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Amistad: Fact vs Fiction

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                                           Mende slaves fighting their captors on the Amistad Steven Spielberg's 1997 film Amistad based on the true story of slaves who upon being taken prisoner aboard the Spanish vessel La Amistad rebelled against their captors with the help of their leader Sengbe Pieh known more as Cinque and were put on trial for murder in the United States only to be saved and returned to their homeland thanks to former President John Quincy Addams is a true story. However most of the story is fictionalized and some important characters are sacrificed to pay attention to characters who had nothing to do with the story as well as the absence of others who were involved in the case. Here are the true facts surrounding the Amistad case 1.     Cinque (played by Djimon Honsou) did not free himself by plucking the nail that held his chains out of the floor below deck and later used them to break his own chains off himself but rather used a file that he s