Slavery in Media

The portrayal of slavery in media varies from source to source. In many of the books that we used in class, the stance of the slave is never taken, and most of the books are written based on "fact" alone. The author will often deliver his perception of fact in an authoritative manner, with little or no emotion regarding the subject. In one book, the author is clearly biased towards Christianity, as he says that an advantage of slavery was the fact that it taught black people about "the glowing hopes of [Christianity]." Generally, elementary and middle school children were taught about slavery in a storybook manner, where history was presented with a moral. High school students were generally taught as mentioned above, with the authoritative author, as were college students.

In the passage from The Half Has Never Been Told, enslaved labor was viewed in a very factual way, but not in the sense that the author thought they were right. In this case, most of the fact was backed up with evidence; tangible results. In the other books that we read, this was often not the case. The author would tell you the "truth" but not tell you why it's the truth. In this book, however, you know why the author was right.

12 Years a Slave is a film which tackles a primary source written by a man named Solomon Northrup, a free black man who was kidnapped and brought into slavery. The film is extremely heavy and uncomfortable in numerous ways because it feels very realistic. Throughout many years and many masters, Solomon learns what freedom truly is. One moment in the film that stood out as particularly powerful was the scene where Solomon gets tied up by the neck and hung. He is lowered just enough to where his toes can barely touch the ground. He tip toes for almost 3 minutes (although it was hours in the world of the movie) trying his hardest not to slip into unconsciousness. I think that watching a film like 12 Years a Slave is very valuable because it gives you a visualization of something you would normally read; it engages more of your senses. You can learn so much just by the facial expressions of an actor, the score of a film, or the camera angles that you just can't get from reading. I would certainly recommend watching this film to anybody who wants to learn more about the impact of slavery on individuals, although I would warn people to proceed with caution when viewing this film, as it is not a pleasant experience.