Events and Legacy of the Amistad Case of 1840

While it began more than 4,000 miles from the jurisdiction of the U.S. federal courts, the Amistad Case of 1840 remains one of the most dramatic and meaningful legal battles in America’s history. More than 20 years before the start of the Civil War, the struggle of 53 enslaved Africans, who after violently freeing themselves from their captors, went on to seek their freedom in the United States highlighted the growing abolitionist movement by turning the federal courts into a public forum on the very legality of slavery. The Enslavement In the spring of 1839, traders in the Lomboko slave factory near the West African coastal town of Sulima sent more than 500 enslaved Africans to then Spanish-ruled Cuba for sale. Most of the slaves had been taken from the West African region of Mende, now a part of Sierra Leone. At a slave sale in Havana, infamous Cuban plantation owner and slave trader Jose Ruiz bought 49 of the enslaved men and Ruiz’s associate Pedro Montes bought three young girls and a boy. Ruiz and Montes chartered the Spanish schooner La Amistad (Spanish for â€Å"The Friendship†) to deliver the Mende slaves to various plantations along the Cuban coast. Ruiz and Montes had secured documents signed by Spanish officials falsely affirming that the Mende people, having lived on Spanish territory for years, were legally owned as slaves. The documents also falsely anointed the individual slaves with Spanish names. Mutiny on the Amistad Before the Amistad reached its first Cuban destination, a number of the Mende slaves escaped from their shackles in the dark of night. Led by an African named Sengbe Pieh – known to the Spanish and Americans as Joseph Cinquà © – the escaped slaves killed the Amistad’s captain and cook, overpowered the rest of the crew, and took control of the ship. Cinquà © and his accomplices spared Ruiz and Montes on the condition that they take them back to West Africa. Ruiz and Montes agreed and set a course due west. However, as the Mende slept, the Spanish crew steered the Amistad northwest hoping to encounter friendly Spanish slaving ships headed for the United States. Two months later, in August 1839, the Amistad ran aground off the coast of Long Island, New York. Desperately in need of food and fresh water, and still planning to sail back to Africa, Joseph Cinquà © led a party onshore to gather supplies for the voyage. Later that day, the disabled Amistad was found and boarded by the officers and crew of the U.S. Navy survey ship Washington, commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Gedney. The Washington escorted the Amistad, along with the surviving Mende Africans to New London, Connecticut. After reaching New London, Lieutenant Gedney informed the U.S. marshal of the incident and requested a court hearing to determine the disposition of the Amistad and her â€Å"cargo.† At the preliminary hearing, Lieutenant Gedney argued that under admiralty law – the set of laws dealing ships at sea – he should be granted ownership of the Amistad, its cargo and the Mende Africans. Suspicion arose that Gedney intended to sell the Africans for profit and had, in fact, chosen to land in Connecticut, because slavery was still legal there. The Mende people were placed in the custody of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut and the legal battles began. The discovery of the Amistad resulted in two precedent-setting lawsuits that would ultimately leave the fate of the Mende Africans up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Criminal Charges Against the Mende The Mende African men were charged with piracy and murder arising from their armed takeover of the Amistad. In September 1839, a grand jury appointed by the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut considered the charges against the Mende. Serving as the presiding judge in the district court, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Smith Thompson ruled that the U.S. courts had no jurisdiction over alleged crimes at sea on foreign-owned vessels. As a result, all criminal charges against the Mende were dropped. During the circuit court session, abolitionist lawyers presented two writs of habeas corpus demanding that the Mende be released from federal custody. However, Justice Thompson ruled that due to the pending property claims, the Mende could not be released. Justice Thompson also noted that the Constitution and federal laws still protected the rights of slave owners. While the criminal charges against them had been dropped, the Mende Africans remained in custody because they were still the subject of multiple property claims for them pending in the U.S. district court. Who ‘Owned’ the Mende? Besides Lieutenant Gedney, the Spanish plantation owners and slave traders, Ruiz and Montes petitioned the district court to return the Mende to them as their original property. The Spanish government, of course, wanted its ship back and demanded that the Mende â€Å"slaves† be sent to Cuba to be tried in Spanish courts. On January 7, 1840, Judge Andrew Judson convened the Amistad case trial before the U.S. District Court of in New Haven, Connecticut. An abolition advocacy group had secured the services of attorney Roger Sherman Baldwin to represent the Mende Africans. Baldwin, who had been one of the first Americans to interview Joseph Cinquà ©, cited natural rights and laws governing slavery in Spanish territories as reasons the Mende were not slaves in the eyes of U.S. law. While U.S. President Martin Van Buren at first approved the Spanish government’s claim, Secretary of State John Forsyth pointed out that under the constitutionally mandated â€Å"separation of powers,† the executive branch could not interfere with the actions of the judicial branch. In addition, noted Forsyth, Van Buren could not order the release of the Spanish slave traders Ruiz and Montes from prison in Connecticut since doing so would amount to federal interference in the powers reserved to the states.   More interested in protecting the honor of his nation’s Queen, than the practices of American federalism, the Spanish minister argued that the arrest of Spanish subjects Ruiz and Montes and the seizure of their â€Å"Negro property† by the United States violated the terms of a 1795 treaty between the two nations. In light of the treaty, Sec. of State Forsyth ordered a U.S. attorney to go before the U. S. District Court and support Spain’s argument that since a U.S. ship had â€Å"rescued† the Amistad, the U.S. was obligated to return the ship and its cargo to Spain. Treaty-or-not, Judge Judson ruled that since they were free when they were captured in Africa, the Mende were not Spanish slaves and should be returned to Africa. Judge Judson further ruled that the Mende were not the private property of the Spanish slave traders Ruiz and Montes  and that the officers of the U.S. naval vessel Washington were entitled only to the salvage value from the sale of the Amistad’s non-human cargo.   Decision Appealed to U.S. Circuit Court The U.S. Circuit Court in Hartford, Connecticut, convened on April 29, 1840, to hear the multiple appeals to Judge Judson’s district court decision. The Spanish Crown, represented by the U.S. attorney, appealed Judson’s ruling that the Mende Africans were not slaves. The Spanish cargo owners appealed the salvage award to the officers of The Washington. Roger Sherman Baldwin, representing the Mende asked that Spain’s appeal should be denied, arguing that the U.S. government had no right to support the claims of foreign governments in the U.S. courts. Hoping to help speed the case ahead to the Supreme Court, Justice Smith Thompson issued a brief, pro forma decree upholding Judge Judson’s district court decision. The Supreme Court Appeal Responding to pressure from Spain and growing public opinion from the Southern states against the federal courts’ abolitionist leanings, the U.S. government appealed the Amistad decision to the Supreme Court.   On February 22, 1841, the Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Roger Taney presiding, heard opening arguments in the Amistad case. Representing the U.S. government, Attorney General Henry Gilpin argued that the 1795 treaty obligated the U.S. to return the Mende, as Spanish slaves, to their Cuban captors, Ruiz and Montes. To do otherwise, Gilpin warned the court, could threaten all future U.S. commerce with other countries. Roger Sherman Baldwin argued that the lower court’s ruling that the Mende Africans were not slaves should be upheld. Aware that a majority of the Supreme Court justices were from Southern states at the time, the Christian Missionary Association convinced former President and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to join Baldwin in arguing for the Mendes’ freedom. In what would become a classic day in Supreme Court history, Adams passionately argued that by denying the Mende their freedom, the court would be rejecting the very principles upon which the American republic had been founded. Citing the Declaration of Independence’s acknowledgment â€Å"that all men are created equal,† Adams called on the court to respect the Mende Africans’ natural rights. On March 9, 1841, the Supreme Court upheld the circuit court’s ruling that the Mende Africans were not slaves under Spanish law and that the U.S. federal courts lacked the authority to order their delivery to the Spanish government. In the court’s 7-1 majority opinion, Justice Joseph Story noted that since the Mende, rather than the Cuban slave traders, were in possession of the Amistad when it was found in U.S. territory, the Mende could not be considered as slaves imported into the U.S. illegally. The Supreme Court also ordered the Connecticut circuit court to release the Mende from custody. Joseph Cinquà © and the other surviving Mende were free persons. The Return to Africa While it declared them free, the Supreme Court’s decision had not provided the Mende with a way to return to their homes. To help them raise money for the trip, abolitionist and church groups scheduled a series of public appearances at which the Mende sang, read Bible passages, and told personal stories of their enslavement and struggle for freedom. Thanks to the attendance fees and donations raised at these appearances, the 35 surviving Mende, along with a small group of American missionaries, sailed from New York for Sierra Leone in November 1841. The Legacy of the Amistad Case The Amistad case and the Mende Africans’ fight for freedom galvanized the growing U.S. abolitionist movement and widened the political and societal division between the antislavery North and the slave-holding South. Many historians consider the Amistad case to be one of the events that led to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. After returning to their homes, the Amistad survivors worked to initiate a series of political reforms throughout West Africa that would eventually lead to the independence of Sierra Leone from Great Britain in 1961. Long after the Civil War and emancipation, the Amistad case continued to have an impact on the development of African-American culture. Just as it had helped lay the groundwork for the abolition of slavery, the Amistad case served as a rallying cry for racial equality during the modern Civil Rights movement in America.

Pride and Prejudice Essay First Impressions - 527 Words

First Impressions in Pride and Prejudice First impressions are very important in Jane Austins Pride and Prejudice. As the story develops, we discover how the prejudices and first impressions of each of the main characters change. The primary focus is on the character of Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeths judgments about other characters dispositions are accurate about half of the time. While she is correct about Mr. Collins and how absurdly self-serving he is and about Lady Catherine de Bourgh and how proud and snobbish she is, her first impressions of Wickham and Darcy steer her incorrectly. Wickham is first thought to be a gentleman by all. His good looks and his easy manner fool almost everyone, and Elizabeth†¦show more content†¦The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which tuned the tide of his popularity; for he as discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend (58). It is not only what she believes to be pride in Darcys character that makes her judge him harshly, but also her prejudice against him because of the lies Wickham has told her. Darcy sees this fault of prejudice in Elizabeth, stating that her defect is willfully to misunderstand everybody. In the end Elizabeth realizes her folly in trusting her first impressions and prejudices about the men, and states, how despicably have I acted... I, who have prided myself on my discernment! - I, who have valued myself on my abilities... The above are only a few of the major examples of first impressions, prejudice and pride in the novel, as these themes show up throughout the story. Characters besides Darcy are also accused of having too much pride, such as Bingleys sisters, Miss Darcy, Lady Catherine and others. There are also discussions about pride between Elizabeth and Darcy, and Mary discusses pride vs. vanity. Characters areShow MoreRelatedEssay on Pride and Prejudice First Impressions1113 Words   |  5 PagesFirst Impressions Summary: The original title for Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was First Impressions. Even though Pride and Prejudice is a well thought out title for the novel, First Impressions is what the novel really is about. 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Why You Should Purchase A PC Free Essays

Computers are capable of doing more things every year. There are many advantages to knowing how to use a computer, and it is important that everyone know how to use them properly. Using the information I have gathered, and my own knowledge from my 12 years of computer experience, I will explain the many advantages of owning a computer and knowing how to use a PC and I will attempt to explain why you should purchase a computer and learn how to use one properly. We will write a custom essay sample on Why You Should Purchase A PC or any similar topic only for you Order Now Webster’s New World Compact Dictionary defines a computer as â€Å"an electronic machine that performs rapid, complex calculations or compiles and correlates ata† (†Computer. ). While this definition gives one a very narrow view of what a computer is capable of doing, it does describe the basic ideas of what I will expand upon. We have been living through an age of computers for a short while now and there are already many people world wide that are computer literate. According to Using Computers: A Gateway to Information World Wide Web Edition, over 250 million Personal Computers (PC’s) were in use by 1995, and one out of every three homes had a PC (Shelly, Cashman, Waggoner, 138). Computers are easy to use when you know how they work and what the parts re. All computers perform the four basic operations of the information processing cycle: input, process, output, and storage. Data, any kind of raw facts, is required for the processing cycle to occur. Data is processed into useful information by the computer hardware. Most computer systems consist of a monitor, a system unit which contains the Central Processing Unit (CPU), a floppy-disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, speakers, a keyboard, a mouse, and a printer. Each component takes a part in one of the four operations. The keyboard and mouse are input devices that a person uses to enter data nto the computer. From there the data goes to the system unit where it is processed into useful information the computer can understand and work with. Next the processed data can be sent to storage devices or to output devices. Normally output is sent to the monitor and stored on the hard-disk or to a floppy-disk located internal of the system unit. Output can also be printed out through the printer, or can be played through the speakers as sound depending on the form it takes after it is processed. Once you have grasped a basic understanding of the basic parts and perations of a computer, you can soon discover what you can do with computers to make life easier and more enjoyable. Being computer literate allows you to use many powerful software applications and utilities to do work for school, business, or pleasure. Microsoft is the current leading producer of many of these applications and utilities. Microsoft produces software called operating systems that manage and regulate the information processing cycle. The oldest of these is MS-DOS, a single user system that uses typed commands to initiate tasks. Currently Microsoft has available operating systems that use visual cues such as icons to help enter data and run programs. These operating systems are ran under an environment called a Graphical User Interface (GUI’s). Such operating systems include Windows 3. xx, Windows 95, and Windows NT Workstation. Windows 95 is geared more for use in the home for productivity and game playing whereas Windows NT is more business orientated. The article entitled â€Å"Mine, All Mine† in the June 5, 1995 issue of Time stated that 8 out of 10 PC’s worldwide would not be able to start or run if it were not for Microsoft’s operating systems like MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows NT (Elmer-Dewitt, 1995, p. 50). By no means has Microsoft limited itself to operating systems alone. Microsoft has also produced a software package called Microsoft Office that is very useful in creating reports, data bases, spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents for school and work. Microsoft Office: Introductory Concepts and Techniques provides a detailed, step-by-step approach to the four programs included in Microsoft Office. Included in this package are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Word is a word processing program hat makes creating professional looking documents such as announcements, resumes, letters, address books, and reports easy to do. Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program, has features for data organization, calculations, decision making, and graphing. It is very useful in making professional looking reports. Microsoft Access, a powerful database management system, is useful in creating and processing data in a database. Microsoft PowerPoint is â€Å".. a complete presentation graphics program that allows you to produce professional looking presentations† (Shelly, Cashman, Vermaat, 2). PowerPoint is flexible enough so that you can create electronic presentations, overhead transparencies, or even 35mm slides. Microsoft also produces entertainment and reference programs. â€Å"Microsoft’s Flight Simulator is one of the best selling PC games of all time† (Elmer-Dewitt, 50). Microsoft’s Encarta is an electronic CD-ROM encyclopedia that makes for a fantastic alternative to 20 plus volume book encyclopedias. In fact, it is so popular, it outsells the Encyclopedia Britannica. These powerful business, productivity, and entertainment applications are just the beginning of what you an do with a PC. Knowing how to use the Internet will allow you access to a vast resource of facts, knowledge, information, and entertainment that can help you do work and have fun. According to Netscape Navigator 2 running under Windows 3. , â€Å"the Internet is a collection of networks, each of which is composed of a collection of smaller networks† (Shelly, Cashman, Jordan, N2). Information can be sent over the Internet through communication lines in the form of graphics, sound, video, animation, and text. These forms of computer media are known as hypermedia. Hypermedia is accessed through hypertext links, which are pointers to the computer where the hypermedia is stored. The World Wide Web (WWW) is the collection of these hypertext links throughout the Internet. Each computer that contains hypermedia on the WWW is known as a Web site and has Web pages set up for users to access the hypermedia. Browsers such as Netscape allow people to â€Å"surf the net† and search for the hypermedia of their choice. There are millions of examples of hypermedia on the Internet. You can find art, photos, information on business, the government, and colleges, television chedules, movie reviews, music lyrics, online news and magazines, sport sights of all kinds, games, books, and thousands of other hypermedia on the WWW. You can send electronic mail (E-Mail), chat with other users around the world, buy airline, sports, and music tickets, and shop for a house or a car. All of this, and more, provides one with a limitless supply of information for research, business, entertainment, or other personal use. Online services such as America Online, Prodigy, or CompuServe make it even easier to access the power of the Internet. The Internet alone is almost reason enough to become computer literate, but there is still much more that computers can do. Knowing how to use a computer allows you to do a variety of things in several different ways. One of the most popular use for computers today is for playing video games. With a PC you can play card games, simulation games, sport games, strategy games, fighting games, and adventure games. Today’s technology provides the ultimate experiences in color, graphics, sound, music, full motion video, animation, and 3D effects. Computers have also become increasingly useful n the music, film, and television industry. Computers can be used to compose music, create sound effects, create special effects, create 3D life-like animation, and add previous existing movie and TV footage into new programs, as seen in the movie Forrest Gump. All this and more can be done with computers. There is truly no time like the present to become computer literate. Computers will be doing even more things in the future and will become unavoidable. Purchasing and learning about a new PC now will help put PC’s into the other two-thirds of the homes worldwide and make the transition into a computer age easier. How to cite Why You Should Purchase A PC, Essay examples

Free Hamlets Effects of Parental Relationsh Essay Example For Students

Free Hamlets: Effects of Parental Relationsh Essay ips on Children as Evidenced by Hamlet Hamlet essaysEffects of Parental Relationships on Children as Evidenced by Hamlet Families are the essential building blocks of the relationships we form in the later years of our lives. If we are given unconditional love by those we hold most dear, we learn to trust in others and their love for us. However, if we do not receive the appropriate attention, we may grow to believe that we are incapable of either being loved or loving others. These kinds of proceedings in a household may lead a child to a lifetime of troubling consequences. Just as important as the relationship they hold with us is the relationship between the mother and father that we grow up observing. Parents should maintain a healthy relationship in order to prevent their children from forming a skewed image of love and trust. After Hamlets experience with his mothers incestuous remarriage to Claudius, he no longer sees love as a pleasant sentiment. Gertrude exclaims the exact basis of her sons apparent madness when, in response to Claudiuss proclamation that Polonius knows the origin, she exclaims I doubt it is no other but the main, / His fathers death and oerhasty marriage. (II. ii. 59-60). This swift and incestuous marriage suggests to Hamlet the impermanence of human affection as well as of life, and it also, less obviously, compels him to think of the violation of the union which gave him his own life and being. (Scott 110). He learns from this occurance that love is nothing but a fleeting emotion, with no meaning to it. This attitude towards love spills over into his treatment of Ophelia. Hamlets exclamation of Frailty, thy name is woman! (I. ii. 152) applies in his mind, not only to Gertrude, but now also to Ophelia. He is deeply hurt when he comes to her after his exchange with the ghost of his fa ther. She does not respond to him with loving concern, but instead rushes from the room to tell her father of the insanity that she has witnessed. He discovers that he cannot trust the one woman he loves. Hamlet feels quite out of love with Love, and unable to trust anyone because he has been betrayed by the two women in his life: his mother and his lover (Harris 157). Hamlet has completely lost his trust in Gertrude after her show of unfaithfulness by marriage to her fathers brother. He is left with no option but to wonder if she was involved in the murder of his father (Shipley 629). He feels deeply betrayed by Gertrude not only in this respect, but also because she completely lacks sympathy for young Hamlet during his mourning for his fathers death. She is essentially inert, oblivious to the whole realm of human experience through which her son travels. She seems not to care, and seems particularly not to care about his grief. (Scott 110). This lack of understanding is evident when Claudius and Gertrude are attempting to inform Hamlet that his unmanly grief is unnecessary. Gertrude explains to Hamlet, Thou knowst death tis common, all that lives must die, / Passing through nature to eternity. Hamlet responds, Ay, madam, it is common. The Queen asks, If it be, / Why seems it so particular with thee Hamlet rudely retorts, Seems, madam Nay, it is. I know not seems.? (I. ii. 76-81). Gertrude does not comprehend the enormity of her sons emotions at the loss of his father, further tossing her in the boiling betrayal that Hamlet feels. .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 , .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .postImageUrl , .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 , .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5:hover , .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5:visited , .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5:active { border:0!important; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5:active , .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5 .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ud4d17f60d164bf61372e7eb2309778e5:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Dante Alighieri EssayThese distortions of love and trust occur not only in Hamlet, but also in modern day life, after cases of divorce. Statistics show that the divorce rate in the United States is rising rapidly. Although not all of these come in homes with children, those that do usually occur when the children are young and still living at home. If the divorce does not occur on healthy terms, the experience may leave a child with strong mixed emotions concerning future relationships. Divorce sends the message to children that intimate relationships are not stable institutions. Many grow up believing that every lover will desert them and therefore cannot trust them. The author of The Love They Lost, Stephanie Staal, was the child of a divorced couple. She writes, Beyond our parents experience, we see divorce everywhere among friends, colleagues, other relatives As a result, overall attitudes toward love and marriage become increasingly laced with caution. (178) Experts explain this feeling of insecurity in intimate relationships by rationalizing that children who grow up with divorced parents are more likely to go through a divorce, and may even expect that their relationships will fail. Because they do not have a fit model of marriage or relationships in their mind, they may gain a skewed picture that they recreate in their behavior. Furthermore, many times they are deprived of the emotional security that a loving family may provide, thus preventing them from obt aining the ability to form healthy relationships as adults. When divorce denies children what British psychiatrist John Bowlby refers to as a secure base, they are often left behind to start below ground zero in adult relationships (Staal 178). According to psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, this secure base for intimacy cannot be found until the child finds an identity for himself. When the child goes through an identity crisis (usually during adulthood), it becomes important to determine why his parents married and then broke apart in an effort to further understand himself and establish his role in society. Erikson points out that one can only find intimacy and trust in others after forming a firm sense of ones own identity, saying, It is only when identity formation is well on its way that true intimacy which is really a counterpointing as well as a fusing of identities is possible. (Staal 27). Although not all cases of divorce may end in this fashion, more than likely, most will. It is a difficult experience for children to adjust to and compensate for in their behavior. The same is true of Hamlet in respect to Gertrudes rapid remarriage to the murderer of her recently departed husband. Her actions have an effect on her sons way of thinking and ultimately, acting throughout the play. Love and trust are the two most difficult emotions for children in these situations to rebuild after a complicated experience. Therefore, to protect their children, parents should always maintain a healthy, cordial relationship.