Summary Of Alex Haley's Queen '
Meagan Holloway-Ragland
10/3/14
1st Period
Alex Haley’s Queen
Queen is a three part ministries that depicts the life of a slave, who is half white and half black. Her mother is a slave and her father is a plantation owner. It shows her as she grows up on the Jackson plantation, while the Civil War is gearing up. Throughout this historically accurate movie, she goes through many struggles that she must overcome. Of those struggles, there is the hardship of being of mixed heritage, the struggle of plantation life during the war, and forbidden love between her mother and her father.
Queen faced a lot of trouble because of her mixed heritage. As a child she was bullied by the other plantation children because of her light skin. She had to grow
up without knowing who her father was. Plantation owners who had children with slaves would often have them work in the house rather than in the fields. She lived in the plantation house as a house slave and companion to her half-sister, thanks to her father and her lighter skin. She wasn’t accepted as white or black, she was shunned by both sides. Like many slaves in the antebellum period, she was looked upon as an alien.
When Alabama seceded from the Union, Queen’s father, James, left to fight in the Civil War, like all the other men in the south. That left the women and the slaves at the plantation by themselves. In the movie, they struggled to put food on the table every day. The lady of the house even worked in the field so that their only source of income could be planted on time. Queen’s mother and half-sister died from illness because there were no doctors around to aid them. When the war ended, their cotton mills were burned down, and the plantation was seized as federal property.
Queen’s mother, Easter, and father, James, started out as childhood friends along the lines of etiquette for a slave and a young master. They were really best friends. When James’ father died, he came to her for comfort and they had a night of passion and romance. A couple months later, she found she was pregnant. James had certain obligation to uphold like all men in that time period had, and that was marriage in order to produce a legitimate heir. Even though he wanted to marry for love, he couldn’t. The same night his child was born from the woman he loved, he had to propose to the woman his parents’ expected him to marry. He would go to Easter every night, but he couldn’t acknowledge her publically because of the social barrier between the two of them. He couldn’t even fill out his name on Queen’s birth record.
Alex Haley’s Queen Part One is a historically accurate retelling of the life of Queen, Haley’s grandmother. It shows the hardships of slaves, slaves of mixed heritage, women left alone during the war, and people of different social status and race in love.
10/3/14
1st Period
Alex Haley’s Queen
Queen is a three part ministries that depicts the life of a slave, who is half white and half black. Her mother is a slave and her father is a plantation owner. It shows her as she grows up on the Jackson plantation, while the Civil War is gearing up. Throughout this historically accurate movie, she goes through many struggles that she must overcome. Of those struggles, there is the hardship of being of mixed heritage, the struggle of plantation life during the war, and forbidden love between her mother and her father.
Queen faced a lot of trouble because of her mixed heritage. As a child she was bullied by the other plantation children because of her light skin. She had to grow
up without knowing who her father was. Plantation owners who had children with slaves would often have them work in the house rather than in the fields. She lived in the plantation house as a house slave and companion to her half-sister, thanks to her father and her lighter skin. She wasn’t accepted as white or black, she was shunned by both sides. Like many slaves in the antebellum period, she was looked upon as an alien.
When Alabama seceded from the Union, Queen’s father, James, left to fight in the Civil War, like all the other men in the south. That left the women and the slaves at the plantation by themselves. In the movie, they struggled to put food on the table every day. The lady of the house even worked in the field so that their only source of income could be planted on time. Queen’s mother and half-sister died from illness because there were no doctors around to aid them. When the war ended, their cotton mills were burned down, and the plantation was seized as federal property.
Queen’s mother, Easter, and father, James, started out as childhood friends along the lines of etiquette for a slave and a young master. They were really best friends. When James’ father died, he came to her for comfort and they had a night of passion and romance. A couple months later, she found she was pregnant. James had certain obligation to uphold like all men in that time period had, and that was marriage in order to produce a legitimate heir. Even though he wanted to marry for love, he couldn’t. The same night his child was born from the woman he loved, he had to propose to the woman his parents’ expected him to marry. He would go to Easter every night, but he couldn’t acknowledge her publically because of the social barrier between the two of them. He couldn’t even fill out his name on Queen’s birth record.
Alex Haley’s Queen Part One is a historically accurate retelling of the life of Queen, Haley’s grandmother. It shows the hardships of slaves, slaves of mixed heritage, women left alone during the war, and people of different social status and race in love.