1st Quarter Reflections

In the first quarter of this school year I have made a solid foundation for the rest of the year.  I learned how to properly summarize, quote, and paraphrase.  And when we wrote about Glory and 12 Years a Slave we had to find quality sources which was helpful in both history and english class.  When we studied the the Civil War and Reconstruction I learned how to empathize with historical figures to get a better understanding of history.  I saw how reliant the Southern states were on slavery and saw that it still affected the South today.  I found this hard to believe, but the South was behind in the industrialization of America which put them years behind the North economically.  Then we moved onto the expansion in the West.  I learned that the American travelers received a lot of government and military aid to take land from the previous settlers.

I am more confident in myself when I paraphrase, summarize, and quote sources.  I am not 100% confident but I will get better at it as the year goes along.  Most of what I have learned this year was very surprising and shocking to me.  I didn't think that slave conditions were as extreme as they were depicted in 12 Years a Slave.  After the Civil War I knew that the South gave little job opportunities to former slaves, but it was worse than I had imagined.  The Black Codes of the South gave former slaves very little rights.  The former slaves had to turn back to their masters because they had nowhere else to go.

I didn't know about the economic advantages that the government gave whites over the other races in the West.  The government basically bossed the original settlers around and took their land with either economic power or by force.  They blatantly denied the Chinese's right of citizenship, which was outrageous.  And because the government did this, it created a very cheap labor force to build the railroads across the country.

My main goal for the second quarter is to be absolutely confident with myself when I am quoting, summarizing, paraphrasing and citing sources.  I would like to study the Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights era, the Vietnam War, and the wars in the Middle East.

Native American Sun Dances

In an article about the Southern Ute Tribe I read about Sun Dances that the tribe performs.  Sun Dances are performed once a year in the middle of the summer. The purpose of the dance in the Southern Ute Tribe is to "achieve spiritual rejuvenation and reinforce the common spiritual power[...]" To participate in a Sun Dance a person must "receive a command which often comes to him through a dream and impels him to participate in the ceremony as a dancer." The dancer is traditionally a man and must fast for four days before the dance, not eating or drinking anything.  The actual spiritual side of dancing is a quest for spiritual cleansing and a connection with the Great Spirit.  The longing for a spiritual cleanse is purely individual and the person dancing is not judged by the "success" of his quest. There is a communal aspect of Sun Dances.  The dancer represents his family and they all go to the dancing grounds with him.  "they are there to support him vigorously, both spiritually and physically, in singing, drumming or silent participation."

Though movies based on true stories can distort our view of past events, we can learn a lot from them.  When watching historical based movies we can get a better understanding of what exactly happened and empathize with those who went through a specific historical event.  The two movies that I have watched in my Randolph US History class are Glory and 12 Years a Slave. 

Before we watched either of those movies, my teacher helped us to understand the difference between sympathy and empathy.  Because it is easier to sympathize with movie characters, trying to feel what they feel, rather than understanding their situation.  And she wanted us to understand empathy before watching 12 Years a Slave specifically because nobody in the 21^st century has experienced slavery.  In that movie the main character, Soloman Northup, was a free man who was wrongly accused of being a runaway slave.  He is captured and taken to 2 different plantations and he is treated brutally throughout the movie.  The movie ends when a carpenter writes for Soloman, explaining what he has gone through and is freed.  This movie provides a better situation for us to understand, and empathize with.  Most everybody can understand what it is right to do the right thing and trust another person. 

The movie Glory, on the other hand, exemplifies how we can decipher between both fact and fiction.  Both Glory and 12 Years a Slave contain some historical inaccuracies, some major and some minor.  While researching the movie Glory I came across an article that explained how Glory was inaccurate.  Small details like how Fort Wagner was taken form South to North versus North to South seemed very minute in comparison to more major things.  Including the fact that the 54^th regiment was not made up of runaway slaves.  Facts like this cannot just simply be ignored because they can change how people view the past.  A quote from Andrew Butler in a Duke Today article explains this issue better than I can. “These films represent a double-edged sword because students will often remember whatever information is in them, regardless of whether it is true or false [.]”  Sadly, this quote proves to be very true, especially among kids that are not actively studying history. 

Movie makers are willing to bend and shape historical facts to make a movie sell. But we can take away many beneficial things from watching historical movies.  In my experience I have gotten better at separating truth from fiction from watching movies.  I have also gotten a better understanding of opinions that people had in the past by watching how the characters interact with each other, thus enriching my understanding of history in general.  And this is why we need to watch historical movies. 

12 years Time article with historical accuracy comparison with movie and biography

12 years IMDb box office

12 years IMDb awards

Glory Duke Today article

Glory & The Patriot inaccuracies

Glory IMDb box office

Glory IMDb awards