Quentin Tarantino’s movie Django Unchained is about a black bounty hunter during in the antebellum south. The movie stars Jamie Foxx as the bounty hunter along with Leonardo DeCaprio. Despite its graphic depiction of one of the most violent and brutal periods in U. S. history, the talking heads gave it a thumbs up must see review with some insisting that the often ignored historic depiction of white fear of black empowerment before the civil war represented one the movies best attributes. During the winter months slaves in many parts of the upper south had a holiday or free time until the start of spring planting season. Frederick Douglass, enslaved in Maryland, observed that during this free time, most slaves on his plantation remained occupied “fiddling, dancing, and drinking whiskey and this latter mode of spending the time” slaveholders encouraged. Keeping slaves partying and drunk during holidays proved among the slaveholders best strategies to “keep down the spirit of insurrection,” prevent black empowerment, and keep those who profited from slavery safe.
