Thinking about the portrayal of slavery in text and in film

Part 1: Based on what I have read and what I heard from other researchers, I would characterize evidence from the collection of historic teachings on the portrayal of slavery and enslaved people as carefully factual and usually very romanticized. Often the authors remained with their facts rather than picking a side, and truly didn't delve too deeply into the darker depths or wrongness of slavery, after all in its time it had been accepted. 
The ideas and assumptions taught to students of the different ages showed how for the young it wasn't very mentioned, rather it only gave stories to try and begin teaching morals before slowly beginning to give more information of the time, teaching the younger ones on how to properly behave and begin to think in their time period. This might have impacted experience in and out of a classroom by giving students a way to interpret how the world was supposed to be seen, the norms to apply to daily life and how things should be, in a way inside the classroom was molding for the students on how they should be outside the classroom.

Part 2:
In class, we read an excerpt from the book, The Half Has Never Been Told
 (Links to an external site.).  Compare and Contrast the discussion of enslaved labor that was presented in that book, with the depiction of enslaved labor presented in the historic teaching books we examined in class.  Be sure to consider the extent to which authors offered evidence-based arguments.

Part 3: 
As an 11th-grade class, you watched the film, 12 Years a Slave, which brought to life the primary source written by Solomon Northrup, the  main character portrayed in the film.  
How would you summarize the film for someone who has never seen it? (3 sentences)
What did you see as the film's most powerful moment, and why?  (3 sentences)
What is the value of seeing a primary source like 12 Years a Slave brought to life?  What can you learn from watching a movie that you might not learn as readily from reading the 19th-century text version of the same events?  Would your recommend the experience for other students?  Why or why not?

Comments

  1. Ann LawsonOctober 29, 2019 at 4:29 AM

    Thanks for thinking about some of these questions. If you decide to complete the assignment, I'd be interesting in reading your thoughts on the other questions.

    ReplyDelete

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