Amistad Quotes

John Quincy Adams: Now, you understand you're going to the Supreme Court. Do you know why?

Ens. Covey: [translating for Cinque] It is the place where they finally kill us.

John Quincy Adams: [to the Court] This man is black. We can all see that. But can we also see as easily that which is equally true: that he is the only true hero in this room? Now, if he were white, he wouldn't be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white and his enslavers were British, he wouldn't be standing, so heavy the weight of the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him. The great authors of our times would fill books about him. His story would be told and retold, in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it, would know his name as well as they know Patrick Henry's. Yet, if the South is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, The Declaration of Independence? What of its conceits? "All men created equal," "inalienable rights," "life, liberty," and so on and so forth? What on Earth are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion.

[tears papers in half]

[a band of abolitionists approach the outer gate of the prison where the Amistad refugees are being held for trial]

Fala: [in Mende] Who are they, do you think?

[the abolitionists kneel to pray]

Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] Looks like they are going to be sick.

Abolitionists: [singing] Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...

Fala: [in Mende] They're entertainers!

Abolitionists: [singing] ... that saved a wretch like me...

Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] But why do they look so miserable?

[the slave fortress in Sierra Leone is being bombarded from sea]

Captain Fitzgerald: Fire. Fire. Fire. Take a letter, Ensign. To His Honor, the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Forsyth. My dear Mr. Forsyth, it is my great pleasure to inform you that you are, in fact, correct. The slave fortress in Sierra Leone does not exist.

[last lines]

Queen Isabella: ¡Qué bonita!

Baldwin: Captain Fitzerald, please explain to us your primary duties in Her Majesty's Navy.

Captain Fitzgerald: To patrol the Ivory Coast for slave ships.

Baldwin: Because?

Captain Fitzgerald: Because slavery is banned in British law, sir.

Baldwin: Yet the abduction of freemen from the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone and their illegal transportation to the New World, as described by Cinque, is not unheard of, is it?

Captain Fitzgerald: Not even unusual, regrettably.

Baldwin: Cinque describes the cold-blooded murder of a significant portion of the people on board the Tecora. Mr Holabird sees this as a paradox. Do you, sir?

Captain Fitzgerald: Often when slavers are intercepted, or believe they may be, they simply throw all their prisoners overboard and thereby rid themselves of the evidence of their crime.

Baldwin: Drown hundreds of people?

Captain Fitzgerald: Yes.

Holabird: It hardly seems a lucrative business to me, this slave trading. Going to all that trouble, rounding everybody up, only to throw them all overboard.

Captain Fitzgerald: No, it's very lucrative.

Baldwin: If only we could corroborate Cinque's story somehow with evidence of some kind.

Captain Fitzgerald: The inventory. If you look, there's a notation made on May tenth, correcting the number of slaves on board, reducing their number by fifty.

Baldwin: What does that mean?

Captain Fitzgerald: Well, if you look at it in conjunction with Cinque's testimony, I would say that it means this: the Tecora crew had greatly underestimated the amount of provisions required for their journey, and solved the problem by throwing fifty people overboard.

Holabird: I am looking at the same inventory, Captain, and I am sorry, I don't see where it says 'Today we threw fifty slaves overboard', on May tenth or any other day.

Captain Fitzgerald: As, of course, you would not.

Holabird: I do see that the cargo weight changed. They reduced the poundage, I see. But that is all.

Captain Fitzgerald: It's simple, ghastly arithmetic.

Holabird: Well, for you, perhaps. I may need a quill and parchment, and a better imagination.

Captain Fitzgerald: And what poundage do you imagine the entry may refer to, sir? A mast and sails perhaps?

Calderon: What's most bewildering to Her Majesty... is this arrogant independence of the American courts. After all, if you cannot rule the courts, you cannot rule.

Martin Van Buren: Señor Calderon, as any true American will tell you, it's the independence of our courts that keeps us free.

[first lines]

Ruiz: [to Pedro Montes] That one wants us to sail them back. That one thinks he can sail all the way back without us.

Theodore Joadson: They were first detained by officers of a brig off Long Island. They were conveyed to New Haven - under what authority, I don't know - and given over to the local constabulary. About forty of them, including four or five children. The arraignment is day after tomorrow. I can only assume that the charge is murder.

Tappan: I'll see what I can do about that.

Attorney: Your Honor, here are the true owners of the slaves.

Judge Juttson: Order!

Attorney: On their behalf, I am in possession of a receipt for purchase executed in Havana, Cuba, June twenty-sixth, 1839. I do hereby call on this court to immediately surrender these goods!

Theodore Joadson: I know you, Mr. President. I know you and your Presidency as well as any man - and your father's. You were a child at his side when he helped invent America. And you, in turn, have devoted your life to refining that noble invention. There remains one task undone. One vital task the Founding Father's left to their sons...

John Quincy Adams: Yeah?

Theodore Joadson: ...before their thirteen colonies could precisely be called United States. And that task, Sir, as you well know, is crushing slavery.

Baldwin: On the other hand, let's say they aren't slaves. If they aren't slaves, in which case they were illegally acquired, weren't they? Forget mutiny, forget piracy, forget murder and all the rest. Those are subsequent irrelevant occurrences. Ignore everything but the pre-eminent issue at hand. The wrongful transfer of stolen goods. Either way, we win.

Tappan: Sir, this war must be waged on the battlefield of righteousness.

Baldwin: The what?

Baldwin: [holds up a knife] Have you seen this before?

Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] I could kill you with my bare hands before you raise that sword.

Baldwin: This belongs to you? Does this? No, no. Umm, I need to know where you're from.

Amistad Slave #1: [in Mende] He reminds me of that Fula of Baoma, you know the one who hires himself to scrape elephant dung from the crop rows.

Amistad Slave #2: [in Mende] A dung-scraper might be just the kind of man we need right now.

Baldwin: [point to a map] Here, Africa? Is this where you're from? A-fri-ca?

US Secretary of State Forsyth: This could take us all one long step closer to civil war.

Martin Van Buren: This?

Baldwin: Our president, our big, big man has appealed the decision to our Supreme Court.

Ens. Covey: [translating for Cinque to John Quincy Adams] What does that mean?

Baldwin: We have to try the case again.

John Quincy Adams: What is their story, by the way?

Theodore Joadson: Sir?

John Quincy Adams: What is their story?

Theodore Joadson: Why, they're um... they're from west Africa.

John Quincy Adams: No. What is their story?

Theodore Joadson: [exhales and looks confused]

John Quincy Adams: Mr. Joadson, you're from where originally?

Theodore Joadson: Why, Georgia, sir.

John Quincy Adams: Georgia.

Theodore Joadson: Yes, sir.

John Quincy Adams: Does that pretty much sum up what you are? A Georgian? Is that your story? No you're an ex-slave whose devoted his life to the abolition of slavery, and overcoming the obstacles and hardships along the way, I should imagine. That's your story, isn't it?

Theodore Joadson: [smiles and nods]

John Quincy Adams: [laughs] You and this young so-called lawyer have proven you know what they are. They're Africans. Congratulations. What you don't know, and as far as I can tell haven't bothered in the least to discover, is who they are. Right?

Ens. Covey: [Translating for Cinque after he has been set free] What did you say to them?

John Quincy Adams: Huh?

Ens. Covey: [translates again] What words did you use to persuade them?

John Quincy Adams: [looks at Cinque] Yours.

Yamba: [looking at a Bible]

Joseph Cinque: You don't have to pretend to be interested in that. Nobody's watching but me.

Yamba: I'm not pretending. I'm beginning to understand it.

[outside, a priest blesses himself]

Yamba: Their people have suffered more than ours. Their lives were full of suffering.

[turns to a picture of the newborn Jesus Christ]

Yamba: Then he was born, and everything changed.

Joseph Cinque: Who is he?

Yamba: I don't know, but everywhere he goes he is followed by the sun.

[turns to a picture of Jesus healing a man]

Yamba: Here he is healing people with his hands...

[shows Jesus defending Mary Magdalene]

Yamba: protecting them...

[shows Jesus and the children]

Yamba: being given children...

Joseph Cinque: [sees Jesus walking on water] What's this?

Yamba: He could also walk across the sea. But then something happened. He was captured, accused of some sort of crime.

[shows Jesus with Pontius Pilate]

Yamba: Here he is with his hands tied.

Joseph Cinque: He must have done something.

Yamba: Why? What did we do? Whatever it was, it was serious enough to kill him for it. Do you want to see how they killed him?

[shows the crucifixion of Jesus]

Joseph Cinque: This is just a story, Yamba.

Yamba: But look, that's not the end of it.

[shows the disciples taking Jesus' body down]

Yamba: His people took his body down from this... thing... this...

[signs the cross in the air]

Yamba: They took him into a cave. They wrapped him in a cloth, like we do.

[shows the Resurrection of Jesus]

Yamba: They thought he was dead, but he appeared before his people again and spoke to them. Then, finally, he rose into the sky.

[shows the Ascension of Jesus]

Yamba: [the priest prays in the background]

Yamba: This is where the soul goes when you die.

[shows a picture of Heaven in the clouds]

Yamba: This is where we're going when they kill us. It doesn't look so bad...

Theodore Joadson: I am embarrassed to admit that I was under the misconception that our Executive and Judicial Branches were separate.

John Quincy Adams: [holding up a nursery plant with tender branches] No more so than these, Mr. Joadson. No more so than these. Now you know.

Tappan: This news - well of course it's bad news - but the truth is they may be more valuable to our struggle in death than in life. Martyrdom, Mr. Joadson. From the dawn of Christianity we have seen no stronger power for change. You know it's true.

Theodore Joadson: What is true, Mr. Tappan - and believe me when I tell you that I have seen this - is that there are some men whose hatred of slavery is stronger than any, except for the slave himself.

Tappan: If you wish to inspire such hatred in a man, Mr. Joadson, speak to him in that fashion and it may come true.

Hammond: I wonder, is there anything as pathetic as an ex-president?

Martin Van Buren: [just then walking through]

Hammond: [jumps to his feet] I, I was talking about John...

John C. Calhoun: We are inferior in one area: we're not as proficient in the art of gain. We're not as wealthy as our northern neighbors. We're still struggling. Take away our life's blood now, and... well, we all know what happens then. North and South. They become the masters, and we the slaves. But not without a fight!

[the other dinner guests are momentarily silenced]

Martin Van Buren: Senator Calhoun is being modest. He's not inferior in another area, the art of exaggeration.

John C. Calhoun: Ask yourself, Senor Calderon. What court wants to be responsible for the spark that ignites the firestorm? What President wants to be in office when it comes crashing down around him? Certainly no court before this one. Certainly no President, before this one. So, judge us not too harshly, sir. And bid her majesty 'like. Because the real determination our courts and our President must make, is not whether this rag-tag bunch of Africans raised swords against their enemy... but rather, must *we?*

Baldwin: Ah, Mr. Tappan. How do you do, sir? My name is Roger S Baldwin, attorney-at-law.

Tappan: Real estate?

Baldwin: Real estate, inventories and other assets.

Tappan: Can I help you with something?

Baldwin: What is it that you do?

Tappan: Well, I own various business... and banks.

Baldwin: As a matter of fact, you probably could help me, Mr. Tappan. But that's not why I'm here. I'd like to help you.

Tappan: Me?

Baldwin: Yes. I deal with property. Sometimes I get people's property back, other times I get it taken away, as in this case. Every one of the claims speaks to the issue of ownership.

Tappan: Thank you, Mr... Mr. Baldwin.

Baldwin: Baldwin, Roger S, attorney-at-law.

Tappan: But I'm afraid what's needed here is a criminal attorney. A trial lawyer. But thanks for your interest.

Baldwin: Yes. Well... intending no disrespect, Mr. Tappan, but if that were the way to go, well, then... Well, I wouldn't have bothered coming down here. Goodbye. I bid you gentlemen a good afternoon.

Baldwin: Ignore everything but the pre-eminent issue at hand. The wrongful transfer of stolen goods. Either way, we win.

Tappan: Sir, this war must be waged on the battlefield of righteousness.

Baldwin: The what?

Tappan: It would be against everything I stand for to let this deteriorate into an exercise in legal minutia.

Baldwin: Mr. Tappan, I'm talking about the heart of the matter.

Tappan: As am I. It is our destiny, as abolitionists and as Christians, to save these people. These are people, Mr. Baldwin, not livestock. Did Christ hire a lawyer to get him off on technicalities? He went to the cross, nobly. You know why? To make a statement. To make a statement, as must we.

Baldwin: But Christ lost. - You, I think...

Tappan: No, sir, he did not!

Baldwin: You want to win, don't you?

Tappan: Yes.

Baldwin: I certainly do. Hell, sometimes I don't get paid unless I do. Which brings us back to the question of worth. In order to do a better job than the Son of God's attorney I'll require two and a half dollars a day.

Joseph Cinque: I met my ancestors.

Joseph Cinque: I will call into the past.

Joseph Cinque: Far back to the beginning of time and beg them to come and help me at the judgement.

Joseph Cinque: I will reach back and draw them into me and they must come.

Joseph Cinque: For at this moment I am the whole reason they have existed at all.

Martin Van Buren: I'm trying to drink my brandy after a very long day.

Presidential Aide: I understand. I simply wasn't certain whether this is something you wanted to take care of personally.

Martin Van Buren: There are what? Three - four million negroes in this country? Why on earth should I concern myself with these 44?

Theodore Joadson: The ship is Amistad. It's too small to be a trans-Atlantic slaver.

Tappan: So, they're plantation slaves then. West Indians?

Theodore Joadson: Not necessarily. At least, they certainly don't look it. From the glimpse I caught of them on their way to jail. They have these - scars.

Tappan: Scars?

Tappan: We know we aimed high coming to see you, Sir.

John Quincy Adams: Well, aim lower! Find yourself someone whose inspiration blossoms the more you lose.

Martin Van Buren: I am not about to bend to the will of some pubescent Queen.

Hammond: Forget about them, they're unimportant.

Martin Van Buren: Prepubescent.

John Quincy Adams: Has anyone told you about me? What have they told you?

Ens. Covey: [translating for Cinque] That you are a chief.

John Quincy Adams: I was a chief. Yes.

Ens. Covey: [translating for Cinque] A chief cannot become anything less than a chief - even in death.

John Quincy Adams: Oh, I wish that were true. Yes, in deed.

John Quincy Adams: One tries to govern wisely, strongly. One tries to govern in a way that betters the lives of one's villagers. One tries to kill the lion. Unfortunately, one isn't always wise enough or strong enough. Time passes and the moment is gone. Now, listen, Cinque, listen, we're about - we're about to bring your case before the highest court in our land. We're about to do battle with a lion that is threatening to rip our country in two. Huh? And all we have on our side is a rock. Of course, you didn't ask to be at the center of this historic conflagration anymore than I did; but, we find ourselves here, nonetheless, by some mysterious mix of circumstances and all the world watching. So, what are we to do? Huh?

Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] Is he going to help? He has far many more questions than answers.

John Quincy Adams: What did he just say?

Ens. Covey: I - I - Sorry, I didn't catch it.

John Quincy Adams: Cinque, look, I'm being honest with you. Anything less would be disrespectful. I'm telling you. I'm preparing you, I suppose. I'm explaining to you. That the test ahead of us is an exceptionally difficult one.

Ens. Covey: [translating for Cinque] We won't be going in there alone.

John Quincy Adams: Alone? In deed, not. We have right at our side. We have righteousness at our side! We have Mr. Baldwin over there.

Ens. Covey: [translating for Cinque] I meant my ancestors. I will call into the past. Far back to the beginning of time and beg them to come and help me at the judgement. I will reach back and draw them into me and they must come. For at this moment I am the whole reason they have existed at all.