Slavery by Another Name is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2012. It is an important account about a dark chapter of American history.
When the Civil War ended, slavery was abolished. Four million Blacks in the southern states were no longer slaves, but they were still not free. They were citizens, but they did not have the same rights as white people. Why not?
After the end of the Civil War (1865) and the end of Reconstruction (1874), white politicians in the southern states established a sophisticated system of rules and regulations which was used to control, dominate and exploit the former slaves.
This system remained in place until the time when the US entered World War Two (1941). Some parts of the system lasted until the 1950s and the 1960s.
This system was not slavery as it had existed before the Civil War, but in many ways, it had the same results: most white people had money, land and political power, while most black people had no money, no land and no political power.
This is why some people describe this nefarious system of rules and regulations as Slavery by Another Name.
This film offers a detailed investigation of this system: how it was established; how it worked for decades; how it benefited white people while abusing black people; and how the federal government and northern politicians basically turned a blind eye to what was happening in the south.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Sam Pollard
** Writer: Sheila Curran Bernard
** Based on the book Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon (2008) (2009)
** Narrator: Laurence Fishbourne
** Run time: 84 minutes
Several persons are interviewed in the film. They can be divided into two categories: historians and descendants of a person who lived while the system of rules and regulations was in place.
# 1. HISTORIANS
** Douglas A. Blackmon
** Mary Ellen Curtin
** Pete Daniel
** Risa Goluboff
** Adam Green
** James Grossman
** Talitha LeFlouria
** David Levering Lewis
** Khalil Muhammed
# 2. DESCENDANTS
** Barbara Jean Belisle
** Susan Burnore
** Cristina Comer
** Tonya Groomes
** Sharon Malone
** Bernard Kinsey
Several historical moments have been reconstructed by modern actors. The words spoken by these actors are taken from contemporary documents such as court transcripts, sworn statements or personal letters.
I will not mention all actors, because the complete list is too long. Here are some names:
Turron Kofi Alleyne
Jaquay Arnold
Gabe Cain
Shane Guilbeau
Roxanne Roberts Hankins
Tyler Hollinger
Sayyed Shabazz
Raymond Spencer
Archive footage (old clips and photos) is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to supplement and support the statements made by the talking heads. Archive footage is used when the narrator is talking.
What do reviewers say about this film? On IMDb it has a rating of 76 percent which corresponds to 3.8 stars on Amazon. There are four user reviews on IMDb. Here are the headlines:
** Eye opening
** The Re-Enslavement of African Americans
** Profit Outweighs Humanity
** Excellent history of seldom covered information
These user reviews offer ratings which are much higher than the average rating on IMDb = 100, 100, 80 and 100. The average rating of these four reviews is 95.
On Amazon there are at the moment 364 global ratings and 182 global reviews. The average rating is 4.8 stars which corresponds to a rating of 96 percent.
It is most unusual to see a documentary film which has such a high rating.
If you ask me, the rating on IMDb is too low. I agree with the user reviews posted on IMDb and with the rating on Amazon.
This film is a powerful document; an important account of a topic which is not well-known.
The history of the nefarious system deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
In this post I will not mention all the rules and regulations which were introduced by white politicians in the south. When you watch the film, you will learn how the devious system worked to benefit white people at the expense of black people.
Some moments of this film are highly emotional: when descendants are interviewed, we can see that the truth about what happened in the past makes a big impression on them:
** Descendants of black people have a chance to understand what happened to their ancestor and perhaps there is some kind of closure and relief because the truth has now been told.
** Descendants of white people are visibly shocked when they learn the truth about what their ancestor did to others; when they realize that the assets of their family were created not by hard work but by exploiting other people who had to work like slaves.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
PS # 1. Douglas Blackmon’s book is a bestseller which is praised by professional critics and general readers.
On Amazon there are at the moment 1,566 global ratings and 512 global reviews. The average rating is 4.8 stars which corresponds to a rating of 96 percent. It is not often that a book about history has such a high rating.
PS # 2. 13th is a documentary film which premiered in 2016. The title is a reference to the 13th amendment to the US constitution which was ratified in 1865.
Many people believe that this amendment abolished slavery in the US. This view is not true.
As this film explains, the amendment which was supposed to abolish slavery has a loophole which means that under certain conditions slavery is possible and legal.
This film is about the history of the criminal justice system in the US with special focus on the system of incarceration.
For details about this film, visit my blog of June 2020.
REFERENCES
** One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South 1866-1928 by Matthew J. Mancini (1996)
** Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice by David M. Oshinsky (1996) (1997)
** The Jim Crow Encyclopedia edited by Nikki L. M. Brown and Barry M. Stentiford (2 volumes, 951 pages) (2008)
** The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist (2014) (2016)
** Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South by Talitha LeFlouria (2015)
** The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (2017) (2018)
** The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (2020)
*****
Slavery by Another Name
by Douglas A. Blackmon
(2008) (2009)
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment