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Coronet Instructional FilmsPlantation System in Southern Life, The (1950)

Eurocentric view of the plantation system and its effect on Southern U.S. culture.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Coronet Instructional Films
Sponsor: N/A
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Race relations; Ethnography: U.S.: South; African Americans

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: doowopbob - - April 16, 2009
Subject: Ahh....The South....
Fat-Assed Southern Colonel's Sitting On The Porch Sipping Mint Julep's , After Banging The House Darkies....While The Wive's Are At Tea...Mulatto's Running Amuck On Massa's Plantation....And Da Sun Keeps Shinin' Down...Ahh The Good Old South....Tells Me A Story Uncles Remus!....

Reviewer: jeriidavii - - October 6, 2008
Subject: downloading
How do i download this movie....i would like to use it for a class presentation..

thanks in advance

Reviewer: Uaskedforit - - March 21, 2004
Subject: Yankees won't get it.
It's a Southern thing. A close relationship between the land and the people. Just as the soil, crops and rivers are bound together so too are the stratas of society. This 1950 film, by a Yankee, is a true representation of the Historical Perspective prevalent in mid-twentieth century.

Liberal contemporary opinions of the film's perspective will not change the truth of the film. Attempts to compare the former Southern way of life to Hitler are actually contrasts.

uaskedforit

Reviewer: Spuzz - - February 25, 2004
Subject: It's Black! It's White! Yeah Yeah Yeah!
Interesting tale of how wonderful we all are now since slavery and Plantation life has ended in the Deep South. A family goes into a plantation home and freely fondles all the furniture and decorations (a display like this would have PROBABLY been roped off even then). We then get a highly odd flash history of how the plantation system worked. Although the whites vs slaves is briefly touched upon, this film unfortunately somewhat sugarcoats the relationship between Plantation owners and slaves. Heck, even when the plantation period has ended, there still seems to be some sugarcoating going on.

Reviewer: DrAwkward - - October 21, 2003
Subject: Escape from Knowledge
Toni Morrison has characterized race relations in the US as depending on something she calls the "escape from knowledge." This film epitomizes the resistance to self-examination that often calls itself objective history. This is like what would happen if the Germans made a film about WWII in which they talked about how Hitler built the Autobahn and wondered where all the Jews went.

Shotlist

Placing the viewer in the perspective of the white tourist family, a historically preserved Southern mansion is investigated and the past system of plantation owners and slaves is re-created. The homes of the past are contrasted with the homes of the current tenant farmers and landlords. At the end, as the viewer observes a polite barbecue party of well-dressed white people as the voiceover narrates:
"Today, if we visit a social gathering in the south, we'll see some of these things. The gentle manners and courtesy. The separation of society into distinct groups. And the relationship of that society to the land, which supplies its wealth. These are some of the things the plantation system has contributed to southern life."

A family on a site-seeing tour, visiting a wealthy plantation mansion
furniture, a woman holds up a serving bowl, admiring it
A boy pointing to a map on the wall -- close-up of his hand pointing on the map
Small wooden houses of the slaves
Close-up of a blacksmith pounding molten metal
Close-up of a hand saw
Close-up of a field being hoed
Close-up of a spinning loom
Close-up of a hand tugging on a muddy wagon wheel
A river boat
Two black men pushing a bail of cotton on a ship
An older black man picking cotton
A plantation owner, riding on horseback in a black suit and hat, two slave men picking cotton stop to listen to him
A young white woman curtsies, a man bows to her
Silhouette of two slaves carrying hoes past white socializing on the mansion porch
Animation map of the U.S. with main areas of plantation crop lands
The white family entering their car on their sightseeing tour
Cotton fields
Close-up of a black man picking cotton
Houses of tenant farmers
A truck filled with bins of cotton zooms down the highway
Cows, walking slowly
A mechanical cotton picker, dumping cotton
Soybean crops
White men and women dressed up at an outdoor barbecue by the fields

¥ 1:26:80- 1:37:39
Two different shots of slave quarters behind a plantation house. While they are supposed to be part of a historical "tour" of an old plantation, these run-down cabins are look as though they're still inhabited (now by tenant farmers). The first shot shows the sides of these cabins/shacks (they're made of wood and have small front porches). In the second shot we see a chicken in the front yard, and the porch has furniture.

¥ 2:58:90- 3:26:72
African-American laborers pick cotton. Start with focus on an elderly man picking, cut to a view of him and two more workers, and finally cut to image of more workersÑa mix of men and women. We cannot see their faces, because they are bent over picking.

¥ 7:15:88- 7:27:09
An African-American woman walks out of her tenant farmer's home (it is different than the old wooden shacksÑit looks like it's made of aluminum) with laundry in her arms. Some men in a tractor roll by her, and a little boy runs after it (presumably he's catching up to it so he can go out to the fields and work).




SOUTHERN UNITED STATES HISTORY CIVIL WAR STATES PLANTATIONS AGRICULTURE SLAVERY ECONOMICS BLACK WORKERS FARMS FOOD