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12 Years A Slave Analysis

Decent Essays

America was built on slavery and some view it as a normal way of life in the 1800s, since it has been going on for hundreds of years. The “Life in a Totalitarian System” article summarizes, “Many white americans still think of the Old South as… an ordered, leisurely world in which men and women, blacks and whites, all had their destined places,” the blacks of course at the bottom of this as slaves, a they of course always felt differently. Further down the article it adds, “[t]he slaveholding South was a brutal system that sought to strip blacks of all human rights,” which is why the slaves tried their best but could think of only limited ways to counteract it, often getting caught. Slaves were put into a variety of situations, and were sometimes …show more content…

As explained in the “Life in a Totalitarian System” article, “Most masters were neither pitiless fiends nor saints in their relationship with slaves.” So the spectrum could range from masters who overwork, abuse, and starve their slaves, to masters who used less violent means on the slave to preserve their work ethic. This contrast was proven in the film 12 Years a Slave. Demonstrated between the two different plantations that Solomon Northup worked on. His first plantation owner named Ford treated his slaves well and even gave Solomon a small sense of comfort being there, but sadly had to transfer Solomon to a second plantation owner named Epps, who whipped, beat, raped, and harassed his slaves, working some of them to death. If they were lucky enough to have one of the more decent masters, they tried to use that to their advantage and sought out to, hopefully, be set free. In Harriet Jacobs's slave narrative she illustrates, “[My mistress] promised my dying mother that her children should never suffer...I could not help having some hopes that she had left me free. My friends were almost certain it would be so.” Solomon Northup also used this to his advantage in 12 Years a Slave, with his Master Ford. Unfortunately both instances didn’t work out, but there was always a little hope in their hearts that they would be set …show more content…

To contrast these people, there were ones who weren’t as callous and felt the slaves were people too, so they brought up quotes from the bible to underline their point, much like in Harriet Jacobs's slave narrative where she says, “My mistress had taught me the precepts of God’s Word: ‘Thou Shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ ‘Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.’” Similarly, George W. Freemans and other Christian slave owners were promoting the idea of recognizing the slaves humanity, although they weren’t completely against slavery. In the “Life in Totalitarian System” article, they argue with the quote from the bible,“Masters, give into your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven,” emphasising the importance of treating the slaves well. This was good way to soften the way the system treats slaves because it was intended to make them feel more comfortable in their situation, despite not completing opposing the idea of

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