“Who we are, is who we were”, was the persuading point Atty. Baldwin states reaching into the hearts of the jurors. Telling a story about the intriguing life and life lost of the Mende people. Their ending up in America and the tragedy and violent cruel torture they endured not only on ‘La Amistad” , but also the treatment they received here in America. Who were these people? Why was it such an issue on whose “property” they were? The time was around 1854, and the progression toward the Civil War had begun. Stephen Spielberg’s film “The Amistad” is an illustrative tale of history’s inevitable course. On the surface, Spielberg relates the journey of Cinque and his people to the Americas. In a