something i found strange about this movie


i think this is a great, powerful movie, but one thing that kind of suprised me, is how she keeps going back to that guy.


stages i've gone throw in my life,
diffrent phases i've had in my time,
i don't have dreams anymore,
i don't have plans to strive for,
i'm just going on,
where did my soul go,
what i wanted to become,
my view of a home,
but now i'm stuck here alone,
and i'm not going anywhere at all,
my friends seem to have found their place in life,
why can't i find mine,
you have it all set out,
and i'm frightend what my tomorrow will bring about,
i don't go through phases anymore,
at this stage of my life, i just go, and wonder what for.

reply

She loved him.

reply

Actually, in real life she divorced him. The martial tensions existed like in the movie, but what set her off was an incident where she was speaking out against slavery to some people (I think in public but I forget) and he was humiliated by this so later he beat the crap out of her.

Also, Pierce Butler never recanted his ideas of slavery, that was purely hollywood. He died on his plantation surrounded by slaves.

reply

I did not know that Fanny Kemble had been beaten, by her nasty husband, but I would not be surprised to be told about it. I have not closely studied her history.


Weren't many of the slaves on the Butler plantation auctioned off to pay off debts or was that another ?

Or maybe that was after his death ? I know it was a horrid tragedy for the slaves on the plantation.

reply

It's been a year and a half, afro_747, since you raised the issue of whether Pierce Butler actually did sell off a large portion of his slaves, so I don't know if you might have found the information elsewhere. But for the sake of people who come upon the movie lately, as I have, I found, via Wikipedia, the following entry from the Library of Congress regarding the 1859 slave auction:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/murray:@field(DOCID+@lit(lcrbmrpt2305div1))

A word of warning to anyone who tries to read this old-fashioned language: Certain parts are not only difficult to understand without rereading, but the references to human beings being offered for sale is somewhat stomach-turning! But it's an important clue to history, nonetheless. We cannot ignore the lessons. (Santayana)

In peace,
Debbie Jordan

www.imaginetheworldatpeace.com
Peace Blog
http://www.imaginetheworldatpeace.com/blog.php
Peace Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-49701-Peace-Examiner
Phoenix Progressive Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-1892-Phoenix-Progressive-Examiner
Author: THE WORLD I IMAGINE: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace (Outskirts Press) www.outskirtspress.com/theworldiimagine
Author: LION’S PRIDE (Outskirts Press)
www.outskirtspress.com/lionspride

reply