ava's u.s. history

12 Years A Slave Film Review Manohla Dargis gives her review of 12 Years A Slave and states how impressed she is with the use of cinematography and writing in the film. She praises Chiwetel Ejiofor's acting and ability to play this character so well. She discusses the "ugly lies" that are so often portrayed in films about slavery, and how this film ends that cycle, giving a fresh take on films that revolve around this particular topic. She sums up Solomon Northup's inspiring story and the ups and downs of his life. She discusses how the movie flows nicely, and how scenes that could be considered upsetting by viewers are more sparse and few compared to other films. This is most likely so that viewers are not so extremely upset that they stop watching and miss out on the rest of the story. This review sums up everything that is great about this film. The Blood and Tears, Not the Magnolias

Analyzing Slave Narratives Master-Slave Relationships While reading slave narratives, I learned a lot about the nature of relationships between masters and slaves. Frederick Douglass discusses morality and religion in his narrative. "Why am I a slave? Why are some people slaves, and others masters?". Douglass poses these questions in his writing because he was always told that God knew what was best and right. It was hard for him to hear this because if this was so, then was it right for masters to so terribly abuse their slaves? He states that he watched his master cut the flesh off of Esther (who was his aunt) and he had to watch her cry so. Douglass believes that if God knows best, then how could he allow such awful things to happen? He also wonders why black people are the ones that were enslaved. Did God decide that they were inferior? He also discusses the fact that he knows blacks who are not slaves, so the decision of who becomes enslaved cannot entirely rest u

Paraphrasing Lincoln (Paraphrasing Practice) "But this is, after all, a movie, a drama, an entertainment (if you will), not a documentary. For all of our wailing about the lack of historical knowledge, awareness, teaching and reading, historical and biographical movies increasingly feel compelled to pay a much heavier duty in period-correct appearances than the costume-dramas of our parents’ generation, and it’s satisfying to see that Spielberg pays his duty so lavishly. But a preoccupation with authenticity at the expense of story has capsized more than a few historical movies at their dock, and Lincoln has not entirely escaped that problem." - A Civil War Professor Reviews 'Lincoln': Daily Beast Source My paraphrase of the selected passage: The author of this review states that this is only a movie for entertainment purposes, it is only fictional and does not depict events entirely historically accurately. While it is understandable to hold films a

Dogs in History Dogs were very popular in households from the mid to late 1800s. Some believed that dogs were too expensive to take care of, but despite this, in some newspapers it is was said that every household should have at least more than one. The newspapers also describe dogs as being very loyal to their owners and following them everywhere they go. At the time, it was believed that dogs were only good if they were useful, and would protect the household from intruders or other wild animals. Terriers, Mastiffs, and Spaniels were some of the most popular dog breeds in the 1800s. It was not common for dogs to sleep in the house with the rest of the family, most of the time they would sleep outside in crates or in handmade beds. These facts greatly contrast the viewpoint of dogs in the modern age, which is that dogs are as much of a part of the family as real children. The usage of the word "dog" in literature greatly increased between the years 1860 and 1880. Th

Reconstruction Research Archive Link 1. While "time traveling" in the 19th century newspaper archive, I learned a lot about the language that was used during this era of time. I was very surprised to see how common racist language was at the time. It seemed as if "colored" or "negro" was used in every sentence, and this made it seem like those who were writing in the newspapers seemed almost obsessed with race. It was also different from what I expected because I thought that all of the use of these words would be negative, but this was not the case. Many of the uses of these words were in an empathetic way towards blacks. Reading newspapers was very different from reading a textbook because it provides more of a personal opinion than a textbook would. 2. Reconstruction came to an end in 1877 because advocates of Rutherford Hayes (who was the republican candidate) met with southern democrats to negotiate acceptance of the elections. The democrats a