Amistad Mutiny

In 1839 a group of Africans were KIDNAPPED from their homeland and transported to Cuba as slaves. While being transported from one port in Cuba to another, the Africans revolted, killed the captain and cook, and steered for the coast of Africa. The ship was eventually boarded by U.S. authorities in U.S. waters, and the Africans were imprisoned. Fierce legal battles ensued regarding entitlement to the Africans and the ship's cargo. In 1997 Steven Spielberg's company, Dream Works, released a movie based upon the uprising. The movie Amistad engendered its own legal furor amid charges that the screenplay plagiarized a 1989 novel.