Essay on Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup was born free, in Minerva, New York in 1808. Northup became known in his community as an exceptional fiddle player. When two men approached Northup and offered him good wages to go to Washington DC, to play in a travelling music show, he quickly accepted. Solomon Northup was drugged, kidnapped, captured, and sold into slavery. He served for many masters; some were violent and cruel while others treated him humanely. Solomon Northup experienced shear torture, cruelty, and the loss of his dignity, throughout his many years as a slave. After many years, he came in contact with an abolitionist, who sent letters to Northup’s family to notify them of his life and status. He was soon rescued from Louisiana and freed as a slave.

Solomon Northup was a free African American man from Minerva, New York. In the novel Twelve Years a Salve, Northup composed a narrative about his life as a free man, and also his life as a slave. In the year of 1814 Northup was kidnapped and taken deep South, to the rugged life of slavery. After 12 years of being thrown into the slavery against his will, he rightfully regained his freedom in January of 1853 all because he came in contact with an abolitionist from Canada, who sent letters to his family about his situation.

“It was not color, but crime, not God, but man that afforded the true explanation of the existence of slavery; nor was I long in finding out another important truth, what man can make, man can unmake” (Douglass 59). In My Bondage and My Freedom, Fredrick Douglass explains in detail the harsh and cruel realties of slavery and how slavery was an institution that victimized not only slaves, but slave holders, and non-slave holding whites. Fredrick Douglass could not have been more right with his observation of slavery. In my opinion, slavery is not only an institution, but is a prime example of a corrupt business model that thrives on free labor, ultimate control, and wealth.

Slave as defined by the dictionary means that a slave is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. So why is it that every time you go and visit a historical place like the Hampton-Preston mansion in Columbia South Carolina, the Lowell Factory where the mill girls work in Massachusetts or the Old town of Williamsburg Virginia they only talk about the good things that happened at these place, like such things as who owned them, who worked them, how they were financed and what life was like for the owners. They never talk about the background information of the lower level people like the slaves or servants who helped take care and run these places behind the scenes.

What is law? The dictionary defines it as a system of rules that a community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may be enforced by the imposition of penalties. Are they supposed to be perfect? No. But quoting civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “an unjust law is no law at all”, proves that there is more to the legal system than just regulating it. The civil rights movement played a huge role in American culture. It opened the public’s perceptions on how there are some elementary social rights and equality rights that needed to be encountered in order for justice to be truthful. Through analysis of present day motion pictures that stem from American history such as “12 Years A Slave” and “Fruitvale

The southern economy could not function without its slaves, so to justify slavery to the religious the south proclaimed it as a necessary evil, and even went as far as belittling the slaves to being devil worshipers (doc. G). The devout of the North did not fully understand the extent of the horrors of southern slavery, however it was revealed to them in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s cabin which became one of the great bestsellers of its time (doc. H).

(3) When first reading these narratives one would often assume, by what history tells us, that slave owners were cruel, hated men who often beat slaves severely if they committed even the slightest infraction. While this depiction does stand true for some slave owners, I was surprised to find that most of the former slaves interviewed in the “Slave Narratives” often held their masters in high regards, referring to them as kind and good. Former slave Harriett Gresham even goes as far to say that her master, Mr. Bellinger was “exceptionally kind”. Many slaves in the narratives described their masters as good to his slaves and never whipping them unless it was absolutely necessary. However, when the former slaves spoke of the “paterollers”, white men who roamed the roads in search of runaway slaves often beating them and returning them to their owners, they were described as being very cruel to slaves showing no sympathy to any slave found running away from a

Slavery, especially in America, has been an age old topic of riveting discussions. Specialist and other researchers have been digging around for countless years looking for answers to the many questions that such an activity provided. They have looked into the economics of slavery, slave demography, slave culture, slave treatment, and slave-owner ideology (p. ix). Despite slavery being a global issue, the main focus is always on American slavery. Peter Kolchin effectively illustrates in his book, American Slavery how slavery evolved alongside of historical controversy, the slave-owner relationship, how slavery changed over time, and how America compared to other slave nations around the world.

Through Solomon Northup’s story, viewers learn that socioeconomic status is no exception from racial realities. Solomon Northup was an educated, refined free black in the 1840s. His only mistake was thinking that being born free meant he was safe from the demonstration of white supremacy in America. Especially during this time, it didn't matter that he was educated, musically talented, and a family man, a person of color was threatened in a white, capitalist society and through the heartbreaking story of Solomon Northup, 12 Years a Slave shows this sad time in American

After reading Solomon Northup's Twelve Years A Slave, I was overwhelmed with his experience. He was born a free man in New York in 1808. In 1841 he was tricked, captured, and sold into slavery in Washington, D.C. Throughout his book, Solomon goes into details describing his life as a slave, which validates our critique of slavery. As abolitionists, it is our duty to do something about slavery. Although, as abolitionists, we have a history of disagreements among us, it time to put a stop to our arguments and start fighting for something we all believe in - to abolish slavery. While the growing cotton economy has made slavery more attractive than ever before to most southern people, slavery has to be abolished based on these reasons:

Obviously, the institution of slavery is immoral, and the treatment of black men and women in the early days of American was inhumane. Often, slaves were whipped if the masters were not satisfied with their work. Also, even after being presented with papers of freedom, Hettie McClain and her mother were kidnapped by several white men and returned to bondage.

Slavery has dependably been the most stunning marvels of our reality. The word bondage can't just be characterized as the owning of one individual by someone else, yet it is likewise known to be one of the best commitments to the historical backdrop of the United States. At the point when subjection had recently started to advance the United States were known as settlements of the New World. In the time of 1619, the principal African Americans touched base in the New World ideal off the shoreline of Jamestown. From that point on, any rights or flexibilities given to African Americans started to reduce. Although, there were a wide range of races of slaves and workers in the Americas, African Americans were the most victimized. African Americans

As taught, slavery existed for a good portion of American history from the 1620’s until its abolishment in 1865. Its existence created a big controversy over the morality of white Americans and challenged Americans ideal of a free country in a multitude of ways. As brutal as present-day Americans think of slavery, is the same way the abolitionists thought of it then, especially after reading Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave by former slave Frederick Douglass. This narrative became a big deal when published in 1845 for its influences that it had on the white Americans that were ignorant to the brutality of slavery. The narrative was purposely created to move the emotions

In the book 12 Years A Slave written from a primary source by Solomon Northup based on a true story describes the triumphant journey Solomon Northup goes through as he never lost hope of regaining his freedom and resisted the dehumanization of enslavement in many ways. Solomon was born a free black man in New York in 1808 while his father, Mintus was born a slave and gained his freedom as their master passed away also inheriting their masters last name "Northup". Growing Solomon worked on a farm with his dad and soon after his dad died in 1829 he soon married a women named Anne Hampton in which they soon moved to Saratoga Springs, New York and had three children of their own. They were living like any other free person was and soon Solomon was working in many industries and Anne established herself as a cook and in the 1830 's Solomon had a reputation of being a well played violinist. In 1841 Solomon had became unemployed and was looking for an occupation, he ran into Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton in who then offers him a job in a circus playing the violin. As they arrive in Washington D.C. which is slave territory, he begins to become sick and passes out which was planned by Merrill and Abram to poison and kidnap him in the slave territory and sell him in which he soon wakes up in chains in a slave pen. Solomon 's first master was James H. Burch who he was sold by the two men who had

Samuel Northup was a son of an emancipated black man and was born free. He spent his life in New York working as a laborer and was a very well known violinist. He married his wife when he was 21 and had three children. Samuel was a man of character and lived a modest life in Saratoga Springs, New York. His life changed completely when he was drugged and kidnapped in 1841. He lived in slavery for 12 years and was finally set free in January of 1853. His life would never be the same. His story is written in his book 12 Years a Slave and was published and read around the United States.