6 - Staging black insurrection: Dred on stage

Summary

Discussing the 1924 film version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Linda Williams comments that it is memorable for its staging of an unprecedented moment of black-on-white violence. In the film Cassy steals Legree's gun, to protect Emmeline against rape. But although she holds the gun to Legree's head she is unable to shoot. Later a black male slave picks up the gun and stalks Legree.

These two moments in which black hands hold guns to white human targets are unprecedented in the Tom tradition. . . . Until this moment interracial violence has been pictured exclusively as that of white masters abusing black slaves. This second instance, which culminates in the male slave actually shooting Legree, is especially striking.

Most stage versions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin did avenge Tom with Legree’s death, but usually at the hands of George Shelby, a white male. Even George Harris raises a gun against slave-catchers only in defence of his family. The violence in the film scene is not just directed at foiling masters by escape, but at avenging the violence committed against the slave. As Williams notes, the spectacle of righteous black revenge was considered so deeply incendiary that some prints of the film omit the scene.