The slave ship at the center of Steven Spielberg’s 1997 film Amistad is named La Amistad.
The film dramatizes the 1839 revolt by Africans who had been transported aboard La Amistad. After taking control of the vessel, the captives were seized near Long Island and faced a major legal dispute over whether they were property or illegally kidnapped free people.
Anthony Hopkins plays former U.S. president and lawyer John Quincy Adams, who argues before the Supreme Court. Djimon Hounsou portrays Cinqué, the revolt’s leader, while Morgan Freeman plays abolitionist Theodore Jodson, a fictional character created for the film.
The real case reached the United States Supreme Court in 1841. The justices ruled that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and had the right to resist and return home. The ship’s name is sometimes written without the article, but “La Amistad” is the vessel’s standard name.