Preview

Django Unchained: Antebellum Era In The Deep South?

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1603 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Django Unchained: Antebellum Era In The Deep South?
To What Extent Does the Film Django Unchained Accurately Portray what Slavery was like in the Antebellum Era in the Deep South?

Slavery in the United States- as defined by law- started in the 1670s, and it lasted almost 200 years, before it legally ended in 1865. It is no secret that slave life was harsh, miserable, and filled with pain and suffering. Slaves were not seen as people, but as property. The time of slavery is one of- if not the darkest time in American history. In 2012 an American western- adventure film entitled Django Unchained, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, was released. The film primarily takes place during the pre-Civil War South (mainly in the year 1858). It is set in the antebellum era of the Deep South. (Source A) Using the film (source A), as well as various other sources, the extent to which Django
…show more content…
In the fil, Candyland is a plantation in Mississippi owned by slave owner Calvin Candie. At the owner’s club- Club Cleopatra- guests are entertained with black female sex slaves and black slave men pitted against one another in death matches. Another highly controversial and debated inaccuracy in the film are these aforementioned matches- “Mandingo Fighting”. This is a form of gambling between slave owners, whereby slaves fight to the death.
In order to enter Candyland, Django pretends to be a black slaver. He is despised by the blacks and most of the whites alike.
Upon entering Candyland, one of the most brutal scenes in the movie takes place. A slave that was being used for Mandingo Fighting is trapped in a tree- surrounded by overseers and vicious dogs- after attempting to run away. Calvin Candie (the plantation owner) decides to unleash the dogs on the slave- who tear and rip the man apart, to death. (Source A- 4)
Such brutal events most likely did take

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Narrator of the novel shows how the slaves are treated Inhumane and are Inequity to the Plantation owners. The use of whips and punishment are acts of Brutality and as a Deterrent to slaves if they don’t follow the rules. Yet Whitechapel still Justifies the behaviours of his owners and fair and in doing so keeps some Dignity.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Django Unchained” both entertains and emotionally unnerves you. The movie takes place in a pre-civil war setting. Django is a young black man that is forced into slavery, after purposely separating him and his wife “Matilda” by slave auctioneers. On the way to a new home for the purchased slaves, “Dr. King Schultz” an unorthodox German bounty hunter, finds him and is asked to accompany him on a mission to kill Django’s previous owners, “The Brittle Brothers”. Their mission is a success and Schultz frees Django, and together they hunt the South’s most-wanted. Their travels end up taking them to a shady plantation, where Django find his wife, and it turns very ugly when their plan don’t go their way.…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the novel Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen, chapter 4, Sarny recalls a memory of three slaves who were all made examples of by either running away, sneaking off plantation, or getting caught too close to the white house. In the first case, Sarny recalls a girl named Alice. She tried to run away when she was on the plantation but she was caught. In return the dogs caught her trying to run away and she was whipped until her skin was bleeding and rippled. Clel Waller decided that instead of killing her he would make her the next breeder she hated this role so she went wandering off. Clel found her and then started to whip her near the shed. Next there was jim, who also tried to run away but once again the dogs caught him ripping his skin. Finally…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Women on the plantation, both black and white, were not merely left behind during the Civil War, but instead right at the center of victories and defeat. Beautiful pictures are created of southern belles and beaux with lavish entertainment, yet the strenuous work needed to maintain the extravagant estates is left out.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    “If anyone wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul, - and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because ‘there is no flesh in his obdurate heart’” (9).…

    • 1390 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Now that the picture has been painted of what times were like many would assume well life seems to be great for the elite whites and dreadful for the slaves but little did anyone ever think to consider how slavery could possibly be bad for the South? In the book Incidents in a Life of a Slave Girl the main character Linda talks about her life from the very young age of 6 till she is a grown women. The book gives us a clear view of what it would be like to be a young girl growing up as a slave. One of the biggest things I was able to better understand from the book was truly how cruel slaves were treated numerous times the author Harriet Jacobs used details…

    • 1527 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The usage of such racial epithets was to give the audience a better context of the epoch, to express the dialect used in the book, and to better shine the light on the predicaments of the slaves in the era. The adversaries that are trying to avoid the derogatory terms are going to have a hard time dealing with this issue since racism has become one of the most ubiquitous topics in mainstream media nowadays. In fact, news channels, including, but not limited to, ABC News and U.S. News & World Report, even have specific, running pages devoted to the prickly issue. Sooner or later, the adversaries’ bliss is going be curtailed as they will face an imminent meeting with the reality that they did not want to…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the old south the Antebellum era was characterized by a slave society that affected nearly everything. In the South’s slavery defined social and political institutions while also fueling their economy. Slavery influenced made the South’s cotton trade more efficient with codependence on northern banks and merchants. The south’s cotton industry depended on slave labor a lot and later fueled political debates at economic conventions in 1837 to 1839. Regards the south northern dependence on financiers and importers these two things were the threat of the Old South’s commercial independence. Slavery had many other effects on politics where yeomen farmers wished to shape the society off their own democratic values.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Tobacco/Cotton Slavery FRQ

    • 1684 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When approaching slavery from a historical standpoint, it is a tendency to generalize the experience of slaves. However, slavery differs per region and time period. The differing climates of the Chesapeake region and Deep South determined the crops that would be grown and consequently the severity of slave labor. Likewise, over time slavery evolved from a class based system (poor indentured servants working alongside blacks) to a racially based system, creating an identity within the slave community. However, not only the slave experience differed, the institution itself transformed. The transition from class-based slavery to racial slavery, accompanied by new technologies that made the industry more profitable, changed how the institution was run. Thus, despite a general continuity in the institution of slavery, such as it being agrarian-based and involving black subordinates, many forces changed the institution like the installment of slave codes in 1670s, making it a legal and racial practice, and the development of the cotton gin and other technological advances in the 1790s. Whilst seventeenth century slavery was characterized by smaller tobacco plantations, racially-mixed servitude, and somewhat less-demanding labor, nineteenth century slavery was characterized by large-scale cotton plantations, solely black slavery, harsh and dangerous working conditions, and syncretic slave societies within plantations. This essay will approach identifying factors of change through the general categories of beginning, middle, and end of American slavery. It will also directly compare and contrast the institutions of early Chesapeake and later Deep South slavery.…

    • 1684 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blazing Saddles Research

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Being as this movie is shown to be a comedy to most, if someone were to watch the film and evaluate it, they would realize that the extreme hatred between two races is actually social commentary on race. This movie is set to have taken place just after the Civil War. As soon as the movie begins, the audience is drawn into the subject of racism. As the black men work on the railroad, Taggart (Hedley Lamarrs sidekick), pulls up on the horse and says to the men watching all the slaves work;…

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Butler Play Analysis

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages

    At the top of Butler, both Major General Butler and Lieutenant Kelly refer to Shepard Mallory as “The Negro Slave.” Neither man knows Mallory’s name. As their conversation about “The Negro Slave” continues issues of legality and more specifically the fugitive slave act are of the heart of the conversation as to what their…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Candy is lonely because of his old age. He is rejected by the people of the ranch due to him being old and handicapped. His only company is his faithful dog companion who later in the story is killed by Carlson. Candy response was "You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody'd shoot me. But they won't do nothing like that. I won't have no place to go, an' I can't get no more jobs.”(Steinbeck, 60) This quote really symbolizes the suffering that Candy goes through and how the men were willing to kill the old dog, while letting the old guy suffer. This also leads to Candy wanting to join George and Lennie on there dream to own their own ranch.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When he states, “he lives upon the sunshine of your lordly smile” or “he’ll bring you joy, he ridicules those who follow the stereotypical slave-master relationship follow his claim that a “good slave” serves for the white viewer’s amusement. (Ellison 432) The dolls signify that blacks are people’s entertainers, especially for whites. Used to bring crowd entertainment, they paralleled the way slaves were forced to dance and sing for their master’s enjoyment. But, as he derides them, he too is serving for the white viewer’s entertainment by dancing and making a fool of himself. Not only that, as Clifton pulls one of the doll’s strings, he slyly ridicules how black people used for entertaining by singing “He’ll kill your depression and your dispossession.”(Ellison 432) The jingle-like quality of this statement, which comes from the rhyme of “depression” and “dispossession,” focuses the puppet symbol on black people and accentuates their plight since those words came from the narrator’s speech.…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life as a slave was very difficult. As many as 4.5 million slaves were working in Southern plantations in the early to mid-1800’s. There were two types of slaves; field slaves and house slaves. People think that being a house slave was easier but this proves that theory wrong. Slaves had terrible environments, were separated from family and friends, and were sometimes beaten to death. Whites knew that slavery was wrong and immoral. Though, it still continued.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slave Narratives Essay

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Thinking back on the time when people were treated as property seems like such a distant time and it’s crazy to think that it wasn’t as far back as you may think or it may appear. The states that were mostly famous for slavery were the southern states since they’re decision to keep slavery alive was essentially what would tear the country apart and start a civil war between the North and the South. I can’t imagine being told to wake up at sunrise work all day until dark then get back up the next day with no pay, it should seem crazy to anyone living in our day in age. But back then the African American women, men, and children had no choice but to listen to their masters since they paid good money to have them. I also can’t imagine knowing that that type of lifestyle wouldn’t get any better because of how strongly the South felt about not abolishing slavery. For that reason and because of the fact that there was such strict laws about runaway slaves, I wouldn’t know what I would do with myself. It takes a strong person to forget about all the bad and think about the future and how they’re going to change the situation that they are in and that type of personality is expressed in the select few of many slaves who told their story. There was Fredrick Douglass Harriet Jacobs, Sarah Gudger, William Moore, James Cope, Martin Jackson, Rosa Starke, and Katie Darling. Unfortunately there isn’t enough time or paper for me to talk about all of the slaves and their stories so those are the ones that I’m going to be focusing on.…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays