People were lynched, I was thirteen years old when I saw my first lynching." Intrigued, Harrell accepted an invitation to her house where the group gathered and told Harrell their story of being enslaved on the Waterford Plantation in St. Charles, Louisiana. The acting and cinematography was top notch, the dialogue was simplistic but the story was was entertaining and meaningful. Millers father lost his land by signing a contract he could not read, which subsequently locked him and his family into a land peonage state. When Mae Louise Miller was born on 4 May 1881, in Alton, Madison, Illinois, United States, her father, George J Miller, was 25 and her mother, Mary Louise Schuck, was 25. If we dont investigate and bring to light how slavery quietly continued, it could happen again. I couldnt believe what I was hearing. Her family pleaded with her as the punishment would come down on all of them. To understand this movie, you need to understand this FACT so that you won't mistake this for science fiction or some sort of 2022 Blaxploitation film. People who hear these stories will often say, You should have gone to the police. You should have run sooner. But the land down here goes on forever. There was no fake racial reconciliation story of different cultures finally uniting and the white racists changing their ways. I would like to know in what alternate part of the multiverse did writer and director Krystin Ver Linden believe that this was an actual thing. 1. . Several months later, Harrell would meet a woman named Mae Louise Walls Miller who didn't receive her freedom until 1963. Only mistake these folks made was putting a black face on the cover and-- 'boom!' [15], In 1963, Mae married Wallace Miller and sought to start a family. I saw Alice, starring Keke Palmer-Hustlers, Scream:The TV Series_tv; Common-John Wick:Chapter 2, Wanted; Jonny Lee Miller-Elementary_tv, Dracula 2000 and Alicia Witt-Orange is the New Black_tv, A Madea Christmas. She was highlighted in Harrell's short documentary . Ron Walters, a political scientist who's an advocate for slavery reparations, also believes the Miller sisters' story. Durwood also denied Miller's claims of rape: "No way, knowing my uncle the way I do. Soon enough people started requesting that I come and speak about how I was uncovering my familys story so they could do the same for themselves. It was a perfectly enjoyable film. There were several times when I returned to the property where Mae and her family were held. I found my ancestors in the 1853 inventory belonging to Benjamin and Celia Bankston Richardson. Other names that Mae uses includes Mae Louise Miller, Mae Louise Walls Miller, Mae Louise Walls Miller, Maelouise Walls Miller and Mae L Miller. Written down alongside other personal belongings that included spoons, forks, hogs, cows, and a sofa were my great great grandparents, Thomas and Carrie Richardson. Along with Mae Louise Miller, the film also features commentary from activist/comedian Dick Gregory, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree and others. We didn't eat like dogs because they do bring a dog to a certain place to feed dogs. I knew him to be good people, good folks, Christian. "She said, 'I have to tell you my story. "They didn't feed us. FAQ It was clear they had never shared their individual stories with one another. Mae Wall, the five-year-old girl did not lose her hunger to be free. The National Guard was deployed in Atlanta, what does this mean as shootings, violence plague other American cities? Harrell talked "to many [people] throughout Louisiana that was afraid for their lives, so they wouldn't talk about being held in slavery. | Nearly five years after the Waterford meeting, however, Mae Louise Walls Miller of Mississippi told Harrell that she didn't get her freedom until 1963. [12], Mae alleges that, starting at 5 years old, she was repeatedly raped along with her mother by the white men of the Gordon family. Do I believe Maes family was the last to be freed? [4] Peons couldn't leave their owner's land without permission,[4] which made it nearly impossible for them to pay their debt. Mae Louise Wall Miller, by ABC NEWS As Mae Miller tells it, she spent her youth in Mississippi as a Continue Reading. [16], Like most peons, the Wall family was not permitted to leave the land, was illiterate, and were under the impression that "all black people were being treated like that". Whatever it was, that's what you did for no money at all.". A modern invention we werent quite ready to see but an instant snap back to reality, if ever there was one. Superb! Elements of the film's background are loosely based on the narrative of Mae Louise Walls Miller, who escaped from slavery in 1963. I don't want to tell nobody.". It grows on you. The school to prison pipeline and private penitentiaries are just a few of the new ways to guarantee that black people provide free labor for the system at large. No matter if you are Black or White you will see yourself in the documentary, said Mr. Smith. . Or more than likely I just wasn't taught the truth on this, like with so many other aspects of American History! More than 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, there were black people in the Deep South who had no idea they were free. I know the movie did not explain how Alice was able to transcend time, or how she was able to get the different characters to cross back and forth from the 1800s to 1973, but wasn't it wonderful to see how powerful black women would be if they had a fighting and equal chance. Mae Louise Walls Miller was a slave in southern Mississippi. Speaking to ABC News, Miller said: They beat us. This situation had them living their lives as 20th-century slaves. The story is based on the very real history of black Americans still being enslaved even after the Emancipation Proclamation. To anyone that thinks this is an "alternate reality" piece though, this kind of thing happened. Which makes no sense. At the end of the harvest, this group was always told they did not make any profit, and were told they had to try again next year. The acting in the movie was really good and the story was very interesting. Harrell recounts a woman who came up to her after one of her talks and told her that she personally knew a group of people who didnt get their freedom until the 1950s. "[12] Mae recounted first running away at 9 years old, but she was returned to the farm by her brothers, where her father told her that if she ran away, "they'll kill us. He has some stories that he can tell you when we were still held in slavery,' " Harrell-Miller recalled.At first, Harrell-Miller needed some convincing, but, "When I looked at the living conditions of the family, I understood very clearly how it's possible for people to live like that. When Mae was about 14, she decided she would no longer go up to the house. [15] Historian Antoinette Harrell said that in some districts, "the sheriff, the constable, all of them work together. We didnt know everybody wasnt living the same life that we were living. He said, 'Baby, don't run away. [4] In her 30s, Mae returned to school and learned to read and write. "It's the worst I ever heard of, so I don't know what you name it," Annie Miller said. Alice may be a work of fiction but its proximity to reality will be the scariest thing about it, we feel. Timothy Smith pointed out that the film gives meaning to the human experience and how most people are yet enslaved on one level or another. Miller's father lost his . Harrell reveals that a lot of these kinds of stories are still not told because of this established fear of repercussion. Harrell recounts that there was a great amount of trepidation on the part of the former slaves to tell their stories because in the Deep South there is great fear of what is colloquially referred to as old money. The families who owned and ran plantations, their original source of political power, still retained political power, moving from the plantations to the local government and big businesses. [8][9][10][11], In 2003, Mae and all six of her siblings joined a class action lawsuit seeking reparations to descendants of enslaved people from several private companies with lawyer Deadria Farmer-Paellmann. But whatever. That said, this movie was well done and as shocking as the reality of the concept was it made a great revenge story! Whatever it was, thats what you did for no money at all.. Court Records. The upper class Blacks look at it and they are shocked, said Timothy Smith. "They didn't feed us. Ms. Miller was enslaved until 1961 and there is evidence of slavery today in different parts of America's South. It all came together perfectly. The sisters say that's how it happened them. #peonage #slavery #Aboriginal #Israelites #Deuteronomy #blm #slavery #truthfullyhonest #cancelled community #Ghana #Africa #Karen [4] The Wall family was not paid in money or in kind with food: "They beat us. Don't believe me, google Mae Louise Walls Miller, A little research might help you appreciate the premise more and perhaps break away from the THIS DOESN'T FIT IN WITH MY WORLD VIEW SO I AM GOING TO THROW MUD AT IT crowd. Harrell described the case of Mae Louise Walls Miller, who didn't get her freedom until 1963, when she was about 14. It was like she was trying to tell me that if I wanted to know more about who we were, I would have to dig deeper. After the show I prayed a lot and my dad had been wanting to do a documentary and God told me this is the documentary he ought to do, said Tobias Smith, who is also an independent hip hop recording artist. Harrells groundbreaking work has exposed cases in her home state of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida. They were afraid to give this information to me, even behind closed doors decades later. Badass. A trailer for the film can be viewed at http://www.theprofitmusic.com. How wonderful it would be to tell all of the people that belittled you and told you that you were nothing.if you could show them what you can do!!! As a young girl, Mae didn't know that her family's situation was. . "[7] Ron Walters, a scholar of African-American politics, noted that letters archived by the NAACP "tell us that in a lot of these places, that [people] were kept in bondage or semi-bondage conditions in the 20th century [in] out-of-the way places, certainly where the law authorities didn't pay much attention to what was going on. Photo by Nathan Benn/Corbis via Getty Images. ), the trick to appreciating this one is to skip the first 30 mins (trust me!) [8][14], Historian Antoinette Harrell believes that Miller's father Cain Wall lost his own farmland after he signed a contract that he could not read which indebted him to a local plantation owner. 'Mae's father, Cain Wall, lost his land by signing a . They still hold the power. Still, I'm surprised by the low score on this movie. To most folks, it just isnt worth the risk. What a life they have gone through! I took a lot of garbage there all the time. I truly enjoyed this movie. From there, Harrell tracked down freedman contracts on her fathers side of the family that verified they were sharecroppers, and word spread around New Orleans leading to a number of speaking engagements. [4], Annie Wall suggested that shame prevented former peons from coming forward: "Why would you want to tell anybody that you was raped over and all that kind of mess? Hurling truth at Falsehood Nation of Islam responds to lies of Atty. "I believe it because it is plausible," Walters said. That said, there is an underlying emotional charge to this odd tale that actually deserves an audience. User Ratings We thought everybody was in the same predicament. Justice Department records tell of prosecutions, well into the 20th century, of whites who continued to keep blacks in "involuntary servitude," coercing them with threats on their lives, exploiting their ignorance of life and the laws beyond the plantation where they were born. IMDb's "F-rated" films denote movies that recognize the women behind and in front of cameras, highlighting works like 'Lady Bird' and 'Hustlers.' . [4] Mae's sister Annie Wall recounted that "the whip would wrap around your body and knock you down". "I just remember [Cain Sr.] was a jolly type, smiling every time I saw him." At another speaking engagement, Harrell was confronted after a talk in Amite, Louisiana by a woman named Mae Louise Walls Miller who told her that she didn't get her freedom until 1962, which was two years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed granting Black people a host of legal rights and protections. These stories are more common than you think. They beat us, Mae Miller said. However, I also believe there are still African families who are tied to Southern farms in the most antebellum sense of speaking. ", Mae Miller said she didn't run away because, "What could you run to?". The Millers' story came to light recently when Mae Miller walked into a workshop on the issue of slave reparations run by Antoinette Harrell-Miller, a genealogist. In 1994, I started to look into historical records and public records. Black history would have new heroes if we can go back and rewrite the history of the Old South. One day I walked with Mae deep into the woods to see the old green creek she always spoke about. Start a discussion about improving the Mae Louise Miller page Talk pages are where people discuss how to make content on Wikipedia the best that it can be. She told Vice: Do I believe Maes family was the last to be freed? My mother always talked to me about our family history and the family members who had passed on. Mae refused and sassed the farm owners wife when she told her to work. Reading some of the reviews here after watching this movie I followed someone's comment suggesting people look into Mae Louise Miller if they wanted proof that this could have happened and I was shocked. Her father, Cain, couldnt take the suffering anymore and tried to flee the property by himself in the middle of the night. It was something that was in the past so there was never a reason to bring it up. If this "hi-concept" Hollywood lark were any more woke, the DVD would come with a free rooster. Historian and genealogist Antoinette Harrell has uncovered cases of African Americans still living as slaves 100 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. "But they told my brother they better come get me. Worrying that Mae would be killed by the owners, Cain beat his own daughter bloody in hopes of saving her. She told me this was from years of not knowing when she would eat again. But the people told my brothers, they go, 'You better go get her.' "We didn't know everybody wasn't living the same life that we were living. The website Movie Insider unnecessarily credited this movie twice, even though the first could've just changed the release date without making another movie profile. Slavery might have ended on paper after the Civil War, but many white landowners did Read More >> Plantation Records. Krystin Ver Linden, Writer/Director needs unlimited budgets from now on! Weaving reality with fiction making it a disturbing, yet entertaining movie. Anyone else wonder how they explained airplanes to the slaves? Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. According to a series of interviews published by. [4][12][13] Mae stated to NPR that "maybe I wasn't free, but maybe it can free somebody else. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 3 daughters. Mae calls Kentwood, LA, home. ", "They beat us," Mae Miller said. We knew our family had once been slaves in Louisiana. Instead, Mae adopted four children. Antoinette Harrell unearthed the stories of slaves in the south, well over 100 years after Emancipation. No matter if you are Black or White you will see yourself in the documentary, said Mr. Smith. Antoinette Harrell | All Rights Reserved. She got off to find Mae crying, bloodied and terrified. Truly don't see why this is being rated so poorly. Vice Modern Day Plantation Life in the 1960s https://bit.ly/2oLk64j, The Selma Times Journal Mae Louise Wall Miller https://bit.ly/30xWcty, People Magazine Mae Louise Wall Miller https://bit.ly/2NTIccb, The Root The Arthur Wall Story https://bit.ly/2JFk2g9, The Daily Press Woman to Discuss Her Time Being Enslaved https://bit.ly/2Shf5xP. Alice will be available to watch in UK cinemas nationwide on 18 March. Dec. 20, 2003 -- As Mae Miller tells it, she spent her youth in Mississippi as a slave, "picking cotton, pulling corn, picking peas, picking butter beans, picking string beans, digging potatoes. "[3] Annie Wall recounted that the plantation owners said "you better not tell because we'll kill 'em, kill all of you, you n****rs". Pretty pathetic. There is nothing that can be done to me that hasnt already been done.. "[3] Mae recounted harvesting cotton, corn, peas, butter beans, string beans, potatoes. We had to go drink water out of the creek. They'll kill us.' Each time she repeated a story, I felt like she was trying to give me a message. [2] Mae Louise Miller (born Mae Louise Wall; August 24, 1943 - 2014) was an American woman who was kept in modern-day slavery, known as peonage, near Gillsburg, Mississippi and Kentwood, Louisiana until her family achieved freedom in early 1961. 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