In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) also becomes an ally.
Starring Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne.
Note: This film has been criticized for being a “simplistic, sanitized history lesson” – for those who want something else, try the Stuart era [Adanggaman (2000)](http://amzn.to/1Ti0D1X): “Set in the late 17th century, on the Western coast of Africa, “Adangganan” is a provocative retelling of the African slave experience, based on facts. A rebellious young man, who refuses to marry his parents’ choice of a bride, flees his village one evening, only to return to find his father and girlfriend slain, his village destroyed and his mother captured by a tribe of Amazon warriors. His efforts to free his mother lead to the kingdom of Adanggaman, where captives are held before sale.” Adanggaman is an “unblinking look at a rarely acknowledged underside of African history: the active role of black Africans in supplying human cargo for the European slave trade.”