Harrison History Blog: Film Research

Harrison Pearson

10/25/16

USH - Learning History Through Film Essay

In my first quarter of eleventh grade history I learned that movies can be greatly resourceful when being used to explore real world events. In US history we were studying the topic on slavery. In class we watched both the movie Glory and the movie Twelve Years a Slave. Through watching the movies I was able to gather historically accurate information and see how things were in the past as depicted by the movie. By watching movies it is possible to explore real historical events, circumstances, as well as attitudes.

In historical movies it is hard for the film writers to condense every small detail of history and put it into a small two hour movie and sometimes that can just be boring. In the movie Glory it was able to accurately show as the 54th regiment trained and ultimately were lead into battle by General Shaw. But like many historical movies it is hard to keep each fact completely accurate and keep the audience engaged. The movie failed to show that General Shaw was married during the time that the movie covered but that was one of the small details that the film writer was able to leave out. In order for the movie to be successful it has to be able to have a balance between the historical side and keeping the audience engaged. Glory was able to do a good job with this when it showed the Battle of Fort Wagner on July, 1863 as the regiment charged into battle fighting for their country. Glory was also able to show the Pay Crisis in 1862 depicting the history of how the black soldiers were treated even though they were free at the time. The black soldiers of the 54th regiment revolted due to the fact that white soldiers were payed three dollars more even though they all are putting their lives on the line. The next good example of a historical movie which you can draw accurate information from is Twelve Years a Slave telling the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from Washington whom was kidnapped and sold into slavery. This movie was able to show first hand how slaves were treated. The movie shows that the slaves would be whipped if they failed to reach a certain quota of cotton picked a day, which was shown throughout plantations as punishment. The movie historically shows that Solomon’s slave owner, McQueen was actually having an affair with one of the slaves. In the end the movie shows Solomon being saved and taken back to his family up North after twelves years of harsh treatment in slavery. Movies are able to cover a large amount of historically accurate information in a short time while also keeping the audience engaged the whole time, this makes movies a good source to learn from during class. It is also easy to explore different aspects of events through watching movies.

When studying history it is important to understand how the people were acting during the time, or in other words important to understand their speech, tone, and attitudes towards others. The movie Glory was able to show how the soldiers acting during their training and how their relationships with each other changed over the course of the movie. Over the course of the movie through harsh times the soldiers slowly came to know each other as brothers all fighting for the same cause. It showed the somewhat harsher treatment during their training than a regular white solider would have been given as depicted by the officer during their training making sure there was not one mistake made. During the training of the 54th regiment General Shaw distanced himself from his soldiers though he had a close friend serving under him. As the movie progressed he too was able to grow closer together with his soldiers regardless of their skin color. In the movie Twelve Years a Slave the tone and attitude was very important to be able to see as slaves received extremely harsh treatment under some circumstances. Such as when McQueen’s best cotton picker female slave whom he had the affair with went to get soap to wash with he had her punished. He relentlessly made Solomon whip her until he couldn’t make himself do it again which is when he still took the whip and continued to lash out, making an example and showing his dominance over the other slaves. When reading about an event like that its hard to imagine exactly how things happened. In both movies it showed the other aspect of what we were learning about. It provides more background to the topic giving a stronger foundation of the information being learned, which is another reason movies are a good way to explore different historical events.

Movies are great way to explore different historical events, circumstances, and attitudes. They provide a strong background as well as a more detailed way of learning. It is easier to watch and see how things were during the time rather than to only read about an event. This is why I believe it is possible to learn about important events from movies.

CWmemory - 54th Massachusetts Regiment - Used to find more information the movie and see how someone other than myself viewed the movie

Civil War - Fort Wagner- Used to find more information on the Battle of Fort Wagner that occurred at the end of Glory

Americanyawp - Solomon Describes a Slave Market- Used to further dive into and explore the story of Solomon Northup to have accurate information to write about

American Civil War - Colored Troops- Used to find a more serious look on the colored soldiers that were in the civil war and new black regiments

Brevard, Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins, and John Hammond. Moore. A Plantation Mistress on the Eve of the Civil War: The Diary of Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins Brevard, 1860-1861. Columbia: U of South Carolina, 1996. Print.- Used the view of a slave owner to find a different view on Solomon's story