12 Years a Slave Film Review

     I discovered the film critic Robbie Collin who took on the task to give her thoughts in a 12 Years a Slave movie review.

Hanging Scene in film 12 Years a Slave Illustrating the Struggle for African Americans to just keep their Lives

Paraphrase:

    The film 12 Years a Slave has greatly outmatched all competitor movies taking on the topic of slavery in American. Although the topic of slavery for film is not a common occurrence and quite controversial this movie is still described as the the best film taking on this topic. In the beginning of the movie, the audience is left shocked with the protagonist and his life in New York. This movie is about slavery and we follow Solomon Northup, a free black man in upstate New York. It isn't until Solomon is kidnapped when we understand how Solomon fits into the slavery scene. After his kidnapping, Solomon was shipped to a plantation in slave owning Louisiana in 1841. This approach on slavery is widely unique and gives it individuality from other big pictures such as Gone With the Wind and Mandingo. Films such as these are scarce but 12 Years a Slave leaves that in the past and give us one of those mature and needed "films that unpick slavery’s all-debasing power-plays, enumerate its everyday horrors, show us the rhythms and rituals that have left it lingering in that nation’s muscle memory." This film never rolls the punches and gives the audience a break, it is full on the racism and physical violence and names calling to Solomon and many other African Americans. The fact that not to long ago Solomon was a free man in New York and now subject to immense suffering strikes deep in peoples hearts because none of what is going on in the movie to fair or right. After being sold to Ford, the Louisiana plantation owner, Solomon finds himself with an overseer at the plantation and it nearing killed by hanging from a tree by his neck. With a noose around his neck Solomon can barely reach the muddy ground beneath him in order to not suffocate and the camera does not flinch and focuses and zooms on Solomon's struggle to just not suffocate and survive his cruel punishment. Not soon after this, while Solomon is on a different plantation, field girl Patsy is being repetitively whipped by the master and eventually Solomon is forced to continue the to whip the girl by his own hands. These two people in the common task of surviving are now forced to whip one another and the audience is made to watch all the events that occur. Because of unique and mature included scenes and story "12 Years a Slave isn’t simply a masterpiece, it’s a milestone."

Paragraph Practice

A paragraph from Robert Ebert's review of the movie Lincoln:


"Lincoln believed slavery was immoral, but he also considered the 13th Amendment a masterstroke in cutting away the financial foundations of the Confederacy. In the film, the passage of the amendment is guided by William Seward (David Strathairn), his secretary of state, and by Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones), the most powerful abolitionist in the House. Neither these nor any other performances in the film depend on self-conscious histrionics; Jones in particular portrays a crafty codger with some secret hiding places in his heart." - Roger Ebert



My paraphrase of this selected passage:

Throughout the entirety of film, Lincoln knew the 13th Amendment was the only clever option for the South's economic dependency on slavery to end and be irreversible. The 13th Amendment wasn't only necessary to re-individualize the South's economy but also to fortify Lincoln's ideals in anti-slavery and human rights. David Strathairn, who played William Seward in the film, and Tommy Lee Jones, who played Thaddeus Stevens, both assumed their roles and genuinely became their characters, along with the rest of the performers, without the exaggerated and artificial actions like many actors. The actors adapted their characters like unto themselves, especially Tommy Lee Jones who became the quick-witted Thaddeus Stevens with his unforthcoming desires deep down. The key persons in support of Lincoln and his ideals happened to be Seward and Stevens and the influence and abolitionist spirit they possessed greatly contributed to Lincoln's plan of having the 13th Amendment passed. 

Reconstruction Ends

Why did Reconstruction come to an end in 1877?

• There was a confrontation between President Johnson and Congress over the reconstruction of the South and the Radical Republicans wanted Johnson out of office. Congress wanted to stop Johnson from firing senate-approved officials, especially Edwin E. Stanton, so they passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867. Stanton was the Secretary of War appointed by Lincoln and he did not with Johnson's reconstruction policies. But Johnson dismissed Stanton anyways and he was tried in the House who voted 126 to 47 to impeach the president for "high crimes and misdemeanors". Johnson was one vote off of being impeached.

          Several years later in 1868, Ulysses E. Grant be

USH - C14 Reconstruction Research

Part 2 - Newspaper Research Reflection

     What did you learn that was surprising, noteworthy, or just interesting to you?  In what ways was it similar or different from what you expected to find?  How is using an archive of newspapers different from reading a textbook account of Reconstruction?

•   It was interesting the sharp contrast between newspaper of the South versus newspapers of the North. The Virginian newspaper in 1868 use of the word "negro" was more informational instead of in a way to persecute African Americans. But the Mississippian newspaper in 1865 used the "negro" in a more way to persecute the African American people and this newspaper uses "negro" about twice as much. I expected there to be a tone to persecute the African American people but I did not expect to see the drastic difference between the Virginian and Mississippian newspapers. The archive of newspapers is different from reading a textbook because we know the newspapers are primary sources and they are words from actual individuals from the time period which makes reading the newspapers for interesting.