12 Years A Slave

Here’s some background information about 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. Solomon Northup recounts the author’s life story as a free black man from the North who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the pre-Civil War South. The book was first published in 1853. The primary setting for this book is the “Red River” region of Louisiana. For the genre, this book is Autobiography/Memoir. This book review will inform you of why he wrote the book and my opinion/evaluation on the book.

As the son of an emancipated slave, Northup was born free. In upstate New York, he lived, worked, married, and was also where his family resided. He was a multifaceted laborer and an accomplished violin player. In 1841, two con men offered

“At such times, the heart of man turns instinctively towards his Maker. In prosperity, and whenever there is nothing to injure or make him afraid, he remembers Him not, and is ready to defy Him; but place him in the midst of dangers, cut him off from human aid, let the grave open before him, then it is, in the time of his tribulation, that the scoffer and unbelieving man turns to God for help, feeling there is no other hope, or refuge, or safety, save in his protecting

I think that 12 Years of Slave had achieved its goal because it accurately shows both extreme sides of the spectrum of slavery. Which was very much needed to convince the Northerners who believed that slavery wasn’t that bad was actually disgusting thing. I signed up for this book mainly because of the film, (that my family of four went together to see it in theatres) and I remember how emotional I felt while seeing Solomon’s pain. But as I read the book you can see the striking difference between the film and the book. The book shows a slave’s life but the film shows a life of a slave. Even though I couldn’t empathize with Solomon more with the book than I do with the film, all in all it did get its point across. Within the book there was unexpectedly a lot more hope in it. There were no specific points in the book that didn’t convince me nor that I feel like he had left something out. As a black woman in 2016 I’m glad that I will never have to go through slavery, but the racist mindset isn’t gone not even close to extinction. But until that “white supremacist” mindset is gone, I and other minorities (that is slowly becoming the majority) will always have an uphill battle in whenever, whatever, we