Robroysboy Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Wow! what a film, very emotional. Especially the scene where the family is split up at the distribution sale. Powerful and thought provoking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillinger Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Incredible film that really stayed with me. How can we humans be so vile? Picked up the book for a couple of quid and will need to give it a read some day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phart Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 the banality of evil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Col Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 only movie i've ever left early Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kumnio Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Thought it was a god awful film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParisInAKilt Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Difficult watch but then it had to be. I knew it was based on a true story going in but didn't realise he was kidnapped and sold to slavery, that bit if possible made it worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristolhibby Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 (edited) A great film that had to be watched. And you wonder 150 years later why race relations are so strained. How can you reconcile to a people who were literally allowed to be owned by another person, flogged and have their families ripped apart and sold like cattle, just because of the colour of their skin? It's the root of Americas race problems. The country simply hasn't got over that wrong. Brutal stuff. J Edited March 22, 2015 by Bristolhibby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euan2020 Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 This is not just a colour thing though There was bonded slaves in Norway called valets or something. U also have this in India There were also bonded slaves on West Indies from the scottish highlands There were more slaves taken from Africa into Arabia than America's but they are not around now. Wonder why ........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phart Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 i wonder who built the pyramids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phart Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 (edited) There were more slaves taken from Africa into Arabia than America's but they are not around now. Wonder why ........... Well the suadi's didn't abolish slavery till 1962, and it's still practiced today unoffically, they still have and sell African Slaves. http://tundratabloids.com/2012/11/abdul-for-sale-saudi-on-facebook-selling-castrated-black-african-muslim-slave.html " A Saudi prince who beat and strangled his servant to death at the culmination of a campaign of "sadistic" abuse is facing a life sentence after being convicted of murder. Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud, a grandson of the billionaire king of Saudi Arabia, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of killing Bandar Abdulaziz at their five-star hotel suite in central London." http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/oct/19/saudi-prince-servant-murder-guilty Edited March 22, 2015 by phart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wine bibber Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 This is not just a colour thing though There was bonded slaves in Norway called valets or something. U also have this in India There were also bonded slaves on West Indies from the scottish highlands There were more slaves taken from Africa into Arabia than America's but they are not around now. Wonder why ........... Glad you pointed this out .I've been banging on about this for years as it's seems there's a whole generation who believe it is just a colour thing.The Barbary pirates took hundreds of thousands of Europeans into slavery in Africa for over 200 years including many from these islands. The treatment of these slaves was much more brutal than in the American colonies.The reason there are few descendants of European slaves in Africa is that they were treated less of a commodity and worked to death.There was a crew member of an American shipwreck around 1820 who was one of the few survivors that lived to tell his tale.It is one of the most horrific accounts of mans inhumanity to man i have ever come across including him being forced to drink Camels urine to stay alive.Can't remember the name of the book if anyone else has come across it. Our education system's teaching on slavery seems to me to be weighted in favour of specific race or skin colour.I am not sure if it is down to ignorance or some political agenda.We're all Jock Tamsons Bairns as far as slavery was and is concerned. Some interesting reading here: Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wine bibber Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 i wonder who built the pyramids Ironically there is no direct evidence that slaves were actually used.Egyptian Royalty appear to have used seasonal workers as a form of indentured labour for part of the year from the Nile Delta.In return the Pharaohs offered protection and security in the region.Possibly an early form of feudal obligation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phart Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Ironically there is no direct evidence that slaves were actually used.Egyptian Royalty appear to have used seasonal workers as a form of indentured labour for part of the year from the Nile Delta.In return the Pharaohs offered protection and security in the region.Possibly an early form of feudal obligation. considering the pyramids are aligned to true north 3 times more accurately than the royal observatory, i've always wondered how they were built. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huddersfield Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I recently read The Known World by Edward P. Jones. Central to the book is the issue of black slave owners, but as a work of fiction it's probably the best handling of the broad issues of US slavery that I've read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phart Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I recently read The Known World by Edward P. Jones. Central to the book is the issue of black slave owners, but as a work of fiction it's probably the best handling of the broad issues of US slavery that I've read. Yeah like folk thinking the american civil war was fought over slavery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huddersfield Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 (edited) Yeah like folk thinking the american civil war was fought over slavery. Although the primary narrative of the book predates the Civil War, he always uses the language of the 'war between the states' embedding it (in my mind anyway) as a morally neutral conflict. He makes no political points about it but I imagine clearly recognises that point, including using a literary device of 20th century hindsight. It's a while since I ever studied the US Civil War so I'm not going to claim expertise here but I was always drawn to Howard Zinn's perspective of it as a critical component of America's conversion process to Capitalism. Edited March 22, 2015 by Huddersfield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phart Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Although the primary narrative of the book predates the Civil War, he always uses the language of the 'war between the states' embedding it (in my mind anyway) as a morally neutral conflict. He makes no political points about it but I imagine clearly recognises that point, including using a literary device of 20th century hindsight. It's a while since I ever studied the US Civil War so I'm not going to claim expertise here but I was always drawn to Howard Zinn's perspective of it as a critical component of America's conversion process to Capitalism. Well who issued currency was certainly one of the main reasons, with France and Gb agitating in the south as well, the reason i say it wasn't civil rights though is cause Lioncoln, congress etc stated it clearly in their own writings. writing into a paper he wrote "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.” Congress also made similar pledges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huddersfield Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Well who issued currency was certainly one of the main reasons, with France and Gb agitating in the south as well, the reason i say it wasn't civil rights though is cause Lioncoln, congress etc stated it clearly in their own writings. writing into a paper he wrote "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.” Congress also made similar pledges. In polemical terms, Zinn portrayed the conflict as a choice between types of slavery; bonded or wage. The rapid industrialisation in the North required a radical new economic model into which slavery didn't fit. The economic model of the South was not one that would tend to deliver growth at the scale that was happening in the North. The race issue though was clearly a potent one & Lincoln I think probably quite successfully was able to wrap up a mix of defending the union, fighting injustice & patriotic fervour to promote the conflict. I recall reading that there were attempts from workers leaders in the North to stop anti-slavery petitions coming to Congress on the grounds that they were masking the true issues of 'oppression'. Suffice to say you are entirely right that it's nonsense to portray it as a straightforward crusade to liberate slaves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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