12 Years a Slave Review

12 Years a Slave Review

12 Years a Slave

       In the New York Time's review of 12 Years a Slave the critic acknowledges the intense emotions that the movie stirs up within viewers. However, they also acknowledge the director's ability to cause these emotions without causing viewers to want to turn the movie off. The critic states that: "McQueen keeps everything moving so fluidly and efficiently that you're too busy worrying about Solomon. following him as he travels from auction house to plantation, to linger long in the emotions and ideas that the movie churns up." The critic states that the movie really helps to paint a picture of what slavery and segregation was truly like for the masses, despite the fact that the movie focuses primarily on just Solomon.

Slave Narrative

Slave Narrative

Frederick Douglass Slave Narrative

Frederick Douglass

          In this narrative, Douglass tells his feelings towards the relationships between slaves and slaveholders. He starts by explaining how troubled he felt as a child by the fact that a God who is supposedly "good" created black people to be slaves, and white people to be slaveholders. He mentions some of the discoveries he made during his time as a slave such as that many people tend to think of their masters as better than others or that killing slaves that act in self-defense is not a crime. 

Questions:

How did religious adult figures in Douglass's life explain this unfair reasoning to him?

What caused him to be so interested in the relationship between slaves and their masters? 

Paraphrase Practice

Paraphrase Practice

"But this is, after all, a movie, a drama, an entertainment (if you will), not a documentary. For all of our wailing about the lack of historical knowledge, awareness, teaching, and reading, historical and biographical movies increasingly feel compelled to pay a much heavier duty in period-correct appearances than the costume-dramas of our parents’ generation, and it’s satisfying to see that Spielberg pays his duty so lavishly. But a preoccupation with authenticity at the expense of story has capsized more than a few historical movies at their dock, and Lincoln has not entirely escaped that problem." - A Civil War Professor Reviews 'Lincoln': Daily Beast

My paraphrase of this selected passage is: Although the war professor critiquing Lincoln recognizes that Lincoln is meant more so for entertainment than that of a historical documentary, they commend the director for his dedication to making sure costumes and details are especially perfected to their time. Although they do acknowledge his ability to pay such fine attention to detail, they do not disregard the fact that he also has perfectly kept true to the story of Lincoln. The professor says that many historical films lack an interesting story due to the fact that they are trying to stay authentic to the time. Although they do commend Lincoln for their ability to stay true to the story, they agree that it at some points lacks an interesting story.

Music 1866-1880

Music 1866-1880

    

     

A Musical Theory Class Being Taught

  

The newspaper article that I read was focusing on the winners of a music competition. The performers are divided into different classes, numbered 1-6.  This is interesting because music was thought of so differently in those times than we think of it now. Now we can listen to music instantly through our phones but back then they had to go see a live performance to hear music. This is also interesting because in 1873 when this was published, they had to put the winners of a musical competition in newspapers, whereas now, winners of musical competitions, like The Voice are being broadcasted nationwide. I think sometimes it is easy for us to forget the convenience of everything we have now because of technology, so it is interesting to be reminded of the way things used to be done.

The Wheeling Daily Intelligence

Reconstruction Reflection

Reconstruction Reflection

The end of the reconstruction was due to many different events. The main event that led to the end of Reconstruction was the Republican advocates meeting secretly with Democrats to talk about Hayes's election. This led to power being restored to southern Democrats.
The End of Reconstruction

         
    The thing I found the most interesting about the newspapers I read was just how biased all the stories seemed to be in regards to white vs. "negroes". In the story, I read it described a fight that occurred between 1 white man and a group of negroes. The description of the fight almost sounded altered to make all the blame be put on the group of black males, making the white man seem like the obvious victim. This was interesting to me because, despite the fact that it was written in the newspaper which is supposed to be a reliable source, I found the story hard to believe. This is similar to what I expected to find because during this time black people were often being portrayed as violent people, incapable of expressing their emotions. Using an archive of newspapers is different than reading from a textbook because instead of reading about the event from an outside source, you are reading a primary source that is more accurate to the times.

The Weekly Clarion