Historical Accuracy Of The Movie Belle

“Accuracy is paramount in every detail of a work of history. Here’s my rule: Ask yourself, ‘Did this thing happen?’ If the answer is yes, then it is historical. Then ask, ‘Did this thing happen precisely this way?’ If the answer is yes then it is history; if the answer is no, not precisely this way, then it is historical drama.” – Tony Kushner

As said by Tony, it is important to understand the historical accuracy of events, whether they are truth or ‘historical drama’. This is the same with movies, often when movies are produced with the intention to present history in an entertaining way, the movie is not historically accurate. This is shown in the movie ‘Belle’. ‘Belle’ is a movie produced in 2013, based on Dido Elizabeth Belle. Dido is

During this period slavery was rife and a dark-skinned female was often sold into slavery or was a maid at upper-class houses. However, for Dido, her great-uncle Lord Mansfield, looked after her and she was able to live a reasonably decent life, with the odd issues here and there, or at least that’s what the movie portrayed. This is not the case, however. Belle is based extremely lightly on a true story, this comes from the fact that there was little information about Dido and much detail comes from the accounts of the Kenwood House and diary entries made by Thomas Hutchinson, who was a guest in 1789. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the historical accuracy of the movie, including the portrayal of Dido and Lord Mansfield, and the events which took place during the era. The question in this assignment is to whether this movie made in 2013 accurately

In the 1783 Zong case, the owners of the Zong slave ship made a claim to their insurers for the loss of the hundreds of slaves thrown overboard by the crew as disease was present on the ship. Insurers refused to pay, but the case was taken to court, and Lord Mansfield was the presiding judge for the case. Lord Mansfield compared the loss of the ‘slave cargo’ to the loss of animals, viewing the enslaved as property. This case was the prominent one which was followed throughout the movie and played alongside the movie as an added feature to amplify the difference in race. The cases are accurate however the representation of these cases in the film are inexact and are mixed-up to create a full picture of slavery in that era, present Lord Mansfield and his position in respect to slavery, and to be entertaining. It is important to note that we are unaware of Dido’s involvement of the case as little is known about Dido. A key person, presented in the movie, in reference to the legal cases, is John