In the portrayal of Solomon Northup’s
life in 12 Years A Slave, there are
many instances of differences of the treatment of the slaves due to their
gender. These experiences range differently, from the relationship with their
owners, how they resist punishments and how they are able to express how they
are feeling. However, regardless of some of these differences there are some
similarities to be seen in their treatment.
The first instance of gender
difference in the movie 12 Years a Slave
is when the newly captured slaves are being held in a cell in Washington. When being
woken, the white capturers woke Solomen with a kick, unlike how they woke Eliza,
which was by removing her from the cell. This shows that there is a clear
difference in the way of physical treatment. The capturer appeals to her
maternal instincts by saying that she “don’t want to frighten the children over
a little boat ride, do you?”, showing that they rely on her emotions and rely
on her to comply through this whilst with the men they just use brute force.
The roles of the slaves in the
plantation are different depending on the gender. The men are forced to work on
the fields, this way they are like a team, which is evident from the singing
that goes on when working on the fields. This differs to the life of the female
slaves, whose jobs are usually in the house (such as the serving girl on the
front porch), and are very independent, meaning that they are more isolated than
the male slaves. However, later in the film we see both genders do the field
work, with Patsey being the most successful at this job, showing that gender
roles are both used and ignored, depending on the plantation the slaves ended
up at.
There is an exceptional difference
in the way Solomon and Eliza deal with the loss of their children. Eliza is
more vocal about it, being resistant to the condition she is in whilst Solomon
gets through it by being friendly with their master, saying that he only does
it in order to survive and that he has not forgotten his children. However,
this can just show how different both these characters resist towards their
condition, Solomon deciding to focus on survival to resist to be sad about his
situation, as he realises he can’t do much about it. This can show that both genders
are similar in the fact that they both are resisting their situations and are
upset about being forced into slavery, but both have different approaches to
show this, and Eliza being more emotional over it can show the typical
sensitivity that is usually portrayed around women.
Mistress Shaw, a black woman who is
deemed to be the ‘lady’ of the house shows how many women slaves used the power
of the white masters, likely through sex, to attain positions like this. It is
evident that Shaw is acting similar to that of a white lady of the house, which
is shown through the language that is used towards Solomon and her fashion, and
shows her power in the house and that this position is unattainable for the
male slaves. The idea of black females being used this was shows a huge difference
between the genders, as many of the young black women, such as Patsey, are used
by the white male owners and are often raped, and cannot do anything about it
as they are slaves and have no position to argue, which shows a key difference in
how females are treated.
In this film, the portrayal of
the white female owners shows that they were jealous of most of the black
female slaves, due to the white male’s attention on them. This lead to the
white women in this film to be physically abusive to those she felt jealous of,
even though women at this time were oppressed due to their gender, it seemed to
manifest into violence towards the black females over the sexual attention of
the white male owners. This is shown vividly in the movie where the Mistress
Epps throws a glass at Patsey for dancing, as her dance was more expressive and
showed her solitude as a female slave, and is punished for this as it could be
what made her husband attracted to Patsey.
In conclusion, gender did have an
impact on what the person did as a slave in many plantations, but there are
also similarities, for example how both genders are dehumanised as soon as they
are enslaved and are used until they can no longer do any more. Overall it
seems that women slaves are more emotionally expressive about their situation
than many of the men, they are also able to elevate their positions and become
a ‘lady’ of the house, although they would still technically be a slave.
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