In Class Essay

The biggest challenge for a movie director is getting people excited to watch his or her movie. This is a very big challenge for the director of Glory to get a crowd that will be interested in this subject. During the release date of Glory the other had to find a way to not just attract the African American people but also the whites. A Rogert Ebert review says, “I didn’t understand why it led to be told by the point of view of the 54^th’s white commanding officer”, “…. why does the top billing in this movie go to a white actor.”(rogertebert.com) The director of this movie needed a way to attract the white customers, so by narrating the movie from a white’s perspective he is able to relate the movie to the black and white crowds. The perspective of the white officer provides a look of what is was like for their people during this time too. Also this narration can be used to show how blacks were treated and viewed at this time by whites. Because the narrator is white it relates back to the actual setting of the movie. The black soldiers were mostly runaway slaves and volunteer slaves, so they had no teachings of reading and writing. Slaves were often punished if they knew how to read or write. Therefore there was no journal for a black soldier to read from as the narrator, unlike Captain Shaw who’s white. From this movie you are able to see that fighting in the war brought some whites and blacks in the Union together. Rogert Ebert review says “Black march as far, bleed as much and die as soon, they argue. Why should they be paid less for the same work? Shaw and his second command, Cabot Forbes, eventually see the logic in this protest and join their men in refusing their paychecks.”(rogertebert.com) By refusing the pay checks the two officers showed that they felt the same as the blacks about the situation. This showed brother hood and that the white officers stood by their troop no matter the color. The director has a challenge of shortening a war and events that lasted for four years into a two hour movie. To do this the director had to make the marches to different areas short when in reality these marches could have been years. The seasons go by in a matter of scene to scene. The process of getting the black army strong and ready to battle could have been much more time consuming than shown in the movie. For example there could have been many soldiers that died and that were added to the army during this training period.  General Benjamin F. Butler [Union commander] retained slaves within his line at Fort Monroe as contraband of war (encyclopediavirginia.com).
         In 12 Years A Slave I was able to clearly see the events that I have heard about in the history of African Americans. The kidnapping, the shipping and selling, plantation work, and punishment. I learned about the relationship between house slaves and the wives of plantation masters. Many times in this movie Mrs. Epps was jealous of Mr.Epps relationship with Patsey. Even though Mr.Epps was raping Patsey he still showed favoritism towards her that was obvious to Mrs.Epps. Mrs.Epps started to treat Patsey worse than any other slave, by abusing her, working her more, and giving her less treats. One point that the director quickly pointed out was Mrs. Epps power over the male slaves as well. In one scene Mrs. Epps told Solomon that he should never try to read and right, and be a good slave by being dumb. This showed me that the woman of the plantation could be just as intimidating as the male master. This interested me a lot that I did  further research on this subject.  I founded on inquiriesjournal.com, white women were able to use sexual control over slaves by threatening to say the slave raped or tried to rape them. Also in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , "I have myself seen the master of such a household head was bowed down in shame for it was known in the neighborhood that his daughter had selected one of the meanest slave on his plantation to be the father of his first grandchild."(inquiriesjournal.com) From the research and these quotes I've come to a conclusion that using a slave for sex made the women of master's made them feel powerful. During this time the women in society were still look down on by men so  by commanding a male slave to have sex with them compensated for their lack of power in other aspects of their lives.Also I learned more about the kidnapping of African Americans. To stop illegal import of slaves there were census pages that show the slaves name,sex, age and color. These pages were checked by officials at each port. A page with Solomon Northup was founded.(education.blogs.archives.org) The Fugitive Slave acts of 1850 denied slaves the right to a jury trial and increased the penalty for interfering by $1000 and six months in jail.(history.com) This information now shows why the author didn't show Solomon having a court case and proving his freedom. This also shows how big of a risk Samuel Brass[Brad Pitt] was taking by helping Solomon send his letter.

http://warmoviebuff.blogspot.com/2013/11/10-glory-1989.html

http://mrkash.com/activities/glory.html

https://www.furiouscinema.com/glory/

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/12yearsaslave/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/12-years-a-slave-historical-accuracy_n_3982388.html

Sources:

12 year a slave review-I wanted to see the thoughts of a professional critic

Glory Review-I wanted to see if I could compare this review to the review of 12 YAS.

Enslaved men and white women sexual relationship

- wanted more information how the plantation master wives treated slaves

National Archives

I was looking for facts on kidnapped African Americans

Freeing Slaves

I wanted to find out if any slaves were freed like Solomon and how slaves gained freedom

https://www.masshist.org/longroad/01slavery/minkins.htm

I wanted to find out if any slaves were freed like Solomon

Thomas Jefferson

I wanted to compare this to Mr.Epps and Patsey relationship

African American soldiers
I wanted to see if the life of the soldiers was shown correctly in the movie

"Practicing Incorporating a Quotation"

One of the most impact scenes on my point of view was the scene of the 54th Regiment leading the final battle at Fort Wagner. This scene showed the toughness and courage of the black troops to fight for their independence. The famous movie critic and historian Roger Ebert says, " And everything in the film leads up to the final bloody battle scene, a suicidal march up a hill that accomplishes little in concrete military terms but is of incalculable symbolic importance."

Glory Review

Roger Ebert review
"Watching "Glory," I had one reccuring problem. I didn't understand why it had to be told so often from the point of view of the 54th's white commanding officer. Why did we see the black troops through his eyes - instead of seeing him through theirs? To put it another way, why does the top billing in this movie go to a white actor? I ask, not to be perverse, but because I consider this primarily a story about a black experience and do not know why it has to be seen largely through white eyes."

My paraphrase
Roger Ebert doesn't understand why the movie was narrated from a white man's point of view. He wants to be able to see the daily thoughts of the black man during this period of time and war. He is discouraged by the white man's narration in a movie about a black man's struggle. Why couldn't the story be narrated by the black man? It is also hard for him to understand how the white man was the most important actor when the movie was heavily based on the blacks fighting for independence. Why was the black actor not the most the most important actor? He just isn't able to connect to the blacks life during this time because it's told through a white man's eyes.

             This week has been full of slave labor talk. The change in the cotton production and the labor of slaves. The invention that changed the cotton production was the cotton gin this invention sped up the cleaning process. Then there was the power loom, this invention sped up the weaving process. These inventions cause the owner of these work camps to put more slaves in the field, this sped up the amount of time it took to pick cotton. The cotton was mostly used for cloth, at this time the west of the world only used cloth. This week I learned that no one truly knows if slaves were well fed or not. Nobody kept up with the amount of food given to slaves on a daily. I learned that historians take the height change of slaves over the years and estimate how much food they were given on a daily basis. I concluded that this change in growth came with maturity and the genetics of the slaves origin. I learn that Alabama boomed because slave owners needed more fields to grow more cotton. In these fields slaves were taught to work with both hands. Also I learned that pilgrims didn't just come for religious freedom, but for a new start without being under the power of the church.