1

PRESENT SITUATION OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS IN THE US

Currently, there are approximately 2.8 million Native Americans in the
US, which is probably more than there were at the time of the first European
settlers. They represent 562 federally-recognized tribes, the best known being
the Navajo, the Apache, the Cherokee, the Cheyenne and the Sioux.
Almost half of the Native Americans live in large cities and rural areas,
whereas the other half live on federal reservations. Most of the tribes have their
own tribal laws and are not subject to state laws.
The majority of the reservations are situated west of the Mississippi
River, and the Indians continue to live there to maintain their traditions. There is
a growing self-awareness in the American Indian population today. Native
Americans are becoming increasingly conscious and proud of their values,
traditions and culture.

Social challenges
There are severe social problems on many of the reservations, such as
unemployment, poverty, alcoholism and drug abuse. High rates of diabetes and
heart disease are also a concern.
Today, the 562 federally-recognized tribes possess the right to form their
own government, to enforce laws (both civil and criminal), to tax, to establish
requirements for membership, to license and regulate activities, to zone and to
exclude persons from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-
government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example,
neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign
relations, or coin money (this includes paper currency).

2
AFRICAN – AMERICANS: SLAVERY IN THE US
Black slaves played a major, though unwilling and generally unrewarded,
role in laying the economic foundations of the United States—especially in the
South. Blacks also played a leading role in the development of Southern
speech, folklore, music, dancing, and food, blending the cultural traits of their
African homelands with those of Europe. During the 17th and 18th centuries,
African and African American (those born in the New World) slaves worked
mainly on the tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations of the Southern seaboard.
Eventually slavery became rooted in the South’s huge cotton and sugar
plantations. Although Northern businessmen made great fortunes from the
slave trade and from investments in Southern plantations, slavery was never
widespread in the North.
Crispus Attucks, a former slave killed in the Boston Massacre of 1770,
was the first martyr to the cause of American independence from Great Britain.

1
https://ndla.no/en/subjects/subject:39/topic:1:188693/topic:1:188701/resource:1:6203
2
https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-American/Slavery-in-the-United-States
During the American Revolution, some 5,000 black soldiers and sailors fought
on the American side. After the Revolution, some slaves—particularly former
soldiers—were freed, and the Northern states abolished slavery. But with the
ratification of the Constitution of the United States, in 1788, slavery became
more firmly entrenched than ever in the South. The Constitution counted a slave
as three-fifths of a person for purposes of taxation and representation in
Congress (thus increasing the number of representatives from slave states),
prohibited Congress from abolishing the African slave trade before 1808, and
provided for the return of fugitive slaves to their owners.
In 1807 Pres. Thomas Jefferson signed legislation that officially ended
the African slave trade beginning in January 1808. However, this act did not
presage the end of slavery. Rather, it spurred the growth of the domestic slave
trade in the United States, especially as a source of labour for the new cotton
lands in the Southern interior. Increasingly, the supply of slaves came to be
supplemented by the practice of “slave breeding,” in which women slaves were
persuaded to conceive as early as age 13 and to give birth as often as possible.
Laws known as the slave codes regulated the slave system to promote
absolute control by the master and complete submission by the slave. Under
these laws the slave was chattel—a piece of property and a source of labour
that could be bought and sold like an animal. The slave was allowed no stable
family life and little privacy. Slaves were prohibited by law from learning to read
or write. The meek slave received tokens of favour from the master, and the
rebellious slave provoked brutal punishment. A social hierarchy among the
plantation slaves also helped keep them divided. At the top were the house
slaves; next in rank were the skilled artisans; at the bottom were the vast
majority of field hands, who bore the brunt of the harsh plantation life.
With this tight control there were few successful slave revolts. The revolt
led by Cato in Stono, South Carolina, in 1739 took the lives of 30 whites. A
slave revolt in New York City in 1741 caused heavy property damage. Some
slave revolts, such as those of Gabriel Prosser (Richmond, Virginia, in 1800)
and Denmark Vesey (Charleston, South Carolina, in 1822), were elaborately
planned. The slave revolt that was perhaps most frightening to slave owners
was the one led by Nat Turner (Southampton, Virginia, in 1831). Before Turner
and his co-conspirators were captured, they had killed about 60 whites.
Individual resistance by slaves took such forms as mothers killing their
newborn children to save them from slavery, the poisoning of slave owners, the
destruction of machinery and crops, arson, malingering, and running away.
Thousands of runaway slaves were led to freedom in the North and in Canada
by black and white abolitionists who organized a network of secret routes and
hiding places that came to be known as the Underground Railroad. One of the
greatest heroes of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman, a former
slave who on numerous trips to the South helped hundreds of slaves escape to
freedom.
 Free Blacks And Abolitionism: During the period of slavery, free blacks
made up about one-tenth of the entire African American population. In 1860
there were almost 500,000 free African Americans—half in the South and half in
the North. The free black population originated with former indentured servants
and their descendants. It was augmented by free black immigrants from the
West Indies and by blacks freed by individual slave owners.

SUMMARY OF “AMISTAD”

The film is a fictional portrayal of events surrounding the successful revolt

in 1839 by a group of Africans headed for slavery in the Americas.
Spielberg begins the story as 53 Africans on board the ship Amistad
stage a bloody revolt and then force two surviving crew members to sail back to
Africa.
The crew members trick the Africans into believing they are sailing home,
all the while going no further than the eastern seaboard of the U.S. After two
months of sailing a haphazard course, and low on food and water, they are
captured by a U.S. Navy ship near Connecticut.
Now the Africans must cope with the U.S. legal system which regards
blacks as property. But if they can somehow prove they are from Africa and
were stolen into slavery, they might have a chance for freedom, since the
African slave trade has been outlawed by this time.
The cause of the Africans is taken up by abolitionist Theodore Joadson
(Morgan Freeman) and a young attorney named Roger Baldwin (Mathew
McConaughey). The bewildered, infuriated African revolt leader Cinque (Djimon
Hounsou) must learn to communicate with these men who themselves are
bewildered by the Africans. 3

The year is 1839. A group of 53 Africans held captive on the slave ship
La Amistad break free of their shackles, arm themselves and forcibly take
control of the ship. They want to go back to Africa, but find that they are tricked
when they are captured again by an American naval ship off Long Island. The
Africans are then imprisoned on the charge of murder and piracy. The
remainder of the film describes their court battle for freedom. Defended at first
by Baldwin, and then ultimately before the Supreme Court by John Quincy
Adams, the Africans reclaim their freedom. The fight is viscous and long. Even
worse, the language barrier retards their lawyer's efforts for quite some time.
Once that barrier is eliminated, progress begins. 4

3
http://www.historyplace.com/specials/reviews/amistad.htm
4
https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/amistad/