12 Years a Slave Have you ever wondered about what people went through during slavery for a long period of time? In 12 Years a Slave, it talks about a certain person’s point of view and their history. 12 Years a slave is one of the most detailed slave narratives that was written by Solomon Northup and published in 1853. When the book got published, it brought many problems, since it named several slave owners and the things that they would do with their slaves. The purpose of the book was to fight slavery and terminate it completely, not only that, also to expose those who supported slavery and to show what actually happened throughout the twelve years. Due to the acceptance of slavery, African Americans were being captured for the purpose …show more content…
This was happening 2 years after the capture of Northup. In response to the weakening of the original fugitive slave act, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 penalized officials who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave, and made them liable to a fine of $1,000. This is what pushed the officials to stop whoever seemed like a runaway slave. Another significant impact that had a connection with Northup’s narrative was the Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in March 20, 1852. 12 years a slave was one of the biggest examples used in Stowe’s narrative and it was also the key to that book. The purpose of the book was to describe how the author was against slavery and that the nation viewed slavery as something great and successful, but it actually wasn’t. This book had a great impact on the people which made them change their way of looking at slavery, the system that treated people like property, especially African Americans. Although this publication had a great impact on society, it was banned by the fire eaters, the people who supported the system of slavery. As a response to the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there was a publication of Aunt Phillis’ Cabin. This book was written by Mary Henderson Eastman which was a plantation fiction
From before the country’s conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery has been heavily engrained in the American society. From poor white yeoman farmers, to Northern abolitionist, to Southern gentry, and apathetic northerners slavery transformed the way people viewed both their life and liberty. To truly understand the impact that slavery has had on American society one has to look no further than those who have experienced them firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and advocate for the abolitionist, is on such person. Douglass was a living contradiction to American society during his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his people at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts into the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery.
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
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later
I believe that the Fugitive Slave Law could be related to Northup being kidnapped. I think this because the slave trader Burch, told Northup to get his “free papers” so he would be able to show he was a free slave once they entered the slave states. I think Burch did so he could get Northup’s trust. Once drugged Bruch used the Fugitive Slave Law to say, that Northup was a run away slave and was taking him back to his master. Burch also beat Northup until he stopped talking about being a free man and from New York because selling a free man was a federal offense.
Twelve years a slave is the title of a book and a movie which was an adaptation of the life of Solomon Northup. Solomon Northup was born in New York a free man. He had a wife and three children, he unlike most other children was educated.”Besides giving us an education surpassing that ordinarily bestowed to the children in our condition” he said page 25, he had a farm and worked as a violinist. He was drugged, abducted and sold into slavery in 1841 while on a visit to Washington, sold at auction and shipped to work in cotton plantations in Louisiana. He was given a new identity and his slave name was “Platt.” he never accepted being
This novel was a very long and strenuous read. Solomon included many details about the process of planting and harvesting cotton or the appearance of a man from head to foot, for example. This painted an extremely accurate picture in the reader’s head, however it made the story boring and slow. There were also a lot of old-fashioned words that I had to look up before I understood sentences. Although the novel was slow and old-fashioned, I would recommend this book to students who wished to learn more about this time period because it certainly helps certain aspects easier to comprehend. Twelve Years a Slave gave me a different perspective to slavery, and a different way of viewing it.
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:
Twelve Years A Slave is commonly recognized as a very truthful representation of slavery. However, there are a few different scenes that are historically incorrect. The slaves are very valuable pieces of property that are not exactly easy to replace. Slave owners treat their slaves in a very careful way. They treat them with care as though they are a valuable piece of property. At the same time they discipline them enough to make sure they know who is in charge of them, but they are still able to work after their punishment. This is where a few historically incorrect errors come into the movie.
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.
Mythology is a invisible part in 12 Years a Slave, however it is extremely exist. There are an impression that African people or black people are created to be slaves for white people. In Europe and Meddle East hindered years ago, there are many black slaves were working for white people, and they do not have any type of rights to ask for. White people think that black human are unable to be allowed to seek for their entitlements, which are receivable to ask for them. Being a slave is not as an option or choice, according to C.S Lewis he claim “But one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself.” He has an option that no one can judge ether to be free person or not. Mythology has been represented in 12 Year a Slave that black people are not able to be slaves
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.
Solomon Northup was born a freeman. On Christmas day, 1829, Northup married Anne Hampton. He was about twenty one years old and decided to enter upon a life of industry so that he could help support him and his wife. He first was employed with others repairing the Champlain Canal. By the time the Canal was finished Northup purchased a pair of horses and other things necessarily required in the business of navigation. He hired several men to help him and he began to transport large rafts of timber from Lake Champlain to Troy. Being involved with this type of work for awhile Northup became very good with the arts and mysteries of rafting. After he finished with that contract he entered into another contract with Medad Gunn, to cut a large quantity of wood. He did this job during the winter and when spring came around him and his wife decided to start a farm. They lived on the farm for many years and as he lived on the farm Northup was called many times to play the violin and Anne became known as a famous cook and was employed in the kitchen at Sherrill's Coffee House. They lived a very happy life on the farm and made a good amount of money playing the violin, cooking and farming. In 1834, they moved to Saratoga Springs. Northup got a job to drive a hack during visiting seasons and during the winter he relied on his violin. In 1841 they moved from Saratoga because they had not prospered but still they lived a comfortable life. Northup and his wife were the parents of three children, Elizabeth(10), Margaret(8) and Alonzo(5). They had a very good relationship with all their children and loved them dearly.
Solomon Northup’s account on slavery gives reader insight into the treatment of the slaves and how religion justified the masters’ acts of violence. “Twelve Years a Slaves”, illustrate Northup’s experiences with his three owners. Each owner treated their slaves differently and without exception they were all religious and use a sort of violence to keep their slave in order, whether it was by their own hands or their workers. The novel reveals how religion contributes to the treatment Northup and other slaves and how violence played a role of dehumanization.
12 Years a Slave is a very iconic movie about Solomon Northrup and his being kidnapped into slavery. Northrup was a free man, a professional violinist, and a farmer. After being drugged, he was shipped away from his family and forced to work in New Orleans. During his slavery, he was forced to pick cotton and endure many hardships for 12 years. Eventually, he was freed and returned to his family. The people who captured and enslaved him served no punishment for their crimes since blacks were not allowed to sue white people at that time. Solomon was stripped of all his rights not only as a human, but also as an American and was illegally put into slavery for 12 years.
The first person narrative of Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup emphasizes the importance of literature written by black men in changing the ideology of the nineteenth-century population. This ideology was that slaves are like animals; they work, eat, and sleep only. Their ability to read and write was proof of their well-deserved equality; “literacy equals intelligence equals personhood” (4). The act of writing, especially biographies like Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup gives its author identity, which rejects racism and terror that are the base of Slavery.