12 Years a Slave Paraphrase

Max Miller
12 Years a Slave paraphrase

12 Years a Slave, review by The Telegraph 


People were saying, 12 Years a slave was called the greatest movie to be created about slavery in America not long after the movie first showed in theaters. Despite being an extremely bold statement the author of this article believes that it is a true one. Then he goes on to ask, "Where,exactly, is the competition?". The movie is about the events in character Solomon Northups' life showing how he was once a free man but his life is altered forever once he is kidnapped into slavery and forced to experience first hand slavery in the American South, the movie should not feel too revolutionary as other movies have also touched the category of slavery in America. But the reason, 12 Years a Slave feels different to people is because it is very scarce that a film is completely about a american slavery and has the whole plot revolve around a story in slavery. The writer of this review also says how this type of movie could become a category all in its own. He then goes on to describe how you feel the emotions of Solomon from start to finish how he is confidant at the beginning, then him and the audience are baffled and sad when he first comes to the realization about his situation. During his time in slavery you also feel the deep rooted emotions that come from him and his environment, you see how much pain and hate is relevant just as much as he does, which makes the film so powerful as you follow Solomon in his journey from different masters and plantations how each one is different. The film is then compared to other films like Django Unchained , a popular film in the american slavery genre but then goes on to say how the reason 12 Years a Slave is so popular is because it shows the reality of slavery for how it was and not plagued with hyperbole to satisfy certain movie goers, 12 years a slave shows the real side of slavery and how it really was, which was something people were really interested in.

12 Years a Slave reviews and ratings showing how monumental people thought the movie was. 

Slave Narratives

Slave Narratives

Max Miller


On the Master-Slave Relationship

While reading On a Master-Slave Relationship I read a lot of information that I already knew, such as the slaves were treated terribly and punished in unimaginable ways but what really surprised me is how much they were taken advantage of sexually. I knew that physically slaves were abused but I also learned that sexually they were also taken advantage of in many ways such as being forced to reproduce to create more slaves which I had already knew was something that happened but I did not know how common and prevalent it was on slave plantations. I something else that stood out to me a lot was the fact that slave masters often were considered good people but when given absolute power over a group of people such as slaves it turns the once good people corrupt from all the power that is bestowed upon them. The slave masters start to get more and more abusive the longer they are in power over the slaves even if that goes against their moral principals, when put into a situation of power they lose all sight of humanity. Something else that I read that struck out to me was that in locations where slavery was present it was widely supported and accepted but in places where slavery was not practiced there was strong resistance to it in that location, either a location was completely for slavery or completely against it. Native american slave holders were much more favorable and kind than white slave holders, they allowed their slaves enough food and water and much better working conditions compared to white slave holders.

Questions: Did the slave masters not see how other slave masters were corrupted by the power given to them? If so why how did they not critically look at themselves and change or say something?  To what extent did pressure of the acceptance or resistance to slavery environment affect slave holders?
Why did Native Americans treat their slaves so much better than normal slave holders?

Lincoln Paraphrase

Max Miller
Lincoln Paraphrase

'Lincoln' by Steven Spielberg, New York Times 

"This is, in other words, less a biopic than a political thriller, a civics lesson that is energetically staged and alive with moral energy. Lincoln, having just won re-election, faces a complex predicament. The war has turned in the Union’s favor, but the Capitol is in some turmoil. Lincoln must contend with a Democratic opposition that reviles him as a dictator (“Abraham Africanus,” they call him) and also with a deep, factional split within the Republican Party."

My paraphrase of this selected passage.

Lincoln, in its simplest form, is much more like a cliffhanger of political suspense, filled with the complexities of the government, than a biographical film portraying Lincoln and his life. The movie is set so that it is filled with the spirit and vitality of those who are participating in determining the rights of the country. Fresh after succeeding to secure his presidency for a second term, President Lincoln is now confronted with a complicated dilemma. Although, the Union has taken the upper hand in the civil war against the South, and this is a success on one front, on another front the Capitol of the Union is experiencing a high level of strife among its members. The Democrats who are constantly against Lincoln, try to portray him as a corrupt power-hungry ruler, this is a problem that Lincoln must deal with. The Democrats also refer to him as "Abraham Africanus", Lincoln must also deal with a strong split among his own party.     

Word of choice post

Max Miller 

Word of choice post

The word I chose to research was communism. Looking at the Ngram viewer the word communism is very rarely used until around 1850 where is increases in popularity until around 1962. Communism starts to gain popularity mainly due to the age of enlightenment where the ideas and beliefs were starting to spread around the world. 1850 is also around the time where Marx and Engels were developing the ideology, which is why it starts to gain popularity in documents around that time. The word communism also peaks at around 1962-1965 where the Cold War is at his highest tension point. 

Newspaper research

Max Miller 

Newspaper Research 

 Looking over the 19th century archive of newspapers there were many things that stood out to me. At first I knew that democrats would be against reconstruction, but I had thought that they disliked it simply because it was against their beliefs about how the south should be treated. As I continued my research I came across the Public Ledger a newspaper from Tennessee, this newspaper was claiming that the reconstruction in the south was unconstitutional, it alleged that the turmoil that reconstruction caused was a result of radical republicans in congress acting in an unconstitutional way. The New York Herald also has an article on reconstruction, however this article is celebrating the actions that resulted from reconstruction. This article is saying how the south is in desperate need of infrastructure after the war and it is the Norths duty to help them, it even goes as far as saying that it is the Norths "burden" to help the south. The article continues to go on acknowledging the shortcoming and failures of reconstruction, but unlike the Public Ledger which says that this is due to unconstitutional acts of radical republicans, the New York Herald claims that this is because of the lack of competency and presence of corruption among southern democrats in charge of reconstruction projects in the south. 

Unlike a textbook an archive can give many points of perspective from a range of areas and dates, while a textbook can give a broad overview of facts and the opinions and feelings going on in a certain period of time. 

Library of Congress

Reconstruction Questions 

Max Miller 

Why did reconstruction end? 

When radical reconstruction was introduced it was met with severe disdain from the south. The south was starting to get violent because white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were targeting anybody who supported radical reconstruction with acts of violence. As support for reconstruction for the south was loosing momentum, the supremacist groups were able to gain power. These factors contributed to an economic recession in the south. After the recession the democrats were able to gain majority in the house and compromised with the Republican presidential candidate for support in exchange for control of the south this resulted in the end of the reconstruction. 

History.com- Good information for the events leading up to the end of reconstruction 

Britannica- specifics on how reconstruction ended (process,specifics, etc) 

Lincoln Homework Questions

Max Miller

1. To what extent was Lincoln "uncompromising"?  To what extent was Thaddeus Stevens (leader of the Radical Republicans) "uncompromising"?  What were they willing to compromise on?  What were they not willing to compromise on?

Lincoln was uncompromising on the basis that he wanted to get the 13th amendment passed and was willing to do anything and everything to secure the votes, despite many setbacks and many people telling him to stop and telling him that the amendment would not get passed. Thaddeus Stevens was uncompromising in the fact that he was strongly against slavery and he was willing to take any pressure that resulted from him being so against slavery. Despite taking a constant barrage or insults he was uncompromising in his beliefs and views never straying from his core value and support for the 13th amendment. They were willing to compromise on a lot of things such as peace talks with the south, but they were never willing to compromise on the 13th amendment always doing things that defend and gather much needed support, but never compromising the amendment itself. 

2. To what extent did the movie provide evidence of Lincoln's perspective as depicted in the Lincoln letters?

The movie provided certain evidences of Lincoln's perspective such as the ones depicted in the Lincoln letters. In the Lincoln letters he is always against slavery on a moral and humane standpoint shown in the movie where he constantly feels sadness for the slaves and knows that what is happening is not right. But In the Lincoln letters he is increasingly in support of a law that would abolish slavery and uses the constitution to back up his claim, because in the constitution it says "all men are created equal" which is uses a lot to support the amendment both in the Lincoln letters and in the movie. Lincoln is also feeling a sense of increasing urgency to have a law passed that would abolish slavery both in the movie and in the Lincoln letters.  

3. Why did Lincoln believe the 13th Amendment was essential?  

Lincoln had always wanted to abolish slavery and he realized that an amendment would be needed to do that since the Emancipation Proclamation did not guarantee the abolishment of slavery in all states. He also believed it was essential because when the southern states joined the union again because their defeat was only a matter of time at that point the chances of the amendment being passed would be extremely slim so it was essential to pass the bill now where the chances of success would be greatest. 

4. How did the film complicate the narrative that the North was against slavery and/or for racial equality, while the South was for slavery and against racial equality?

The film complicated this narrative because it showed that not everybody in the North was against slavery and for racial equality. It showed that people in the North were not always against slavery in fact there was a large divided opinion among the North about the issue of slavery. 

5. For what reasons did people seem to resist the ending of slavery?  Did the film depict this as a matter of concern for property rights, or something else?  

A reason people seemed to resist the ending of slavery was because they were concerned about the repercussions that all of those free slaves would cause and what that would do to the various aspects of life in the United States and how it would change with the freeing of slaves.