Slavery is dead, but racism is still alive. African Americans and whites have silently been battling one another since the 17th century, yet many people are unaware of the harsh effects slavery has had on African Americans, who are still suffering from its repercussions. In 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen brings to light how the institution of slavery corrupted both whites and blacks, how slavery was about survival, and how slavery stripped African Americans of their identity. While slaves and slaveowners were corrupt (the effect of being morally depraved), African Americans had to survive, which is the state of continuing to live in spite of difficult circumstances, while maintaining their identity--the characteristics that determine who an …show more content…
individual is. Through these traits of slavery, Steve McQueen exposes the extreme violence and moral corruption of slavery which led to the roots of racism. Going to old slave plantations, we try to imagine the positions slaves were forced into--often with the typical stereotypes of them being in shackles working long hours in harsh conditions; we are unable to grasp the true emotions and mentality of slaves as well as slave owners. 12 Years a Slave constitutes as an ally to historians as it paints a true picture of slavery that corrupts both whites and blacks. Even Frederick Douglass discusses this immorality in his narrative: “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon.” He juxtaposes positive and negative connotations--“cheerful eye” and “red with rage” and “angelic” and “demon”-- to emphasize how infectious the power of being a slave owner is: they start out angelic and kind but then turn into vicious monsters. In the same way, McQueen shows how the slave owners are morally corrupt: two white men, Brown and Hamilton, deceive Solomon Northup--a successful free African-American man--and come up with an elaborate ploy to sell Northup into slavery. They purposely destroy a free man’s life to obtain money. The slave owners disregard the lives of African American slaves--patting their heads like dogs and making them dance like dolls. Not only are the whites corrupted by slavery, but the blacks are also. Patsey, a black female slave, was continuously harassed and raped by the slave owner, Edwin Epps, and none of the slaves did anything to prevent this from happening as they were all too scared of the effects of their interference. The film exposes how slavery is a monster--taking over the bodies and hearts of both slave and owner--stamping the institution and its benefections “with a savage, violent brutality--physical, psychological, and sexual--that leaves no room for excuses, apologies, or miscomprehension.” Because McQueen’s film provides a stunning drama showcasing a story which captures the resulting violence of slavery and “the brutality of its architects, protectors, and benefactors,” the audience feels the urgency of survival through the characters like Northup. By using melodramatic scenes and appealing to the audience’s sentimentality, McQueen places “violence at the heart of the story rather than making it an occasional intrusion into the circle of an otherwise thriving and ever-resilient slave community” showcasing how few slaves had the courage (or enough insanity) to survive. Once Northup is put into slavery, he is advised “If you want to survive, do and say as little as possible. Tell no one who you are. Tell no one you can read and write, unless you want to be a dead n**ger.” In order to survive, slaves had to keep out of sight and bring little attention to themselves which means trusting no one and doing whatever one can to achieve their goal. In one scene, Northup has to whip Patsey. If he didn’t, Epps would have had him whipped or killed. Through this emotionally wrenching scene, McQueen withholds an unexpected form of abuse: he deprives the audience of the emotional pain they think they are entitled to feel. The audience is forced to sympathize with slaves and see slavery for what it is: an act of violence. This realization allows for the audience to realize how slavery was about survival: everyone did what they had to to make it to the next day--surviving slavery and obtaining freedom was a desire that seemed unachievable. Not only have African Americans had to gain the strength to try and survive but they also had to do this even when they were belittled and degraded continuously.
African Americans were stripped of their identity by society. The attitudes of whites to blacks of inferiority and discrimination were evident in the legislation passed in Virginia, as those laws oppressed blacks and allowed for the legal institutionalization of slavery. In Act XXXIV, it stated that “if any slave...shall happen to be killed...it shall not be accounted felony; but the master, owner, and every such other person so giving correction, shall be free and acquit of all punishment and accusation for the same, as if such accident had never happened…” The law states that murdering a slave is okay; they will just pretend it never occured and erase the slave’s existence. They are stripping away the identity of slaves and basically saying they have no worth or life. Likewise, in 12 Years a Slave, Brown and Hamilton strip Northup of his identity and rename him Platt. They beat Northup until he accepts that he is no longer Soloman Northup. Also, when Eliza, a slave women, is separated from her children after she was promised that they would stay together, she falls into a depression--her heart aching and calling for her loved ones. Her slave master tells her not to fret and that “your children will soon be forgotten.” Eliza’s master does not value Eliza as a person nor a mother. She deems Eliza as worthless as well as her idenity of being a mother because of the color of her skin. McQueen also displays the scene of Patsey getting into an argument with Epps. Patsey goes to find some soap because she feels that she wreeks after working long hours in the plantation and is never clean. She was punished for doing so without notifying her master--belitting her identity as a woman who still cares for her appearance and femininity. Through these scenes popping out throughout the film the audience sees how
society stripped away the identity of many African Americans. The West is embarrassed of their history and often tries to sugarcoat the past, but it is important to understand our history in order to prevent it from repeating itself. However, our society has still not learned from the past and there is a continuity of discrimination against African Americans today--stripping them of their identity--as can be seen through the Black Lives Matter Movement as well as the New Jim Crow of racial bias in mass incarceration. Descrimination and racisim can be traced back to slavery which was exposed by Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave in which the audience gained an understanding of how slavery corrupted both whites and blacks, how slavery was about survival, and how slavery stripped African American’s of their identity. Yet, our society still has a lot to learn and progress to put an end to the prehistoric prejudices.
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
For example, Northup introduces the reader to a slave named Eliza Berry, who was forced to become her master’s lover, as well as to live with him on the condition that she and her children would be emancipated (25). This exemplifies how white men would use their status to sexually harass their female slaves, while avoiding the consequences because no one would believe them, and they were threatened with being whipped if they uttered a word. In addition, Northup introduces another female slave named Patsey, and he states, “Her back bore the scars of a thousand stripes; not because she was backward in her work, nor because she was of an unmindful and rebellious spirit, but because it had fallen to her lot to be the slave of a licentious master…” (116). Overall, this quote corroborates how severe their masters would penalize them both physically and mentally, as well as how unfair they were to
For more than two hundred years, a certain group of people lived in misery; conditions so inhumane that the only simile that can compare to such, would be the image of a caged animal dying to live, yet whose live is perished by the awful chains that dragged him back into a dark world of torture and misfortune. Yes, I am referring to African Americans, whose beautiful heritage, one which is full of cultural beauty and extraordinary people, was stained by the privilege given to white men at one point in the history of the United States. Though slavery has been “abolished” for quite some years; or perhaps it is the ideal driven to us by our modern society and the lines that make up our constitution, there is a new kind of slavery. One which in
Norton, Beth, et al. A People and a Nation. 8th. 1. Mason, OH: 2009. 41-42, 65-67,161,173.
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
Position: To convince my audience that although slavery occurred years ago, it still negatively affects black people in America today.”
Slavery was a practice in many countries in the 17th and 18th centuries, but its effects in human history was unique to the United States. Many factors played a part in the existence of slavery in colonial America; the most noticeable was the effect that it had on the personal and financial growth of the people and the nation. Capitalism, individualism and racism were the utmost noticeable factors during this most controversial period in American history. Other factors, although less discussed throughout history, also contributed to the economic rise of early American economy, such as, plantationism and urbanization. Individually, these factors led to an enormous economic growth for the early American colonies, but collectively, it left a social gap that we are still trying to bridge today.
The history of slavery in America is one that has reminders of the institution and its oppressive state of African Americans in modern times. The slaveholders and the slaves were intertwined in a cruel system of oppression that did not yield to either side. The white slaveholders along with their black slaves became codependent amongst each other due to societal pressures and the consequences that would follow if slaves were emancipated with race relations at a high level of danger. This codependency between the oppressed and the oppressor has survived throughout time and is prevalent in many racial relationships. The relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor can clearly be seen in Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred. In this novel, the protagonist Dana Franklin, a black woman, time travels between her present day 1977 and the antebellum era of 19th century Maryland. Throughout her journeys back to the past, Dana comes in contact with her white ancestor, Rufus Weylin, a white slave owner and Dana ultimately saves his life and intermingles with the people of the time. Butler’s story of Dana and her relationship with Rufus and other whites as she travels between the past and the present reveals how slaveholders and slaves depended on and influenced one other throughout the slaves bondage. Ultimately, the institution of slavery reveals how the oppressed and the oppressor are co-dependent; they need each other in order to survive.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
Because of the thirst of superiority whites had, they wanted to restructure the behaviors of blacks in ways that would make them behave inferior. This was aided by the Jim Crow Laws enacted during the Jim Crow period. “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” in Uncle Tom’s Children explains how the natural behaviors of blacks were affected by Jim Crow laws. Wright explains how these laws affected him personally. Right from his childhood, blacks have been restricted from having anything to do with whites. Black children were brought up in ways that would make them scared of the whites. This continued even in his adulthood. Only few blacks were fortunate to work in places where whites were, but they were always treated badly. Wright got a job in an optical company, where he worked alongside two whites, Mr. Morrie and Mr. Pease. When Wright asked both of his coworkers Mr. Morrie and Mr. Pease to tell him about the work, they turned against him. One day Mr. Morrie told Mr. Pease that Richard referred to him as "Pease," so they queried him. Because he was trapped between calling one white man a liar and having referred to the other without saying "Mr." Wright promised that he would leave the factory. They warned him, while he was leaving, that he should not tell the boss about it. Blacks were made to live and grow up under conditions that made them regard whites as superior. Whites also used blacks’ natural behaviors against them by sexually abusing them. It is natural for people to have sex, but if they forced or abused sexually this means that their natural behavior is being used against them because sexual abuse is not natural. Sarah, in “Long Black Song,” is an example of a black female that was sexually abused by whites. Sarah was married and had a child but when the white man came to her house he did not hesitate to have sex with her. She resisted him initially
Essentially southern women had little to no power outside of their domestic homes, and supported slavery as a means to escape the domestication that was demanded by the Antebellum South, by relying on the use of their slaves to handle women 's domestic chores and duties, while they focused on appearing as the ideal southern wife. The only way for women to escape their domestic responsibilities while keeping their image of a good wife, was through the purchase and use of slaves for their domestic chores.
Slavery is a period of time where people were bought, sold, and treated as property for many years. Slaves were given no rights once so ever from the time they were captured, purchased, or born. Slavery existed in many countries such as contemporary Africa, Mali, Haiti, Niger, Sudan, and Mauritania. Although slavery was equally devastating in many different countries one form of slavery that stands out the most for American history is slavery in the New World. Slaves were shipped from various locations in Africa and also different islands of the West Indies. Contrary to belief, there was a method in Africa specifically Goree Island, where wealthy Africans would sell out other Africans from their country into slavery. These “merchants” would promise wonderful and prosperous opportunities for those who chose to go to the New World and would be paid by slave traders for their services. These swindlers would have many Africans pass through the “door of no return” to the slave ships and once you passed that door you could never return. Slavery can be psychologically proven to be still reverberating in today’s world. The African American family can be wrongly judged in everyday life because the history behind slavery in the black family is not fully understood.
The Civil War was a fight against slavery in the mid to late 1800s. When the North won and abolished slavery, the South still had the mindset of slavery; they thought that black people or previous slaves were below them like they had always been. Different black people had different responses to this heinous behavior by the white Southerners. Some accepted the discriminatory treatment by the whites while others wanted vengeance for the belittling treatment as slaves. In the book The Marrow of Tradition, there are multiple black characters who exhibit different responses to the racism shown in different events throughout the novel. These characters, Dr. Miller, Josh Greene, and Jerry are greatly affect by slavery and racism as shown throughout the book.
Slavery had an impact on the Civil War. The Civil War started because people were fighting on Slaves rights to be free. The Northern and Southern people were fighting for Slavery rights to be free. While that was happening a lot of people were trying to find a way to escape from it. The Underground Railroad was a network the helped a lot Slaves escape to be free, and the Underground Railroad was a huge impact in a lot of people (Slaves).
In the Following essay I will explore and develop an analysis of how the movie Twelve Years A Slave produces knowledge about the racial discourse. To support my points, I will use “The Poetics and the Politics of Exhibiting Other Cultures” written by Henrietta Lidchi, a Princeton University text “Introduction: Development and the Anthropology of Modernity” and “Can the Subaltern Speak?” by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.