Chessart's First Common Bond Quiz

Answer: slavery

The 13th Amendment prohibited "slavery or involuntary servitude", while the 14th provides for due process.

Answer: Long

The first white people to establish a community on Long Island were Dutch immigrants who arrived in 1636. A deal was soon struck with the 13 Algonquin tribes inhabiting the island, securing it for the Netherlands. In reference to its size (118 miles in length), the Dutch chose to call it Lange Eylandt (Long Island).

Answer: Cuba

Granma is also the name of the boat on which Fidel Castro returned to Cuba from Mexico in December of 1956.

Answer: Spain

Sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella, under whose rule Spain was greatly strenghened. Earlier in 1492, for example, Granada was conquered, marking the victorious conclusion of the long struggle against the Moors, and the following year a treaty with France gave Spain the ancient province of Roussillon.

Answer: Martin Van Buren

Van Buren was Andrew Jackson's Vice President and his most trusted and loyal advisor. Accordingly, he succeeded Jackson after Jackson left the White House in 1837. Economic problems, however, doomed his re-election bid. Van Buren once said that the two happiest days of his life were his entrance into the office of president and his surrender of the office.

Answer: John Quincy Adams

Adams had a distinguished career in the House after he left the White House. In fact, it could be said that his career as an ex-president was more successful than his service as President, an observation which could also apply to the more recent ex-Presidencies of Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter. Adams' stint in the House was highlighted by a persistent opposition to slavery, which caused him to regularly offer petitions against slavery in the District of Columbia, contrary to a House rule prohibiting such petitions because of their divisiveness.

He was also known as the father of the Smithsonian for his advocacy of federal efforts in scientific research and exploration, and at the age of 73 he successfully advocated the cause of the Amistad prisoners before the U.S. Supreme Court, even though he had not practiced law for many years.

Answer: Steven Spielberg

Spielberg did "Hook" during the period following the less-than-successful performance of his first "message" movie, the 1987 "The Color Purple". His next serious movie, "Schindler's List", was better received and won the Oscar. His third one, "Amistad", again received a mixed reception.

Answer: Anthony Hopkins

Hopkins won a best actor Oscar for the 1991 "The Silence of the Lambs", and has reprised the role for the 2001 "Hannibal" and the 2002 "Red Dragon".

Answer: Morgan Freeman

The film won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actress. Freeman was nominated for best actor but lost out to Daniel Day-Lewis for "My Left Foot".

Answer: Amistad

The Amistad was a SLAVE ship which was discovered off the coast of LONG ISLAND in 1839. The Africans on board had mutinied and taken over the ship, attempting to sail back to Africa from where they had recently been kidnapped. The ship had set sail from CUBA, and after it landed in the U.S. the government of SPAIN demanded the ship and its cargo, including the Africans, to be returned to Spain, which U.S. President MARTIN VAN BUREN wanted to do in order to wash his hands of the situation. However, the U.S. Supreme Court, after hearing eloquent arguments, including one by ex-President JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, ruled that the Africans had been illegally kidnapped in volation of existing treaties, and ordered them set free. STEVEN SPEILBERG made a movie of this in 1997, in which ANTHONY HOPKINS played the aging John Quincy Adams, and MORGAN FREEMAN plays a character based on the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Question 4, by the way, also contains a hidden clue in that neither Columbus nor the Amistad arrived at their intended destinations.