Wyatt's HistoryBlog: Learning History Through Film

Watching movies is a great way to learn about history. Two movies that prove this point are Glory and 12 Years a Slave. 12 years a slave is great for learning about slavery because it was based on a freed slave, Solomon Northup’s narrative. This primary source provided great insight in to what it was like to be a slave. Film director Steve McQueen claims that he based the movie on Solomon’s narrative only, and an editor of the book, Henry Louis Gates, was also involved in the making of the film. With this closing the gap between book and film the only thing left to prove is that Solomon Northup’s narrative was a true story. This can be proved by federal documents, the 1840 federal census has on record that Solomon was a free man living in New York. Next a slave manifest, a document that proves slaves are domestic, from the Brig Orleans shows that Solomon was sold into slavery. Finally the federal census from 1850 has on record Edwinn Epps and all of his slaves, one of which matches the description of Solomon. Solomon’s story was also proved to be true by historians Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon. This story ended up making an interesting film despite its lack of elaboration. McQueen was able to do this by choosing a slave narrative that is easier to relate to for audiences. The American Historical Association explains that it is easier for an audience to relate to a free man being captured and his need to escape, rather than someone who was born in to slavery and wanted to escape. Some very important aspects of slavery were include in the movie. For example it demonstrated the complex social system of the South when the poor white man that worked with the slaves was disrespected by Solomon. This shows how poor white people, even though they were paid, would do the same work as the slaves and were ashamed of it. The man planned on killing Solomon after their fight because he felt that it was his place to prove to the slaves that they were not on the same status as him. A movie was an effective way to teach the social relationships between people. The movie also captured th relationship between slave owner’s wives and female slaves. Mrs. Epps resented Patsey because of her relationship with Mr. Epps even though Patsey hated the relationship as much as Mrs. Epps did. A real life example of this is Harriet Jacobs Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl has a passage that talks about how slave owners would bribe the slaves with gifts in order to get what they wanted, but if this did not wok they would be beaten and starved. The movie had a scene where Solomon was able to go play his instrument for people and ear a little money, this shows how slaves were able to negotiate with their masters to earn a little money. The film also showed the slaves learning the bible and singing gospel music, which according to Eugene D Genovese’s book Roll Jordan Roll was an important part of the slaves lives. Glory also used a primary source(General Shaw’s Letters) to help write the film and demonstrated many important historical truths, such as portraying some soldiers as run away slaves. One soldier named Sergeant William H Carney was an escaped slave and he was the first African American to receive the medal of honor. The film also addressed how black soldiers were treated differently from white soldiers. When Sergeant Carney received his medal of honor it was not presented to him in a ceremony, instead it was just mailed to his house. The main challenge faced by film makers is how to tell an entire story in a two hour film. This was coped with by both directors very well because they did not leave out key aspects of history. 12 Years a Slave left out some tragedies that happened to Solomon in order to not lose the audiences focus due to it being too graphic, but every tragedy
included was recorded in Solomon’s narrative. Overall both of these films were historically accurate and displayed the information in a way that is easy to understand.

Work Cited

Huffington post
Proved Accuracy of 12 years a slave and provided thoughts from the director

History.com
Provided information on the accuracy of Glory and information on the attack on Fort Wagner

National Archives
Provided historical documents that proved Solomon Northup's story was true

National humanities center
Provided information about the life of a slave from The incident in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

CW memory-glory
Provided information about the historical accuracy of Glory

American Historical Association
Provided information on the historical accuracy of 12 years a lave and also had information about the importance of religion in the life of a Slave

New York Times

Provided Information on how the director of 12 years a slave made the movie and discussed its historical accuracy

Images