Thursday, October 2, 2014

12 Years a Slave - African American Studies Classes

Greetings, Class.

The class attended a showing of 12 Years a Slave.

What are your initial thoughts about the film?  Ultimately, we will make connections between the historical text book and our previous knowledge about African Americans.   


We are going to consider how 12 Years a Slave  confirms, complicates or changes what we understand about African American Studies.   We will have a brief discussion in class. 


Consider these questions.

1.  How does 12 Years a Slave connect with your readings about chattel slavery in the early 19th century?


2. What connections can you make between the film and the slave codes and other laws pertaining to African Americans and enslaved people?


3. What connections can you make about plantation society?  How did the characters playing the roles of slave master, slave master's wife, slave master's love interests, slave and  paid servant confirm, complicate, or change what you understood about life on a plantation and commodified bodies?


4.  What are the connections between technology, invention and slave life that were highlighted in the movie?  Describe the connection in two to three sentences. 


5.  How does the film demonstrate that chattel slavery was toxic to all parties, even if profitable to some?


Please feel free to share any connections that are not expressed here. 

27 comments:

  1. Something that I found interesting while watching: When we think of plantations and slavery we often think of the relationship between the master and the slave, and as we saw from the movie some masters were "better" than others. But we often forget to focus on the dynamics of other relationships, like slave and overseer or slave woman and the master's wife/children. Those relationships were often just as dangerous and unpredictable; even if the master was pleased with his slave's behavior there were still a number of other people who could cause trouble or harm a slave.

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    1. I think that what you detailed was very perceptive. The whole scene with Solomon and the dumb overseer really displays that well, I think. I also think it was interesting that obviously at the first plantation, Solomon"s master clearly respected his abilities and opinion's, but not his person. That was demonstrated by the scene where Solomon tries to tell his master that he is a free man using the channel of respect the master has for Solomon. It doesn't work and the master sells him off. So I think there was unpredictability because the overseers and family members of the master where unpredictable and unaccountable to the master, and also because the master was unaccountable to the master, but rather to money.

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  2. At first, I didn't think much of the scene where the other black gentleman walked into the store against his master's will. Looking back, I realized that maybe that man was probably intrigued by the free status of Solomon and followed him into the store. His master gave Solomon a look that he understood what the black gentleman was trying to do.

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  3. Something that I found interesting, is that African Americans that were free ended up becoming slaves. Prior to taking this course I never knew that happened.

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  4. Something interesting I found in 12 years of slave is when Solemn was hung and he had to keep leverage in order to stay alive. As Solemn was hanging from the tree other slaves walked passed him. I would never expect that people would watch him hang i thought someone would help.

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  5. Something I found interesting was how slaves would risk their lives to protect another slave(s). In the case of the movie a slave risked his life to save a female slave from being raped by the overseer on the boat. I found this interesting because although these slaves were dehumanized and stripped of their rights,they still held on to their humanity, moral beliefs, and dignity, even when it meant risking their own lives.

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  6. This film so far has been nothing more but powerful from my perspective. Even though Solomon was not considered to be free, It is still crazy to see that one minute he was considered free man trying to live a semi-American dream and then the next minute he is being beaten repeatably until his flesh is visible or until one has got enough pleasure from dehumanizing him as an individual.

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  7. While I have heard about the movie "12 Years a Slave" from talking to people who have seen the movie this is my first time seeing it for myself and it has been nothing less than eye opening, powerful, brilliant but also tough to watch. I say that because seeing parts of our history being played infront of our eyes just make me think of just how bad it was for my ancestors who had to endure the hardship of not only being brought over to a "foreign" land in which they were removed from their homeland but to also have your families torn apart in the process and dehumanized is something that most people people today including myself could not think about possibly enduring.

    As I continue to watch the movie I hope to gain a new perspective of what my ancestors had to endure and look further into my history and possibly pass this information along to others so that we will never forget part of our history.

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  8. Watching the movie I almost cried I feel that most people don't know how bad it was for blacks then I tell my friends abiut this and most of them where shocked

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  9. Chattel slavery is what this movie deals with and it can be expressed during the scene set up like an auction. All the captives were standing in a living room as they were sold, traded, and turned into property rather than people. Realizing the values placed on these humans makes one respect the knowledge of our history.

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  10. The young woman who intrigued me the most in the film was the woman who was separated from her two young children. I remember the scene where she was talking to Solomon about losing her children and how she had done some things in her life she was not proud of in the hopes of receiving her freedom. Then it made me think back to the scene on the boat where one of the boat overseers took her and I'm pretty sure we can all imagine what happened. During this scene the young woman showed no resistance to the overseer, which made me wonder if she thought this might grant her freedom and how many other young African woman.

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  11. 5. Chattel slavery was in fact a disease that affected the whole human race. It was a relationship that forced an overseer to carry a big heavy ego and react violently to his problems. It caused even masters who wanted to be the good guy when making their money to become greed centered. And of course most dramatically people where treated like property for generations.

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  12. The movie confirmed everything that I believed about slavery on a plantation. It was unfair and unjust the way that slaves were treated. For example, Patsey was a remarkable worker and picked more cotton than anyone but that wasn't good enough. She worked hard and did what she had to do, but it wasn't good enough because she wasn't able to get soap without being punished. The master's wife was jealous of Patsey, which disgusts me because Patsey had no interest for her master and it's not like she wanted relations with him but she was still abused.

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  13. I feel as though chattel slavery was identified in this story a lot especially with the way Solomon was tricked into slavery and the steps that followed his capturing. The plantation society to me showed a lot of irony, especially with the masters and their frequent use of the bible and religion to throw at slaves in order for them to obey. I do believe this movie is a little different from other movies with similar content because this time around we had a wife of the master who was not so quite about her dislike of the masters other interest. The hanging scenes were also something that I paid a lot of attention to, because in each scene there was like some underlying message that we were supposed to recognize. Then with mistress Shaw, that scene was interesting because you could see how Patsey admired her and the advice she was given from the mistress which basically promised her the same life as the mistress as long as she stayed loyal to the master. Overall, I feel as though there is a lot we can all take from this movie and appreciate being able to watch it in class.

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  14. 12 Years A Slave is the most realistic movie about slavery I have ever seen. They don't hold anything back . With the women grieving over being taken alway from her children never to see then again was heartbreaking . The part that stuck with me the most was when Patsey and being whipped and you could see the blood coming from her back . It was hard to watch but it was what life was like on the plantation .

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  15. My initial thoughts about the film weren't shocking because I have seen movies about commodified bodies. However, it was still and always will be disturbing and sad to see human beings being treated like nothing. Chattel slavery is clearly depicted in this film. Commodified bodies being put into an "auction" where they had to showcase their best abilities. You could tell that white people did not see them as equal because they truly believed that they had a right to own other people and found ways to misconstrue the Bible which is something else I found ridiculous. Overall, I wasn't surprised by the things that occured in the movie however that doesn't make it any less disturbing to see. The movie confirmed more about what we have been learning regarding chattel slavery, gang systems, etc.

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  16. This movie portrayed technology in a very prevalent way. It showed new physical technology such as a steamboat bringing slaves more efficiently to the plantations and trading blocks. This film also portrayed the slaves almost as a form of technology. They were dehumanized and treated not as people, but as property and machines.

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  17. Technology being used with the log scene. Solomon knew how to get the logs down the river bank and was successful. This shows how smart he was and also how easy he is able to make resources out of his surroundings.

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  18. 4. Solomon used technology multiple times throughout the movie. He wrote a letter to be free and gave it to Brad Pitt's character. He also calculated the tree cutting for his slave owners lumber business. Also, he used berries to help with his writing utensils.

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  19. I saw that certain masters treated their slaves with respect and looked at them as family. You also had masters that were more rude and treated their slaves like property. I also learned about the gang systems that worked together to work more efficiently.

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  20. my perspective on the movie was that it showed and explained chattel slavery to me better, for example when during the auctions and how the slaves were sold. Its crazy to think a free black man in the north could be kidnapped and put into slavery in the south. This movie showed me more about slavery and how realistic is was back in the past than any other movie slavery movie I have watched. I thought it was neat how people would use berries for ink and how talented they were with instruments. The movie showed me how big of a nightmare that slavery was in the early times.

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  21. The technology in 12 Years A Slave while not the digital technology we have today there was very significant in a time when many slaves didn't even know how to read. For example Solomon using berries as ink for his letters was something that was pretty advanced for someone who pretty much had nothing.

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  22. This was my first time watching 12 Years, A Slave. I mentioned something about it on Twitter. Someone told me the the movie was hilarious. I did not find it to be funny at all. I found it to be horrifying. So glad I did not have to endure that pain, my mouth now would have most definitely get me into trouble. Chattel Slavery was demonstrated well in this movie. Most slave owners only wanted the woman, however woman where not willing to leave their children behind. Plat tried to be sneaky about his knowledge of being able to read and write. He found things to use to help him write messages to others, such as the berries and the candle.

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  23. I've learned that white slave owners would sometimes have affairs with some of the women whom were slaves. I had no idea that slaves such as the mistress to one of the slaves owners could live a lavish life such as if she were his actual wife. From the movie it seemed as if they had very high interest in the black women than their Caucasian counter parts.

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  24. 12 years a slave opened my eyes to certain aspects of slavery I tried not to see. For example, how slaves were treated, how slave mistresses were treated by the slave masters and their wives and how gruesome these "Commodified bodies" beatings were. I appreciated seeing every lash that hit a slaves back, every hanging and glass bottle thrown because it doesn't sugarcoat the truth. People always ask why slaves didn't revolt and fight against being enslaved. But they way I see it all the fight had been beaten out of them, and if not them than someone they or their mother or grandmother knew.

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  25. One of the forms of technology was simply the process of how the slaves were worked. the first scene of the movie mentions, ever so subtly, gang systems. This was arguably the most profitable invention since the cotton gin, in terms of slavery. As we know gang systems was a system pitting groups of slaves against each other in a competition of work. The gang the worked the hardest got rewarded. That word I use loosely (rewarded), this meant that they got done with work early or got some favor with the master.

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  26. One thing that I thought was interesting was the story told by Eliza about her previous family. She says how she was treated like family until her master died and passed all of his property on to his daughter. the daughter didn't like Eliza and therefore had her shipped away. What I would like to know more is rather or not his daughter was married or if she simple was a landowner.

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