12 Years A Slave Religion

Slavery is a legal or economic system that has been around since the very first civilization recorded in history. It existed even before written history and was once enforced in all countries around the world. In the movie, 12 Years a Slave, it gives a glimpse into the dark past of what people of color were treated like pre-civil war. In the true story, 12 Years a Slave, told by Solomon Northup, he recites the events that occurred and the effect slavery had religiously, politically, and socially on him and other people of color in the pre-civil war era.

Firstly, religion played a pivotal role for people during 1815-1850. During this era, people had different perspectives off of what the bible’s intentions were. In the movie, Northup describes

In the movie, Northup was a free man in New York, but he didn’t have any claim to that in Louisiana. When someone is a person of color, they have to have papers to proof they are a “free” person. When Solomon got kidnapped, he had no papers to claim he was a free man in New York, therefor, his kidnappers could sell him into slavery and not get into any legal trouble. This represents what was actually happening in the United States at that time very well. It was hard for any person of color to be taken seriously if they said they were “free” in some areas of the United States where freedom was rare for African Americans. It was also very hard to get any legal action for people of color if they wanted to sue slave owners or kidnappers for treating them poorly when they were free. However, there were those white people that knew slavery was wrong and didn’t participate in it such as the character, Bass. Bass was a Canadian carpenter who helped Northup reunite with his family and gain his rights back. Bass knew the consequences of getting Northup’s freedom back, but he didn’t anyway because he believed in the fact that people should not be slaves. Bass used his political stance on slavery to actually go good and reunite a man with his rights and freedom after twelve years of nothing. Believe it or not, there were some white people that stood against slavery. Those people used their white

There was a very obvious separation between people because of the color of people’s skin. If you were white, you were considered “the elite,” and if you were black, you were considered less than a human in the South. Mcqueen depicts this difference very successfully because he shows the toll it has on someone like Northup. Even when Northup lived in New York, he still was never entirely apart of the community. Northup was a talented violinist who always went to the parties (to perform) but was never individually invited. Then when he was a slave in Louisiana, he actually seen as if he wasn’t human. The slave owner, Epps, would showcase his distaste towards other people who weren’t white or better than him. He had all the power and none of the slaves could really do anything about it. This transitions to reality where at that time, the slave/plantation owners had complete supremacy over everyone else at plantation, then it was the second man in charge, possibly the wife of the owner, the young male slaves, and then the women and elder slaves, This social pyramid was mostly the same throughout all the plantations. People were accustomed to the injustice and did not expect the standings in the social system to change. This was before the civil war so the slaves were wanting to enact change but were scared to take a stand. It was hard for them to voice their opinion when they didn’t even