FACTS
The majority of illegally deported slaves did not go to the United States. They were shipped to Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica. Only about five percent, in fact, were sold to North American plantation owners. Slavery became the backbone of agriculture in the Deep South during the 1800s. Still, on the eve of the Civil War, less than a quarter of southern families owned any slaves at all.
Most Americans know the most famous slave trader of the 1800s, although not by name. That's because Reverend John Newton is popular for what he did after his conversion to abolitionism. He penned the hymn "Amazing Grace." Appropriately, it is included on the soundtrack of Amistad.
the English translation of "amistad" is "friendship." No doubt the word came to mean something quite different in the Mende language.
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