Slave Narratives play a major part in African American history. A slave
Narrative is simply an autobiography of the events an African American has
faced along with the obstacles they have conquered during the time of their
enslavement. From being on the slave ships to working long brutal hours on a
master’s plantation historians have studied these narratives as they’ve been
published and shared throughout the years leading up to the abolition of
slavery.
One of Atlantic Slavery’s most interesting narratives is that of Olaudah
Equiano. Equiano wrote a narrative explaining his experiences on the slave ship
he was on when he was captured and sold into slavery at the tender age of 11.
This narrative was not published until 1789 and was used by abolitionists
during the move to ban slavery. Equiano’s narrative was very appealing to abolitionists
and still remains popular today yet questioned. Within Equiano’s narrative, the
one thing that sticks out most to the reader is his constant wishing for death
to come upon him during the Middle Passage. As he wrote about his experiences
on the ship when he first boarded he states:
I was not long suffered to indulge
my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a
salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced ion my life: so that with
the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low
that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now
wished for the last friend, death to relieve me...
A typical
slave narrative has the stereotype of being very detailed and very graphic.
Many historians who have studied Equiano’s work question his narrative. There
are doubts as to whether or not Equiano really faced the obstacles of being on
a slave ship. Many would say that his story was mildly narrative compared to
the typical expectations of a slave narrative.
One of Hollywood’s most famous directors, Steven Spielberg, directed a
movie based on the experience of enslaved Africans called Amistad. As I look into some of the comments posted on movie review
sites, it’s clear that there are a bunch of mixed feelings about this film. One
commenter, “Brock Silvey,” states: “Spielberg was in white guilt mode when he
made this, yes, the same mode that brought us his zip-a-dee-doo-dah version of The Color Purple, though that film looks
like Lawrence of Arabia compared to
this.” Spielberg was not only bashed for his dramatic remake of the events that
took place on the Amistad but for his historical inaccuracy as well.
Considering
the fact that Spielberg is of Caucasian descent (along with his entire writing
team) contributed a lot to what critics say about Amistad. So, the question is: Would critics have given Spielberg a
break if he were African American? Silvey proceeds to state in his review that,
“Spielberg works so hard to make his whites look like caricature buffoons and
his blacks like righteous nobles that he ends up treating his audience like a
bunch of morons who aren't able to draw any conclusions for themselves.” This
was a very harsh review of the film but Silvey was not the only one who felt so
strong about Spielberg’s portrayal of Africans and whites.
David Sterritt from the Christian Science Monitor says, “Steven
Spielberg's historical drama is more stilted and didactic than its fascinating
subject deserves, gathering great emotional force only in a harrowing scene
depicting the Holocaust-like suffering of slave-ship captives.” There were many
people who found the particular scene when the slaves are first captured and
brought onto the ship as the most memorable scene throughout the movie yet the
most dramatic. This particular scene is the scene that has drawn the most
attention to the movie. If one has not seen the entire movie, chances are that
person is at least familiar with this scene in particular. Used in college
history classes and other African American courses, this scene from the Amistad
was used to portray the brutality faced by enslaved Africans.
However, it is safe to say that both portrayals of the events that took
place in the middle passage are fairly similar in very moderate ways such
Africans being whipped for punishment and placed in the bottom of the ship but
the issue lies within how these events are portrayed. With Equiano being a formally
enslaved person who decided to write about his experiences being enslaved, he
is rewarded with doubt that he’s ever been on a slave ship because of these
expectations or standards of a typical slave narrative that have been formed
along with the fact that he was indeed an enslaved African. However, if the
roles were switched and Equiano was white and Spielberg was African American,
both of their works have the possibility of being more accepted in Society.
No comments:
Post a Comment