Compare And Contrast The Movie 12 Years A Slave

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12 Years a Slave is an accurate adaptation of what slavery was like in the southern United States. The movie does not try to exaggerate the hardships the slaves went through, nor does it try to down play their suffering. This paper will compare the movie to primary sources from that time period, as well as the book the movie is based off of. The movie 12 Years a Slaves is a true story about Solomon Northup, a free African American man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Northup was introduced to two men named Hamilton and Brown. They offered Northup a job to travel and perform with them in Washington. After a night of drinking Northup woke up in a cellar chained to the floor. He was approached by a slave trader named Burch. Northup attempted to explain he was a free man and that they had no right to keep him there. Burch’s response to Northup’s pleas was, “You aint a free man, your nothing but a Georgia runaway.” Northup protested the accusations, so Burch whipped him while yelling, “You’re a slave, you’re a Georgia slave.” Northup had no choice but to agree. Northup was bought by a plantation owner named Mr. Ford. Northup made the mistake of showing his new master how intelligent he was. This caused an over-seer named Tibeats to become jealous. He would be cruel Northup for no reason other than She was sold to the same slave trader as Northup. Her and her children were put up for auction. She was sold to Mr. Ford along with Northup, but her children were sold off to other slave owners. She never recovered from the grief of losing her children. Unfortunately during this time it was extremely common for slave families to get broken up. In the primary source A Family Torn Apart by Slavery Henry Brown writes about the lengths he went to keep his family together, only to have them sold off by a money hungry slave owner. After watching his child get taken off in chains Brown states, “but things were

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