12 years a slave

The New York Times writes that 12 Years a Slave stands out from the many movies about slavery because of its accuracy. The movie draws you in from the beginning as the main character, Solomen, has his freedom snatched from him and taken into slavery. They say the director constantly moves the film forward, so the audience does not get caught up in too many emotions; your attention is on Solomen and what is happening at that moment. They also tell us that Solomen's story provides a great "double perspective" because he was once a free man and a slave.

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Slave Narratives

I read about a girl that was born into slavery. She recalls the memories of her childhood and how that evolved into realizing she was a slave. While the act of slavery is undoubtedly immoral, not all slave owners treated their slaves in horrible ways. The slave by the name Linda was born into a household with her mother, grandmother, and brother. She describes her childhood as not being that bad because her mistress was nice to her. However, when the mistress passed away and Linda was transferred to another owner, she then realized that her happy times as a child were over. 

Are slaves more likely to stay in the owners family after the owner dies?

How old do slaves have to be to start working, and how are they taken care of when they are babies?

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Paraphrase Practice

This is a Paragraph from The Guardian about the movie Lincoln written by Peter Bradshaw 

"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." 


My paraphrase of the selected passage is: 

Bradshaw says that there are two instances where we see the president express anger. The first is when Robert, his son played by Joseph Garden-Levitt) wishes to enlist in the army, despite his parents' disapproval. The other was the time when his wife brings up the topic of their dead son because this unveils the hardships and intense emotions surrounding this topic. For the majority of the film, Lincoln weaves his emotions into his beliefs which seems to strengthen him, but when he displays anger we see his "vulnerable" side.  

On May 1st, 1776, a man named Adam Weishaupt founded the Illuminati to think beyond what religious influence was telling people. The Order was a secret space where members would debate and discuss in a safe space. This was inspired by the Free Maisons which were a group of similar people more focused on religion and finding true meaning. It took a few years for the Order to grow when analyzing Google's ngram. By 1800, the word Illuminati was being used extremely more frequently. It goes down and pops back up in 1840. It is thought that Washington was part of the Illuminati and he died in 1799 which was right as the Illuminati was gaining popularity.

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From 1865 to 1877 the word "negro" was very popular in newspapers. One example from the Memphis paper uses the word very often. They use it as a way to separate African Americans from the rest of society and humanity. They are obviously biased towards white supremacy and the stories are often about crimes African Americans committed and how law enforcers caught and punished them. As expected, they are written to be viewed in a bad light in this time period.

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Reconstruction ended in 1877 because of the compromise of 1877. The Democrats let Hayse become president if he took federal troops out of the south. Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana became democratic states again and the Reconstruction era had ended. Republicans no longer dominated and the fight for equal rights was put to a pause.

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