Teaching Slavery through Film
Robert Colby joins us for 12 Years A Slave
I think anyone familiar with HATM and the pod know that one of the most important things I stress is having fun while learning history. After all, this is the same podcast that made Thomas Lecaque fall out of his chair while talking about Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
However, equal to this has been my desire to take on heady and important topics. Some of my favorite episodes we’ve aired—Munich, The Help, The Birdcage—have done just this.
Critical to understanding American history and that of the African diaspora is talking about slavery. You absolutely must talk about it because we are still wrestling with it today. We haven’t, however, really talked about it on the podcast though. I mean, how do we do this? There are certainly films out there, so ultimately maybe some blame is on me for not prioritizing the subject enough.
Thank goodness for Robert Colby. Rob is a guy who I was friendly with and followed on social media. I always liked Rob and enjoyed his posts. But it was he who reached out to me about coming on the pod and I am so glad he did. Rob has an amazing new book out right now that is garnering a lot of attention. Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South brings in my mind a new dimension to our understanding of American history by talking about slave trading during the Civil War itself.
In my mind, the film to match with Rob’s work was obvious: 12 Years A Slave (2013), a beautiful and haunting film about the life of Solomon Northup, a man kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana where he remained in bondage from 1841 until 1853. It is a powerful depiction of a dark and ugly time in history, but also one of survival, resistance, and community. The trailer for that film is below.
Folks, this is a hard movie to watch. And I think necessary as well, at least once, because this film and others like it (Amistad, the Reconstruction scenes from Free State of Jones) depict the era and all its humanity and inhumanity in a visceral sense that books simply cannot touch. This movie is graphic in its depictions of violence, rape, and murder. And because it is a movie, it is available frankly in ways that other forms of storytelling are not.
I wrestled with how to teach slavery and resistance when I was a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota and when I taught 8th grade and high school history courses in Florida. I promise you, every educator who gives a damn thinks long and hard about how to talk to young people about this.
So when I began to prepare for the podcast, I did so thinking that this episode might be ideal to have a very serious discussion not only about the film and the event it depicts, but about how one might go about researching antebellum slavery and the Civil War, along with Rob’s own reflections in the process.
And as far as having fun, I don’t quite know that “fun” is the right word for this conversation, though I do think there is something almost gratifying about sitting down with a guy who has done the work, gives a damn, and is willing to help you understand it. And I am really happy to have had this conversation.
About our guest:
Robert Colby is an Assistant Professor of American history, focusing on the era of the American Civil War. Dr. Colby’s research explores the social, military, and political experience of the Civil War era with a special emphasis on slavery and the process of emancipation. His current book project examines the survival of the domestic slave trade during the War, demonstrating the ways in which Confederates used slave commerce to survive the conflict and the ways in which it shaped the onset of African American freedom. His is the winner of the Society of Americans’ Allan Nevins Prize and the Society of Civil War Historians’ Anne J. Bailey Prize and Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award. His research on the wartime slave trade was also a finalist for the Southern Historical Association’s C. Vann Woodward Award. Colby’s writing has appeared in the Journal of the Civil War Era, theJournal of the Early Republic, and Slavery & Abolition. He has also published on Civil War monuments and written on disease in the domestic slave trade.
Dr. Colby earned is B.A. in history from the University of Virginia and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to the University of Mississippi, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Center for American Studies at Christopher Newport University.
You can find him on Blue Sky here: https://bsky.app/profile/rkdcolby86.bsky.social
Own Robert’s book:
Amazon link here: https://amzn.to/3VrLhRd
And without further ado, check out our discussion on 12 Years A Slave and his new book below.
Jason
And if you want to support the podcast directly, you can visit the following: https://www.patreon.com/historiansatthemovies