12 Years a Slave retells the real life experience of Solomon Northup who was kidnapped and would be a slave for 12 grim years. Solomon Northup was a free African American man from Saratoga Springs, New York. His father, Mintus Northup, was born into slavery to the Northup family. Henry Northup would free Solomon’s father, and as a means of respect, Solomon’s father adopted the surname, Northup. Solomon and the Northup family remained good friends. Growing up, Solomon had gotten a good education, and he also loved playing the violin. At 21 years old, he married his wife Anne, and they would have three kids together. Solomon would work many different jobs, including being a carpenter, a construction worker for the railroad, and working at the United States Hotel when it was busy. He would also work many side jobs, including playing the violin, to earn extra money. It was in March of 1841, …show more content…
Solomon describes Epps as a brutal man who would torment his slaves daily. While working for Epps, Solomon meets another slave named Patsey, who he describes as beautiful and strong-spirited. Patsey would face terrible abuse by Epps and his wife; Epps would frequently rape and whip Patsey. The slaves at Epps plantation rarely got breaks and would only get one day off during Christmas time. While at Epps plantation, Solomon is able to get a sheet of paper and is able to write a letter to his family, but unable to send it out on his own, he asks a plantation overseer at a nearby plantation to send it. Epps would find out about this and questions Solomon, to which he denies trying to send any letter. Epps would take the letter and throw it into the fire; Solomon’s hope of rescue is instantly crushed. Sometime later, Solomon befriends a carpenter working at Epps’ Plantation named Samuel Bass. Bass would help Solomon send a letter to his family in New
The Wheatley’s are good people and give Phillis an education which is almost unheard of because she is a female slave. She quickly learns English and begins writing. In her poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Wheatley says, “‘Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land” and this line tells the reader that the author knows that she is blessed when she is brought over to become as a slave (1). After being brought to America she comes to know the Lord and realizes that she is blessed because before she was brought to America she had not been saved and did not even know she needed to be saved.
12 Years A Slave Journal Entries Prompt 1: Setting In 12 Years A Slave Solomon Northup or “Platt” as portrayed in the book is a free black man that lived in New York. Solomon was married to Anne Northup and had three kids: Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo. Northup worked as a multifaceted laborer and also played violin, being very skillful and talented at it. He was offered to play at a circus being able to make good money.
Solomon was trapped in a dark and scary cell, for many days. He got whipped and beaten “he called me a black liar and run away from Georgia. (Twelve Years ). He got called names and thing he wasn't. This chapter really tells about what they want through.
Solomon Northup 1. Solomom Northup is the source of this document. Solomon was a free black man who was kidnapped and taken from New York and sold into slavery for twelve years. 2. I believe this account to be accurate to a certain extent but not completely.
One of the most important terms in the book, is the dehumanization of black people, who are treated not as humans, but as animals. Solomon is taken away his freedom, kidnapped, sold into slavery and beaten, putting him, as other slaves, into inhumane labours, emotional and physical abuses, and violence. An example of dehumanization starts after their arrival to Louisiana, when they were put into a slave pen, being in charge of Theophilus Freeman, a slave trader, who changed Solomon’s name to “Platt”: “Your name is Platt – you answer my description. Why don’t you come forward?” (Northup, 1853).
In the years prior to the Civil War, countless black Americans found themselves forcibly bound by the chains of slavery and barred from basic human rights. As identities were stripped by slaveholders denying freedom and equality, slaves were imposed with the burdens of captivity and its inherent evils. As freed people, both Frederick Douglass in “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” and Solomon Northup in “12 Years a Slave” detail the true horrors, hypocrisy, and abuse they experienced while enslaved. Douglass and Northup effectively communicate and depict the slave system to a sympathetic anti-slavery audience using tone, imagery, and irony to enhance readers’ impressions and appeal to their pathos.
Most days they were beaten so badly they could hardly stand let alone live, Northup shared how “I thought I must die” just “beneath the lashes of the accursed brute” (Northup 23). This was Northups very first beaten going into slavey so one can only imagine the suffering and honor he experinced for 12 years. Northup had two beatuiful Children and a wonderful wife that he looked forward going back home to, he loved his family, it was evident. " These refined words” that solomon shared “reflect a happy life” in the “family before Solomon was arrested.”(Guo 848), Guo knew just like anyone reading northups article how much he loved his kids, out of Nothups own mouth he expressed how he cherished his kids. “Their presence was my delight” and “I clasped them to my bosom” with as “warm and tender love” as if their “clouded skins” had been as “white as snow” (Northup 9)
Solomon Northup was an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir Twelve Years a Slave. A free-born African American from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and free woman of color. Born in July 1808 in Minerva, New York, Solomon Northup grew up a free man, working as a farmer and violinist while having a family. He was lured south and kidnapped in 1841 and enslaved for more than a decade, enduring horribly violent conditions. Northup was freed in 1853 with help from colleagues and friends.
PERSONAL MOVIE REVIEW While analyzing the movie “12 Years a Slave,” one major scene of plot that stood out to me. When Solomon was on the ship to bound for New Orleans, he and the other two slaves were planning about their options. One of the two men said that our hope is lost and if and if Solomon wanted to survive he should 'nd tell any one that he could read and write. Then Solomon’s responded that “I don’t want to survive, I want to
The writer does not hide his contempt for those slaveholders characterized as “blood-seeking wretches.” (Twelve Years a Slave 125) Such slaveholders as Tibeats and Edwin Epps, another ruthless plantation owner, who buys Solomon from Mr. Williams, fall exactly into such a category. Nonetheless, soon Northup admits that his life on Epp’s plantation proves to be even worse than working with Tibeats. The writer notes that Epps never spares his whip to extract obedience from the “niggers.” Moreover, “being fond of the bottle” and various violent amusements, Epps repeatedly makes his slaves dance for him in the middle of the night or lashes them around his yard with his whip “just for the pleasure of hearing them screech and scream.”
“The institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnessed, is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one.” As Solomon Northup stated in twelve years as a slave the idea of slavery is an injustice as its very existence strips humans of their inherent rights. The two famous narratives, Twelve year a slave by Solomon Northup and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass both demonstrate through their experiences as slaves just how damaging slavery is. Slavery in America started in the 1600s and it was a method of legally enslaving human beings mainly those of color to do hard labor. Most slaves, during these times, were born into slavery like Douglass.
This accusation by Epps, one of the many men in charge of the enslaved peoples causes her to be sentenced to a brutal beating. Patsey a victim of the brutal cycle caused by slavery, is forced into venereal acts by her Master against her will. While this beating would have been impactful if it was given by a man of power, Epps orders Northup to beat Patsey himself, Northup and Patsey are close and this is very taxing on both of their mental wellbeings. “Epps ground his teeth, and stamped upon the ground, screaming at me, like a mad fiend, to strike harder.”(186) The descriptive vocabulary that Northup uses in this sentence is incredibly simple but conveys to the reader just how grueling and horrific the scene is.
The author of Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup, was a free man himself who was kidnapped and then forced into slavery for twelve years. During the time when he was about to be sold he saw a slave mother, whose name is Eliza get separated from her kids who were sold to different slave masters causing her very great sadness and sorrow as a mother. She spent countless days and nights weeping.
For ten years, Northup lives under the tyranny of Mr. Epps. He is a very cruel master. A whip is constantly in his hand, and he uses it almost daily on his slaves. Solomon describes his life under Epps in detailed stories of abuse, humiliation, and deprivation among not only him, but all the slaves. He also mentions Patsey, a slave girl who gets the worst of Epps’ treatment.
Wheatley had a very different position within the colonies that gave her a unique point of view. Phillis was a slave that was brought from Africa to Boston in 1761 by John and Susannah Wheatley. She was a very intelligent child who was taught how to read and write. Due to her extended education that was beyond normal for a slave, she quickly came to know and love the Bible. In her poem To the University of Cambridge, in New England, Wheatley continually express God’s endless love for all.