Analysis Of The Movie ' 12 Years A Slave '

12 years of a slave was about a Black free man living in upstate New York who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Solomon Northup (the main character) was the son of an emancipated slave and was born free who lived, worked, and married in upstate New York. He was a multifaceted laborer and also an accomplished violinist. Solomon was referred to two gentlemen looking for a musician to travel and play with them during their carnival tour down in Washington D.C. Solomon was tricked and poisoned by these two gentlemen and later victimized by his own kindness to trust these men. Solomon forcibly was sold into slavery as Platt landing him with a slave-owner named William Price Ford that lived in New Orleans. Solomon started to show his intelligence to others and helped build a navigation tool for the slave owner Master Ford which later caused one of the master to resent Solomon. Solomon was handed off to a cruel southern planter named Master Edwin Epps. Solomon spent the bulk of his slavery living with Master Epps until Solomon trusted another white man to deliver a message to the people who knew he was free so they could rescue him. One day in January of 1853, Solomon was granted his freedom from an old friend from where he resided. He returned home to upstate

Written as an autobiography, 12 years a slave portrays part of Solomon Northup’s life as a slave in the 1840’s and early 1850’s.

Solomon Northup’s memoir, 12 Years a Slave, is a slave narrative told by Solomon Northup. It is about Northup’s struggle to gain freedom after he was kidnapped from freedom, and sold into slavery. Solomon Northup gave an accurate representation of the good and bad things that happened to him during slavery. He is fair, and he is not bias toward the slaves or the slave owners. First, throughout his time on the Great Pine Woods plantation Northup is grateful to have a master such as William Ford. Even though he was kidnapped he was glad to not have an inhumane owner.

12 Years a Slave is a film based on the painful true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the south. He was rescued from a cotton plantation in Louisiana twelve years after he was kidnapped. Chiwetel Ejiofor captures Northup’s characters brilliantly. The audience can witness the sense of bewilderment at his plight, his initial despair, and his battle to keep his pride and self-respect. Ejiofor completely brings Northup’s characters back onscreen.

The movie 12 Years a Slave was released in 2013, covering the pre-civil war period in America, this astounding award winning motion picture film, tells the story of a free man sold into slavery and regaining his freedom in the end. Based upon the true story and autobiography of Solomon Northup, the film captures the audience’s hearts and draws them into his journey throughout slavery. In the end he regains his freedom by having a free white man send his friends back home a letter, they then come and liberate him, reuniting him with his family.

Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, From a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River in Louisiana was told by Solomon Northup and edited by David Wilson in 1853. When published, the book was well received, as the public was well aware of Northup’s harrowing experience and subsequent rescue(Lieblich). The publishing of the narrative served as an effective tool in the abolitionist movement as it was a true account sparing no details of his kidnapping and years in slavery (Lieblich). The film adaptation, 12 Years a Slave was nominated and won several awards when released in 2014 as a visual rendering of Northup’s narrative. The film adaptation however,

The movie 12 Years a Slave is an accurate account of what it was like to be a slave or a free African American in the 1800’s. This movie was very detailed in what it was like to be an African American slave in the south showing the brutality and violence they suffered at the hands of the white man. Solomon Northup was born free in New York City and was captured and sold into slavery in the south. The practice of abducting free blacks from the north and selling them into slavery of the south was a very common occurrence.

Twelve years a slave is Solomon Northup 's story of his own kidnapping and his years as a slave in middle and late 1800’s. He was born a freeman in the North, so he was not a slave. Not until he was kidnapped and taken south. His father was once a slave but was freed, which made Solomon a free man upon his birth. When he was young he would help his father farm and work with rafts, in New York. It was in upstate New York he married his wife Anne Hampton, and they later had three children. He speaks of how much he loved them saying, “the love I have borne my wife has been sincere and unabated”, and only people that are a father “can appreciate my affection for the beloved children that have been born to us”(22).

Twelve Years a Slave is an Oscar winning movie about the main character Solomon Northup, a free black man lives in New York in 1841. He makes his living by playing the violin in many events and ceremonies in New York. He is abducted by two men who take him to visit Washington D.C. where before he is promised to get some money just by playing violin for two weeks (Dargis). He, afterwards, finds himself in New Orleans where he is told that his name has changed to Platt. He, then, is sold to a kindhearted plantation owner Mr. Ford, who identifies Platt’s educational level and artistic abilities. Solomon is then seen fighting with one of the Mr. Ford’s white workers, Tibeats, and then Mr. Ford fears for Solomon' life and then he sells him to Mr. Epps, an alcoholic who owns a cotton plantation. Mr. Epps has taken one of his slaves, Patsey, and his very best cotton picker as his lover. Solomon tries and attempts to preserve his self-respect, and waits his chance to get his freedom alongside see his family (12 Years a Slave).

Both Beloved by Toni Morrison and 12 Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen are neo-slave narratives. Neo-slave narratives focus on black humanity and the interiority of black lives. These neo-slave narratives explore the immediate after effects of slavery and how it presently impacts the people that were involved. Bernard Bell first identified neo-slave narratives as “residually oral, modern narratives of escape from bondage to freedom” (Li). Although Beloved goes into more depth on how slavery presently impacted its characters, 12 Years a Slave still shows the audience how slavery had such an extreme impact on the lives of those involve, such as Solomon Northup and his family. Like Beloved, 12 Years a Slave shows the life of slavery for its characters, but also of freedom. Neo-slave narratives also spoke on issues of gender and sexuality, both clearly visible in Beloved and 12 Years a Slave. While Beloved and 12 Years a Slave are both neo-slave narratives, Beloved focuses more on how the past erupts into the present with Toni Morrison’s use of re-memory. 12 Years a Slave focuses more on the present, whereas in Beloved the past is used as a source of the trauma of slavery and its effects on the characters. There is a major difference between memory and re-memory.

12 Years a slave, Solomon Northup was a free black man that lived in upstate New York. When he was sought out by 2 white men to go and be apart of a circus. The 2 men drugged and kidnapped Solomon then sold him into slavery in the South. Solomon struggled through 12 years of being a slave. During those 12 years Solomon had his named changed to Platt and learned so much from being around other slaves. Solomon becomes close friends to with Patsey and wants to be there for her as if they were family. One day Solomon met an abolitionist from Canada named Bass that changed Solomon’s life for the best. In the end, Solomon was able to reunite with his family that he hasn't seen in 12 years.

12 Years a Slave is a movie based on real events experienced by Solomon Northup. He was a freeman most his life until he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. He was separated from his wife and children for twelve years. The entire film shows how life as a slave changed Northup and how much he suffered through the years.

The movie 12 Years a Slave can teach many things about U.S. history, it showed events in history in a way that paper cannot completely justify. Watching this movie gives an all new perspective about a topic that everyone has been taught, yet might not truly understand. Might not truly understand how burdensome it was to be an slave at the time, how mistreated they were, and it was all because the color of their skin. This movie tells a true story about a man by the name of Solomon Northrup, a man who was kidnapped and put into slavery, where he stayed for twelve years. Twelve years of this man’s life he was a slave, when in turn he should have been a free man. Solomon missed his children growing up, his daughter’s wedding, the birth of his

Twelve Years a Slave portrayed the harsh realities of slavery during the 1800s through the perspective of Solomon Northup, a freeman who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Northup and other slaves were objects of ridicule. For example, they were called “fresh niggers” and were forced to clap along to a demeaning song called “Run, Nigger, Run” when they arrived at the first master’s home. Additionally, slaves were stripped of their identity. For example, when Northup tried to prove that he wasn’t a slave, he was beaten with a paddle, whipped, and forced to change his name. Northup realized he had to fight to survive instead of live to escape the despair. Northup’s details of certain events described the cost of morality that slaves encountered; they were degraded, ripped apart from their families, and robbed of control.

Entitled 12 Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen. Based on the 1853 memoir of the same name written by Solomon Northup, 12 Years a Slave documents the true story of the trials and tribulations of a once free New-York state born African-American musician after he is kidnapped in Washington D.C by a pair of alleged “traveling entertainers” with whom he agreed to perform and sold into slavery in 1841. (Tobias) During his time in captivity, Northup was transferred and traded to work on various different plantations across the state of Louisiana. It would be a staggering twelve years of isolation and despair before his status as a free man is proven and his freedom is at long last reclaimed. Along his journey, Solomon makes unexpected allies including William Ford- the first major plantation owner to whom Northup is traded. Despite being a slaver, Ford is a surprisingly compassionate man who acts with considerable regard towards Northup and his fellow slaves. After Northup impresses Ford by engineering a convenient waterway for transporting logs cheaply and effectively across a swamp, Ford becomes particularly fond of Northup and even gifts him with a violin in gratitude for his assistance. The peaceful tenure with Ford is abruptly ended however, when Ford decides to sell Northup after he escapes a nearly fatal encounter with one of Ford’s abusive and obnoxious overseers. Northup also encounters unyielding adversaries, such as Edwin Epps- the final plantation owner