Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Amistad Essay example -- essays research papers
Vanessa Breslow                                   Professor Dublin 11/17/99                                        History 103-3 L’Amistad      The Amistad, ironically a ship that means â€Å"friendship,†was the setting of one of the most historical slave revolts led by black Africans in 1839. This revolt gained considerable attention from the American population, the media and well as other international interests. It was the black insurrection on board the Amistad that ignited the underlying issues of politics, slavery, sectionalism, religion, trade rights, and anti-British sentiment that already plagued the nation at the time of the Amistad incident. The controversy drew the entire world into the conflict over human and property rights, an issue that divided our nation and would eventually catapult it into war over the relationship of race and slavery to liberty.      Treaties and Laws in the 1800’s sought to further slavery regulation by making it legal, but prohibiting the further importation of slaves. Great Britain banned slavery in its own colonies, and pursued the suppression of trade. The United States passed the Slave Importation Act of 1807, which declared further importation of slaves into the United States illegal. Yet these Laws proved to be unenforceable due to Presidential denial of power to halt trades in the United States, as well as the rising cotton production in the South and the demand for Cuban sugar and Brazilian coffee, both expanding the market for slave labor. Thus the 1817 treaty with Great Britain that also outlawed foreign slave trade especially hurt the Spanish colony of Cuba. In spite of the ban, slave-traders continued to smuggle in slaves for several decades and tried to pass them off as legal. Slaves were constantly kidnapped from their homeland and taken most on route to Cuba, where slave labor was in most frequent demand. In 1839, the two men, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes chartered the Amistad to transpor... ... and that selfishness was a card. Another negative association about slavery, viewed by evangelicals, was its association with great wealth. In the following November, the Africans, a translator, and some missionaries (both black and white) left for Africa aboard the ship the Gentleman. The arrival of those Amistad Africans who had successfully rebelled against slavery two years earlier, had ignited a sectional debate of significance within the United States. The immediate support of the blacks by leading abolitionists, when contrasted to the immediate denial by the federal government of the Africans right to be free, indicated how firmly different forces in the nation were committed to the slavery issue. General public response to the case revealed the importance of party allegiance, the divisiveness of slavery, the limited place of the black man, and the extreme aversion to the abolitionists and Great Britain shared by Americans at the close of the Van Buren administration. These prevalent and resistant differences would remain firmly settled in the United States, and would gradually tear the nation apart until there co mes a call of war to finally settle sectional differences. Amistad Essay example -- essays research papers Vanessa Breslow                                   Professor Dublin 11/17/99                                        History 103-3 L’Amistad      The Amistad, ironically a ship that means â€Å"friendship,†was the setting of one of the most historical slave revolts led by black Africans in 1839. This revolt gained considerable attention from the American population, the media and well as other international interests. It was the black insurrection on board the Amistad that ignited the underlying issues of politics, slavery, sectionalism, religion, trade rights, and anti-British sentiment that already plagued the nation at the time of the Amistad incident. The controversy drew the entire world into the conflict over human and property rights, an issue that divided our nation and would eventually catapult it into war over the relationship of race and slavery to liberty.      Treaties and Laws in the 1800’s sought to further slavery regulation by making it legal, but prohibiting the further importation of slaves. Great Britain banned slavery in its own colonies, and pursued the suppression of trade. The United States passed the Slave Importation Act of 1807, which declared further importation of slaves into the United States illegal. Yet these Laws proved to be unenforceable due to Presidential denial of power to halt trades in the United States, as well as the rising cotton production in the South and the demand for Cuban sugar and Brazilian coffee, both expanding the market for slave labor. Thus the 1817 treaty with Great Britain that also outlawed foreign slave trade especially hurt the Spanish colony of Cuba. In spite of the ban, slave-traders continued to smuggle in slaves for several decades and tried to pass them off as legal. Slaves were constantly kidnapped from their homeland and taken most on route to Cuba, where slave labor was in most frequent demand. In 1839, the two men, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes chartered the Amistad to transpor... ... and that selfishness was a card. Another negative association about slavery, viewed by evangelicals, was its association with great wealth. In the following November, the Africans, a translator, and some missionaries (both black and white) left for Africa aboard the ship the Gentleman. The arrival of those Amistad Africans who had successfully rebelled against slavery two years earlier, had ignited a sectional debate of significance within the United States. The immediate support of the blacks by leading abolitionists, when contrasted to the immediate denial by the federal government of the Africans right to be free, indicated how firmly different forces in the nation were committed to the slavery issue. General public response to the case revealed the importance of party allegiance, the divisiveness of slavery, the limited place of the black man, and the extreme aversion to the abolitionists and Great Britain shared by Americans at the close of the Van Buren administration. These prevalent and resistant differences would remain firmly settled in the United States, and would gradually tear the nation apart until there co mes a call of war to finally settle sectional differences.
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