DOCSLIB.ORG

Copyright by Jermaine Thibodeaux 2012

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Copyright by Jermaine Thibodeaux 2012 Copyright by Jermaine Thibodeaux 2012 The Report Committee for Jermaine Thibodeaux Certifies that this is the approved version of the following report: Raising Cane, Raising Men: An Exploration of Southern Manhood and Masculinities on Louisiana Sugar Plantations, 1795-1865 APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Daina Ramey Berry Shirley E. Thompson Raising Cane, Raising Men: An Exploration of Southern Manhood and Masculinities on Louisiana Sugar Plantations, 1795-1865 by Jermaine Thibodeaux, A.B. Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Dedication For my family, friends, students and teachers (past and present). Each of you has enriched my life beyond measure. I remain grateful for all of your good deeds, kind words, and sage advice. May our paths continue to cross. I would also like to dedicate this work to my own Louisiana Lady, my grandmother—the feisty lady from Rapides Parish! And my beloved sister, Angela, deserves special recognition for all of her support these past two years. Your love (and bad hairstyles!) sustained me and kept me laughing at the right times. Lastly, my mom has been a remarkable parent. She’s given me the space, the freedom to grow and become the man that I am today. Acknowledgements My journey to become a professional historian began in sixth grade as a student at Edward L. Blackshear Elementary. There, my teacher, Ms. Edna P. Davis, instilled in me a love of civics and an ever-inquisitive mind about the past. For those things, I remain eternally grateful. I know she would be proud. Along my journey to graduate school and up to the very last minute of editing and re-writing this essay, I have been supported by a host of phenomenal people. My advisor, Dr. Daina Ramey Berry has consistently been a champion of my work and allows me to explore an ever-changing list of potential dissertation topics. She gives me the stage to whine and perform when I need to, but she always gently guides me back to reality. Thanks. Professor Thompson has pushed me to think outside of the sometimes-stifling disciplinary walls of history and to engage and even imagine a range of new source possibilities and ways of interpreting the past. Professors Stephen Marshall and Tiffany Gill have provided great scholarly and professional examples along the way. Dr. Marshall, alone, has forced me to think about the utility and relevance of my future scholarship. I would also like to thank Professor Juliet E.K. Walker for always being available to listen to my zany ideas and provide me with constant encouragement and professional wisdom. I know she has my back! Likewise, Professor Leonard Moore has been a sagacious mentor from afar. He’s given me some of the best, most practical advice for navigating the thorny roads of academia. And Dr. Jacqueline Jones never ceases to remind me not to take this journey too seriously. Breathe, chuckle less, and enjoy the experience, she insists. I would be remiss in not thanking Professor Jim Sidbury. He deserves high v praise for ultimately getting me to UT. He’s a real class act. He, along with my amazing history professors at Cornell, has my utmost respect and admiration. I would also like to thank the Mocha Anthro Crew (Nedra K. Lee, Chelsi West, and Janie Scott) for tolerating my anti-theoretical rants and for sharing their prized workspace. Nedra, especially, has been my saving grace and uber-reliable sounding board for all of my grad school and personal problems. What a wonderful friend! Daryl Harris, my Bennu/PCL buddy, has also made these past two years in Austin bearable. And Luritta Dubois, my lunch pal and pop culture guru, thanks for making me laugh and think…all the time. I only hope that we remain forever connected as we move through life’s unpredictability. And to the many colleagues, History Department staff members, and Briscoe staff, I can never repay my debt. Lastly, my labors in graduate school are ultimately to set an example for my two awesome nephews, Jamarcus and Jeremiah. I hope they realize that learning has many rewards. vi Abstract Raising Cane, Raising Men: An Exploration of Southern Manhood and Masculinities on Louisiana’s Sugar Plantations, 1795-1865 Jermaine Thibodeaux, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Daina Ramey Berry This paper examines masculine gender relations on Louisiana sugar plantations from 1795 to the end of the Civil War. It argues that the distinct, homosocial space of the sugar plantation provided a diverse cast of men numerous opportunities to conform, contest, or flout altogether elements of hegemonic masculinity in the antebellum South. By illuminating the various ways in which black men and poor white men in particular negotiated the terms of the southern manhood, this study also argues for a richer, more inclusive gender conversation within southern history—one that finally takes seriously the gendered histories of all male subjects. vii Table of Contents L'introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Making the Case for Men ................................................................................... 4 Why Dixie? .......................................................................................................... 9 Why Sugar Country? .......................................................................................... 21 'He Bound fer Lousy Anna' ............................................................................... 24 Manifold Masculinities ..................................................................................... 33 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 50 Vita ................................................................................................................... 60 viii L’introduction In a sweeping examination of American manhood, sociologist Michael Kimmel declares, “The history of American manhood is many histories at once.”1 Bearing this claim in mind, it becomes plausible then that the history of southern manhood in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries also consisted of several complicated narratives, all of which were influenced in some way by intersecting notions of race, class, religion, sexuality, locality and a host of additional factors. The planter masculine ideal—one largely predicated on the concepts of honor and mastery—however, has long served as the hegemonic version of southern masculinity while the notion of the bourgeois, self-made man occupied the same dominant position in the North.2 Though in the southern context, this narrow conceptualization of manhood has woefully neglected the diversity of men and masculinities that have also simultaneously thrived in the antebellum South. In Louisiana, especially, several of these varied accounts of southern manhood converged in one particular space—the sugar plantation. And since men largely define themselves in relation to each other, then such sites where men 1 Michael S. Kimmel, Manhood in America : A Cultural History (New York: Free Press, 1996), 8. 2 See Kimmel, Manhood in America: A Cultural History; Mark C. Carnes and Clyde Griffen, Meanings for Manhood: Constructions of Masculinity in Victorian America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); E. Anthony. Rotundo, American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era (New York: BasicBooks, 1993). 1 predominate arguably provide ideal environments in which to explore masculine gender relations.3 As a largely homosocial, male-dominated work and living space, the Louisiana sugar plantation was one of the few places in the American South where a diverse male majority (black, white, Chinese and Irish) consistently crossed paths and were consequently forced to contend with their own internal understandings and external projections of manhood.4 Hence, it was in this distinctive world of sugarcane farming that men in Louisiana daily (re)constructed and expressed the numerous configurations and possibilities of southern masculinity. So, rather than examine notions of manhood among separate races and classes of men, or rather than attempt to execute a macro-history of masculine gender relations for the entire southern region—as numerous scholars have done—this paper, instead, uncovers the varied iterations of southern manliness found primarily on the Louisiana sugar plantation. It also examines how the mostly male sugar workforce negotiated that bricolage of masculine identities. Ultimately, attending to life on 3 In Manhood in America, Michael Kimmel argues: “In large part, it’s other men who are important to American men; American men define their masculinity, not so much in relation to women, but in relation to each other. Masculinity is a largely homosocial enactment,” 7. 4 This paper will focus mainly on black and white manhood narratives in sugar country. For a discussion of Chinese cane laborers, and to a lesser extent, German and Irish workers in Louisiana sugar parishes, see Moon-Ho Jung, Coolies and Cane : Race, Labor, and Sugar in the Age of Emancipation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006); Richard J. Follett, The Sugar Masters : Planters and Slaves in Louisiana’s Cane World, 1820-1860 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005), 85–86, 91. 2 Louisiana sugar
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Medley of Cultures: Louisiana History at the Cabildo
    A Medley of Cultures: Louisiana History at the Cabildo Chapter 1 Introduction This book is the result of research conducted for an exhibition on Louisiana history prepared by the Louisiana State Museum and presented within the walls of the historic Spanish Cabildo, constructed in the 1790s. All the words written for the exhibition script would not fit on those walls, however, so these pages augment that text. The exhibition presents a chronological and thematic view of Louisiana history from early contact between American Indians and Europeans through the era of Reconstruction. One of the main themes is the long history of ethnic and racial diversity that shaped Louisiana. Thus, the exhibition—and this book—are heavily social and economic, rather than political, in their subject matter. They incorporate the findings of the "new" social history to examine the everyday lives of "common folk" rather than concentrate solely upon the historical markers of "great white men." In this work I chose a topical, rather than a chronological, approach to Louisiana's history. Each chapter focuses on a particular subject such as recreation and leisure, disease and death, ethnicity and race, or education. In addition, individual chapters look at three major events in Louisiana history: the Battle of New Orleans, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Organization by topic allows the reader to peruse the entire work or look in depth only at subjects of special interest. For readers interested in learning even more about a particular topic, a list of additional readings follows each chapter. Before we journey into the social and economic past of Louisiana, let us look briefly at the state's political history.
    [Show full text]
  • Owl of Minerva Film Series Spring 2016 Sponsored By: the Undergraduate Philosophy Club, Department of Philosophy All Are Welcome!
    Owl of Minerva Film Series Spring 2016 Sponsored by: The Undergraduate Philosophy Club, Department of Philosophy All are welcome! Resisting Authority: Systems of Power, Oppression, and Thought Control This spring’s philosophy film series is devoted to the theme of the resistance of the individual human being to the systematic attempt by an unjust society to control the movement, speech and even the thought of the people it rules. How do the powerful few in an unjust society control the thought of the majority? How can the individual resist the dehumanizing influence of such techniques? Is an individual person in an unjust society morally obliged to resist its authority? Are any and all modes of resistance to an unjust society morally justifiable or only some? All films scheduled to date will be screened in BSCB 101 (Becker Communications Studies Bldg. auditorium) on alternate Wednesdays at 7pm. Please see the schedule below for film titles and dates. Agora: JAN 20th | 7pm | BSCB 101 (Becker Communication Studies Bldg. auditorium) Agora is a 2009 Spanish English-language historical drama film directed by Alejandro Amenábar and written by Amenábar and Mateo Gil. The biopic stars Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, a female mathematician, philosopher and astronomer in late 4th-century Roman Egypt, who investigates the flaws of the geocentric Ptolemaic system and the heliocentric model that challenges it. Surrounded by religious turmoil and social unrest, Hypatia struggles to save the knowledge of classical antiquity from destruction. Max Minghella co-stars as Davus, Hypatia's father's slave, and Oscar Isaac as Hypatia's student, and later prefect of Alexandria, Orestes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Horrors of Slavery and Crisis of Humanity in Amistad and 12 Years a Slave Recibido: 20/02/2014 – Aceptado: 10/03/2014
    KELLNER, Douglas: The Horrors of Slavery and Crisis of Humanity in Amistad and 12 Years a Slave Recibido: 20/02/2014 – Aceptado: 10/03/2014 REVISTA CIENTÍFICA DE CINE Y FOTOGRAFÍA ISSN 2172-0150 Nº 8 (2014) THE HORRORS OF SLAVERY AND CRISIS OF HUMANITY IN AMISTAD AND 12 YEARS A SLAVE HORRORES DE LA ESCLAVITUD Y CRISIS DE LA HUMANIDAD EN AMISTAD Y 12 AÑOS DE ESCLAVITUD Douglas Kellner Universidad de California, Los Ángeles Abstract: is a significant, although often forgotten moment in U.S. history. Hence, the current discussions of Solomon Northup’s testimonial 12 Years a Slave McQueen’s highly acclaimed film provide the (1853) tells the heart-wrenching story of how a opportunity for a look backwards at a painful free black man living in New York was captured moment in U.S. history and for discussion of by slave traders and forced to live as a slave on different modes of cinematic representation of southern plantations in the 1840s under slavery and how a crisis of humanity in the U.S. inhuman and oppressive conditions. Writing up has received different modes of cinematic and publishing his experiences, Northup representation. Accordingly, I will contrast presents a searing portrayal of the evils of Spielberg’s film with Parks’ and McQueen’s slavery that influenced abolitionist arguments presentations of slavery in their versions of and movements in the pre-Civil War period as Northup’s 12 Years a Slave. Although Spielberg’s debates over slavery intensified, leading to the Amistad contains many features of dominant bloodiest war in American history.
    [Show full text]
  • Edgar Joseph Edmunds (1851 – 1887)
    EDGAR JOSEPH EDMUNDS (1851 – 1887), MATHEMATICS TEACHER AT THE CENTER OF NEW ORLEANS’ POST-CIVIL WAR FIGHT OVER SCHOOL INTEGRATION SiAn Zelbo Submitted in partiAl fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2020 © 2020 SiAn Zelbo All Rights Reserved Abstract EDGAR JOSEPH EDMUNDS (1851 – 1887), MATHEMATICS TEACHER AT THE CENTER OF NEW ORLEANS’ POST-CIVIL WAR FIGHT OVER SCHOOL INTEGRATION SiAn Zelbo This dissertAtion is a historicAl study of A nineteenth-century teAcher of mAthemAtics of AfricAn descent, Edgar Joseph Edmunds (“E. J. Edmunds”). The study traces the life and cAreer of Edmunds, which spanned a period of sociAl upheAVAl in the South – from the pre-Civil WAr era, through Reconstruction, and into the Jim Crow era of segregation. Edmunds’ cAreer as a teAcher of mAthemAtics wAs, in some sense, unremArkable. He did not produce original mAthemAtics and never held a position in a prestigious college or university. Edmunds is significAnt, however, in two respects. Edmunds wAs among the few known nineteenth-century AmericAn mAthemAticAl personages of AfricAn descent who, in spite of the legal restrictions and sociAl obstAcles endured by people of color, mAnaged to achieve the highest level of mAthemAticAl educAtion aVAilAble at the time. As such, Edmunds serves as a historicAl example of both the hardships and the fleeting opportunities in nineteenth-century AfricAn-AmericAn communities. Edmunds’ life is instructive Also becAuse it intersected with institutions and events that are significAnt to the history of mAthemAtics educAtion and to the history of educAtion generally.
    [Show full text]
  • Agency and Its Limitations in Slave Narratives and Contemporary Slavery Fiction and Film
    REPRESENTING SLAVE AGENCY: AGENCY AND ITS LIMITATIONS IN SLAVE NARRATIVES AND CONTEMPORARY SLAVERY FICTION AND FILM Master’s Thesis Literary Studies specialization English Literature and Culture Leiden University Simone Kouwenhoven 0934429 June 26, 2015 Supervisor: Dr. J.C. Kardux Second Reader: S.A. Polak, MA Kouwenhoven 2 Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl .......... 6 Chapter 2: Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave ........................................ 15 2.1 Writing and publishing the narrative and its paratext ................................ 15 2.2 Northup’s free-born status and independence ............................................ 21 2.3 Northup’s attempts to escape ..................................................................... 26 Chapter 3: Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery ....................................... 34 Chapter 4: Sherley Anne Williams’ Dessa Rose................................................. 40 Chapter 5: Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave ................................................... 50 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 62 Works Cited ......................................................................................................... 65 Kouwenhoven 3
    [Show full text]
  • Embodied Social Death: Speaking and Nonspeaking Corpses in Hannah Crafts’S the Bondwoman’S Narrative and Solomon Northup’S Twelve Years a Slave
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2016 Embodied Social Death: Speaking and Nonspeaking Corpses in Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative and Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave Rachel Jane Dunsmore University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Other English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Dunsmore, Rachel Jane, "Embodied Social Death: Speaking and Nonspeaking Corpses in Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative and Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2016. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/3742 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Rachel Jane Dunsmore entitled "Embodied Social Death: Speaking and Nonspeaking Corpses in Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative and Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English. Katy L. Chiles, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Mary E. Papke, Bill J. Hardwig Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R.
    [Show full text]
  • African American Experience in Louisiana Historic Context for The
    The African American Experience in Louisiana Prepared for: State of Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism Office of Cultural Development Division of Historic Preservation Prepared by: Laura Ewen Blokker Southeast Preservation Greensburg, Louisiana [email protected] May 15, 2012 On the cover: (Clockwise from top left to center) Slave quarters, Evergreen Plantation, Wallace, St. John the Baptist Parish; Antioch Baptist Church, Shreveport, Caddo Parish; Dorseyville School with St. John Baptist Church in background, Dorseyville, Iberville Parish; Star Cemetery, Shreveport, Caddo Parish; S. W. Green House, New Orleans, Orleans Parish; Prince Hall Masonic Temple, Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish; Freetown, St. James Parish; A. P. Tureaud House, New Orleans, Orleans Parish; J. S. McGehee Lodge # 54, St. Francisville vicinity, West Feliciana Parish; Southern University, Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish. Photographs of A. P. Tureaud House and S. W. Green House in New Orleans by Charles Lesher. All other photographs by Laura Ewen Blokker. TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary/ Statement of Historic Context …………………………………………..…1 Background History and Development Birth of a Creole Culture: People of African Descent in French and Spanish Colonial Louisiana, 1699-1802……………………………………………………………………..4 Diminishing Liberties and Growing Tensions: African Americans in the American Territorial Period and Antebellum Statehood, 1803-1861……………………………….10 Uneasy Alliances and the Attainment of Freedom: The African American Experience
    [Show full text]
  • Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (1853)
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Selections from the University Library Blog University Library Publications 3-3-2014 To Learn More: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (1853) Jill E. Anderson Georgia State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/univ_lib_blog Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Jill E., "To Learn More: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (1853)" (2014). Selections from the University Library Blog. 12. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/univ_lib_blog/12 This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Library Publications at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Selections from the University Library Blog by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To Learn More: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (1853) Posted on March 3, 2014 by Jill Anderson Last night the film Twelve Years a Slave , a wrenching portrait of a free black man kidnapped into slavery, won the Oscar award for Best Film ; the film’s director, Steve McQueen, became the first black director to win for Best Film (though he was overlooked for Best Director). Lupita Nyong’o also won Best Supporting Actress for her role, and John Ridley won Best Adapted Screenplay for the film. Twelve Years a Slave has received strong critical acclaim and other accolades , including the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture—Drama and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)’s Best Film award; BAFTA also gave the film’s star, Chiwetel Ejiofor, the award for Best Actor.
    [Show full text]
  • Purchased Lives: Solomon Northup's Efforts to Prove His Freedom
    The Historic New Orleans PUrchased Lives: Collection Solomon Northup’s Efforts to Prove His Freedom MUSEUM • RESEARCH CENTER • PUBLISHER Teacher’s guide: grade levels 7–9 Number of lesson plans: 5 Copyright © The Historic New Orleans Collection; copyright © The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History All rights reserved © 2015 The Historic New Orleans Collection | www.hnoc.org | © 2015 The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History | www.gilderlehrman.org 2 Purchased Lives: Solomon Northup’s Efforts to Prove His Freedom BASED ON AN EXHIBITION at Purchased Lives: Solomon Northup’s Efforts The Historic New Orleans Collection to Prove His Freedom March 17–July 18, 2015 Metadata Grade levels 7–9 Number of lesson plans: 5 What’s Inside: Lesson One....p. 4 Lesson Two....p. 9 Lesson Three....p. 21 Lesson Four....p. 28 Lesson Five....p. 32 Common Core standards CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.6: Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.2: Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g., social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.
    [Show full text]
  • Solomon Northup: Twelve Years a Slave, Forever a Witness Ginger Jones
    Solomon Northup: Twelve Years a Slave, Forever a Witness Ginger Jones Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote in her 1853 book, The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, that “[i]t is a singular coincidence that Solomon Northup was carried to a plantation in the Red [R]iver country—the same region where the scene of Uncle Tom’s captivity was laid— and [where Northup’s] accounts . form a striking parallel” (174) to events in her best-selling novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe’s Key, a response to critics who claimed she exaggerated the inhumanity of slavery in her bestseller, was for sale months before Northup’s book was published, but after an account of his ordeal had been printed in the January 20, 1853 edition of the New York Times. In response to Mrs. Stowe’s mention of his experience, Northup dedicated his book, Twelve Years a Slave, to her. When Ohio’s Anti-Slavery Bugle advertised their fourteen thousand copies of the book for sale on September 3, 1853, they quoted Stowe’s mention of the “striking parallel” under the headline “Truth is Stranger than Fiction” in their advertisement. The word “fiction” not only referred to Stowe’s novel, but also to the veracity of the portrayal of Southern slavery. Abolitionists edited the narratives of former slaves to use as propaganda for the abolition of slavery; as a result, readers and politicians alike debated the “truth” of the treatment of slaves, especially after the success of Stowe’s best-selling novel. But in the case of Northup, how could anyone refute an eyewitness? The history of the critical reception of Northup’s narrative, how readers and scholars understood it and responded to it, shows a steadily developing recognition that Northup’s account was different from traditional slave narratives, not only because Northup was kidnapped into slavery rather than born into it, but chiefly because Northup’s account is a memoir, a work that transforms memory into a universal experience instead of simply reciting the facts about a particular time and place.
    [Show full text]
  • Original Is Better 2014 12 Years a Slave (From Wikipedia) Presentation
    Original Is Better 2014 12 Years a Slave (from Wikipedia) Presentation by Peter Anderson 12 Years a Slave is a 2013 historical drama film and an adaptation of the 1853 slave narrative memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a New York State-born free African-American man who was kidnapped in Washington DC in 1841 and sold into slavery. Northup worked on plantations in the state of Louisiana for twelve years before his release. The first scholarly edition of Northup's memoir, co-edited in 1968 by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon, carefully retraced and validated the account and concluded it to be accurate.[4] Other characters in the film were also real people, including Edwin and Mary Epps, and Patsey. This is the third feature film directed by Steve McQueen. The screenplay was written by John Ridley. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup. Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, and Alfre Woodard are all featured in supporting roles. Principal photography took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, from June 27 to August 13, 2012. The locations used were four historic antebellum plantations: Felicity, Bocage, Destrehan, and Magnolia. Of the four, Magnolia is nearest to the actual plantation where Northup was held. 12 Years a Slave received widespread critical acclaim, and was named the best film of 2013 by several media outlets. It proved to be a box office success, earning over $187 million on a production budget of $20 million. The film won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Nyong'o, and the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Ridley.
    [Show full text]
  • Lama Newsletter
    LOUISIANA ARCHIVES & MANUSCRIPTS ASSOCIATION LAMA NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE SPRING/SUMMER 2011 Ernest J. Gaines Center Opened at UL-Lafayette they (his works) will be in my home state," said Gaines. The Gaines Center provides a space for scholars and students to work with Gaines‟ papers and manuscripts. The center also anticipates the donation of extensive papers, manuscripts and tape -recorded interviews of Gaines schol- ars, according to Dr. Marcia Gaudet, the center‟s director. She is also the Dr. Doris Meriwether/BORSF Profes- sor of English and Research Fellow of the Center for Cultural and Eco- Tourism. “We imagine this center as a place for both national and international re- searchers. We also see this as a place for our students and students within the community. We want this to be a Ernest J. Gaines and his wife, Dianne, with (starting left) Dean of Liberal Arts Dr. David Barry, UL- Lafayette President Dr. Joseph Savoie and Dean of University Libraries Dr. Charles Triche. Photo place where students can come to visit. courtesy of UL-Lafayette Communications and Marketing Office. This is the only place in the world which will have this collection,” said The site of the only complete collec- center. The collection includes pub- Gaudet. tion of Ernest Gaines scholarship in the lished and unpublished manuscripts, She noted that the center will coordi- world is now open at the University of drafts and notes; selected personal and nate other activities related to research Louisiana at Lafayette‟s Dupré Library. business correspondence; first editions and scholarship on the work of Gaines.
    [Show full text]