely achieved Global acceptance it was seen as an economic necessity a method to extend Power by the 15th century the English Spanish Portuguese and Dutch had arrived on the continent of Africa drawn by the discovery of gold in 1441 Henry the Navigator a Portuguese Prince left the African Coast with another export 12 men and women held in Chains his ship Bound for the new world would Mark the beginning of what would become 400 years years of Terror for Generation after generation of African people a journey that would come to be known as the Middle Passage well the middle passage was the middle leg of the slave trade ships would leave Europe or America loaded with rum guns cloth and other items which they took to Africa traded for the slaves picked up a loot of slaves and then brought them to the Americas the middle passage in this case was the long Voyage the incarceration of the slaves and the unimaginable conditions under which they would transported from the African Coast to the new world it's that uh transition point from freedom to enslavement what is Africa to me copper sun or Scarlet sea jungle track or jungle star strong bronze men or Regal black women from whose loins I sprang when the birds of Eden sang County Cullen poet little known to the Europeans was that for hundreds of years Africa led the World in invention and diversity they were among the first to use tools paint pictures and cultivate grain the people of Africa had built cities universities established modern State armies and created an advanced legal system they were indeed cities they were urban communities where people lived on the basis of their professions there were some common characteristics and I think one of those common char istics was the family Africans are a very close family pattern of their Clans and their lineages we hear a good deal about the extended family so it's a closely nit family my name is y and this is my story when I grow up I will be a great drummer like my father I will make praise songs for o the river Mama's beautiful teeth flash white as she feeds me from her Rice Bowl this is my home Africans have their own ceremonies to initiate individuals into society so that people know their place in society in a number of their ceremonials they must repeat their history in order to move to the next level so that although uh many of them are not writing their history they are remembering their history by the mid 1400s a dark chapter of History would begin to emerge very early on with the expansion of Christianity the notion was that we as Europeans must christianize and civilize the Africans civilize racism came to play a part very early in that they were an inferior people and they were meant to be slaves Africa became a continent Under Siege English slaver Captain Richard Drake recorded on the seventh morning of the March we reached the enemy's borders and came in sight of a peaceful Village here our hunting began white slavers rewarded Africans for kidnapping other Africans sometimes friends were pitted against friends in less than an hour we had secured about 300 Prisoners the old people and infants were not considered of value and were knocked on the head or stuck with Spears as fast as they were brought in Captain Richard Drake English slaver collaboration was a way to prosper even to survive African leaders are working with slave Traders people are using the slave trade to create a certain class of people who can be sold across the continent kidnappings could happen at any time a mother a father a child could suddenly simply disappear brutal ambushes took many forms a single captur a raid by a well organized group an inter tribal War where defeat meant enslavement but they didn't quietly accept their fate African tradition prepared young men and women in survival endurance and warfare as part of their right of passage the resistance began immediately in many instances we must dispel the notion that the African slaves were resigned and felt helpless that is simply not the case ultimately the Africans training was no match against European Firepower mama mama wake up wake up sing Mama sing me a [Music] song The most significant impact of all of this was a psychological impact what we don't talk enough about is the Imp that it had on the mine a Waring Nation would often trade its human captives for European trinkets cheap Goods poured into Africa replacing the african-made products and the people who made them systematically destroying the African culture as Africa continued to be economically torn apart the European powers continued to prosper it became big business the Royal African company was chared to represent the commercial interest of the English crown trading goods for slaves in West Africa and transporting those slaves for sale in the new world you have to recognize that the slave trade was really based on Power and economics it was for the benefit both of the westerners and for some Africans Wars perpetuating Tribal wars because of the slave trade those and power were the ones that captured and sold slaves and in doing this they disrupted the family one of the most tragic things about the slave trade is what it did to the family stop ugly hateful men stop my father is coming ohel once please don't take me see I'll be good they were chained so device was placed around their neck so if they scaped in the jungle they get tangled up they were marched Overland uh to the coast just simply by a force after being captured stolen from their homes and communities Africans were forced to travel from the interior of Africa to the West Coast the journey could cover 500 miles and take up to eight months slaves are commonly secured by putting the right leg of one and the left of another into the same pair of Fetters by supporting the Fetters with a string they can walk though very slowly every four slaves are likewise fastened together by the necks with a strong rope or Twisted thongs and in the night an additional pair of fet is put on their hands and sometimes a light iron chain passed around their necks [ __ ] Park British Explorer coming down from the interior to the coast I mean nobody's made any provisions for for food or for the comfort of uh these people people who are unable to make the journey who get sick or become weak and unable to move on are left to die while I was with his enemies in the camp I saw a child of about 18 months old cast out of the camp because the child was so young that nobody would buy him that poor Oran was there crying at the point of death for about two days and none took pity to pick him up Joseph Wright former African captive no matter what happens they are certainly ill treated physically they're certainly ill treated psychologically and so forth because they're taken from their homes taken to a place they know not where they don't have a clue clue as to what is going to happen to them and they have all these images that must have been going through their minds about being eaten perhaps or whatever else may happen to them and so these are things that are immeasurable you cannot tell how bad this treatment is on the coast were the castles more than 50 of them financed by European slave trading companies like the British royal African company the Danish West India Company and the bank of Amsterdam these large fortresses were built into the cliffs and served as living quarters for the European Traders and government officials and temporary prisons for millions of Africans some still stand along the coast of what is now Ghana Nigeria the Ivory Coast banin Togo and Gambia today they're known as points of no return the loggin and apartments within the castle are very large and wellb built of brick a massive airless dungeon it will conveniently contain a thousand blacks the keeping of the slaves thus underground is a good security against any Insurrection Jean barau slaver I took my son who was 5 years old to one of the slave castles and I wanted to take take him into one of the Dungeons and he refused to go in looked so terrible to him but I want let him to see that looking at this dungeon the darkness the smelly place it's like where did the slaves sleep where did they go to the bathroom how long did they stay here why were they sold why did they do is to them the relevant questions that only a child can ask will they live me in this fearful Place forever I will not stay here I will not the smell is bad and it is too [Music] dark they weren't loaded directly onto the ship there were factories on the coast the Africans were sold to these people and then they sold them to the ships and this was an economic Enterprise How could a situation be created whereby a small group of Europeans could enslave so many Africans in those horrendous conditions they succeeded by having greater fire power military power they succeeded also by their having a a a drive to conquer the rest of the world one day the white men arrived in ships with wings which Shone in the sun like knives from that day the whites brought us nothing but Wars and miseries oral history from pend tribe most of the Africans who were brought from the interior had not seen white men until they reached there and they were afraid of white men and for some reason they seemed most of them to get the idea that the white man was a cannibal and they were taken to be killed and eaten the blacks were all stripped naked and shipped by twos and threes in canoes through the surf they are so willful and loath to leave their own country that they have often leaped out of the canoes boat and ship into the sea and kept underwater till they were drowned to avoid being taken up and saved by our boats which pursued them Thomas Phillips slave ship captain as the ships Departed the Africans saw the sun rising East over their Homeland for the last time this is a place that is taking away people so it strikes Terror in you it's not just the physical slave trade it's the terror that people feel when they see the approach of these vessels so there's tremendous fear as to what these ships represent is this the winged thing where the bad people will eat us maybe they won't see me sh sh don't move be quiet don't move Wednesday June 12th buried a man slave number 84 of flux which he'd been struggling with near 7 weeks Thursday June 13th this morning buried a woman slave number 47 know not what to say she died of she had not been properly alive since she first came on board Monday June 24th buried a slave boy number 158 and a girl number 172 Captain John Wheaton's log book the exact number of Africans captured and delivered to the new world would probably never be known it has been estimated that 15 million Africans began the journey to the United States South America and the Caribbean and of those at least two out of every died at Sea the shrieks of the women and the groans of the dying rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable Forder aano former African Captain I cannot see my home my country where did they take my people who will take care of me down there to meet the demand of having to transport human cargo ships had to be redesigned tight Packers held up to 1,000 captives seated below deck with no space between them loose Packers carried approximately 250 captives locked in a prone position arranged on wooden racks 6 ft long and 1T wide the average length of the journey was 8 weeks we heard the cries and Rumblings coming from below and as soon as the captain and crew were removed the hatches had been taken off when there arose a hot blast sickening and overpowering in the hold were three or 400 human beings gasping struggling for breath some were stiffened in the most unnatural positions J Taylor Wood anti-slavery Squadron early slave ships did not provide ventilation for the crowded conditions below if you look at some of the surgeons who worked on some of these slave ships they'll tell you how hot it got in some of these slave holes that sometimes the candles that the surgeons used to see uh in the holes often would not burn because there was not enough oxygen it is an unbearable situation and when you you speak about it even the visual doesn't do it you got to get the smell the slave ships had names like Brotherhood John the Baptist Justice and integrity gift of God Liberty and Jesus the crws came from around the world men and [Music] boys these people were scared to death they were stripped of dignity and stripped physically and put on board ship they didn't know where they were going what their future was going to be they were treated like animals really like animals they were a product a piece of merchandise you hear stories of course of women who took their babies and threw them across the heads of other enslaved people to get to the food into to the tribe where they were fed sometimes like Hogs and a trout and uh they would throw the babies over the heads of the other people you know just so the babies could get something to eat don't they have food in the place of bad spirits when will we eat I wish I could deep into my mother's rice pot look is that Mama Mama please give me some food it was his Captain's general practice on the receipt of a woman slave especially a young one to send for her to come to his cabin so that he might lie with her sometimes they would refuse to comply with his desires and would be severely beaten by him and sent below surgeon of the Ruby down my cheeks the tears are dripping broken is my heart with grief mangled my poor flesh with whipping come kind death and bring relief Anonymous abolitionist what I think about as a woman is the humiliation of it I think about those women to whom cleanliness was such a integral part of their being to be subjected to the filth and the dirt to have to lie in their own feces you know to live amidst blood and and [Music] vomit disease was a Relentless killer denter small pots measles and scurvy consumed the ships the floor of their rooms was so covered with blood and mucus that it resembled a slaughterhouse Alexander Falconbridge slave ship surgeon if indeed someone got sick with small pox which was incurable at the time you simply toss the person over and if you suspected that it spread to others you toss these people over abundance of these poor creatures are lost on board ships merely through the surgeon's ignorance because he knows not what they are afflicted with but supposing it to be a fever bleeds and purges or vomits them and so cash them into an incurable diarrhea and in a few days they become a feast for some hungry Shar Dr T slave ship surgeon during the Atlantic slave trade the population in migratory practices of the Atlantic sharks changed dramatically sharks followed the slave ships for hundreds of miles across the Atlantic and the Caribbean the Atlantic slave trade became profitable in life and death by creating an opportunity for Rising insurance companies Lloyds of London originally a Coffee House Began to build a financial Powerhouse by uring British slave ships and their caros the insurer takes upon him the risk of the loss capture and death of slaves or any other unavoidable accident to them but natural death is always understood to be expected by natural death is meant not only when it happens by disease or sickness but also when the captive destroys himself through despair which often happens but when slaves were killed or thrown into the sea in order to quell an Insurrection on their part then the insurers must answer insurance law 1781 for a large number of Africans suicide was preferable to slavery I would have jumped over the side but I could not the crew used to watch us very closely and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so all aquano former African captive they felt that if they could get away and jump ship they could return home but if they didn't get back it's all right because uh their souls would be saved and they would join their ancestors in another world [Music] the Africans ability to cope was often measured in the smallest of actions Europeans attempted to prevent Africans from using the language prevent Africans from engaging in the culture the use of the drum the dance and of the song so they had to find other ways to do this and they cop in different ways the myths tell us that high John the Conqueror flew beside the slave ships in the form of a big black bird and he came to the new world with us and that's our strength that's our endurance that's our spirit that can never be squelched I think the fact that uh people uh got through this ordeal got through the Middle Passage is a miracle people survived were physically quite strong but that was not I think enough to survive the Middle Passage one had to be determined to survive one had have a vision of life beyond the uh Middle Passage that might be worth living and that might sustain the person the man or the woman or even the child under those conditions I I think it's important to show that the Middle Passage did not break the spirit it did not break the striving of Africans for Freedom it did not break their consciousness of Africa for even in those societies where there was tremendous uh disintegration of of Africans the breaking up of families and so forth the whole idea of Africa remained [Music] [Music] resistance Insurrection Rebellion Revolt the enslaved Africans of the Middle Passage were desperate to be free the resistance begins at capture wherever let's say in a mind Village it continues down down to the port where they have to be carefully guarded they get to the port continues onto the ship where they are chained it continues in the Middle Passage as we've seen and then it goes right on for the sale in the new world are all my people going home I am going too to find my mother and and my father I am not afraid I am going now now the most powerful resistance was revoked there are over 300 documented accounts of slav ship uprisings the writings of slave Traders and their logs and so forth record many mutinies they call them I think they were very frequent particularly while they were still inside of Africa when they thought could get back home the organized African captives had pieces of iron they had torn off our door as having premeditated a Revolt thus armed they fell on our men upon the decks unawares and stabbed one of the stoutest of us all Don Carlos slay ship captain the idea of the chaining was to prevent mutinies and of course this were likely occurrences the desire to be free was so strong that people wanted to Mutiny uh the least opportunity that they got on July 1st 1839 perhaps the most significant African Revolt took place on the Spanish slave ship La Amistad sing B P later known by his Spanish name Joseph s LED 53 Africans in a rebellion the spur for the Mutiny came when Joseph s was talking to the molat Cook on board the Amistad by sign language what is going to happen to us and celestino the cook in a cruel Gest responded that they were going to cut them up and boil them and then eat them as dried meat and S needless to say made up his mind apparently at that point that this is not going to happen to me and this is not going to happen to our people below sing frantically looked for something that could help him Escape that something turned out to be a single nail now the problem was to find weapons and they broke open boxes below and lo and behold they found of all things sugar cane knives and they armed themselves and that evening in the midst of a storm they took over the vessel between 3 and 4: I was awakened by a noise which was caused by blows given to the mulat [ __ ] I went on the deck and they attacked me I ceased a stick in a knife to defend myself at this time the prisoner wounded me on the head severely with one of the sugar knives Pedro Mon's Spanish slaver they spared the life of the two slaveholders montz was a former ships master and they had seen him steer the ship so they knew he knew how to do this and they wanted to go back to Africa they did not know how to navigate so so they instructed Montes to sail toward the Rising Sun they knew that they had come from the RIS and sun and if they went back that way they would go to Africa but at night montz would turn northwesterly hoping to reach the United States they followed this zigzag course for two months and eventually in late August of 1839 they end up off the coast of Long Island they were imprisoned in New Haven Connecticut and charged with murder and piracy it would be 2 years before their fate would ultimately be determined when the case went to trial the United States Circuit Court ruled that the Africans could not be tried for acts committed on a Spanish vessel on Spanish Waters however under the mounting pressure to keep the southern vote during the 1840 election President Martin Van buan immediately ordered an appeal of the decision it would now be argued before The Supreme Court these Africans were up against Power they were up against the president of the United States and the queen of Spain on March 9th 1841 at the age of 73 former President John Quincy Adams argued before The Supreme Court in support of sin K and the Amistad Africans John Quincy Adams had shown a great interest in the case from its very beginning he hadn't been in a courtroom for over three decades but this man believed in the cause he saw that he had a chance to do something before he died that would be of a great service to humanity after passionately arguing 8 and a half hours before The Supreme Court the decision was upheld the Africans were freed and allowed to return to their Homeland one looks at the decision that was made by Justice Joseph story what he decided was that the blacks indeed were kidnapped Africans what story was talking about was the inherent right of self- defense that if you're kidnapped whatever color you are wherever you're from you have the right to escape your captor indeed you have the right to kill your captor if you're held against your own will and so by the Eternal principles of Justice these kidnapped Africans had the right to Mutiny to kill their captors and get away in any fashion that they chose and this is the only time in recorded history that you had people who were kidnapped in Africa brought to the new world and actually returned to their homes the legacy of s k is the is the indomitable will and the courage on the part of a human being to pursue his own own destiny and to claim his right to be free and that he cannot be dominated should not be dominated by another human [Music] being revolts like the Amistad did little to slow the Middle Passage after 2 months and 3,000 miles millions of African captives arrived in places like New Orleans Louisiana Charleston South Carolina and Savannah Georgia slave ships continued to pour into the new world bringing the Africans to Market I was now more persuaded than ever that I was in another world we did not know what to think of this as the vessel Drew nearer we plainly saw the harbor many merchants and Planters now come on board they put us in separate parcels and examined us attentively they also made us jump and pointed to the land signifying we were to go there Alder aano former African captive even if they survived once they got to the point of destination you have the whole thing over again the humiliation of being stripped down of being hosed down of being oiled and now FedEd for another inspection and for sale again over and over again at length the vendor master who was to offer us for sale like a sheep or a cattle arrived and asked my mother which was the eldest she said nothing but pointed to me he took me by the hand and let me out into the middle of the street and turned me slowly around exposing me to the vendue Mary Prince former African captive I just can't imagine what it must have been like for a woman or a girl child being reduced to somebody who has no control over her own destiny it's an intolerable it's an unbearable thought it's just unbearable the survivors of this grueling ordeal were sold on on ships on the auction block or in slave markets they were taken into a slave market a buyer would come in say that they wanted so many Africans as slaves they were showed to them new they felt their bodies they looked at their teeth they looked at their hair the Brokers are so cunning that they shave them all close before we see them so we can see no gray hairs in their heads or beards and having liquored them well and sleeked with palm oil it is no easy matter to know an old one from a middle-aged one Thomas Phillips slav ship captain another method of selling slaves was called the scramble up to 1500 African captives were confined to a pen buyers rushed in all at once grabbed who they wanted and took their pick to their corner of the pin just as Farmers had done When selecting livestock the term to Corner the market was originally meant for animals but now included Africans the price of slaves fluctuated in 1754 George Washington bought a male slave for $260 when he went to the market 10 years later he paid $285 slaves were sold for small down payments and on reasonable terms there was also a male order business by the mid 19th century the top price paid for healthy slaves exceeded $2,000 I own I am shocked at the purchase of slaves and fear those who buy them and sell them are naves what I hear of their hardships their tortures and groans is almost enough to draw pity from Stones I pity them greatly but I must be mum for how could we do without sugar and rum William Cooper 18th century per the Atlantic slave trade accelerated the development of colonial America Africans brought Advanced farming techniques such as complex irrigation systems that made the cultivation of crops possible the goods produced by slave labor contributed to set a high standard of living for Europeans and Americans tobacco sugar cotton all became the foundation of a growing World economy driven by forced slave labor the point I think needs to be made very strongly that they were African people they brought with them their language they brought with them their history they brought with them a sense of awareness of their culture the slave trade lasted throughout the world until the 19th century by 1807 Britain declared the slave trade illegal when year later the United States followed suit but the slave trade was far from over illegal ships were painted black and traveled under the cover of night landing in Brazil the Caribbean Cuba and the American Eastern Seaboard it was outlawed in 18008 but slaves contined to be smuggled into the United States down to 1862 and it's very interesting that you can look at the advertisements of runaway slaves in the 1830s and 40s and some of the advertisements will say this person speaks Arabic the person who would run away speaks Arabic or speaks French or he speaks an African language which means that in all probability they had not been in the country a full generation the point is that these slaves were still being smuggled in and the Middle Passage Goes On It is believed that the last slave ship from Africa set its sail for Brazil in 1888 20 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery in America the stain of slavery in this modern world is irrevocable I think it is stamped so deeply into our psyche not only in the American place but the world over because the human Dynamic everywhere in the world is about power the middle passes symbolizes one of the most horrendous episodes in African and African diaspora history and I suppose in the final analysis this is what ultimately binds black people or people of African descent outside of Africa it is a consciousness of a place of origin but it's also a consciousness of a social condition in terms of trying to get a lesson across one is trying to get people to see how it diminished us all the Middle Passage is like having a dirty Secret in your closet nobody wants to admit that we treated America and Europe and Portugal that we treated those people that way that's where the Middle Passage came from they could do it and they did and nobody wants to remember it's the dirty [Music] secret I feel like a mother child sometimes I did not know what to think of the strange new world one by one the faces I remembered From Below disappeared taken in different directions now I had only one friend death I wished he would come and take me Father father let me be accepted in a blanket in heaven I waited and waited head but my wish did not come true finally I turned to face the strange new world no longer afraid of the raging water filled with human bones the power from the water promised by my father ran through my veins I became determined to live and sing my father's name forever I hope this journey will inspire you to look deeper into your history keep looking keep searching knowledge is power I'm Debbie Allen [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] Indians were the first victims of violence in America looked upon by white settlers as nothing more than Savages native Americans were up against a brand of violence that was imported here from Europe