Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Such people can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. These people are known as slaves. A victim of this act is Solomon Northup, a free-born African American from New York. This essay is based on the early life, marriage, family and work of Solomon Northup, including the excruciating story of his kidnap into slavery.
Solomon Northup was born in July 1808 in Minerva, New York. His father, Mintus Northup, was originally enslaved to Henry Northup’s family from Rhode Island, but he was later freed upon his master's death and adopted the surname Northup as his own, after the family moved to New York. Mintus Northup married and moved with his wife, a free woman of color, to the town of Minerva in Essex County, New York. Not much is known about his mother who in his narrative does not identify by name. Mintus became a widower sometime afterwards. Their two sons, Solomon and Joseph, were born free according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, as both mother and father were free people. Mintus' wife was of mixed ancestry, and was considered a quadroon since she was one-forth black. Mintus was a successful farmer who met the property requirements necessary for voting. The level of education he provided for his two sons was considered high for freed blacks at the time. Solomon played the violin well but later managed his own farm in Hebron (Washington County.) His father's last dwelling was on the road leading from Fort Edward (from War of 1763) to Argyle. He died in November 1829, and his grave is loca...
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...s of whipping were heard every day on Epps' plantation, from sunset until bedtime. Epps sexually abused a young enslaved woman, Patsey, by constantly raping her. This led to additional severe physical and mental abuse stimulated by Epp's wife.
In 1852, Samuel Bass, who was a carpenter came to do some work for Epps. Bass expressed his opponent views this made Northup eventually decided to reveal his secrets to him. Bass was the first person he told of his true name and origins as a free man since he was first enslaved. Along with mailing a letter written by Northup, Bass also wrote several letters at his appeal to Northup's friends, providing common details of his location at Bayou Boeuf, in hopes of gaining his rescue. Bass helped Northup after opening of the Fleeting Slave Law of 1850, which increased national punishments against people assisting slaves to escape.
The book 12 Years a Slave is an autobiography that chronicles the life of Solomon Northup. Northup was born free in the New York State but at the age of 33 is drugged, kidnapped and forced into slavery for 12 years. Northup was kidnapped during a time when the nation was split over slavery. In the North many African Americans were born free while in the South, African Americans were sold, kidnapped, or born into slavery. Northup was raised free but forced into slavery for 12 years were he suffered brutal beatings and torture at the hands of a cruel slave owner.
In the early 1800’s, the United States’ culture of slavery was fostered for a lifespan of forcible enslavement. For all Slaves, this was the normality which was callously endured. In his work, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, “An American Slave,” Frederick Douglass argues and exemplifies that his fate was destined outside of the walls of slavery.
Northup's nightmare of twelve years in slavery was over. He returned home to Connecticut. Northup's wife told him of a day his daughters arrived from school inconsolable. They had seen pictures of slaves in a cotton field being followed by an overseer with a whip. “It reminded them of the sufferings their father might be, and as it happened, actually was, enduring in the South.” (252) Twelve years in slavery, yet his family had “still held me in constant remembrance” (252). Northup and his family were finally free.
Slave owners rarely doubted the moral right of one man holding another in subjection. They were degrading human beings and making them suffer awful torments in order to make a profit. This is why 12 Years a Slave is such a compelling story. It describes tragic tales of slaves by giving the full truth and depicting everyday life as a slave in the Antebellum South. Northup describes his journey with his many slave masters and educates his audience on what tasks and treatment slaves had to deal with on a daily basis. He does this by detailing the abuses he endured as well as the abuses he was forced to inflict on others. He also captured the various master’s personalities and used them to showcase the different tactics that were used to keep slaves in submission. Thirdly, Northup shared other slaves’ stories to show how they differ from his own and to discuss the negative physical, emotional, and spiritual effects. The book describes what different characters experienced under varied circumstances. Some slaves had kind masters, whereas others had cruel dictators. In short, the slave owner’s disposition and personality did determine how their slaves would be treated. Comparatively, the type of jobs that slaves did depended on their environment as well as their skill set. Therefore, 12 Years a Slave is a gripping memoir that addresses the diversity of slavery in full color and provides a clear warning of the moral consequences slavery disregards. The slaves were not the only ones that were affected. Slave owners were desensitized and stripped of their morals. They forgot that blacks were humans too. The natural human interactions of love, justice, and respect were lost at the time this work was written. In spite of this, Northup’s testimony is proof that faith and hope can overcome any
This Narrative gives one a new perspective on the evils of slavery and the terrible way it affects every one who is involved. The ignorance and physical abuse of the slave is the essential means by which this practice survived for too long. Douglass gives us proof of this in his experiences he endured in overcoming these obstacles and makes us aware of the power that knowledge holds, of both freedom and slavery.
As a struggling country, America’s south discovered slavery as a way to gain financial stability. Except, slavery grew into much more than a need for money. It became a social thing and also a controversial topic among politicians, especially with the emergence of abolitionism. Even after slavery, it became a great learning opportunity to ensure that it never happens again.
In 1619 the first African slaves stepped foot on North American soil, they were called “20 and Odd “. This would cause a revolution and uproar for 300 hundred years to come. This pandemonium was called slavery; slavery is thought to be the brutal, harsh and controlling punishment for any persons that were of the African descent. Some believed that slavery was justifiable because it seemed to be supported by passages in the Bible. While blacks were not thought to be the only ones being controlled and abused physically, they were proven to have been treated the worse. In the diary, titled “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass” the author born as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey described life while being a slave, and after he had escaped
Frederick Douglass is known through the eyes of many as a passionate abolitionist, who worked to gain rights for the African American population. In reality, he was much more than this. As an adult he was a prized author, an editor of a newspaper, a lecturer, and a salesman (Schmitt, 1). Such accomplishments were not gained overnight, though, his journey was a long one riddled with pain and challenges. He began his life as a slave, raised by his grandparents (3). As he grew older and more useful he was moved around to other plantations, at one of with he learned to read under the watchful eye of his master’s wife (5). After a few years here, it was observed by his masters that he had become “softened” by the relaxed life of a city slave, so he was sent to a renowned slave beater to be straightened out. To their dismay, by this point in his life Douglass was strong and courageous, and after six months at the hands of the slave beater he began fighting back (6). Scared of what Douglass would do to his reputation, the slave beater sent the boy back to his previous owner. It was at this time Douglass planned his escape to New York. At the age of 20 he made his move (7). Once free, Douglass lived
In Solomon Northup’s narrative, 12 years a slave, he shares a story of the horrors of his past that was a lifelong reality to many African Americans throughout American history. Northup, being a free man of Saratoga, New York, was stripped of his freedom and sold ‘down the river’ to the Bayou Boeuf of Louisiana and was bound to slavery for twelve years. Along with recounting the gruesome hardships and labor that he had to endure, Northup also gives detailed accounts of the lives of fellow slaves that he comes across, primarily, women. Northup’s narrative allows readers to see that the hardships that slave women experienced by far surpassed anything that a slave man could endure. Stripped of their families, beaten relentlessly and forever victims
Since Northup wrote this book himself, it was able to provide readers with the truth and the experiences of living as a slave in the South. The good experiences written about by Northup seemed to be few and far between in the story, but the moments were big. In the beginning of the story, he talked about being with his family and the experience of being a free black man in the North. Once his freedom and family were taken from him, the next good experience he spoke of was when he met friends, either on the boat rides or on the plantations. These friends, although he was once free and most of them were not, had many things in common with Northup, and they all had similar views on slavery. A third positive experience that Solomon wrote about was when the officials came to Ebbs’ plantation to take him back North to freedom, which Ebbs could not believe. Although Ebbs wasn’t happy about it, Solomon was excited to go back to the North and his family. Being reunited with his family after ...
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave was written by Frederick Douglass himself. He was born into slavery in Tuckahoe, Maryland in approximately 1817. He has, "…no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it" (47). He became known as an eloquent speaker for the cause of the abolitionists. Having himself been kept as a slave until he escaped from Maryland in 1838, he was able to deliver very impassioned speeches about the role of the slave holders and the slaves. Many Northerners tried to discredit his tales, but no one was ever able to disprove his statements.
Solomon Northup was one of the few that escaped the grasps of slavery. He wrote his own book, 12 Years a Slave, and even had a movie crea...
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
In his true-life narrative "Twelve Years a Slave," Solomon Northup is a free man who is deceived into a situation that brings about his capture and ultimate misfortune to become a slave in the south. Solomon is a husband and father. Northup writes:
Solomon Northup was a black man who was born a free man at a time when slavery was still legal in America. He was born in Minerva, New York, in the year 1808 (Northup 19). Northup’s father, Mintus, was originally a slave of the Northup family in Rhode Island. He was freed when the family relocated to New York. When he was growing up as a young adult, Northup helped his father with farming chores and became a raftsman for a short while on the waterways of New York. As an adult, Northup married Anne Hampton, who was of mixed heritage on Christmas day of 1829. Together, they had three children. Over the years Northup became a famous fiddle player, and this gave him recognition in his town.