THE AMISTAD
SCRIPT EXCERPT
| BALDWIN: | Cinque, tell us where you come from? |
| CINQUE: | I was born in Ma-ni, in Dzho-poa, in Mende-country. I have a wife, a son, and two daughters. One day, while I was travelling on a road in my country, I was seized by four men. . . . [They] took me to Lomboko, a slave trading port, where I was held prisoner with other Mende people and sold to a Spaniard. |
| BALDWIN: | Where did the Spaniard take you? |
| CINQUE: | The Spaniard put me and many other Mende on his ship. We were chained below deck, shackled around the ankles, wrists, and necks. We were forced to sleep tightly together, in bent positions. There was so little room we could not stand up straight. It was dark. There wasn’t enough food, and many of us starved. . . . |
| BALDWIN: | Did you finally reach land? |
| CINQUE: | After many weeks, we arrived on an island. We were taken off the ship and imprisoned in a city they called Havana. |
| BALDWIN: | What was it like in Havana? |
| CINQUE: | We were treated cruelly by the slave traders in Havana. We were poked and prodded, like we were cattle. Many of us were sold to the two Spaniards . . . . These men gave us Spanish names. They took us, chained, onto the ship called the Amistad. We were caged like animals on the ship and starved and beaten, as we were before. We again sailed on the ocean. |
| BALDWIN: | Did all of the ship’s crew treat you this poorly? |
| CINQUE: | Everyone who worked for the Spaniards tormented us. . . . We were certain we would all be killed. But thoughts of our Mende-country gave us strength, and we began to plan to kill our captors before they killed us. Finally, there was hope. |
| BALDWIN: | You managed to break free? |
| CINQUE: | Yes. One day, using a nail I found, I broke my chains, and I unchained my Mende people on the ship. We found sugar cane blades and rose up against the Spaniards on the ship. . . . |
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