10/11/00
Economics in Film
In the film, A Respectable Trade, the account of
slavery is different than usually seen.
With an English backdrop, the cruelty of the trade was concealed. The slaves were not laboring in fields, but
were being trained in house maintenance.
On the streets there are no slaves, they are rerouted to the United
States where they are traded.
Although
the slaves in the film are generally absent from the physical atmosphere, they
are vital to the economic growth of Bristol, England. Josiah Cole exemplifies the plight of the struggling
businessman. His dream of a better life
is echoed in today’s capitalist society.
His constant drive is to move out of his father’s small home and into a
bigger house in a better section of town.
He is a shroud businessman who works hard to be innovative and find a
new demand for his product. The economy
of Bristol seems to revolve around one product, which is traded and sold. This description of Bristol doesn’t seem
very different from many of today’s capitalist societies. The one difference is the product that is
being sold and traded. The humans that
are being treated as cargo change the whole system from a thriving capitalist
society to one of slavery. The town of
Bristol becomes the economic center for slave trading. The slaves are seldom seen, but the money
gained from their trading is essential to the town. Cole is taking a business risk by bringing the slaves to Bristol;
most of the slaves are traded for other goods by the time they reach the
port. He is refining the product he
trades in hope that it will fetch him a higher price. The more refined the slave is, the higher price he can
charge. This simple business venture is
made complicated by social standards because he is trading human beings. Watching this class process of slavery now,
from a different societal standpoint, seems foreign. But to the slave traders, such a Josiah Cole, they ignored the
fact that they were buying and selling human beings and avowed that they were
involved in, A Respectable Trade.
10/15/00
A
Respectable Trade, portrays slaves in a unique light. Most scenes of slavery in film show slaves
working in the fields of southern states in the 19th century. The setting of Bristol, England partially
lifted the stereotype of enslaved Africans.
Although
the enslaved Africans in, A Respectable Trade were in a slightly
different atmosphere, there were similarities between them and those enslaved
in the United States. In reading the
American Slave Narratives, it is easy to draw similarities to the slaves in
Bristol.
In
many cases, on both sides of the Atlantic, the slaves were torn between wanting
to be free and finding their surroundings intriguing and comfortable. In the film, this was mostly true of Moses,
who found interest in his master’s wife.
He wanted to be free, but his feelings were juxtaposed by his attraction
to Frances. Moses and the other slaves
in Bristol had stronger resistance to escape their condition. This was because they weren’t born into
slavery as the interviewees were; they had experienced freedom and had grown up
in a different world. The slaves
interviewed in the United States were born into slavery and grew up in the
institution. They knew nothing
different than the control of their masters.
This was why many of the slaves experienced stress and were petrified of
being on their own. One older woman
noted that in the slavery times it was easier to survive. This was true, in part, because of the
monopoly the whites continued to have over the newly freed slaves. It was difficult and many in the interviews
said it was harder to make a living when they were freed.
Another
similarity between the two groups of slaves was the importance of interpersonal
relationships. In A Respectable
Trade, the slaves were very close to one another even though they initially
had no means of communication. They
fought and risked they lives for each other.
In the many of the interviews, the slaves spent a great deal of time
describing their wedding or the time spent apart from their husband or wife
rather than the horrible conditions that they endured The slaves in the interviews would rather identify themselves
through their relationships then be identified by the cruelty inflicted upon
them.