"Band of Angels" Reflection

In "Band of Angels", we see a different view on slavery than "Gone with the Wind". We see slaves treated as if they were actual human beings and a part of society.

With Yvonne De Carlo playing Amantha Starr and Clark Gable playing Hamish Bond, we are introduced to a new way that slaves were treated. Hamish Bond bought Amantha Starr after she was put up for auction, when she was found out to be part African American. Starr did not expect the nice treatment of the slaves in Bond's household, and did not want to accept her new identity as a slave. As time went on, she grew fond of Hamish Bond and stayed with him, even after she was set to be a free woman.

Although it is a movie about a Civil War romance between a former slave runner and a southern beauty, who learned her mother was a slave upon her father's death, we see in depth how some households actually treated their slaves. All of Hamish Bond's slaves were dressed and treated as if they were not slaves at all. This led to a conflict with Bond's first slave, Rau-Ru. Rau-Ru was treated as Bond's own son, and this conflicted him mentally, as he felt like he was not supposed to be treated this way. This shows how slaves had accepted the way they were treated before, and a change of treatment from bad to good felt off. He thought that Bond was playing mental games with all of his slaves, and he was actually just like every other slaveowner. 

In the end, Rau-Ru had made up his mind that he wanted to kill Bond for treating him this way, but ended up saving him. This film showed a different view of slavery that most people are not used to seeing.