Liberty and Slavery The Paradox of America's Founding Fathers
In 1776, America was a place of extreme paradox. While our Founding Fathers were fighting for they own independence, many were also unashamed slave-owners. Indeed they were simultaneously promoting both liberty and slavery. LIBERTY AND SLAVERY explores why the Founders and their slavery paradox is a lot more complicated than first imagined.
Winner of Best Feature Documentary and Best Cinematography at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards. Winner of the Gold Award for Documentary at the CINDY Awards.
Running Time
86 mins
Year
2016
Kanopy ID
6480976
Filmmakers
Features
Christa Dierksheide, Douglas Bradburn, Edward J. Larson, Jon Kukla, Joseph Ellis, Kat Imhoff, Lonnie Bunch, Mary V. Thompson, Richard Beeman, Thomas Kidd
Languages
Subjects
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Comments (3)
The founding documents were a way to get people (farmers, indentured servants...etc.) to fight for the rights of wealthy land-owners who otherwise couldn't give two f*cks about whether they were indentured in this new-fangeled "America" or indentured in the British colonies. That is the ...Read more
The founding documents were a way to get people (farmers, indentured servants...etc.) to fight for the rights of wealthy land-owners who otherwise couldn't give two f*cks about whether they were indentured in this new-fangeled "America" or indentured in the British colonies. That is the long-and-short of it. Shame on this documentary for playing into the whole "puritan" BS that is taught in elementary schools instead of telling the real story of who the puritans were before they were finally driven from England.
Read lessNot a word about the role of capital itself. Cotton was THE industry upon which modern capitalism was built. In fact, the global character inherent in the industry's existence provides a glimpse into the rise of imperialism which is capitalism's highest stage. Giving slave owners, and the ...Read more
Not a word about the role of capital itself. Cotton was THE industry upon which modern capitalism was built. In fact, the global character inherent in the industry's existence provides a glimpse into the rise of imperialism which is capitalism's highest stage. Giving slave owners, and the later slaveocracy, a pass by implying an ignorance to it's horrors is a whitewash. The worldwide, ongoing resistance to slavery—not the least of which came from the enslaved themselves—was no more hidden from the slave owners than were the profits derived therefrom. Indeed, the existence of chattel slavery can be traced to the birth and propagation of capital itself. As Karl Marx observed: "Capitalism arrives dripping blood and dirt." Humanity and our environment will know no peace until capital is eliminated.
Read lessThis documentary made slavery look way to benign. Why those slaves always had clean white clothes and were often smiling and dancing, instead of the reality of rapes, torture and deprivation.