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RandySF

(57,631 posts)
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 03:44 PM Mar 2014

Conservative writer upset ’12 Years A Slave’ doesn’t show happy slaves

A Conservative writer is upset that the Oscar-winning movie 12 Years a Slave displays a negative light on slavery, instead of the happy times. Apparently the author of the article believes that being enslaved is a happy time for those who are taken from their country in chains, their families ripped apart, beaten into submission and forced to work grueling hours in the sun for nothing.

Politix reports, “But that negativity is merely anti-slavery “propaganda,” according to James Bowman in conservative magazine The American Spectator.”

Via American Spectator:

If ever in slavery’s 250-year history in North America there were a kind master or a contented slave, as in the nature of things there must have been, here and there, we may be sure that Mr McQueen does not want us to hear about it. This, in turn, surely means that his view of the history of the American South is as partial and one-sided as that of the hated Gone With the Wind.

…Yes, there was much cruelty and hardship in the slave-owning South, as there has been in most of the rest of the world most of the time, and Mr. McQueen’s camera is all over that. But it strains ordinary credulity to suppose that there was nothing else.


Mary Noble from Politix asks, “We are wondering, was Bowman equally aggrieved by the lack of happy Jews in Schindler’s List?”


http://freakoutnation.com/2014/03/05/conservative-writer-upset-12-years-a-slave-doesnt-show-happy-slaves/
32 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Conservative writer upset ’12 Years A Slave’ doesn’t show happy slaves (Original Post) RandySF Mar 2014 OP
I Thought We Fought A War About That Dirty Socialist Mar 2014 #1
They will accept that in about a thousand years, maybe. Enthusiast Mar 2014 #26
Jackpine upset because Jackpine Radical Mar 2014 #2
I Wouldn't Wipe My Ass with That Magazine Dirty Socialist Mar 2014 #8
Is history something that republicans demigoddess Mar 2014 #3
I have been saying for years that ignorance of history, politics, economics and the real world Fortinbras Armstrong Mar 2014 #32
effin' idiot - probably, like Limbaugh, never even saw the movie Mira Mar 2014 #4
i also thought that there were two masters and the first wasn't so "bad" el_bryanto Mar 2014 #18
See it. Mira Mar 2014 #19
I intend to see it just didn't want to see it in the theaters. nt el_bryanto Mar 2014 #21
open racism... Ohio Joe Mar 2014 #5
Yep. That's why they stayed on the plantations and worked for nothing after the war. Tierra_y_Libertad Mar 2014 #6
And at least one former slave turned down an offer from his former owner - in style csziggy Mar 2014 #22
He's obviously an ingrate and doesn't appreciate the kind offer made to him. Tierra_y_Libertad Mar 2014 #23
" Most blamed it on the poor, ignorant, slaves being led astray" Scootaloo Mar 2014 #27
"Django Unchained," had a happy slave. Ichingcarpenter Mar 2014 #7
Ha ha. Bazinga! n/t Loudly Mar 2014 #13
Neo-Confederate propaganda. Nothing new, here. Paladin Mar 2014 #9
My high school history teacher in 1965 middle-Georgia said, "don't let anyone japple Mar 2014 #15
It wasn't until I got to college and read Stampp's "The Peculiar Institution"..... Paladin Mar 2014 #17
Mobile, AL, 1997; Davidson High School Scootaloo Mar 2014 #28
The New Deal had nothing to do with ending the Depression. Jackpine Radical Mar 2014 #10
+1 an entire shit load! Enthusiast Mar 2014 #25
So it's okay for me to kidnap James Bowman and put him to work so long as he is happy? hunter Mar 2014 #11
Oh because slavery is so funny. Ha ha ha ha. Initech Mar 2014 #12
"Kind master" and "contented slave" Shankapotomus Mar 2014 #14
MAYBE he should ask DISNEY to remake it ... yuiyoshida Mar 2014 #16
Who the "eff" thinks like that? etherealtruth Mar 2014 #20
About slavery Bowman wouldn't know credulity if it bit him on the ass. Enthusiast Mar 2014 #24
I believe the very word "SLAVERY" puts paid to this CRETIN'S INSANITY. WinkyDink Mar 2014 #29
Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2014 #30
Whiney Republicons going AWOL from responsibility - as usual Berlum Mar 2014 #31

Dirty Socialist

(3,248 posts)
1. I Thought We Fought A War About That
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 03:47 PM
Mar 2014

And the ignorant inbred slave holders lost. Hey! Get with the human race! You lost 150 years ago! Time to move on and accept the fact that African Americans are men and women, your sisters and brothers!

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
2. Jackpine upset because
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:04 PM
Mar 2014

anything published in American Expectorator taken seriously by anyone, anywhere at any time.

demigoddess

(6,640 posts)
3. Is history something that republicans
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:23 PM
Mar 2014

don't allow their children to study in school? I know Rush Limbaugh said years ago that History is not a science. That it only takes good scholarship to know history. Is there a War on History from the republican party?? They definitely have a War on Education.

Fortinbras Armstrong

(4,473 posts)
32. I have been saying for years that ignorance of history, politics, economics and the real world
Tue Mar 18, 2014, 06:51 AM
Mar 2014

Are very helpful if one is a conservative. And absolutely required of libertarians.

Mira

(22,378 posts)
4. effin' idiot - probably, like Limbaugh, never even saw the movie
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:23 PM
Mar 2014

it's not Steve McQueen's story anyway. He simply made a movie of a book written in the mid 1800's by Salomon Northup - by the man who lived it. I read the book. McQueen followed it just about to the letter.

el_bryanto

(11,804 posts)
18. i also thought that there were two masters and the first wasn't so "bad"
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 07:07 PM
Mar 2014

bad being a relative term when it comes to slavery of course.

I hven't seen it though.

Bryant

Mira

(22,378 posts)
19. See it.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 07:56 PM
Mar 2014

Everyone should. And all schools. Where the kids are 16 and up. The horror of slavery, sanctioned by a society, where people would be walking past hanged bodies and there is no collective outrage and where people are thought of as possessions like your dog or cat, to whom you can do whatever you want if you own them, need to be clearly shown to America's youth.
To me, it's almost worse than the holocaust because of the description I just gave. Plus it lasted 200 years I think.

 

Tierra_y_Libertad

(50,414 posts)
6. Yep. That's why they stayed on the plantations and worked for nothing after the war.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:36 PM
Mar 2014

Many plantation owners, after the war, were shocked that their "happy, loyal, contented" slaves left them after the war or, (gasp) demanded payment for doing their light, easy, and joyful work.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
22. And at least one former slave turned down an offer from his former owner - in style
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 08:50 PM
Mar 2014
In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdon Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdon — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according to newspapers at the time, he dictated).

Rather than quote the numerous highlights in this letter, I'll simply leave you to enjoy it. Do make sure you read to the end.


The letter and links for more information at: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html
 

Tierra_y_Libertad

(50,414 posts)
23. He's obviously an ingrate and doesn't appreciate the kind offer made to him.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 09:31 PM
Mar 2014

I've read many books about the antebellum south, many diaries, letters, and interviews with former slaves that the WPA did in the 30's.

I've seen that letter before and enjoyed its delicious irony.

The happy, contented, slave was almost entirely a fiction but believed by many owners who took forced acquiescence and smiles as "happiness". Even after emancipation this absurdity remained in the minds of many of the ex-slavelholers even after their "happy, contented, slaves" left them. Most blamed it on the poor, ignorant, slaves being led astray by the likes of Lincoln and the Freedman's bureaus. If you ever have the chance read, "A Diary from Dixie" by Mary Boykin Chesnut, who was the wife of one of the big-shots in the Confederate government and a plantation owner. She was not an abolitionist but held strong views about how ruinous slavery was on the whites of the south. She didn't "love" the slaves but feared them and saw the smiles and "yassuh's" as the way the not-so-ignorant-after-all slaves got through their lives in the least painful way. She feared them because she saw the obvious, and well earned, resentment beneath the "happiness and contentment" they displayed. Her diaries cover the entirety of the civil war in an almost day by day account. She was quite the socialite and knew just about everybody of importance and was a particular friend of Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina. And, she was a helluva good writer.

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

 

Scootaloo

(25,699 posts)
27. " Most blamed it on the poor, ignorant, slaves being led astray"
Mon Mar 17, 2014, 07:11 AM
Mar 2014

Remember that line, every time you ever hear a Republican admonishing blacks to "get off the Democrat plantation."

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
7. "Django Unchained," had a happy slave.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:41 PM
Mar 2014

Samuel L. Jackson said that he believed his character Stephen to have "the same moral compass as Clarence Thomas does.

Paladin

(28,202 posts)
9. Neo-Confederate propaganda. Nothing new, here.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:44 PM
Mar 2014

That "Happy slaves singin' on massa's levee" bullshit has been force-fed to southern kids for a long time, particularly since the civil rights struggle kicked into high gear. It's sad that such revisionism is still believed in this day and age.

japple

(9,773 posts)
15. My high school history teacher in 1965 middle-Georgia said, "don't let anyone
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 06:22 PM
Mar 2014

tell you the slaves had it so bad. They had fresh air and sunshine." I have forgotten many things over the years, but this is imprinted in my brain/memory. That mid-Georgia county where I attended junior/senior high school had to be dragged into racial desegregation of the jr/sr high schools. It would be another few years before they would be integrated by sex. Another sad, misguided, ignorant decision by a southern board of education.

Paladin

(28,202 posts)
17. It wasn't until I got to college and read Stampp's "The Peculiar Institution".....
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 07:01 PM
Mar 2014

...that I really got free of that "happy slaves" travesty. What a damned shame, that so many still seem to regard "Gone With The Wind" as a documentary film.....
 

Scootaloo

(25,699 posts)
28. Mobile, AL, 1997; Davidson High School
Mon Mar 17, 2014, 07:19 AM
Mar 2014

We had an Alabama history course, and i think the book was from 1965 - i wish like hell i could remember the name of it. it wasn't this one, but there wasn't a heck of a lot of difference.

I was instilled with the belief that integration during the reconstruction era was a miserable failure, because, you se, the blacks - ahem, "newly freed slaves" - were simply not up to the challenge of running anything! The southern states had to be rescused by the valiant whites, you see, else it would have all gone to pot!

I also learned that the Creeks had to be genocided, because of Fort Mims. oh yes, that book was full of "the redskins got what they deserved!" rhetoric for the Creeks and Chickasaw.

The most unreal thing about "learning" how incompetent blacks were at running things... is that the teacher was a black woman. Half the class was black. Both principal and vice principal were black men. And it was just... rote lessoning. No debate, no "oh well that's bullshit!" from anyone. I can't pretend ot know what goes on in anyone else's head, but looking back, that situation is just bizarre.

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
10. The New Deal had nothing to do with ending the Depression.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:51 PM
Mar 2014

Slavery was a Good Thing.
The Founding Fathers were Fundamentalists
The poor are to blame for poverty

This kind of disgraceful crap doesn't even qualify as revisionist history. It's just plain lies. And it needs to be called out as such.

hunter

(38,264 posts)
11. So it's okay for me to kidnap James Bowman and put him to work so long as he is happy?
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:53 PM
Mar 2014

Awesome.

And he'd better be a darn happy and "contented slave" while he cleans my garage or else I'll sell him to someone who's not so "kind" as I am...









yuiyoshida

(41,759 posts)
16. MAYBE he should ask DISNEY to remake it ...
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 06:38 PM
Mar 2014

With Happy Slaves... and they can come up with Zippity new songs to dance too...


Enthusiast

(50,983 posts)
24. About slavery Bowman wouldn't know credulity if it bit him on the ass.
Mon Mar 17, 2014, 07:04 AM
Mar 2014

Just another racist "conservative".

Response to RandySF (Original post)

Berlum

(7,044 posts)
31. Whiney Republicons going AWOL from responsibility - as usual
Mon Mar 17, 2014, 07:44 AM
Mar 2014

Squirmy Republicons just do not do much other than whine, go negative, and block America's progress. They almost always take perverse AWOL liberties when it comes to responsibility.

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