In July 1839, a Spanish brig sailing from Cuba, Le Amistad, floated to a beach near New York, USA. There were no piles of gold and silver coins on the ship, and no Cuban specialty-cane sugar, but it was full of black people who had succeeded in the maritime riots a few weeks ago and two captured Spanish "owners".
After these blacks were captured by the U.S. Navy responsible for the U.S. Coast Guard, they were imprisoned and tried in New York. The focus of the debate is whether these blacks are free or slaves, and whether their resistance is legal or not.
A simple fact is that these people were initially kidnapped illegally in West Africa and then illegally entered the Cuban slave trade market (At that time, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States all legislated to prohibit the overseas slave trade, but the domestic slave trade was still legal), as long as it was proved that they were From Africa, they can be free if they are not born into slaves or voluntary slaves due to debt.
At the same time, the interests of Spanish "goods owners" and the concept of the southern slave states will be quite challenged.
With the joint efforts of lawyers, abolitionists, and the newly retired US President John Quincy Adams (the son of Quincy Adams, one of the founding fathers of the United States), the lawsuit was won with difficulty.
However, this case became one of the fuse of the American Civil War.
And the most shocking part of the whole movie, I think it is:
"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?
......
We desperately need your strength and wisdom to triumph over our fears, our prejudices, our-selfness. Give us the courage to do what is right.
And if it means civil war, then let it come. And when it does, may it be, finally, the last battle of the American Revolution.
(If the South is right, then we said in the Declaration of Independence that people are born equal, human rights, freedom... how do we face it?
......
Sages, please give us the courage to face all this, if this means civil war, then come, hope this is the last battle of the American Revolution)
Those who know American history may know that as early as the War of Independence, the economic structure and social conditions of the North and South of the United States were different. Georgia and South Carolina, the southern states closer to the Caribbean, have always been slaves. The Puritans in the Northern State were seriously unable to agree with this from the beginning, which violated their religious beliefs.
Back then, when the Declaration of Independence was drafted, how to treat the issue of slaves was the focus of contention in the Declaration of Independence. The Thirteen States Alliance was unable to discuss the issue because of this issue.
However, the "big enemy" is now.
In the face of more pressing issues such as British taxation and unfair trade treatment, and the pursuit of colonial independence, the founding fathers of the United States who urgently needed to unite all forces that could be united strategically chose not to dispute this issue. " .
After the founding of the country, the compromise method to continue "no argument" is: "one country , two systems" , slavery in the south and free men in the north.
However, time bombs are always going to explode, not to mention that this problem is the soul torture of the legitimacy of the country.
As we all know, 80 years later, the Civil War.
For the United States, this is a war of values that is even more fierce than the founding war.
It can be said that the United States has only completed its spiritual independence and ideological unity as a country, and on this basis has laid the humane soil for the country's longer and more rapid development in the future.
After the Civil War, the U.S. economy ran wildly, no longer tangled!
This movie tells us
1) Time bombs cannot be avoided
2) One country, two systems does not work
3) Who said that values are not important!
This is a "values blockbuster" with a more magnificent historical choice and price in the background.
I think making a "values blockbuster" is much more difficult than making a "science fiction blockbuster"!
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