In my antique boots, standing on my antique soapbox…
A while back, someone left an unflattering kind of review on Amazon for my historical novel, “The Secrets of Heavenly.” The writer implied that it was written about a subject (American slavery) on which there was already too much written. What? As if there could ever be too much truth, should we ever stop thinking about such a horrific topic in history? I don’t think so!
I’d just like to address the relevance of not only my book, but also other works-mainly film and television productions-that have recently made their way in front of the public. See if you agree that it is important to recall the past…
Free State of Jones
Okay, my husband and I went to the movies over the weekend to see this new Matthew McConaughey movie. We both wanted to see the film, but I was especially interested since my own novel was set in a similar time period. “Free State” took place primarily in Jones County, Mississippi during and after the Civil War whereas “Secrets” is based in coastal South Carolina up to the decade before the war. However, both deal with the injustice of slavery and inequality in America and the bleak period that plagued our nation–the nation supposedly founded on freedom and escape from tyranny.
In the film, McConaughey’s character Newton Knight was a Confederate medic who witnessed scores of soldiers die in a war that he saw as nothing more than the wealthy protecting their right to keep slaves and further their cotton empires. Most of the soldiers were poor farmers who had no slaves, but seemed to be brainwashed into thinking they were defending the very honor of the South. In reality they were only preserving the cushy Southern way of life enjoyed by the elites in power.
Newton Knight was a farmer himself, but after deserting the Army, he became a wanted man and was forced into hiding. He found refuge in the Mississippi swamps among runaway slaves with whom he developed close friendships. Ultimately he banded with them and a group of other deserters and farmers (including women and children!) to stand up to the corrupt Confederates and proclaim freedom. Opening June 24, “Free State of Jones” has grossed over $16 million. While it’s not breaking any box office records, it’s still a powerful and well-acted movie that is based on a true story. It’s the kind of movie that helps you remember why it’s just pure evil to hate people because of skin color or income level. Although our country has the ugliness of slavery in its past, this movie made me proud to be an American because of people like Newton Knight!
12 Years a Slave and Lincoln
Back in October of 2013, the movie “12 Years a Slave” was released. It earned over $181 million in box office revenue. This story of Solomon Northup, free-born black man kidnapped and sold into slavery, went on to win an Oscar for 2013’s Best Picture. Before that, in November of 2012, the movie “Lincoln” chronicled the last months of that president’s life and his push not only to end the Civil War, but also to pass the 13th Amendment and abolish slavery. That film has made nearly $274 million dollars. So…are Americans still interested in this period of history? I’d say we are!
Underground
This spring, the WGN America network introduced us to “Underground,” its mini-series that blossomed into renewal for a second season in 2017. 3.5 million viewers watched the premiere episode and remained loyal throughout the rest of the series. It is a fictional account of slaves escaping from a plantation in Georgia to make a 600-mile trek to freedom in the North. Personally, I can attest to staying up way past my bedtime to watch it at 10 PM (instead of DVR’ing it) just so I could stay up even later to live Tweet with the cast! Oh, yeah! It was the closest I’ve ever come to being involved with a story that had so many parallels to my own book. To the credit of co-creators Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, “Underground” drew WGN America’s biggest audience since 1998 when it televised a particular history-making Chicago Cubs vs St. Louis Cardinals game. Do you remember when Mark McGwire hit his record-breaking 62nd home run of the season? Yep, it was that game!
Roots
And then there’s “Roots.” When the iconical television version of Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel aired in 1977, not even ABC’s network chief Fred Silverman expected anyone to pay much attention to it. He was dead wrong! Over 28 million people tuned in that first night. Over half of all American households tuned in to watch it at some point of its airing and it broke so many television records that Hollywood heads spun for ages! Something like 100 million people watched the last episode.
Yesterday I linked to an article about A&E Network’s recent remake of “Roots” because it discussed the changes that were to make the movie more relatable to a modern audience some 40 years later. ‘Roots’ Reborn: How a Slave Saga Was Remade for the Black Lives Matter Era The first episode aired May 30 on History, A&E, and Lifetime television channels, but the timing was unfortunate due to the popularity of the NBA Finals running at the same time, ironically on ABC Television. “Roots 2016” averaged 19.2 million viewers during its four nights, nothing like the numbers attracted to the original. Hopefully people DVR’d it and will continue to watch it online because the message of the story is simply too powerful to ever be forgotten.
The newer version of “Roots” was more graphic and emotionally devastating than the first and in my opinion, that’s what the public needs to see. We need to. Although as a nation we can never be proud of that part of our collective heritage, we have to face up to the fact that it did happen. It still impacts us today as we constantly see human rights trampled and violated. We must make sure that history never repeats itself. If we keep the truth close to our hearts and out in front of our eyes, we can do that!
In an article in the June 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine, one of the directors for the remake of “Roots”, Thomas Carter said, “Many black people don’t know the details of some of this history because we don’t teach it in general. We know that there was slavery, but the particulars of the brutality of American slavery — the destruction of family, the dehumanization, things that have continued to affect us — we just don’t even talk about it.”
So, do we need to continue revisiting the topic of slavery in books, movies, and television? Well now, is there true social equality in our society? As long as the answer to my second question is NO, then the answer to my first is a resounding YES. For myself, I will continue working on my second novel about the characters from Heavenly Plantation, incorporating the truth as I uncover it in my research. Injustice and inequality will always exist in our world and it’s up to us as a society to make sure we acknowledge all the damage done throughout history and stop it from spreading into the future.
Okay. Jumping off the old soapbox now…
Underground, 2016 Sony Pictures Television, WGN America
Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Aldis Hodge, Jessica De Gouw, Alano Miller, Christopher Meloni, Marc Blucas, Reed Diamond, Adina Porter, Amirah Vann, Mykelti Williamson, Theodus Crane, Johnny Ray Gill, Renwick Scott, Jussie Smollett, Andrea Frankle (major actors); Misha Green, Joe Pokaski (creators), John Legend, Get Lifted (music)
Free State of Jones, 2016 STX Productions, LLC
Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, Keri Russell (major actors); Gary Ross (director, writer), Leonard Hartman (writer)
Roots, 2016 A&E Networks
Malachi Kirby, Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anika Noni Rose, Laurence Fishburne (major actors); Mario Van Peebles, Bruce Beresford, Phillip Noyce, Thomas Carter (directors); Alex Haley, Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Alison McDonald, Charles Murray (writers)
12 Years a Slave, 2013 2oth Century Fox
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alfre Woodard, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano (major actors); Steve McQueen III (director), John Ridley (screenwriter), Solomon Northup (writer)
Lincoln, 2012 DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC
Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones (major actors); Steven Spielberg (director), Tony Kushner, Doris Kearns Goodwin (writers)
Writing Out Loud 