American Slavery on Film
Hollywood History
About The Book
American Slavery on Film highlights historical and contemporary depictions in film of the resistance, rebellion, and resilience of enslaved African Americans in the United States from the Antebellum period to Emancipation. In her study of such films as Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1914), a silent movie adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel; the ground-breaking and successful television miniseries Roots (1977); and the Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet (2019), Caron Knauer analyzes how African American slavery has been and continues to be portrayed in major studio blockbusters and independent films alike.
Separating the romanticized and unrealistic depictions of slavery from the more accurate but often unflinching portrayals of its horrors, Knauer covers a wide range of topics, including the impact of slavery on popular culture, the Underground Railroad, Maroon communities, and the Los Angeles Film Rebellion of the 1960s. As a result, this book delivers a comprehensive, readable, and timely examination of enslaved African Americans and slavery in America’s film history.
“Each chapter contains an exploration of issues raised by the film being analyzed, including looking at the legacy of slavery in America which continues to plague the nation to this day.” – Jennifer Dean, film scholar
About the author
Caron Knauer is the author of American Slavery on Film: Hollywood History, published by ABC-CLIO/Bloomsbury in February 2023. She published film reviews on Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO).
,After working in book publishing for many years, she was hired by 20th Century Fox as a creative executive, looking for books to be made into movies. She served as the associate producer of the hit film Waiting to Exhale in 1995. She is currently working on a screenplay and teaches English at La Guardia Community College.
As a volunteer, Caron runs a senior writing group at Sunnyside Community Services.
What’s inside
Introduction
Chronology of European and American Race-based Chattel Slavery
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Mandingo
Roots
Sankofa
Nightjohn
Amistad
Django Unchained
12 Years a Slave
The Birth of a Nation
Harriet
Timeline
