Film Questionnaire 2_ 12 Years a Slave
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Georgia State University *
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Dec 6, 2023
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HIST 2110 / Fall 2022
F
ilm Questionnaire:
12 Years a Slave
(2013)
1)
How are the
economic/financial
elements associated with slavery depicted in the film? Class
issues among white southerners?
The economic class issues are depicted through the white farmhand who is picking cotton to get back
on his feet. Before the civil war, the land was cheap, and labor was expensive. Only rich white
southerners could afford to have a workforce of slaves. The white Yeomanry, on the other hand, were
usually poor themselves and were lucky if they could afford one or two slaves. Secondly, it shows
how southern society functioned in service of the plantation. The plantation was the center of the
souths economic structure, and everyone served he plantation directly or indirectly, through laboring
in the cotton fields or growing and raising foodstuffs for plantation consumption.
2)
In what ways are different models and means of
paternalism
depicted in the film?
In Solomon’s first owner’s protection of his property, but most vividly in the second owner reciting of a
bible verse that justifies slavery and through his deranged cruelty after.
3)
When
paternalism and economics/finances
come into conflict, which one, as depicted in the
film, wins out? Briefly explain.
When paternalism and economic factors conflict, it is the economic factors that will always win out.
Paternalism was a social construct, a political idealism that was used to justify the economic benefits of
slavery. Therefore, paternalism is merely in service of the economy, and when conflicts between the two
arise, it is the economy that will always win.
4)
How are elements of the
culture of the enslaved
(esp. resistance) depicted in the film?
Resistance is visibly there in explicit forms; however, its depicted as a calculated risk and sends a mixed
message of both resistance but also compliance due to being broken. The film lightly touches on the
subject but altogether did not adequately show the major forms of resistance to the institution of slavery
where through culture ie, African retention, survival techniques, and community. The plantation was
constructed so that the slave quarters were far away from the big house, which allowed slaves to develop
communities. It is in these communities that survival techniques were passed from generation to
generation and where religion developed differently than what they were taught by the white preachers.
The focus was on the Hebrews and their emancipation. It is the culmination of these things that went to
form a culture of resistance.
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