So says Sengbe Pieh (a 26-year-old illegally-captured Mendi from the country of Sierra Leone) to John Quincy Adams (his attorney), in Steven Spielberg’s film version of the Amistad Incident.
The actual case, argued by Adams in the Supreme Court, helped push the United States to the brink of Civil War. At issue was whether Sengbe (also known as Joseph Cinque) and his fellow captives had the right to be free men (and return to their own country) or whether they could be sold (as property) to plantation owners or slave traders.