MovieChat Forums > Roots (1977) Discussion > Were there any GAY slaves?

Were there any GAY slaves?


or Gay masters?

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Homosexuality has apparently always been a part of humanity so I would yes to both. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said there were no homosexuals in Iran but he also said the Holocaust was a myth. I suspect the truth is simply that people live longer in Iran if they stay in the closet.

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I doubt if people had TIME to think about being gay or straight. Seems to me only people who had the luxury of not needing families to survive actually cared about such things. (NOT saying that people did not have the urge. Who had the time to indulge in such things?) The only ones that might have done that if for no other reason than to show the slave who was boss was the "massa".

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there probably were, but kept it in the closet, sorry bad joke, but i'm sure there was.

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A wrench got thrown in.

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Watch MANDINGO and its sequel! There were Gay Slave Masters who had sex with male slaves!

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The sequel is called DRUM. And yes there is some homosexuality in there. The white man who can't get his eyes of the handsome strapping son of Mandingo etc. Don't want to say more as it will spoil the film for you.

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"Were there any GAY slaves?"

I haven't seen roots since 1977 when it aired on network TV. When you asked the above question there is scene that sticks in my mind - it might be from "Roots" or it might be from another film with the same subject matter (slavery).

The scene I'm thinking up is the where the daughter of the owner (either an older teen or young adult) and a female slave, of the same age, are hold up in the daughter's room, upstairs at the top of a long staircase. The owner is downstairs screaming at his daughter when the black girl comes out of the room with a pistol and tells the owner to "leave them alone!"

Then she goes back into the room, slams and locks the door. I think there was something wrong with the white girl, she was having (what we call today) a nervous breakdown or something; and the black girl was taking care of her. But it was also suggested that the two young ladies were lovers.

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The movie was probably Beulah Land with Hope Lange. The girl had been raped by her husband the night of the marriage (Don Johnson). The mother Hope Lange told her she had disgraced the family and to go back to her husband. She refused and stayed at home not seeing her mother, the slave girl was looking after her interests. I cannot remember the star of the movie it was made after ROOTS like ROOTS it was a mini series. I doubt if there was anything sexual in the relationship.

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There's been "same gender liking" people since the dawn of time,why should this scenario be any different.

I'm sure if ABC had allowed it (and if viewers had had absolutely "no" problem with it)this could have been explored in the series but c'mon........
they could only handle one social problem at a time here & of course,no way on 1977 network TV,would that be allowed.

Network TV had only mentioned homo-sexuality less than ten times. Mostly in dramas,cop shows (usually the insane bad guy).

In 1971 - All In The Family talked about it and an actor played a gay man.....in only it's fifth episode. All a first at the time for a sitcom.



happipuppi13 *arf,man!*!

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There was a lot of master/slave pedophilia, nobody talks about that. With girls and boys. It's unfortunate.

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One should assume there were gay slaves just as one should assume there were gay Neanderthals or Cro-Magnons.

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"I haven't seen roots since 1977 when it aired on network TV. When you asked the above question there is scene that sticks in my mind - it might be from "Roots" or it might be from another film with the same subject matter (slavery).

The scene I'm thinking up is the where the daughter of the owner (either an older teen or young adult) and a female slave, of the same age, are hold up in the daughter's room, upstairs at the top of a long staircase. The owner is downstairs screaming at his daughter when the black girl comes out of the room with a pistol and tells the owner to "leave them alone!"

Then she goes back into the room, slams and locks the door. I think there was something wrong with the white girl, she was having (what we call today) a nervous breakdown or something; and the black girl was taking care of her. But it was also suggested that the two young ladies were lovers."

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That scene is from another mini-series from the 70s called Beulah Land http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080197/

You are correct that the two young ladies were lovers. It was watered down for 70s television but the relationship was made very apparent.

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When masters took mistresses it was known who the were and when they were doing it etc so I don't know if a Gay master would risk being with a slave. Wouldn't he find it better to find gay companion one that wouldn't have anything to gain from outing him and all to lose? But I don't know because I've never read anything about it, likewise I've never read anything about slaves policing themselves the way society would have done to stop gay men having sex.

I'm touching all the poles because I'm proud to be an American!

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There was a lot of homosexuality in those days.

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