Chapter 8: Amistad Tune: Yankee Doodle

Heidi Hardin, Chapter 8: Amistad Tune: Yankee Doodle. Tempera on Paper with Mixed Media Collage, 24” x 18”    These are the notes that I transcribed from the Spielberg movie Amistad this morning:   "We are not alone," Cinque says. "No, we are not alone. We have righteousness, justice, reason on our side," John Quincy Adams replies. "I meant my ancestors. I will call into the past, far back into the beginning of time, and beg them to come and help me. I will reach back and draw them into me and they must come for at this moment I am the whole reason they have existed at all." During the trial of the prisoners of the Amistad (Spanish for 'friendship') Adams, offers that "the natural state of mankind is freedom." He says, "the proof of this is the length a man, woman or child will go to regain it once taken. He will break loose his chains; he will decimate his enemies; he will try and try and try, against all odds, against all preju­dices, to get home. If not, what do we do with the embar