During this course we examined slavery in Canada for a short period of time with a focus on articles that documented the lives of a few slaves and their owners. Slavery is often not portrayed as it should be; its pure horrors are downplayed or its storytelling focuses on the slave masters perspective. As the idea of this portfolio is to study history in a way that takes into consideration more than one point of view when analyzing historical events, I found slavery a good topic to highlight this. I also studied the institution of slavery in another one of my classes this semester (sociology) and ended up writing a paper on the film “12 Years a Slave” in which sociological concepts were defined and linked in some way to the movie. The movie itself was hailed as one of the few films which in many ways properly demonstrates slavery; this is important to note as it was based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, a freeman turned slave through abduction. When we are given media that comes from a different source, arguably in this instance one of the first proper sources, and that media is executed in a way that it stays true to the original story/truth we are left with an outlet that allows us to see a more accurate portrayal of history. That is not to say that as viewers we should be complacent; we still must reflect on the piece in its context and take into account the filters it has gone through. The following are excerpts from the essay I had written on the film:
- An important base concept that requires understanding in relation to this movie are the social structures from which society is always built upon; that is, the relatively stable patterns of social relations and social institutions that constitute a society. The ranking of people into distinct social classes is a common use for this structure, dividing the masses by socioeconomic standing, race, gender, etc. This stratification of the classes is so strong that in some cases, like Solomon’s, it cannot be overthrown by birth-right or accomplishment through education. Although Solomon was born free and throughout his life became an educated man he did not have the ability to overcome the implications that accompanied his race at the time, implications dictated by the uppermost class and the institutions of wealth that would benefit from his exploitation. This meant that at any moment his basic rights could be altered or taken from him completely simply because of his races decided “inferiority”. At the given opportunity, two white men take advantage of Solomon, seeking to further themselves from whatever gains they could make by participating in his abduction and subsequent years spent as a slave. It was a simple matter for these men to strip Solomon of his freeman status because of their privileged standing in the societal system. For Solomon to even protest his own kidnapping was a punishable offence. In 1841, the year of his abduction, slavery was in such high demand and so profitable an institution that it became a justification for racism and allowed those who were white to feel justified in their dominant roles.
- Understanding slavery as a system of profit that met a demand for labour in a time of labour scarcity is vital. While the film effectively demonstrated the horrors of the institution itself, it does not look beyond the slave masters to the true root of the issue. To make the connection between personal troubles and social structures means engaging the sociological imagination, a concept that while difficult to develop allows us to make sense of our lives against a larger historical background. The institution of slavery could not have effectively relied solely on men, like Epps (Solomon’s second owner), to enslave those of a different race. The reason for black people being rounded up and sold to be someone else’s property is that the American society had developed much of its prosperity from their labour and had created a market for which the trade was necessary. An example of this is Solomon’s kidnapping; although hundreds if not thousands of people had already been sold into the trade, there was still a demand for more slave labourers, so much so that a freeman could be abducted and spend over a decade working the lands of members belonging to the upper class. In this way we can make sense of slavery using the sociological imagination; in spite of what is depicted onscreen the institution that capitalized on the keeping of slaves was born not out of pure hatred and racism, but out the slave owner’s motive for profit.
Here is a link to another especially thought provoking scene from the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxNvYB-K0wY