By JERRY O'BRIEN
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

For an episode all but ignored by establishment historians for nearly 150 years, the story of the Amistad uprising, trial and liberation is now experiencing a remarkable rebirth.

Steven Spielberg's motion picture is only the most visible example of a striking cultural synchronicity that includes an Amistad opera, an Amistad novel and the construction of a replica of the Amistad schooner at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.

And it is a measure of Spielberg's influence that publishers are scrambling to reissue books on the Amistad incident and museum directors are mounting exhibitions designed to play off a growing public awareness of a once-little-known tale of antebellum America.

"It is the perfect story," said Howard Jones, the University of Alabama history professor whose 1987 Mutiny on the Amistad was the first in-depth work on the incident.

That may be the reason why, until now, the episode has primarily attracted the attention of novelists and authors of popular history, writers naturally drawn to character, conflict and interweaving plot lines.

Jones's book was reissued by Oxford University Press this year with a banner above the title declaring, ``The events that inspired the major motion picture.''

Also back in print are: Black Mutiny: The Revolt on the Schooner Amistad by William A. Owens, first published in 1968, and Black Odyssey: The Case of the Slave Ship Amistad by Mary Cable, first published in 1971.

Books on Amistad for young readers will be especially abundant, with forthcoming volumes by Joyce Annette Barnes, Helen Kromer, Walter Dean Myers and Veronica Chambers joining the recently published The Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition by Karen Zeinert.

Also in the hunt for readers' attention are The Voyage of the Amistad by Maya Angelou and the inevitable novelization of the screenplay, Amistad: A Novel, by David Franzoni, Steven Zaillian and Alexs D. Pate.

Writer David Pesci of Connecticut was doing research for a murder mystery when he came upon an Amistad reference entirely by accident. He was hooked.

And when Pesci's publisher realized that a Spielberg movie was in the works, with much of the filming at Rhode Island and Connecticut locations, the book's local distribution was pushed up three months. Pesci's first novel, Amistad: The Thunder of Freedom, arrived in March.

On the stage, The Lyric Opera in Chicago, on Nov. 29, presented the world premiere of composer Anthony Davis's latest work, the opera Amistad, with a libretto by his cousin, Thulani Davis.

The composer of operas about Malcolm X and Patty Hearst, Davis has been working on his Amistad for a decade and has scored it for an orchestra that includes a jazz quintet and an African drummer.

Closer to home, the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and the United Black & Brown Fund of Rhode Island open an exhibition, "Amistad Speaks: Dedicated to the Keepers of the Story," on Jan. 29, along with a reception and book-signing for historian Howard Jones. The society is located at 202 Washington St., Providence.

The two groups also are planning a forum, "A Dialogue from Within: Africans in the Diaspora," for Feb. 28, and a conference, "Amistad: From Africa to the Americas," for March 7.

Other events in March and April are in the works. For more information, call the heritage society at 751-3490 or the fund at 521-2830.

Keith Stokes, the executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, said that plans are under way for a number of historical and educational programs in Newport, possibly in cooperation with Connecticut's Amistad Foundation.

At Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, a nonprofit group, Amistad America Inc., is raising money to build "the freedom schooner Amistad."

Planning for the $2.8-million project began nearly five years ago, and construction at the seaport begins March 8, with a major celebration marking the laying of the keel.

The 77-foot, two-masted schooner will be built with 65 tons of hand-hewn South Carolina oak and will be completed in 2000. The vessel will be used as a floating classroom, stopping at ports around the country to bring the Amistad story to students and to promote Connecticut tourism.

On Friday, Mystic Seaport unveils "Voyage to Freedom," an exhibition that includes historical documents and artifacts from the period and from the making of the movie.

Also on that day, Mystic Seaport opens a Web site titled "Exploring Amistad: Race and the Boundaries of Slavery in Antebellum Maritime America." A live Webcast panel discussion is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m.

The seaport also is preparing, with Cinegram Media of New Jersey, an interactive educational CD-ROM on the Amistad incident for a March release. Call Mystic Seaport at 888-973-2767.

The New Haven Colony Historical Society continues through next year an exhibition of rare paintings, letters and pamphlets related to the Amistad story, ``Cinque Lives Here: Amistad Artifacts from the Collections of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.''

Jones will lecture on Amistad at the society on Jan. 28 at 5:30 p.m. Call 203-562-4183.

Located on Whitney Avenue in New Haven, Conn., the society counts among its holdings the portrait of Cinque painted in the fall of 1839 by Nathaniel Jocelyn, who visited Cinque in the New Haven jail. Jocelyn's older brother, Simeon, helped form the Amistad defense committee with Lewis Tappan.

The Connecticut Historical Society, on Elizabeth Street in Hartford, opens a major exhibition Feb. 18, "Amistad: A True Story of Freedom."

The installation will include a multimedia gallery, recreated environments, interactive devices and 93 period artifacts. Call 860-236-5621.

Also, the National Archives, in Washington, D.C., last week put on year-long display a pair of documents from the Supreme Court case: a request for lower-court files in John Quincy Adams's hand and a one-page summary of the Supreme Court decision written by a clerk.

Television is weighing in, as well, with historian Howard Jones participating in a biography of Cinque for A&E, a discussion of the African slave trade on the History Channel and an HBO documentary on the making of Spielberg's Amistad.

Finally, the motion picture has a legal twist all its own.

Writer Barbara Chase-Riboud filed suit in a Los Angeles court accusing Spielberg and his studio, DreamWorks SKG, of plagiarizing its treatment of the Amistad story from her 1989 novel Echo of Lions .

Chase-Riboud's request for an injunction to stop the release of the film is expected to be heard this month.

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