12 Years a Slave Movie and Contemporary America
The movie 12 years a slave was about what Africans experienced during slavery. It was a time in which they were profiled like merchandise and sold like livestock.
The main character Solomon was sold into slavery after having a couple boos with two men that approached him for a traveling position playing his instrument with the circus. After he fell into a drunken stupor he later awakened in a cellar with his hands and feet shackled. The men beat him with a paddle across his back, because he refused to falsely admit that he was a slave that escaped from the south. After being sold for $1000 Solomon worked in the field and advised his master on various ways to handle projects. He was one of the few slaves that could read and write, and although it was a gift, it served as a curse. Solomon was sold many times and caused trouble for himself, because he didn’t stand for injustice and refused to yield to the animal that his masters wanted him to be. He was resistant and wanted nothing but to go home to his wife and family. However, he was forced to remain a slave until finally a Caucasian gentleman from Canada that were working alongside him agreed to write a letter to his family in hope that Solomon would obtain freedom. Soon after the letter reached Solomons’ family he was set free after the Mayor obtained him from the slave master.
Something worth highlighting in the movie is how the slave masters desegregated the slaves based on how light and dark their skin color was. They made Africans of darker complexion feel inferior to Africans of lighter complexion. They did this by allowing darker complexion Africans do field work like picking cotton, while lighter complexion Africans performed house duties like cooking dinner or cleaning the house.
The final part of the movie that I would like to highlight is the gruesome beatings the Africans received from the slave masters. They whipped the slaves for something as simple as not producing the daily recommended amount of cotton. They’d tie them to a post and whip them until their flesh tore and blood spilled from their veins. Slave masters would promote African on African violence by having them whip each other, which was used as a mechanism of fear; however the slaves refused to show violence toward each other.
This brings me to contemporary America and the acts of violence African Americans inflict upon their own people. We go around calling each other the word “Nigga”, as if it’s a badge of honor, however in slavery this word was used to degrade and break slaves. We commit crimes against one another for foolish things, some as simple as we someone doesn’t like the way someone looks at them or speaks to them. We produce violence amongst our race, however we cry “hate crime” when members of other races subject us to the same type of violence. When in actuality we bring these crimes amongst ourselves. By them seeing us tear down our own race it’s like saying we approve. This movie just like our ancestors showed that violence wasn’t what we needed to survive, but unity in order to survive. We cannot let what our ancestors accomplished be washed away like stool, but embrace what they did and change our current state.
This movie is one for the ages and while it primarily focused on slaves, I believe there is a message for everyone.
