Back in time with Tim: Glory & 12 Years a Slave essay

In the movies 12 Years a Slave, and Glory, these films were able to keep historically accurate portrayals, that can keep an audience well informed, as well as drawing the audience in to watch the film by embellishing some tales and adding some more detailed action sequences. For example, in 12 Years a Slave, there is a scene on the slave boat where a slave is murdered by one of the sailors on the boat for trying to stop him before he rapes another slave. However, in this scene, the sense of all human rights being lost for the slaves as well as to add a sense of dread that Solomon may never have a chance to ever escape is provided making it a very important one to the movie. The only components missing to this film according to this times.com article are the slave overseer Tibeats was not captured chasing down Solomon with an axe, and there is no specific recorded instance that Mistress Epps injured Patsy, however it is entirely possible considering that according to the this atlantic review, the book, 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, Mistress Epps wanted Patsy dead, and talked to Solomon it seems that Patsy didn’t want to commit suicide, it was just a misunderstanding from the language used in the book, that Mistress Epps was actually the one that wanted Patsy dead. The way time is shown in the movie is also very intriguing, obviously it is completely unrealsitic to believe someone can show 12 years of action in 2 hours, but the director manages o get a sense of time across by subtly showing different seasons throughout the movie. The movie, 12 Years a Slave, manages to keep audience on the edge of their seat throughout the over 2 hour film, while staying true to the original story and sacrificing a few minor details to enhance the cinema going experience. Nearly the same thing happens in the movie, Glory, the opening battle scene is shortened to a few minutes and shown with faster moving parts that allows the director to fit a battle that probably lasted for several hours to 5 minutes. Allowing for an eye catching scene to start off the film and grab everyone's attention. Glory way similar to the actual events that transpired but was "Americanized" as to not show much of the part of the Civil War that makes the Americans look bad such as the mistreatment of black people by ordinary citizens and military officers alike. I found a book review for the book, Glory, and found that Robert Gould Shaw was portrayed precisely by the movie, as he was in the book. The book review shows that Robert Gould Shaw was a real person that did control the very first unit of black soldiers in the Civil War, and he had a humane way of fighting in the Civil War. When the 54th regiment first gets to start marching in the south, the movie shows them go into a town called Darien, Georgia and loot and destroy the entire town before eventually setting Darien ablaze. All Gould Shaw could do was sit there and watch while a higher commanding officer shouted these orders at both his regiment and another. This actually did happen, which I found out from an article by the NYTimes, and for many years Georgians and southerners detested Gould Shaw believing he was the root of this happening, which is fair considering his stature and ranking. But, when the movie came out it helped spread the message that Gould Shaw was not the evil man Georgians thought he was and more importantly showed how people can learn from movies about history. All in all movies are a very useful and entertaining tool that can and should be used to show historical events.
Sources:

New York times film review by Vincent Camby - I used this as an introduction to Glory and to see how accurately the 54th regiment as well as battle scenes were shown.

One Gallant Rush. Robert Gould Shaw and his Brave Black Regiment by Peter Burchard - I used this to see how well Robert Gould Shaw was portrayed in the movie.

New York Times review by Richard Bernstein - I used this since it talked about how black soldiers in the Civil War fought against prejudice and didn't just talk about the movie.

New York Times historical review by Michael Cieply - I used this since it gave a very descriptive and went over how accurate the movie was as well as describing how it could change the genre of slave movies.

The Atlantic review by Noah Berlatsky -I used this to see what was fact and fiction in 12 Years a Slave.

Time review by Eliana Dockterman - I used this to see what was fact and fiction in 12 Years a Slave.

LOC Newspaper archives- I used this to search to see if Solomon Northup's kidnapping was reported in any paper which it wasn't.

Reverse Underground railroad- I used this to find out how often free men were kidnapped and sold as slaves
Reverse Underground railroad Chicago tribune Reverse Underground Railroad by Chicago Tribune- I used this to get a credible resource about the reverse underground railroad