12 Years a Slave Review

12 Years a Slave Review

By Adam Tyler

The critic Mark Kermode from The Guardian praises the dark tone, historical accuracy,  and acting (especially by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o). He said about everything in the movie was done right, even if it was hard to watch. He thought the crew of the film got the historical accuracy of how black people were frequently abused and how many had tragic lives that never got any better. Although Kermode liked nearly everything about the movie, he criticized Brad Pitt's unnecessary acting role as a Canadian worker. "But with the exception of a somewhat distracting third-act cameo by co-producer Brad Pitt, it is pitched pretty near perfectly in terms of sheer narrative craftsmanship."  12 Years of Slave-review, The Guardian, by Mark Kermode, 2014. Besides this, 12 Years a Slave is a heartbreaking, accurate, and important movie that anyone should see.

Slave Narratives

Slave Narratives

Adam Tyler

From reading On the Master-Slave Relationship, of hearing from slave Frederick Douglas in 1855, I have learned that slaves often wonder in fact why they are slaves, stating that "How did people know God made black people to be slaves?". This interested me as I never thought of it that way before. White people had no proof that blacks should be mistreated or how they should treat them badly. Many slaves hoped that God would send "bad slaveholders" in Hell for treating black people badly, however many slaves eventually doubted this. Douglas even said that he had never seen or heard of a bad slaveholder be punished for their crimes. Most slaves blamed God for there situation of being treated poorly, but eventually saw otherwise and blamed the sin of man, not God that was responsible for mistreatment of slaves. Douglas explains all of this and says that thinking of being a freedman keeps him going. He also says something I find a bit shocking, he says that slaveholders actually sent spies near their slaves to get information about how they were doing their work. Douglas was asked several times if he had a kind master, which he always answered with a "positive reply", so technically, slaves are never left alone. People even thought that Douglas' slaveholder was actually his father, but it wasn't true. Douglas said he might as well have been though as he had no other father figures in his life, making sense that he has no family, which is pretty sad. Some questions on this I have are; Was the slave the master of anything?, Did slaves see themselves as part of any family?, Were any slaveholders considered "good" by slaves?

Lincoln Paraphrasing Practice Review

Lincoln Practice Paraphrasing Review

By Adam Tyler

"On two occasions, we see a flash of anger from the president, when his son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) wants to join the army against his parents' wishes, and when his wife confronts him about the unmentionable subject of their late son, and their unspeakable burden of grief and guilt. Most of the time, Lincoln's emotions and energies are encoded in the opaque language of diplomacy and politics: when he is openly angry, he seems poignantly weak and vulnerable." Lincoln-review, The Guardian, by Peter Bradshaw, 2013.

My paraphrase of this selected passage is, Mr. Lincoln becomes irritated twice because the character Robert (Lincoln's son) who is portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, wishes to become a soldier, much to the dismay of his mother and father. Mrs. Lincoln even confronts her husband about Robert's older brother who died and doesn't want to feel the shame and sorrow again. Whenever Lincoln is mad out in public, he becomes less focused and less powerful of a figure.

Newspaper Research 2

Newspaper Research 2

Adam Tyler

Death in the 1860s

Murder in the United States in 1860-1880 is very high at about a level of 0.0031% of people being murdered each year. However, the rate of murders mostly stayed the same. Most murders of this time happened in New York, in fact, New York had one year where 45 people were murdered. Usually, the murderer was a man, but at some times the murderer was a woman, usually trying to kill her abusive husband. A man's reasons for murder were mostly family troubles that just got out of hand, but sometimes it was due to uncontrolled anger of jobs, confusion between friends, or they were just mentally ill. A murderer was usually sentenced to death by hanging, but some states outlawed this and they were rather sent to prison, like in Iowa. Unfortunately, a lot of them managed to escape by heading through the sewer system such as two murderers from Pennsylvania...until they were captured again a couple days after. Many women were found not guilty as the thought of them murdering someone would have seemed "impossible", while many men (especially black men) were found guilty. Some innocent men were put to death, proving they didn't have a very good way of telling who the murderer was back then. It was all based on stereotypes, so some of the murderers got away scot-free. So yeah, not a real good way to deal with murderers.

End of Reconstruction

End of Reconstruction

Adam Tyler

President Hayes made a campaign promise to remove troops from the South. This succeeded and resulted in the end of Reconstruction. He had to keep this promise to maintain a good status as the president and to make sure another Civil War with the ex-Confederates didn't happen. The decision was on "May 1st, 1877". This decision to return the rule to ex-Confederates formed the "disenfranchisement" of black people in the South.

Newspaper Research

Newspaper Research

Adam Tyler

From "time traveling" back to the nineteenth century in Memphis, Alabama I've discovered that in newspapers, many "negroes" or "colored people" often tried to run away via the Underground Railroad and were usually brought back to their masters where they were tortured and punished. This was not a very big surprise to me, as I thought this is exactly what would have happened due to slave hunters, but to my surprise, it was mostly hounds that got them. I thought it was interesting that dogs can better look after slaves than people, since whites were supposed to be their masters. Using newspapers to look up information rather than the textbook seems to be more accurate of what actually happened since those newspapers were actually from the time slaves tried to escape while the textbook was made in the later days, so they probably didn't know all the details, so the newspapers are probably more accurate.