The Movie 12 Years A Slave

Solomon Northup was an African American, born a free man, who lived in Saratoga Springs, New York with his wife Anne Hampton and their three children. Northup was a skilled violinist and farmer who was seeking employment in the spring of 1841; one night he met two men at a saloon, who both identified themselves to be affiliated with a circus, and they convinced him to accompany them on a journey to New York to perform with his superb violin skills on their traveling music show. They persuaded him by offering a very generous wage of “one dollar for each day’s services, and three dollars in addition for every night [he] played at their performances” (2). Originally he was only going to New York but he was persuaded to travel further to Washington D.C. – a state where slavery was legal. On route to Washington D.C. he was drugged by the two men (identified as Breach and Hamilton) who subsequently sold him into slavery at an auction in New Orleans. This was common for many “free” African Americans; predominantly males for their ability to be harder working in the fields. Often times the “Negros” would be kidnapped or lured away from their home with offers too good to be true and upon their capture they would be drugged, beaten and bonded to be sold into slavery; much like Solomon Northup. A great majority of the time their case would be hopeless if they tried to prove they were “free men” and they would be beaten for even mentioning the word “free”.

Solomon Northup was born a freeman in New York in 1808 (3). His father, who had been a slave until his owner death had granted him his freedom in his, wills (5). In 1829, Northup married Anne Hampton and worked as a laborer in Hartford (6). However, Solomon was captured after being tricked by slave traders to work

Solomon Northup a free black man who was an educated and with a family who likes to play violin at places that he can make money from. In order to provide for his family a better life he is given offer to go to Washington with Hamilton and Brown to play his violin. His story talks about how he goes from a free man to a drugged and beaten down runway Georgia slave to 12 years working as a slave from one master to the next. The author in this story is telling us to abolish slavery based on his leading to a free man once again.

Solomon Northup was born as a freeman; he lived with his wife and two children in New York early 19th century. He was a great musician who played violin. One day in the year of 1841, Northup received an offer for a job in Washington D.C. from two white guys, Brown and Hamilton. Northup gladly accepted the offer and travelled with them to Washington D.C. However, he was drugged and kidnapped to a slave jail where he woke up with chains on his arms and legs. Northup tried to explain to the jail guard that he is a freeman from New York but people insisted that he is a slave from Georgia. Northup was then shipped down to the South where he lived with the name Platt and was sold to William Ford, a priest and also a plantation owner. While working as a slave, Platt gave Ford a brilliant idea on how to transport logs faster. Ford loved the idea and then rewarded him his favorite thing, the violin. However as Platt gaining favor from Ford, he angered Tibeats, one of the masters in the house. Because Platt didn’t listen to what Tibeats instructed, tension between these two increasing over time. In the end, they both fought. Tibeats with his friends tried to hang Platt up but then, this poor guy was saved by Ford and the slave guard.

The movie does contribute to my knowledge because it shows a free man from New York being sold into slavery. In class the discussion was mostly about how Africans were captured and sold into slavery. The class did not discuss the possibility or the fact that free African Americans were captured and sold into slavery. In the movie Solomon Northup was a free slave that lived with his family in New York when he accepted a job from unfamiliar white men. It was after he accepted that job that the men got him drunk or possibly drugged him where he was then given to be sold into slavery. Although it was not discussed in class it contributed to my knowledge that all African Americans back then were treated the same way by people who supported the cause

Chapter 1. Solomon describes his life as a free man, in a free state in which he were born and free for thirty years, married with children, telling the time he spends with his family and making a living through his many trades, including farming, lumberjack, and mostly performing on the violin.

In the film 12 Year a Slave, I observed how solomon one day was a free man in New York and the next was a slave. For example, in the film, he was just a "Georgia runaway or runaway negro from Georgia" per his kidnappers when he tries to claim that he was a free man. I was able to observe the sleeping conditions, beatings, bathing situations and scars on Solomon body while being a slave. When he was kidnapped he suffered beatings at the hands of the kidnappers but also how much beating Solomon had to endure. Which therefore left him with a scarred back. Solomon like the other slaves was not given any privacy when bathing. Also, how they were humiliated by striped naked when being purchased like they weren't human beings but

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup is a story about a slave whom was once free but was abducted and was sold into slavery. This story is an explanation of the suffering of slaves in the antebellum period and a demonstration of the inhumane treatment. “Before I came here I was free, a free man.” The setting of the story was in New York, Washington, and Georgia during the antebellum period. Twelve Years a Slave recounts the genuine story of Solomon Northup, conceived a free man in New York, who is hijacked and sold into bondage where inconceivable torments turn into his day by day reality for the following 12 years.

The film was described with a heavy, but fact-based way, which truthfully reproduced the real slave life. It took long for Solomon to accept his salve identity with a new name, and then he started to the twelve years as a slave. There were both fight and surrender of Solomon’s experiences as a slave, while one thing nerve changed was his desire for freedom and dignity. The intersection of race, class, and gendered identities was reflected in the slavery life to a large extent. The cruelty indifference and obedience in the humanity under the slavery system were fully displayed from every aspect of slave life. The director displayed the despairing and long sufferings of the black during the slave history from the perspective of Solomon, who was

In 1841, Solomon agrees to the offer and travels with them to Washington, where he is betrayed. He is drugged and sold as a slave into the Red River region of Louisiana.

The movie ended by telling what happened after he was a free man. Solomon attempted to bring the people responsible for his enslavement in court, but he was not allowed to testy against whites. Therefore, all men involved in his kidnapping were not prosecuted. Solomon wrote a book in 1863 entitled Twelve Years a slave, and became an abolitionist that lectured on slavery, and helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad. Solomon Northup’s death date and location was unknown.

The film “Twelve years a Slave” was a heart wrenching display of the time period it was based off of. The presentation of the society’s attitudes toward slavery shown appeared to be very truthful. Also, the settings displayed in the movie do present the time period’s true grit and suffering that the slaves (or black people in general) had to go through. The movie “Twelve years a Slave” accurately represents the time period and society of when it was occurring because it shows the early devices that the people used during that time, it shows the contrast between the north and south regions of America at the time, it shows how free blacks were kidnapped and sold into slavery, and shows the hardships of slaves at the time.

Born a free African American, Solomon Northup, writer of the autobiography, 12 Years a Slave , carefully depicts and demonstrates a significant amount of historical elements that caused and influenced a terrible series of events in the lives of the people in the novel. In Northup 's novel, he describes in great detail a series of situations that he personally had to endure as he was initially a free man, then tricked and kidnapped, and sold into slavery. He undergoes a numerous amount of beatings and hardships as he is fighting for his lost freedom, including being separated from his families and seeing families being separated, being treated like a piece of property, and setting justice and putting in order to make things justifiable for the way he was treated. In all, Solomon Northup was and is a memorable and worthy man who truly fought for his life and freedom. The unfortunate and painful events that this man had to go through strongly portrays the repulsive and sickening ways slave sellers and masters treated their "property".

The pain and abuse experienced by Solomon Northrup in his 12 years of slavery, like the millions of other slaves who were kidnapped in Africa and sold across the U.S., is a tragic example of the pain one society can inflict upon another group of people. The movie 12 Years A Slave graphically portrays the horrors of slavery in America, and demonstrates the shame of the system, using the incredible irony in the story of Solomon Northrup. Since he had a dpcument that said he was a free black man, he was treated by others as a fellow man, but after he was kidnapped he was considered property, like an animal. There was no change in Solomon himself as a person; only a corrupt system declared that he could now be

The cultural and historical significance of the film has changed and reshaped the views and cultures of African Americans with the roles that they have as a race in society as a result of the racial formation and performance portrayed in the film. The movie presents a verifiable and precise account of the collective experience of slaves in the United States of America in the late 18th century. The basic facts of the movie from the start to the finish concern events about the places, the time, and the practices that took place during the slave era in detail. The movie is inspired by a book written by David Wilson about the narrative events of Solomon Northup as a slave. Both the book and the movie share the same title. In the book, he speaks with a lot of authority on all subjects especially enslavement of black Americans and in the process, he names popular leaders as well as several other landmarks without fear of contradiction because we understand that public records have enough knowledge to defend his position. In the movie, the slave trader is accused of keeping slaves as captive in a slave pen in Washington DC. Not only is the name of the slave and the slaver mentioned, but also their accomplices in addition to the location where the slave pen is located, the structure of the slave pen, an all details that allow one to imagine the scenario that of the poor slaves had to undergo, all stacked together