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I was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot Country, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves knows as little of their age as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember having ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvesting, springtime, or falltime. A lack of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages, I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquires of my master concerning it. He considered all such inquires on the part of a slave improper and impertinent. The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835. I was about sventeen years old. My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather. My father was a white man. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant--before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an older woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it was to hinder the development of the child’s affection towards its mother. In the mid-nineteenth century, slaves often
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Hollywood racked up another "record" year at the box office. But the higher ticket sales mask fundamental issues in the U.S. movie industry, where the so-called blockbuster strategy is causing movies to open with big tallies that fall off faster than in previous years. Movie ticket sales reached an estimated $8.35 billion in 2001, up 8.4% from $7.7 billion in 2000, the largest gain since 1998. Moreover, the number of tickets sold--a more reliable indicator--rose to an estimated 1.49 billion, according to box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. The strong sales were aided by the post-Christmas, pre-new Year weekend. Although many observers thought people would stay away from the theaters after the 9.11, the numbers have been up 5% industry-wide since then from year earlier levels. Those positive trends, however, gloss over deeper problems facing the Hollywood studios and movie theater chains, where real audience growth has been marginal. Box-office totals have nearly tripled during the past decade, while the number of tickets sold has risen 30%; indicating the box-office record is driven by higher ticket prices, not increase in movie attendance. A more dangerous development, at least for theater operators, has been the trend toward movies opening to large box-office figures during the first weekend and then quickly trailing off. Theater operators earn most of the money from movies playing in their theaters after the second week. Studios, in contrast, collect the majority of a movie’s ticket receipts the first week. But, for the Hollywood studios that distribute the bulk of the movies seen by the public, the blockbuster strategy of putting as many marketable high profile movies into theaters as possible will continue in 2002. "I call it the year of the sequel," says Paul, a box-office analyst, noting the coming year’s lineup includes Men in Black 2, Stuart Little 2, Spy Kids 2, second installments for Harry Potter and Lord of the Ring. "Studios are playing it safe," he says. Such hyper-marketed movies can open big at box office, but they don’t tend to hold up in subsequent Weeks, as the core movie--going audience--teenagers and adults in their 20s flock to the next "big" movie. Some of last year’s largest openers, such as Planet of the Apes, The Mummy Return and Jurassic Park saw their box-office number plunge by 50% or more the second weekend. One possible outcome is that the decades old relationship between studios and theaters will undergo changes. If the studios persist in pushing "blockbuster" movies, then the traditional system of the studios taking a larger share of the box-office receipts in the first weeks could be revised to something more equitable. Studios, however, would be expected to fight any effort to revamp the current system. The theater operators are facing perilous problems except
Hollywood racked up another "record" year at the box office. But the higher ticket sales mask fundamental issues in the U.S. movie industry, where the so-called blockbuster strategy is causing movies to open with big tallies that fall off faster than in previous years. Movie ticket sales reached an estimated $8.35 billion in 2001, up 8.4% from $7.7 billion in 2000, the largest gain since 1998. Moreover, the number of tickets sold--a more reliable indicator--rose to an estimated 1.49 billion, according to box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. The strong sales were aided by the post-Christmas, pre-new Year weekend. Although many observers thought people would stay away from the theaters after the 9.11, the numbers have been up 5% industry-wide since then from year earlier levels. Those positive trends, however, gloss over deeper problems facing the Hollywood studios and movie theater chains, where real audience growth has been marginal. Box-office totals have nearly tripled during the past decade, while the number of tickets sold has risen 30%; indicating the box-office record is driven by higher ticket prices, not increase in movie attendance. A more dangerous development, at least for theater operators, has been the trend toward movies opening to large box-office figures during the first weekend and then quickly trailing off. Theater operators earn most of the money from movies playing in their theaters after the second week. Studios, in contrast, collect the majority of a movie’s ticket receipts the first week. But, for the Hollywood studios that distribute the bulk of the movies seen by the public, the blockbuster strategy of putting as many marketable high profile movies into theaters as possible will continue in 2002. "I call it the year of the sequel," says Paul, a box-office analyst, noting the coming year’s lineup includes Men in Black 2, Stuart Little 2, Spy Kids 2, second installments for Harry Potter and Lord of the Ring. "Studios are playing it safe," he says. Such hyper-marketed movies can open big at box office, but they don’t tend to hold up in subsequent Weeks, as the core movie--going audience--teenagers and adults in their 20s flock to the next "big" movie. Some of last year’s largest openers, such as Planet of the Apes, The Mummy Return and Jurassic Park saw their box-office number plunge by 50% or more the second weekend. One possible outcome is that the decades old relationship between studios and theaters will undergo changes. If the studios persist in pushing "blockbuster" movies, then the traditional system of the studios taking a larger share of the box-office receipts in the first weeks could be revised to something more equitable. Studios, however, would be expected to fight any effort to revamp the current system. The fundamental issue in the U.S. movie industry is that
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I was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot Country, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves knows as little of their age as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember having ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvesting, springtime, or falltime. A lack of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages, I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquires of my master concerning it. He considered all such inquires on the part of a slave improper and impertinent. The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835. I was about sventeen years old. My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather. My father was a white man. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant--before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an older woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it was to hinder the development of the child’s affection towards its mother. According the passage, when the author was very young his mother
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