Movie Review of "12 Years a Slave"

[matefrio]

Good as place as any to share this. I was looking around some old boxes at my grandma's place and found the following document.

Know all men by these present that we Abrehem Hering and Hermenus Tellmen administrators of all and singular the goods of chattels and credits of Jacob Haring late of Harrington in Bergen County, Deceased , For and in Consideration of the sum of Fifty Two Pounds ten shillings Current money of New York, to us in hand paid by Thomas Lekersen of Harrington aforesaid, the receipt whereof we do here by acknowledge, have granted, bargained, sold, setover and delivered and by these presents do grant bargain, sell setover, and deliver unto the said Thomas Lekersen one negroe boy slave named Sam, aged about eighteen years. To have and to hold the said negro slave unto the said Thomas Lekersen his executors administrators and assigns, to and for his and their only proper use and behoof forever. In witness whereof we have here unto set our hands and seals the twenty ninth day of July Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and eighty.Sealed and delivered in the presence of us..

????? Roosevelt
John Herring
Abraham Haring
Harmanus Taleman

 

[ROGER4314]

Now, THAT is pretty neat! So the price of an 18 year old slave was 52 pounds, 10 shillings in 1780?

Just for fun, I researched what a factory worker in the early 1800's made.

Rent for a family was about $4/week. Full food, supplies and rent for a family was $18.50/week total.

The average industrial wage in the early 1800's was $16/week. The 40 hour week wasn't even thought of then and it was 6 days per week....Sunday off.

Agricultural workers were mostly paid in barter or in food.

Flash

 

[iamsamcrawdad]

minor threat

 

[AKM]

enslaving people was/is horrific, but there were white slaves in Africa, but you don't hear about that, and people haven't used it as an excuse for hundreds of years. They also fail to mention African tribes enslaved other tribes, and sold them to white Europeans to send here. The irish were enslaved and sent all over. I never understood the whole white guilt thing I refuse to feel guilt for something I had nothing to do with more so when history is edited to help one side.

 

[BADJUJU]

"White guilt" does not exists, nor should it.
its just a liberal media talking point, a somewhat fancy name to further liberal views.

Someone white no doubt came up w/ such a jazzy phrase.
its old hat now, I kinda chuckle when I see it in print anymore.

 

[ROGER4314]

Just to touch bases with the movie review once again...............

Why would anyone want to see a flick that was so negative and damning? I've seen much violence in my life but it was sickening to sit through nearly two hours of beatings, lynchings, hardship, seeing families separated, rape, murder, Human degradation, chains, floggings of slaves tied to a post that continued until the meat tore off. How the hell does THAT qualify as something we would want to experience in a film? Worse, the message is clear.................

They bypassed numerous story lines that could have made this a great movie. There were countless abolitionist, whites who helped slaves escape and who hated the concept of slavery.

The brutes who kidnapped our subject and enslaved him got away with their actions and never faced justice. I'll bet many others who kidnapped free Blacks were caught and punished. That would be a great story! The victim survives and returns to punish his oppressors!

There were plantations that ran like businesses with everyone pitching in. Black slaves raised the white children and were loved as valuable members of the family unit.

There was NO set agenda for slavery. Stories varied as much as the individuals in them. Some worked well and others were horrible and had NO place in the US! Why focus this movie only on the very worst unless you're sending a message to a particular ethnic group?

There's no doubt that this movie will win awards tomorrow at the Oscar presentations. That's not good for our nation or for our people. That reinforces Obama's message of divide, blame and hate.

Flash

 

[BADJUJU]

Just to touch bases with the movie review once again...............

Why would anyone want to see a flick that was so negative and damning? I've seen much violence in my life but it was sickening to sit through nearly two hours of beatings, lynchings, hardship, seeing families separated, rape, murder, Human degradation, chains, floggings of slaves tied to a post that continued until the meat tore off. How the hell does THAT qualify as something we would want to experience in a film? Worse, the message is clear.................


They bypassed numerous story lines that could have made this a great movie. There were countless abolitionist, whites who helped slaves escape and who hated the concept of slavery.


The brutes who kidnapped our subject and enslaved him got away with their actions and never faced justice. I'll bet many others who kidnapped free Blacks were caught and punished. That would be a great story! The victim survives and returns to punish his oppressors!


There were plantations that ran like businesses with everyone pitching in. Black slaves raised the white children and were loved as valuable members of the family unit.


There was NO set agenda for slavery. Stories varied as much as the individuals in them. Some worked well and others were horrible and had NO place in the US! Why focus this movie only on the very worst unless you're sending a message to a particular ethnic group?


There's no doubt that this movie will win awards tomorrow at the Oscar presentations. That's not good for our nation or for our people. That reinforces Obama's message of divide, blame and hate.


Flash

I agree!

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

Slavery has been around for thousands of years. People that make it a "black" or "Old South" thing are simply uneducated and representing a very miopic view of the topic. It was a part of life in most of the world for all sorts of people until the last couple hundred years.

You have to remember that when you used to fight wars you kept the spoils as the victor.

Many African slaves in America came from tribes who lost battles with other tribes. The victorious tribes put them to work or sold them to white slave traders - I've never seen that part of the slave trade depicted in a movie.

Buying slaves wasn't exactly like buying a corvette. Slaves were more like buying a very expensive new piece of farming equipment, like buying a new $250k combine.

The civil war was about the North and South having very different ideas on taxation and having different economic systems. It would have been seen like DC outlawing oil drilling equipment used in the gulf - especially if that was the only real industry we had. The North was basically seen as trying to control and destroy the South's economic power.

Make no mistake, the Northerners (as a group) didn't care about the lives of black slaves any more than the Southerners.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

I'm not trying to support their conduct in any way. I'm just trying to provide perspective.

Native Americans kept slaves, African war lords and kings kept slaves, Egyptians kept slaves, Norseman kept slaves....

The world in general used to be a much rougher place.

I think this movie took a bunch of stereotypes and tried to capitalize on them. The treatment if other people is a very personal thing that still varies significantly from person to person.

Do some research and compare the lives of Washington and Jeffersons slaves to that of slaves who were owned by African kings.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

Welfare and our financial system (which isn't capitalism BTW) are new forms of having a benevolent owner who let you work in the house.

Most Americans of all colors are just house slaves now. The difference is that we can work to buy our own freedom and very few do it.

 

[ROGER4314]

Well said!

I think what got us into the "bigot" designation is that we actually dared to challenge the current crap that "The Civil War was about slavery." That is simply NOT true and is simplistic even for our dumbed down educational system The war was in full operation when Lincoln broached the subject of the Emancipation Proclamation.

I've been to the battlefields, to the plantations and seen how things really were. There are some right here in Texas. GO....see for yourself and form your own opinion!

Rulers haven't changed their tactics. According to them, ALL gun owners are poised and ready to commit a monstrous act like the one we supposedly had at Sandy Hook.

Flash

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

I like touring the battlefields of all wars. I wrote papers on quite a few of them back in school.

I just shake my head when I'm in places like Boston. I think of that place being full of revolutionary tough guys instead of the modern day panty waste tight jean wearers! Lol

 

[ROGER4314]

Here's some info on the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln in 1863.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation

Regarding Boston:
The patriots are gone and probably moved to Texas. Instead, Boston has "metrosexuals".


Flash

 

[majormadmax]

Please name a few white slave owners who weren't s$#@!... abusive users of other human beings. I feel no guilt as I didn't participate in that mess. But I am curious as to where you're really coming from.

Charles Carroll
Samuel Chase
Benjamin Franklin
Button Gwinnett
John Hancock
Patrick Henry
John Jay
Thomas Jefferson
Richard Henry Lee
James Madison
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Benjamin Rush
Edward Rutledge
George Washington...

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

Slavery has been around for thousands of years. People that make it a "black" or "Old South" thing are simply uneducated and representing a very miopic view of the topic. It was a part of life in most of the world for all sorts of people until the last couple hundred years.

You have to remember that when you used to fight wars you kept the spoils as the victor.

Many African slaves in America came from tribes who lost battles with other tribes. The victorious tribes put them to work or sold them to white slave traders - I've never seen that part of the slave trade depicted in a movie.

Buying slaves wasn't exactly like buying a corvette. Slaves were more like buying a very expensive new piece of farming equipment, like buying a new $250k combine.

The civil war was about the North and South having very different ideas on taxation and having different economic systems. It would have been seen like DC outlawing oil drilling equipment used in the gulf - especially if that was the only real industry we had. The North was basically seen as trying to control and destroy the South's economic power.

Make no mistake, the Northerners (as a group) didn't care about the lives of black slaves any more than the Southerners.

this^^^ 100% slavery has been on this planet since man.
And still is here. And will always be here. African tribes had slaves, romans, jews, and so on etc...
Look it was a hard time in our history true. But since i follow christ, he allowed it for a reason.
Im thankful that i was not born then, but my family was, and they made it. And not once have i ever seen
Or heard anyone of them say the white man owes them a thing.
One can armchair qb all day. But does it change anything? Nope,

As far as bigots here havent seen one yet. Slavery is harsh, brutal, and
In our so called enlightened minds is just wrong. But where is the outrage for the,
Women, kids, in the sex slave trade? I repeat slave trade, when will we
Understand that the word history is just that. So making movies like this is just to stir something up.
Again. But thats just me.

 

[ROGER4314]

Sterling....You ARE the MAN! Kudos!

And while I'm patting you on the back, this is exactly what I've been bitching about with this movie. You said it much better than I did:

"So making movies like this is just to stir something up."

MajorMM...........Looks like the Declaration of Independence signers are well represented on the list!

Flash

 

[breakingcontact]

So making movies like this is just to stir something up.

This. 100%.

Spike Lee went on a rant the other day about Whites moving into Black neighborhoods. What was then tagged on houses the next day or two? " Do the right thing".

A lot of money and power to be had by keeping us divided.

Remember, "By any means necessary".

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

Yep^^

 

[ROGER4314]

This thread shifted from a simple movie review! In the last 24 hours, I've reviewed history and treatment of slaves in the US. It was never nice, comfortable or desirable. Nothing could ever excuse slavery or treatment of slaves.

I did find some interesting patterns about slavery to add to my life experiences on the subject. "Nothing is ever always" and treatment of slaves varied from decent to horrible. There was no set standard except discipline issues were handled brutally, as a rule.

The period from 1680-1750 was probably the worst. There were no laws to protect slaves and they were treated very badly. Later, laws were passed to ensure better treatment of slaves. Work hours were set at 15 hours/day- summer and 14 during the winter. Sundays were days off. Free men worked like that, too.

An interesting sidebar is that many of our founding fathers had children with slaves and took great pains to have them trained in skilled trades to ensure their future. Thomas Jefferson was notable.

Closer to the civil war, strict laws were passed to prevent the worst slave treatment. In fact, there are records of white men being executed by hanging for murdering a slave. There was still brutality, however.

Let's keep in mind that the plight of women in American society was little better than the slaves! This nation was NOT a smiley place to be if you weren't a white male!

SO....these are some additional points to ponder.

The bottom line is that nothing can justify or candy coat slavery but ALL southern white males were not alike.

Flash

 

[Mike1234567]

Finally, some truth without self-applied blinders.