Analysis Of Solomon Northup's 12 Years A Slave

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Recommended: American slavery 19th century

Solomon Northup, a freeman from Saratoga Springs, New York, champions in having one of the most inspiring stories of slave life from the mid-1800s. Despite his story, Northup has only recently gained major notoriety around the world for his memoir 12 Years a Slave, written in order to explain his story after he regained his freedom in 1853. Northup’s story begins in New York where he was kidnapped in 1841 and sent to Louisiana and forced into slavery. His memoir recounts his life as a slave and explores the horrors of life in the South. Perhaps one of the most heart-capturing aspects of his story is his never-ending courage to get back to his family. While some feel that family life among the slaves was a false reality, Northup expresses his …show more content…

Eric Foner best describes this in his book Give Me Liberty! when he states that “[i]n the face of grim realities, [the slaves] succeeded in forging a semi-independent culture centered on family and church” (Foner, 326). Family life for slaves looked very different than the family lives of freeman. Slave family could be considered either biological family members, but more often than not was made up of adopted family members. Family was one of the few rights that slave owners allowed the slaves to participate in. Owners had the right to consent to slave marriages as well as the right to break them up or split them apart during a sale (Foner, 326). Among many of the disturbing moments in 12 Years a Slave is when Eliza must be forcibly separated from her children during a sale being conducted by Theophilus Freeman. Northup explains the misery of having to be separated when he states that he has “never … seen such an exhibition of intense, unmeasured, and unbounded grief, as when Eliza was parted from her child” (Northup, 54). This passage as well as Eliza’s continued grief throughout the rest of her life, expresses the importance of family life in slave …show more content…

Under the false pretenses that he would be home before his family’s return, Solomon left with Hamilton and Brown for his new job as a violinist in a circus without leaving a note for his wife or children telling them where he would be. Because of this, Solomon would devote a large amount of his life while enslaved to attempting to inform his family of his condition. His good intentions would lead to trouble for him throughout his life. From trying to inform James Burch, the slave dealer, of his former life, or asking a fellow slave named Armsby to transport a letter his family for him, Solomon’s attempted involvement with his family typically got him physically punished. Ultimately, the thought of being reunited with his wife and children would outweigh the negative consequences he suffered and would pay off when he became reunited with his family in 1853. Family gave him, as well as many other men in his situation, a reason to keep fighting for his

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