yr13_ia_2007_macphail_e

=Conclusion (100-150 words)= It is clear that, although the director of Amistad may have taken creative liberties whilst making the film, it could be said that this was necessary. It would perhaps be more of a sin to not include events such as the throwing of slaves overboard, or chaining them together below the deck. By not including these events in the film, the audience would not have been able to see the horrors that had taken place on board some of the slave ships. I think therefore that the director felt it necessary to include such an event, even though it never actually took place on board Amistad. By stretching the truth, Spielberg has the ability to show audiences the true horrors of the slave trade as a whole, rather than just focusing on one particular event. If Spielberg had wanted to just show a certain incident he could have chosen any number of specific cases, such as the Zong, but by incorporating elements of many ships, Spielberg depicts an accurate consolidation of the slave trade. In conclusion, it seems although the film may not be one hundred percent correct, the ideas behind the film, as well the historical events that took place, lend themselves quite well to the historian studying the transatlantic slave trade.