HBO
documentary discusses slavery
By Monica Levette Clark
On-line Forty-Niner
Sarah
Gudger, Frances Black, Henry Coleman, Jennie
Proctor, Rosa Spark, Mary Estes Peters and
Elizabeth Sparks were all former slaves.
They were also among 2,000 black men and
women whose lives as former slaves were
brought to life in a moving, historical
documentary.
“Unchained Memories: Readings of the Slave
Narratives,” an HBO documentary that premiered
Feb. 10, was screened at a small gathering
in the University Student Union Tuesday
night.
Once reluctant to speak about life slavery
times, these men and women, in their golden
years, agreed to have their personal experiences
recorded and documented between 1936 and
1938 by journalists of the Federal Writer’s
Project, in an effort to preserve their
accounts of this shameful part of America’s
history.
In a broken, southern English vernacular
celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Samuel
L. Jackson and Don Cheadle verbalized the
memoirs of these and other former slaves,
bringing personality to the untold stories,
and giving students viewing the documentary
a harsh dose of a reality that is unfathomable
today.
On most plantations, the enslaved men and
women worked from sunrise to sundown, Monday
through Saturday, and sometimes Sunday.
Yet, everyone but themselves profited from
their labor, prompting the belief of some
that “America was built on the backs of
blacks.”
Rosa Stark, who once lived on a plantation,
explained that slaves were put into three
categories by their owners depending on
where they worked on the plantation.
As explained in the documentary “House niggers”
were of the first class, referring to those
who worked inside. “Field-hand niggers”
were of the third and lowest class, and
referred to those who labored outside, picking
cotton or tobacco leaves.
White men considered sexual advances toward
the black women they owned, to be their
prerogative, raping the ones that resisted
those advances.
Mary Renolds was a product of miscegenation,
as was Mary Estes Peters, who was the product
of a gang rape by white men passing through
the plantation which her mother lived on.
Whipping slaves was another aspect of this
harsh reality.
“They beat you cross-wise so your flesh
would cut up in squares,” said Charles Grainley
in his memoirs.
Whippings were sometime done in front of
crowds of people, creating a public spectacle
to terrorize and belittle a slave.
The domestic life of a slave was bleak.
Slave quarters were small log cabins with
dirt floors and unbearable bunks. Food rations
included molasses, corn meal and sometimes
salted pork, given out once a week.
Slave marriages had no legal standing and
could be broken up at the owners’ discretion.
Many of the memoirs included accounts of
married men and women that saw each other
once or twice a week. Many marriages were
even arranged by the owners.
The 74-minute documentary included graphic
scenes of bound slaves in chains and iron
collars, and reels of spirituals also known
as slave songs. The documentary was
a reminder to the students of the devastating
and lingering effects of slavery on the
black community’s conscience, and proof
that slavery and all of its evil acts existed
in America.
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