Solomon Northup's 12 Years A Slave By Solomon Northup

1269 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Slavery in the time period 1775 to 1830

Assal Al Janabi Fred Jordan History-2010 May 3, 2015 Twelve Year A Slave by Solomon Northup Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave narrates the author’s life story as a free Africa-American man from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Northup was born and raised, lived, worked, married, and raised a family in New York as a free black male. Northup was a farmer, and a multi-task laborer and also a talented violin player. In the year of 1841, two scam men offered him profitable work playing violin in a circus, and then Northup think about the offer and traveled with them to Washington, D.C., where he was drugged, and sold as a slave into the Red River region of Louisiana. In July 1808 Northup was …show more content…

Epps is a cruel master he whip his slaves all the time Northup describe his life with Epps in this statement, “It was rarely that a day passed by without one or more whippings. This occurred at this time the cotton was weighed. The delinquent, whose weight had fallen short, was taken out, stripped, made to lie upon the ground, face downwards, when he received a punishment proportioned to his offence. It is the literal, unvarnished truth, that the crack of the lash, and the shrieking of the slaves, can be heard from dark till bed time, on Epps’ plantation, any day almost during the entire period of the cotton-picking season.” (179) relating stories of abuse, humiliation, and dispossession among all the slaves. A slave girl named Patsey gets the worst treatments from Epps Patsey has been raped and whipped a lot of time because of his jealous wife. Patsey went to visits her friend to get a bar soap because Epps wife won’t allow her to have any, when she returns Epps thought she were having an affair, therefore; Epps forced Northup to whip Patsey while she’s naked and screaming for mercy. Years are passed by and Northup almost lost his hope to see his family again and having a free black man life. Northup met a carpenter named Bass abolitionist from Canada. Northup start telling his story from the beginning until where he’s now to Bass and after Bass heard his story he decided to help him, by sending letter to Northup friends in the North asking them to rescue slaves in the

Show More
Related

  • The Negro's Friend, By Claude Mckay

    154 Words  | 1 Pages

    In The Negro’s Friend, Claude McKay makes readers visualize the true meaning of salvation and segregation. African Americans were fighting to end segregation, but McKay spoke and said that they were wasting their precious time. McKay wanted African Americans to know that the state was under control by the white supremacy. He said that their cries were useless and didn’t help anything.

    Read More

  • 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • 12 Years A Slave Freedom Quotes

    465 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Solomon Northup’s memoir, Twelve Years A Slave, he depicts the lives of African Americans living in the North as extremely painful and unjust. Additionally, they faced many hardships everyday of their lives. For one, they were stripped of their identities, loved ones, and most importantly their freedom. To illustrate this, Northup says, “He denied that I was free, and with an emphatic oath, declared that I came from Georgia” (20). This quote discusses the point in which Northup was kidnapped, and how he was ultimately robbed of his freedom, as well as his identity. Furthermore, not only were his captors cruel and repulsive, so was the way in which they treated African Americans. For instance, Northup states, “…Freeman, out of patience, tore Emily from her mother by main force, the two clinging to each other with all their might” (50). In this example, a mother is being parted from her child despite her cries and supplications, the slave owner

    Read More

  • My Great-Grandfather's Slaves By Wendell Berry

    508 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem, “My Great-Grandfather’s Slaves” by Wendell Berry, illustrates the guilt felt for the sins of a man’s ancestors. The poem details the horror for the speaker’s ancestors involvement in slavery and transitions from sympathy for the slaves to feeling enslaved by his guilt. Berry uses anaphora, motif, and irony, to express the speaker’s guilt and provide a powerful atmosphere to the poem.

    Read More

  • Book Summary Of Solomon Northup's 12 Years A Slave

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    Twelve Years a Slave is a narrative written by Solomon Northup. After conducting research, the story was told to, written, and edited by David Wilson, a white lawyer and legislator from New York. The book is based on Solomon Northup who was a citizen of New York and a freeman. He was kidnapped in Washington City in 1841 and the book tells the tale of his years as a slave from the time of his kidnapping to when he was rescued in 1853. The first two chapters, Northup tells about his family. Little is known about his mother and he does not identify her by name, but his father, Mintus, was enslaved in Rhode Island by the Northup family. Mintus was freed after the family moved to New York. Solomon, as a young man, helped his father with chores around the farm and worked as a raftsman as told by in his narrative. Solomon tells about his marriage to Anne Hampton, a mixed woman, who he identifies as being of several different ethnicities (white, black, and Native American). He married Anne Hampton on Christmas Day in 1829 and has had three children with her.

    Read More

  • The Struggle Of An Indentured Servant By James Revel

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    The experiences that Richard Frethorne endured were in a lot of ways similar to those of James Revel. Both suffered from sickness and disease, lack of resources such as clothes and shelter, and most unfortunately limited access to food. The big distinction between these two, however, is that Frethorne was shipped to the New World on his own accord in hopes of a free and better life. While Revel was forcibly shipped as a felon, sent in punishment to serve his sentence in slavery.

    Read More

  • Slave Man To Free Man By Fredrick Odulgass

    1297 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the most astounding autobiography ever rread was writtine by a man, for who a large portion of his life he could not read or write, it written by a man who actually accompus the americna dream. A man who litteraly pull himself up by the boot straps, in a rags to riches type tale. This man, is Fredrick douglass, born a man, made a slave, but died a man. Fedick odulgass is an American slave who was able to account the plife of a slave.He gave us a glimpse into the life of slave, during a sad era of ameirca history. He also gave us a glimpse on to how overcome, not just slavery but and situation. In the text Fredrick douglass writes “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (Norton 546). Here he makes clear distintion that he knew when he was a slave and he knew when he was man, but what is a slave? What is a man? And how did he make this transition from slave, man to free man? In the folloeing text I will define his assemsnt of slave and man and describe how he was able to become a man; a Free man.

    Read More

  • The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    As Elie Wiesel once stated, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” (“Elie Wiesel Quote”). Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, which discusses criminal justice and its role in mass incarceration, promotes a similar idea regarding silence when America’s racial caste system needs to be ended; however, Alexander promotes times when silence would actually be better for “the tormented.” The role of silence and lack of silence in the criminal justice system both contribute to wrongly accused individuals and growing populations behind bars.

    Read More

  • Solomon Northup's Relationship with His Slave Master

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    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:

    Read More

  • Reflection Of The New Jim Crow By Michelle Alexander

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reading my first book for this class, I was really looking forward to it. The book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, is an interesting book because it touches base on mass incarceration and the caste system. Figuring out that society is on a war on drugs and racism in the justice system is upsetting, and yet interesting. Michelle does a really nice job in organizing the book and presenting the plot. The fact that this book informs and explains arguments, what is happening with the justices system is complete true. Our lives would look complete different; and some of her points are happening. People do not realize getting incarcerated will take some of rights away. This essay will reflect on the book its self, answer questions,

    Read More

  • The Most Evil In The Slavery, By Harriot Stow

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    The most evil in the world at that time and what Harriot Stow tells readers about the evil that is slavery. The regards to the slavery the evil is that it affects everyone. The way she details the events in the story shows the struggle of slavery but also the way family life was affected by it. Not because it was just cruel but that to the white slave owners would act as if it was completely normal. That is what the evil is the fact that it is nothing to them just a part of their lives.

    Read More

  • Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

    1673 Words  | 4 Pages

    The topic of slavery in the United States has always been controversial, as many people living in the South were supportive of it and many people living in the North were against it. Even though it was abolished by the Civil War before the start of the 20th century, there are still different views on the subject today. Written in 1853, the book Twelve Years a Slave is a first person account of what it was like for Solomon Northup to be taken captive from his free life in the North and sold to a plantation as a slave in the South, and his struggle to regain his freedom. Through writing about themes of namelessness, inhumanity, suffering, distrust, defiance, and the desire for freedom, Northup was able to expose the experiences and realities of slavery.

    Read More

  • An American Slave by Frederick Douglas

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    What do you think of; when you hear the word slave? According to Merriam-Webster a slave is someone who “is completely subservient to a dominating influence”. Two of the most known African Americans, who were born slaves and helped others of their race become free, were Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Using different tactics they helped many people become free from slavery. This paper will demonstrate Fredrick Douglass’s narrative ‘An American Slave’, which will expose his crucial role in the abolition of slavery, how Douglass overcame slavery, and took control of his own life. Douglass’s tactics for helping slaves will then be compared to Harriet Tubman, one of the most famous Underground Railroad conductors.

    Read More

  • Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    Booker T. Washington was a young black male born into the shackles of Southern slavery. With the Union victory in the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Washington’s family and blacks in the United States found hope in a new opportunity, freedom. Washington saw this freedom as an opportunity to pursue a practical education. Through perseverance and good fortunes, Washington was able to attain that education at Hampton National Institute. At Hampton, his experiences and beliefs in industrial education contributed to his successful foundation at the Tuskegee Institute. The institute went on to become the beacon of light for African American education in the South. Booker T. Washington was an influential voice in the African American community following the Civil War. In his autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington outlines his personal accounts of his life, achievements, and struggles. In the autobiography, Washington fails to address the struggle of blacks during Reconstruction to escape the southern stigma of African Americans only being useful for labor. However, Washington argues that blacks should attain an industrial education that enables them to find employment through meeting the economic needs of the South, obtaining moral character and intelligence, and embracing practical labor. His arguments are supported through his personal accounts as a student at Hampton Institute and as an administrator at the Tuskegee Institute. Washington’s autobiography is a great source of insight into the black education debate following Reconstruction.

    Read More

  • 12 Years a Slave

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.

    Read More

More about Solomon Northup's 12 Years A Slave By Solomon Northup

Open Document